A spectacular video shoot

Before we tell you more about our first day of filming, we'll give you a brief overview of what the finished video should look like: Julian arrives at the top of the mountain all sweaty on his bike. He wants to take off his jersey and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, he is no longer on his mountain bike, but in the panorama sauna of the Hotel Hubertus. Irritated, Julian shakes his head and looks at his hands. Everything starts to turn round and – poof – Julian is back on his mountain bike. He rides down the mountain, crashes and ends up in the hotel's famous sky pool after the fall – without his bike, but with his jersey, cycling shorts, mountain bike shoes and helmet. In the end, Julian wakes up in his room. He thinks it was all just a dream – but his wet bike gear is lying on the floor. 

Are you slightly confused right now and can't really imagine what this description means? Don't worry! You'll find the finished video at the end of our article: If you watch it, you're sure to understand the story better.

But back to our first day of filming: as we want to make the most of the beautiful morning light for our shoot, we waste no time: after a quick chat about the final details, we start with the sauna scene. As the sun slowly rises behind the mountains, we make the most of the golden light for our first shots. The shoot in the sauna of the new Sky Spa Heaven & Hell goes really well, and we are finished before the sun has fully risen. Inspired by the good start, we go to the sky pool, where we attach our GoPro to Julian's chest. The next scene is the most difficult of the day. We have to film Julian's jump into the pool in such a way that we can easily combine it with Julian's fall from his mountain bike (which we will film on the second day of filming) when we edit it later. In the finished video, it should look as if Julian falls directly from his mountain bike into the sky pool.

Julian therefore stands at the edge of the pool in full gear and jumps head first into the warm water without hesitation. 4 head dives and 3 drone flights later, we've made it: the important sky pool scene is finished. We briefly dry Julian's clothes with towels and go to a room at the Alpin Panorama Hotel Hubertus. There we shoot the last scene of the day, which will also be the last scene in the video. The shoot is over for today and we've earned a little refreshment. Over breakfast together, we review every single shot and discuss a few more details for our second day of filming.

This takes place three days later. Once again, we set off early in the morning, because the schedule is the same as for the first part of our shooting adventure: the alarm clock rings at 4.30 am, we pack our equipment into the car at 5.00 am and meet Julian at 5.30 am. The cable car is not yet in operation this early, which is why we are allowed to drive almost to the summit of Kronplatz by car as an exception. The mountain bike scenes are on the programme today. We're lucky – a fluffy-looking sea of clouds spreads out just below us, allowing us to capture not only the beautiful morning light on camera, but also a very special atmosphere. We get straight to work and quickly have the first scenes in the can.

After the problem-free start, things get really exciting! On the Dragon Trail, the most important and challenging shot of the entire shoot is on the programme: Julian's fall from his mountain bike. We kit Julian out with the GoPro again, cover up our growing nervousness with words of encouragement, and off we go! Julian pedals hard, takes the bend at breakneck speed, and falls over the handlebars into the meadow next to the bike trail.  It looks brutal from our perspective, but Julian calls out to us that everything is okay. Relief is followed by disillusionment: when we look at the shot on our mobile phones, we realise that it unfortunately doesn't have the effect we had hoped for. The second attempt doesn't produce the desired result either. Fortunately, Julian is just right for the job: fearless and uncomplicated. Everything works perfectly on the third attempt. We all take a deep breath. Then we walk up to the mountain station and take the cable car down into the valley to Olang together.

Post-production fills our next few days: We are busy analysing, editing and cutting the image and video material. Yay! The video has been edited, and the right sound has also been selected. Now we'll write this text and select the best photos to go with it. Then we let everything "rest", because it has proven to be a good idea to look at everything again with a little distance. We'll tweak a few little things and on the 22nd of August we'll finally be ready to put the video online. However, as other posts have thematic priority, we will only publish the blog post with a look behind the scenes in October. We're excited to see how it's received. Do you like the post and video? Comments and likes are very welcome and, of course, we would be especially pleased if you share our posts or subscribe to our channel. You can find more from us not only here, but also on Facebook.