Just before launching I was already asking friends where I should travel next:

Iceland or South Africa!  

Majority went with ICELAND this time. I was super thrilled to go there too.

So I packed up, launched the India video on Vimeo, and within the first week, “Land of Kings” got Vimeo’s Staff Pick. It was huge for me!

From there things started to pickup extremely fast – thousands of plays and exposure for what I thought was just my personal and humble video of India.

The thing is Iceland is quiet, desolate, and the landscape dominates the essence of Iceland – not the people – so I knew it couldn’t be a film as dynamic and energetic as India..

I knew couldn’t do a mini-series either because I had no more energy, and work was starting to take a beating on me (health wise). In India I got extremely sick and lost about eight kilograms trying to juggle video filming + traveling + working graveyard hours – I was exhausted (India drained me).

Given I had no idea what I wanted to do, I took things slowly, giving it thought.

Until it hit me, this film is going to SUCK horribly, if I don’t have aerial footage or amazing gear to capture the landscapes! I think many filmmakers hit this wall many times – they get turned down by the lack of equipment.

It did for me. I was very down for several days, and on top of that my only long lens got soaked, so pretty much ruined.

I was left with one single 20mm lens, a GoPro Hero4, and a small Gorillapod to capture something.

I almost gave up (especially after seeing the incredible films already of Iceland).

So one day, I setup my Panasonic Gh4 on the floor with my Gorillapod, framed it against a nice empty field with beautiful mountain backdrops, and said hell I am going to try something just for fun – maybe some weird dance moves in slow motion to send over to to my friends.

On my way back to my Airbnb flat, I watched the footage of myself dancing, and I surprisingly liked it. Especially how it made me pop in the foreground. Almost immediately it clicked! I had an idea.

I needed to make a combination of dance movements in different landscapes. I was extremely excited about the idea, so I rented a car, and over a period of four to five days I traveled across the whole south and east coast in search for amazing backdrops.

(By the way – I used to dance hip hop when I was 17 years old, so I tried to bring in some of those memories here, not sure I was good though).

What I wasn’t expecting was the harsh cold weather conditions! Windy, rainy at 4C – it felt like -10C though. I had to use the same outfit in all scenes, so it was extremely challenging, just a TEE in such harsh conditions, if you notice closely though, in some shots I am wearing a second T-shirt inside.

W: What was the inspiration for this video?

SK: So, baroque youth was created because of a little contest. It was all about your own unique perspective of your city. Which is not too hard to see a city a little different from a skateboarder’s point of view. You just then have to tell the story right. I kind of wanted to combine the historic baroque part of the city and this young culture. Almost like a new age that begins when they take over the city.

W: How much planning was required before shooting?

SK: There was not a lot of planning to do for me because I already knew what I wanted to shoot. I had it all in my head. So I just checked the weather forecast and checked out a route to go through the city so we passed by the spots I really wanted to shoot at.

W: How did you choose the music and specific sounds to include?

SK: After the one day of filming I started to select the footage and tried to find a good track for it, which is really hard sometimes and can take a long time. After a whole day wasting time on that I stopped by at a friend’s place. He had already selected a lot of music which is good in general to use for all kind of videos. I browsed through the folder and when I heard that song I knew right away this is it. The whole selected footage started matching together like a puzzle before I even started editing.

W: Where did you shoot most of this video? Why did you choose these specific locations?

SK: I started with a little downhill to skate at because it’s close where me and my friends live and I knew I need some “fast footage”.

Then I went through the “Neustadt” which is a little artsy and alternative part of the city. And after that we passed by every touristic hotspots of the city.

The golden horse rider which used to be the king of the city. The river with the great skyline of the baroque part of the city. This impressive church where we’ve been super lucky with the light shining through the upper windows. When we passed by the townhall tower I knew I needed someone to do the same pose like the golden statue on top of the building. The statue is holding his hand over the city as a symbol of protection. And then my friend Ivan was holding up his skateboard like protecting the city with his skateboard. haha

W: What equipment did you use?

SK: I used a Canon 5D mark III with a 17mm wideangle, a 24mm a 50mm and a 100mm.

I filmed everything in raw using magic lantern. It’s a lot of data but the quality is brilliant.

W: What was involved in the editing process? What software did you use?

SK: I’m working with Adobe Premiere Pro. And that’s actually it. I didn’t use Aftereffects on this one like a few people thought I did some transition with. You have so many tools you just have to think about how to use them.

Visit Steffen’s Vimeo to see more of his work:

https://vimeo.com/steffenkrones

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