Or “How to shoot a ski mountaineering competition”.
Altitoy is a 2 days ski competition taking place in the French Pyrenees, between the resorts of Barèges and Luz Ardiden.
The mission, that we accepted, was to capture the (expected) victory of Killian Jornet’s team using all angles possible, taking account night, cold, and backpack weight.
The Rendez-vous is set with Quentin at 6 AM in Tournaboup.
Gear choice
As the race starts before sunrise, we had to manage to use all wide sensors devices to shoot the start, and add a drone shot for the first trail. A wide sensor drone would be perfect for this purpose, but doesn’t fits neither in the backpack and in the budget ! The Phantom 3 Pro, depsite its age, does the job with a little sensibility adjustment. One battery is enough for this shot, then it’s taking an entire backpack alone, it will stay in the organization tent.
And then, let’s split: I’ll take over the overall plans, B-rolls, and details while Quentin is more in the racing and action shots. All of this with minimum equipment in the backpack, as we have to ski a competition off-piste downhill, and with limited time to change lenses.
Lightness
So, I chose the best quality/weight ratio I’ve got for my mission: the Ronin MX, the Red Raven with Canon EF 50mm 1.4, and the pancake 24mm STM in the backpack, more of the Mavic Pro. 2 batteries in the backpack, and nothing more ! Quentin is taking the snowcat to get him to the other side with the glidecam, the 7D mkII with the EF 16-35L 2.8 mounted, and the 24-70L 2.8. The 60fps can help in post production and the very fast autofocus would be useful in this dynamic use. He’s taking back the GoPro too, that we put over a head mount on a participating friend.
Anticipate
It’s obviously the key-word for all this week-end (with try to sleep maybe !), “communicate” and a little “improvise”. The racers are incredibly quick, and as the race is different every year we can’t make sure the transit time to a summit, so we try to ask the experts and anticipate. I have the rendez-vous with the helicopter to get the aerial sunny shots on the first hard climb, and a very good test for my Red with lightest stabilized configuration: this 85mm equivalent device allows to have some details on summits, while maintaining some landscape shots, and with a minimum weight (to avoid Ronin batteries change while flying !)
Technically, it’s no time to fail a shot, so F/8 with focus on infiniy, and only ISO sensibility to move between shadow and sunny sides, even if it’s possible to do in post prod. And keep focus on stability, the Ronin helps a lot but it’s more efficient when the Ronin is not touching any helicopter shaky part.
Landing
As agreed, the pilot drops me off in an key summit: it’s a refueling with a view on the Pic du Midi, and before a huge way down to the last big climb. The first have already gone, but it’s a perfect spot for my purpose: get details of in-race movements, get a view of almost all race parts and mountains view. Then, time to go down and to take some shots of climbing athletes, turns and conversions. The half icy off-piste snow is pretty hard to ski, and a Ronin instead of ski poles is not helping ! I take two breaks to fly the Mavic Pro for some aerial shots, more vertical and motionless that the heli shots.
Derush
I take last shots until the finish and that’s all for the first day. I meet Quentin which was shooting the finish line, and let’s go retrieve all equipment and start derush, in order to give a minute of key shots to the media team. The nap is not too much !
Quality
As a lot of key (and sunny) shots have been taken on the saturday, the sunday is about to be calmer. But the alarm clock at 4:30 AM is not helping: the race is also starting at 7 AM, but as the forecast is between rain and snow, we will focus on shots quality, even if we can’t get too much quantity. The backpack is event lighter as saturday: Red Raven with 24-70L F/2.8 and Mavic Pro for me, and 7D mkII with 16-35L F/2.8 and 70-200L F/2.8 for Quentin. After the cold and dark start, the snowcat takes us to our defined spots: a large ridge for Quentin with a large view and one of the last pass for me. The mission: get Killian !
Juggle with devices
Race volunteers and talkie-walkies helps us to have an idea about first team arrival. And even if it’s an ascent, it’s incredibly fast ! So, I anticipate (again !) and put the Mavic Pro in take-off position, with controller ready. As the very detailled shot of Killian was done, I put down the Raven to get the skiing through the pass aerial shot, and follow the future winners on some tens of meters.
Finish line
The last meeting was on the finish line of course, with Quentin on the ground and in the air for my part with the end of the Mavic’s battery. Two key shots here: the last course meters through the finish line and the winners hug in slow motion. And some B-roll shots in the podium later, let’s start the hard part: derush, sort, mount, and deliver to the organization team ! As the post-production process is mostly the same as any shooting, I let you consult the 4K Workflow article.