Expedition Spitsbergen | Challenges of a border crossing - Part III

To be honest, I would have liked to have had the information in this article myself before our expedition to Spitsbergen in 2023. Perhaps this knowledge would have helped me to prepare even better for the film project and avoid a few headaches. During and especially after the expedition, however, I also realized that there is no "one way"; there are 1,000 different ways to make a film like this, and everyone will do it a little differently.

I would do things differently today. The "End to End Svalbard" project laid the foundation for my knowledge of expedition films. All these tips and learnings are summarized again at the end of the article. Now it's all about how I filmed and technically realized "End to End Svalbard".

First of all, a small disclaimer: This is not intended to be a step-by-step guide to filming in the Arctic or in similarly cold extreme situations. Rather, it is a kind of experience report - from someone who has successfully completed such a project.

Here I decided to use the Tentacle Track E system. These are small sound recorders with a lavalier microphone that are synchronized with the camera via timecode and record the signal internally. These devices could be controlled via Bluetooth with a cell phone; the batteries of these devices last more than a whole day even in the cold.

As I was solely responsible for the film, I was able to capture important audio snippets that would often not have been audible at all with the camera microphone. Even on windy days, with good placement and small windscreens over the microphones, I was able to capture intelligible dialog - great examples of this from the film are day 9 and the last day of the expedition. I positioned each microphone so that the fabric of the jacket was between the wind and the microphones in the direction we were walking, protecting the microphones from the wind.

I had my Sony Alpha 7S3 camera with me. It's also super compact and lightweight and still delivers a fantastic image. During the expedition, I wore it on my upper body at all times. This allowed me to react extremely quickly in spontaneous situations and the camera was switched on and ready to film in a maximum of four seconds.

This time I opted for old vintage primes as lenses, i.e. fixed focal lengths. Since I own the Nikon FM2 (an old analog camera) and really like the look, I adapted its lenses to my Sony. I had 24 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm and 85 mm as well as a zoom lens from 28-200 mm.

I also had a small drone with me, the DJI Mini 3 Pro, with a remote control with a built-in display. I would definitely not recommend the conventional remote controls, to which you connect your smartphone as a screen, for such cold areas!

With my sound solution in particular, I instinctively did a lot of things right, but also got some things wrong. I have summarized what I would do differently next time when recording images and sound at the end of the article.

Power and battery management

THE topic par excellence that I am asked about time and time again. "How did you manage to go 40 days without a power socket?" is a common question. So what did I do?

I started experimenting many months before the expedition, with a few points in mind when it came to the power supply:

• Solar power was the only practicable solution

• it had to be as light as possible

• I needed several days of autonomy, i.e. the ability to charge my devices even in persistently bad weather

• My batteries had to comply with airline regulations

As I had started flying and building FPV drones a few years earlier, I was now very familiar with DIY solutions. I decided quite early on to simply build my own power bank.

In the following, I'll explain in simplified form what exactly I did, but I should also point out that I would probably go back to an existing, conventional solution for the next expedition. Reasons and solutions for this can be found in the tips at the end of the article.

My self-built battery case was basically a Pelicase with a total of 81 battery cells, which I soldered together to form 9 individual batteries (12 volts), each with 99 Wh and 6 cells. This meant I could be sure that I could take these batteries with me on the plane and connect them together with self-made adapter cables to form a large power bank before the expedition. A small workaround that worked very well.

The Pelicase also contained a solar power regulator and a temperature measuring device. Lithium-ion batteries work in the cold, but as soon as you charge them when they have a core temperature of below 5-6 °C, you destroy them relatively quickly. That's why I put two heating pads (red in the photo) in the case to warm up the batteries before charging.

This gave me a "main power bank" that I could connect directly to my two large 130-watt solar panels and which supplied all our technical devices with power: Cameras, sound equipment, cell phones, other team members' power banks, GPS devices, etc. Thanks to the high capacity of almost 1 kWh (equivalent to around 270,000 mAh if you want to compare it with normal power banks), this gave me a good 7-8 days of power in a row without having to connect the power bank to the solar panels. This was extremely helpful, especially at the start of our expedition, as the sun only really showed itself for the first time after a good week.

To get the power from this self-made battery case into all our technical devices, I needed a charger. In my case, I repurposed a charger from my FPV drone hobby and also soldered some of the necessary charging cables myself. For example, I was able to charge all seven sound recorders at the same time using just one connection.

If you've followed me this far, you can probably guess why I'd rather buy a ready-made power bank with built-in USB-C plugs next time. My setup worked perfectly for me and this expedition, but you need a very deep knowledge of electrical engineering to make sure the tent doesn't blow up - which can happen when experimenting with batteries.

• Small batteries and battery-operated devices in particular (i.e. camera batteries, cell phones, GPS devices, power banks) should be carried close to the body. Some base layers have small pockets for this.

• DJI drone batteries are particularly sensitive to cold. The drone will not take off if the battery is full but cold. To solve the problem, I put the batteries in my insulated (down) camp shoes, along with a Nalgene bottle filled with hot water.

• Batteries should be warmed up at least a little before charging. Practically all modern batteries have built-in protection mechanisms. If they are too cold, they simply won't accept any power. I always put them in my sleeping bag with a Nalgene bottle filled with hot water before plugging them into the power supply

Technology and the cold

To my great surprise during the expedition, nothing happens to the technology in extremely cold conditions: Nothing. An ice-cold camera (with a warm battery) works perfectly - at least that's how I experienced it.

Cold in itself does not affect the technology. As soon as the weather and temperatures change, caution is required. For example, if it suddenly gets very cold after snowfall at around 0 °C, the moisture collected on the camera may freeze.

I had this problem once, right at the beginning of the expedition: my camera got wet from (warm) precipitation, even a little on the inside. When it got colder, the moisture inside the camera froze. In my case, the shutter curtain no longer opened, so the sensor was permanently blocked.

My solution: I held the camera over the running gasoline stove for a good 20 minutes to warm it up and get rid of the moisture inside. A somewhat unorthodox solution, I admit.

Another time I was careless and didn't notice the snow on the gimbal of my DJI drone. After it turned to water and it got colder, it froze - on the very day we entered the frozen sea ice in front of an epic glacier front. A frozen gimbal on drones means very shaky footage.

In this case, I didn't have a quick fix, but only knew how to help myself by breathing on the gimbal to warm it up a little, giving me a window of a good 3-4 minutes before it froze up again in the air.

Condensation is also an important issue: condensation forms when you go from cold to warm. People who wear glasses know the problem when they enter a restaurant or bar in winter. This condensation even occurs when you go from the cold of the Arctic into a tent, where it is often 10-20 °C warmer than outside.

One problem is that the lens (and sometimes even the sensor) fogs up and you can't film for a good 20 minutes. A second, bigger problem is that moisture collects on and in the camera, which can cause it to break under certain circumstances. In my case, the latter did not happen.

There is a quick fix for the problem of moisture on the camera: place the camera in an airtight plastic bag (zip bag or similar) while it is still cold and then take the bag with the camera into the warmth. You still have to wait for the time to pass, but the condensation is now on the bag and not on the camera.

In my personal blog, I went into great detail on the subject of "filming in the cold"; you can read the article here:

Data backup during expeditions lasting several weeks

If someone asks me today how I back up my data during such trips, my answer is always: of course, with my laptop and external hard drives.

Before this expedition in 2023, that seemed absurd to me. Take my laptop with me? That would be like taking my laptop climbing or skiing in the backpack. That's nonsense!

The fact is: on this expedition, I decided against a laptop for reasons I no longer understand. Nowadays, I take my laptop and external hard drives with me on every film project that requires a data backup.

On Spitsbergen I solved it like this: I had the BOSS system from Lacie, the hard disk manufacturer, and DJI in cooperation: Backup -on-set -solution. It's like a hard disk with a mini-computer and a card reader. I connected my camera there, loaded the data onto this hard disk and then created a backup of it on my two external hard disks.

In principle it worked, but it was neither 100% reliable nor professional.

Camera backups and considerations for technical failure

The worst case scenario for any film project is when the camera stops working and no further recordings are possible-then there is simply no film.

My camera stopped working at one point. I was sitting in the tent one morning and wanted to change the lens. At the exact moment when the camera sensor was open and pointing upwards towards the tent ceiling, a drop of water fell right into the opening and onto the sensor. It occurred to me at that exact moment that I hadn't taken any sensor cleaner with me (here's a tip: always, always, ALWAYS have sensor cleaner with you, no matter where and how long you're traveling!)

So I couldn't dry my sensor, there was water in the camera and I postponed the problem until the evening, as we wanted to dismantle the camp and leave quickly. As luck would have it, that was the day we were to be hit by a heavy storm and we built a huge snow cave as a shelter for a good six hours. I had to film that.

I don't think it's really noticeable in the finished movie, but all the footage of the snow cave construction was taken with my GoPro. It was the only camera that was still working and could easily withstand this extreme storm with horizontal snow drifts.

I don't normally like the look of GoPros at all, but these cameras are worth their weight in gold for situations like this: they can withstand (almost) anything and are also completely waterproof.

In the event that my camera failed completely and couldn't be used for the rest of the trip, Jonas had his own Sony A7R with him for taking photos. He would have let me use his camera for filming; the photos would have been taken with his cell phone. Of course, we discussed this situation in advance.

If Jonas hadn't had his camera, the solution would have been a second camera body similar to the main camera for backups. Replacement devices are hard to come by in the Arctic!

In general, it's worth having one or two backup plans ready for situations where you definitely won't be able to get a replacement for technical equipment. What do I do if my main camera fails? What happens if a memory card stops working? A little tip: very critical devices in triplicate are expensive, but save you a lot of headaches in case of doubt.

My approach to filming

This is the fun part; something I always ask myself as a filmmaker: How did other filmmakers film? What was their approach?

Every morning, each of the six other expedition members got their microphone. I had my camera on, ready to film.

I often asked one of the others what we were doing today, where we were going, etc. To get pictures while skiing, I often "ran ahead" a few hundred meters (with a 65-kilogram pulka, this is usually only possible on flat or slightly sloping terrain) and filmed the group from the front. In addition, I often launched, flew and landed the drone myself while running. In general, I tried to disrupt the rhythm of our group as little as possible by filming. On some days, the route was simply slightly uphill all the way; I sometimes had to force the group to wait for me until I had gained a few meters.

I often went out into the cold in the evening while the others were warming up in the tent and filmed sunsets and the camp itself.

During important conversations within the group, I usually checked the microphones briefly and repositioned the six others a little depending on the perspective and image composition, otherwise I did very little "directing". Here and there, however, I had to have crucial sentences that I had missed spoken anew and "posed" into the camera.

Then there were the interviews typical of documentary films - we recorded the first one two days before the start of the expedition and the second one day before reaching the northern tip.

As I mentioned in the previous parts of this series, I didn't really have a plan as far as the story of the film was concerned. For this project, I tried to film as much as possible during the 40 days and then put the film together later in the editing process. In this case it worked, but it's a big point that I would do differently next time. For the next film of this type, I will definitely come up with a detailed story in advance, which I can then adapt during filming.

Quick tips for filming in the Arctic or similar cold extreme situations

• "Where do I get my power?" is the first and most important question you and your team should answer

• Use body heat to keep batteries warm throughout the day. DJI drone batteries, in particular, are very sensitive.

• Technology in the cold is not a problem per se. As soon as the temperature and weather changes, you have to be careful: if snow falls at 0 °C and it then gets significantly colder, the moisture on the technology threatens to freeze.

• Data protection and backups are not optional in the Arctic, but mandatory. Backing up my film material regularly cost me my free evenings.

• Be ready for creative solutions. Do you remember "baking" my frozen camera over the gas stove? Sounds absurd, but in the Arctic it was the only solution.

If I were to go on this expedition again, I would:

• choose a larger main camera, ideally a little heavier, with a large monitor, larger battery (V-mounts) and a professional directional microphone. I would then pack my Sony A7S3 as a backup and second camera.

• Rethink my power solution. Although my self-built battery worked relatively smoothly, the operation was not entirely intuitive. There are plenty of commercial solutions that could be considered for such a project.

• Take insulated boxes/thermal containers and silica gel for technology. Even though my equipment didn't necessarily suffer from the constant humidity, it's still worth taking a little more care with it than I did. Pelicases are a good way to store technology. If necessary, waterproof duffel bags with silica gel will also work - depending on your budget and weight restrictions

• focus even more on good sound. A boom pole for the interviews would have helped enormously. A lot of effort was needed in post-production to make the muffled voices from the lavalier microphones sound reasonably clear again.

• If possible, get a second creative and technical person involved. By that I mean someone who is directly involved in the filming itself. No matter how well you master all areas of film production, the end result suffers if you do everything on your own, especially in a project like this.

• I follow the classic approach for documentary films and think about the story in advance. That sounds a bit absurd: isn't a documentary a documentation of events that are yet to happen? Yes, in principle that's true. Nevertheless, you have to think about the direction you want to take with the film, come up with a story and a central theme and, if in doubt, adapt it to the course of the journey on location.

During this expedition and the film shoot, I experienced a lot of "firsts". I did some things right instinctively, some things simply worked out well with a bit of luck and many things didn't go as I had imagined. I hope this article has given you some inspiration for your next film shoot - be it a one-day ski tour or an expedition to the South Pole.

In the next and final part of this series, I'll talk about ten lessons I learned during my time on Spitsbergen. It's not just about making films, but above all about your own well-being and little tips on how to make such a long time on an expedition as pleasant as possible.