Client: Rabbitz

Filming a road trip across the Amazon for a global healthcare technology company

THE PROJECT

Two engineers from a global healthcare technology company undertook an arduous road trip to the heart of the Amazon in March 2020 to deliver replacement parts for a CT scanner – a vital piece of equipment in diagnosing Covid-19 patients. After the engineers completed their mission, the parent company in Germany commissioned a video to tell their story, showcasing how their staff goes the extra mile in delivering outstanding service. Watch the result of this arduous work

THE CHALLENGE

Driving through the Amazon is no easy feat, nor indeed is filming in the Amazon. But Story Productions has plenty of experience of the latter and were ready to take on the challenge when German production company Rabbitz got in touch. Their brief was for a Story crew to recreate and shoot the road trip that the two engineers had undertaken. The journey would follow their route from Belém at the mouth of the Amazon River, to Santarém, some 1,300 kilometres inland.

The CT scanner that needed repairs (and which is essential for the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of Covid-19 patients) is reportedly one of just two in Santarém, and so under huge demand from both public and private healthcare services in the city. Getting and installing replacement parts for the scanner was of upmost urgency as the coronavirus case numbers soared in the Amazon.

With all flights to Santarém cancelled at the time, the only option for the engineers was to take the replacement parts by road. It was a long, tough and at times dangerous journey, in part on dirt roads used by large trucks and loggers.

To recreate the journey on camera was an exciting task for the Story team, but not without a number of challenges, including:

 
•   How to get enough variety of landscape footage on a trip through seemingly endless greenery?

•   Choosing the right mix of equipment, but not too much to travel with. 

•   How to film safely in the Amazon during the coronavirus pandemic?

OUR SOLUTION

Arranging a shoot in the middle of the pandemic required plenty of planning as well as flexibility, at a time when Covid-19 rules and restrictions were changing week by week.

Pre-production

Day one of the shoot was in and around Belém, a stunning city at the mouth of the Amazon River. The crew interviewed the two engineers and accompanied them to some of the city’s iconic locations, including the Ver-o-Peso market and the Basílica Santuário de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré.


B-roll footage of the city, close-ups at the outdoor market, and drone footage above the docks all help set the scene for the road trip that was to be shot over the following two days.

Our location research had fed into an outline shooting script for the journey, highlighting river crossings, villages and even hydroelectric power plants that the crew would film en route to illustrate the engineers’ narratives. Road trips, with their unpredictable twists and turns, are full of cinematic potential and have long inspired screenwriters. This trip, shot over two long days, was not without its own dramas.

Even with a shooting script in hand, getting the best shots can come down to having a good eye and staying alert on the way. The Story Productions crew managed to capture stunning shots as and when they arose: bridges under construction, dangerous bends in the road, rain showers, dust clouds on the road, the forest canopy in a particular light. The crew shot with a Blackmagic Pocket Camera and a Mavic Pro 2 Drone.

Some obstacles en route were impossible to foresee. At the end of the first day, at nightfall, the crew and their van came to a small town where a group of loggers had staged a protest, closing the only bridge across the river. “It took us completely by surprise and we had to decide what to do,” says Story Productions field producer Aarón. “We found a place to stay for the night and got up really early the next morning to find the bridge still blocked. We couldn’t get our van across so we luckily managed to negotiate another van hire on the other side of the bridge, carried all the equipment across on foot, and carried on the journey.”

Other obstacles turned into opportunities. On the second day, the van was stopped at a roadblock with police officers armed to the teeth, searching the van and frisking the crew. It put them behind schedule and they ended up driving down a nightmare stretch of dirt road in the dark. Aarón decided to send the drone up into the night sky to capture the lone headlights of the trucks, yellow beams snaking their way through the vast blackness of the forest. This powerful image made the final cut.