How to Travel With Camera Gear as a Solo Filmmaker ✈️
🎥 As filmmakers, we often travel extensively to reach our clients’ locations, which frequently requires flying and renting a car. It's a part of the job. However, as I reviewed my upcoming schedule, a question emerged: Is there a more efficient way to accomplish this?
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The Denmark Experiment: Can a Filmmaker Actually Travel Sustainably? 🇩🇰🌿
When a client booked me for a shoot in Denmark, I saw a perfect opportunity. I decided to turn the trip's logistics into a personal experiment.
The Challenge: Carry out a brand documentary shoot while also optimizing my travel for sustainability.
I wanted to see if making "green" choices would hinder my workflow or—as I suspected—actually streamline it. Here is how the experiment went down.
The Gear Puzzle
The first variable to solve was the equipment. In the past, I often packed heavy "just in case." But heavy gear limits your mobility and complicates transport.
For Denmark, I adopted a "Lean and Mean" philosophy. I needed a setup that was powerful but portable.
The Workhorse: The Lumix S5iiX.
The Lens: a 24-70mm f2.8 zoomlens.
The Logic: This combo is the ultimate travel solution. It delivers the full-frame quality, but it fits into a compact rucksack. It allows me to move through airports and cities with ease, turning the travel day from a chore into a breeze.
The "Customs Passport" Hack To keep things running smoothly, I relied on the Carnet ATA. Think of it as a passport for your gear.
The Learning Curve: It requires a bit of prep work to list every serial number, but the payoff is huge. It forces you to be intentional about every item you pack. You don't bring clutter; you bring only what matters. It turns packing into a precise, organized process.
The Journey
Standard travel often involves the path of least resistance. For this experiment, I looked for the path of most impact.
Variable A: (On the Ground) Getting up early in the morning, I took our E-Car from Stein am Rhein to Frauenfeld, then switched to a direct train to Zurich Airport.
Variable B: (The Flight) I had to fly to reach Copenhagen on time, but I had a choice in how I flew. I booked my ticket using 50% Ecofuel (Sustainable Aviation Fuel - SAF).
*The "Why": SAF is produced from recycled waste. It's a way to vote and support the technology that will eventually make aviation cleaner for everyone.
Variable C: (The Destination) Upon landing, I picked up a rented Electric Car. Driving through the Danish countryside in silence was a fantastic way to reach my shooting location.
The Conclusion
So, was the experiment worth the extra planning?
Absolutely. But not for the reasons I expected. I went into this thinking about carbon footprints and emissions, but I came out of it thinking about intentionality.
When you force yourself to pack lighter, you shoot smarter. When you choose a train over a car, you gain time to think. Sustainable travel didn't feel like a restriction; it felt like a filter that removed the noise. It stripped away the excess gear and the frantic rush, leaving me with exactly what I needed to tell the story.
This trip proved that "going green" isn't a burden you carry; it's a discipline that sharpens you. Green is traveling. And for me, this new intentionality is the new way forward.
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