Hello Steemians,

I got asked many times to give a little insight into how we filmed INSIDE THE DEEPEST CAVE IN ROMANIA. This is why I will write a Making Of of the 2nd episode here:

MAKING OF - INSIDE THE DEEPEST CAVE IN ROMANIA

The adventure at the Apuseni mountains lay at the beginning of our Balkan-Tour. And this is already a good starting advice: If you want to film something exhausting - it's great to schedule it in the beginning, so that you are full of energy.

In my opinion it's always worth to do a little bit of research before travelling and find characters that you find interesting and that can tell you something about the place you want to film at. In an ideal case, they can even get you access to locations, that are inaccessible for you alone. This is what happened to us in the Apuseni Mountains. Without Christina and Bogdan, we could never climb down to this hidden universe.

Take wide shots! If you know, that you will go into an area where it will be hard to get an overview, establish the scene before. We always want to see where you are.

Not just the equipment for your descent into the mountain needs to be perfect, but you must also think about your camera. We were filming on a C300, which is a pretty big and bulky camera. It was already clear that we won't be able to take it all the way into the cave.

I climbed down into the cave first and Alessandro filmed it from the top. Then he climbed down and I climbed back up so that he could film the decent from another angle. It makes it very cinematic but it costs you some time to work that way.
However, we needed to leave the camera behind and go on with only a gopro and and camera for Christina and Bogdan brought us, specially for caving and low light conditions.

Making a little studio with head lamps

It was very crucial for this shoot to travel light. We didn't have the chance to bring anything heavy, so lights were not an option. Our solution was to use the head lamps for illuminating the person that would get filmed. This worked surprisingly well. Only pointing the light directly into the camera caused problems.

We interviewed our wonderful tour guides during their actions. I find it much more engaging to listen to somebody and seeing them in action at the same time. But for making a good interview, we had to be able to catch good audio, which was tricky with this little equipment.

Catching the Sound

In my eyes it is the most crucial part of filmmaking. Even more important than the image.

This moment at the curtain was one of the magical audio moments. And the most important advice that I can give to filmmakers at this point is: Never rely on the audio of your GoPro!
That's the reason why we brought a little tascam mic. It's easy to carry with you, only costs around 120 Euros and you can capture good sound. Another trick for handling the tascam: Avoid holding it in your hand during recording.

If you want your actions to be engaging - you must dare something. Go to a place where a real challenge is waiting for you. The audience notices when you fake it so take a risk! It's worth it, you will feel great afterward.

Details

In a shoot with a lot of action, it might happen that you forget filming the details. Remind yourself to film some and your future self in the edit will be very grateful. I promise you!

Never forget the importance of a snack on your shoot. You will run out of energy at the worst moment, so bring some cookies, fruit or an energy bar. Again, your future self will be thankful.

In case you have not yet seen the film - you can see it here:

I hope you enjoyed the little tour and you feel like going for a filming adventure now!

See you soon and please shoot us all the questions you might have! About camera equipment, shooting plans or whatever you want to know!

Alessandro&Elena