Posted by: Goran Razic
21.02.2016
A long cooperation with Croatian Ski Association as a chief of photographers for Audi FIS WC Race Snow Queen Trophy Zagreb, and from season 2014/15 official Croatian Alpine Ski Team's photographer resulted in a new project - series of short video reportage about CroSki team. Goal was to give a better insight in trainings, races and overall athmosphere among the best Croatian skiers, as well as to show viewers and fans some interesing details in everyday life and work of ski teams. Video materials were, in the first place, made for broadcasting on Croation national television (HRT), as a part of FIS Alpine ski race coverage. Additionaly everything was also published on official CroSki's YouTube channel and other social networks. Some clips were played in VIP and hospitality areas in SQT races, while episode about SQT itself was displayed on a big video wall located in main Zagreb's square (Trg bana Josipa Jelačića) just before the public draw.
In season 2014/2015 there was total of 6 epizodes filmed and broadcasted, with addition of two special epizodes filmed in World Ski Championsips in Vail/Beaver Creek (USA): "Croatian musketeers - "A" ski team introduction", "CroSki's Hintertux training base, official photoshooting - Behind The Scenes", "Vip Snow Queen Trophy - 3, 2, 1, START!", "Wengen - a special inspiration place", "Vail and Beaver Creek
- '89., '99. and '15.", "Filip Zubčić -take-off in season 14/15", "Nothing can be done without logistics", "Tino Stojak - young hope of Croatian snowboard". Filming started in October on Hintertux glacier (AUT) and materials taken there were used for first two episodes. Some action shots were also used later. Host for the entire season was Nika Fleiss and I was the one who did complete preproduction, production and postproduction (theme selection, scenario, location scouting, fliming, editing). All in all it was great. CroSki team was very enthusiastic about this idea so we had a very good cooperation and a smooth work-flow. First episode was broadcasted on HRT just before man's race in Levi, while the second one was on air before woman's race in Lake Louise. The third episode about SQT was filmed end of November and in December. For this one materials were gathered slowly because multiple locations were involved (Sljeme, hotel Westin, Samobor, Dom Sportova etc.). Autumn period was used to make some shots without snow on the slope, up to the final official FIS snow inspection just before Christmas. Editing was done in the very last minutes of New Year's Eve to be sure that it will be ready for broadcast on time. The fourth epizode was about Wengen (SUI) - the most inspiring place for Ivica Kostelić. Filiming was done just a few days before races in mid January 2015. Edit was done only a few hours before HRT broadcast as a part for Wengen ski races coverage. Interesring thing about Wengen was that, thanks to Nika's efforts, for the first time in history Croatian camera crew got a "course access" for media inspection for complete section of famous and respectable Lauberhorn. Nika and I also did a short interview with ski legend and Lauberhorn record setter Kristian Ghedina.
After Vail and Beaver Creek, where we did next two episodes, home ski resort Sljeme hosted us for episode about logistics. Action shots, training sequences and other important logistics shots were also filmed in USA and Switzerland. Main focus was on Ivica's assistant coaches Dubravko Lalić - Buci and Igor Jakopović - Magla, service crew, chefs and others. Last epizode was filmed on Kitzsteinhorn glacier in Austria, near small town of Kaprun. Film crew was joined by Daniel Lacko as a jourinalist and a young and perspective Croatian snowboarder Tino Stojak. Only day and a half was used to gather materials, and it was ready for broadcast on HRT and Sport TV a few days afterwards. Besides 10 thousand views on YouTube, all episodes had excellent coverage on social networks. Hoever the biggest viewer reach was on national television where they were seen by more than hundreds thousand viewers.
Filming was done with Sony FS700 camera, as a backup and steadicam I used Sony a7s. Most work was done with 24-105 Canon lens, in some situations also 70-200 and 16-35 were used. Audio recordings were done internally with Sennheiser wireless package. Light was done with Senna Lightstation LED panels and in some situations with help of reflecting surfaces. Editing on terrain was done with MacBook Pro laptop and others on iMac. Final project was done in Final Cut Pro X editing program.
