The drive from Stockholm to the location of our campaign shoot was a mere 832kms. Our latest color drop, Midnight Teal, needed a unique location - and we found exactly that at Under - an underwater restaurant in the south of Norway.
The plan was simple - set off from Stockholm on Sunday at lunch, shoot all day Monday, and then hightail it back to Stockholm on the Monday night - bashing out the 832km return journey in one hit so we could be at our desks by 9am on Tuesday morning. We were on a budget so, in our minds, we had to be efficient.
Everything went to plan initially. We set off bang on time on Sunday, and the three of us Jesper (Project Manager), Tova (Junior Art Director), and myself - Ebba, (Stylist for a day) drove to Gothenburg to pick up William, our Art Director, who’d just finished up his vacation and was sporting a lovely tan/burn. With the team complete, we pointed the car to Norway and drove through the Swedish countryside, eventually crossing the border. Once we were safely in Norway, we had a late dinner consisting of meatballs and potatoes. An abundance of car snacks and good music got us through the final few hours and we rolled into Kristiansund at 1am.
We arrived at our Airbnb and proceeded to unpack the car and make our way to bed as quietly as possible. Hallvard and the two models for the shoot were already fast asleep and we knew we’d be in trouble if we woke them. Apart from being a bit tired from the journey, everything had been going smoothly until we realised there were no towels or sheets where we were staying. Determined not to let a little thing like a lack of blankets stand between us and sleep, we showered, used the toilet paper to dry us down, put on the clothes we were going to wear the next day and fell asleep.
Five hours later, the alarm buzzed and we were up and out the door. Under is a Michelin-star restaurant in the most incredible setting. Set under the waters of Lindesnes, we were greeted with the striking sight of a half-sunk building cutting through the ocean’s surface.
We got to work, cleaning out the whole restaurant of tables and chairs, knowing that every piece of furniture was probably on par with a Scandinavian’s monthly salary. With the scene set, we dove into the plan of the day and tackled the issues of styling and lighting. Our biggest struggle was to use external LED lights to compliment the natural ambient light from the ocean.
On-person images, main campaign images, behind the scenes videos and supporting content; each and every one was ticked off the shot list as the day went by. Angles were tested, lenses were swapped, bad ideas surrounded the good ones, and in the end we ended up with something worth bringing home to Stockholm. We even got made an afternoon coffee by the chef when he arrived to start preparing the kitchen. Michelin restaurant coffee on shoot is a vibe we can get behind.
We eventually had our lunch a bit later than usual, and Jesper was in charge of catering. There were seven of us on location, so Jesper did what any normal Project Manager would do and bought lunch for seven people. What he hadn’t factored in, however, was that Hallvard was with us. In his spare time, Hallvard likes to cycle hundreds of kilometres and run ultramarathons in the mountains - for fun. He has the appetite of three teenage boys and one sandwich just wasn’t going to cut it. As there is no ‘I’ in team, we all clubbed our Snickers bars together and donated them in Hallvard’s direction. It seemed to work and we were back shooting for the final few hours.
Finally, we wrapped. A few of us jumped into the cold sea for a refresher before the long journey back. High on the success of a great shoot, we packed up and hit the road for Stockholm. We drove through the night fuelled by snacks, energy drinks and John Legend. Tova and I drove for the first three hours, and then took up position in the back seat, eventually waking up as the 5am sunlight broke through Stockholm’s streets - a lovely welcome home.
In total, we drove for 46 hours, had approximately five hours of sleep, too many snacks, some very dodgy sing-long car music and clocked 1664km.
The outcome? Midnight Teal.
