Behind the Scenes of a Commercial Shoot with Amazfit ft Yeman Crippa
We won a pitch to create a set of commercial social videos and professional photographs for sports watch brand Amazfit. The aim was to create engaging, motivating, and stylised content to announce the partnership of European Champion Yeman Crippa with Amazfit. We created a full behind the scenes vlog to take you with us on our Prep and Shoot Day in Trento, Italy. The whole vlog is shot on the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, using it’s native microphone. This blog post is if you prefer a read to a watch. Just a heads up this isn’t a ‘professional’ take on the process, this is a REAL Day in the Life of a Video & Photo team, it’s honest and unfiltered - mcdonalds trips & painful mornings included.
Behind the Scenes: Filming Amazfit Commercial Content with Yeman Crippa
Day 1: Arrival & Location Scouting
The star of the video was European Champion runner Yeman Crippa, we needed make the video authentic to him, his brand and his fans. So we flew our team of 4 to Italy to film this video in his local city of Trento. At a horrifically painful wake up at 4am, we landed in Bergamo. 7 hours later, the team was running on fumes so naturally we made a quick stop at the Golden Arches for a classic morale boost.
Once refuelled, it was time to scout the three locations we were going to be shooting at tomorrow. One of them being our Airbnb, which would serve as both our accommodation and a filming location. This is always a great idea not only for budget but also for organisation and time. We spent more budget on this AirBnB to ensure it had the most aesthetic opoortunities for some shots. Whilst it was a big space, had an epic view of Lake Garda and a beautiful Olive tree garden, the actual inside of the AirBnB was hilariously creepy. A staircase leading nowhere, a hole in the ground and a sink that looked suspiciously like one you’d find at a morgue. We were also greeted by many elderly, non english speaking Italians, who were strangely also on the property. But, as with everything in filmmaking, we had to adapt.
Next, we headed to Trento, an old city with a mix of history and modern urban environments. Our initial impression? It wasn’t quite as picturesque as Google led us to believe. The photos online showed a vibrant, colourful city, but in reality, it was a little more worn down. However, the key to location scouting is looking past first impressions. We walked around and found some authentic narrow side streets, a beautiful main square and interesting old town buildings. As we were creating vertical content for socials, we tried to find locations where height was actually more important than width.
Our final location was a Running track. To make sure we were set for the real take, we sent up the drone for an aerial test. Bart, in his *best* runner form, sprinted across the track while we tested some angles.
Before wrapping up the day, we stopped by Yeman’s manager’s office to pick up some props—medals, race memorabilia, and one running shoe. We wanted to include some mild set design in the AirBnB shots to make Yeman look like he belonged in the space where we were getting some headshots, and filming him using the app for example.
We got to enjoy some classic Italian cuisine in the beautiful town, with our BTS man Kacper, enjoying a bit too much Red wine. Upon returning to our accommodation we needed to prep the scenes for tomorrows shooting, including all of the lighting. Originally we were only given 6 hours to shoot 3 videos and a set of photographs with him. However after some pushback, we managed to get him for approximately 8 hours. So we really needed to optimise our timing on the shoot day. After some final brainstorming, testing and packing we called it a night and got some much-needed but too little rest before the big day.
Day 2: The Shoot Begins
5:45 AM - The plan is ambitious. After picking up our client Hania, we make the hour-long drive back to Trento, arriving just as the bell clock tower strikes 7 AM—perfectly poetic. We meet the final man to join our crew, Sports Photographer & Creative Director Francesco Bonato. His athlete portrait work on Instagram caught our eye, and we pitched him to Amazfit as part of the team. They loved him, and he was exactly what we needed to round out our crew.
Our Camera Equipment:
Accsoon Cineview SE Wireless Transmission
iPad using SEE app for wireless monitoring
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 for BTS
Yeman Crippa arrives, and straight into action.
Turns out shooting an elite runner comes with one major challenge: **keeping up.** Shooting on the gimbal was an obvious choice to keep some steadiness to the shots. When shooting an thin alley way scene, I ran forwards holding the gimbal pointing back at Yeman so that I could run at full pace. We were filming 3 videos based on the concepts of ‘FOCUS’, ‘TRAIN’ AND ‘REST’, to show the use of the watch throughout different stages of an Athletes daily routine.
Our Shot List:
Running - City, Track, Forest, POV
Portraits - Lifestlye, Fashion, Personal
Rest - Breathing, Lying down, Walking, Meditating
Product Shots
We found that our dynamic gimbal work to create a moody, fashion vibe, worked really well in this case.
Next up we were filming at the Running Track. We obviously focused on the training portion of the video, swapping out his outfit for his training kit. We also tried some alternative shots with the Osmo Pocket 3 and a GoPro however none of these made the final cut. After wrapping up the track shoot, Yeman needed a break—to go on an **actual** training run. Meanwhile, the rest of us headed to lunch, courtesy of the running track owner who insisted on treating us to some local cuisine. And back to the AirBnb.
Back at the Airbnb, we set up for an indoor portrait session with Yeman. The night before, we had spent **two hours** meticulously setting up artificial lighting—only to scrap it all and go with natural light instead. It was a classic case of “killing your darlings” - it just looked so much better with the natural sun diffused through the blinds. During this time we also had to film Yeman’s Voiceover for the video.
For audio recording, we needed a makeshift soundproof studio. Solution? We **stacked every pillow, duvet, and mattress we could find** to create some bass traps. It wasn’t glamorous, but it worked. We also had a portable Microphone Reflection Filter, and of course a Shure SM7B for crisp audio.
Final Location: Lake Garda at Sunset. With time running out, we rushed to our last location—Lake Garda. The golden hour window was closing, and we were hoping for some sunny bangers. Boy, oh, boy the Italian god’s did provide.
After a long but rewarding day, we finally called it a wrap.
How did it go? **Better than expected.** Not that we were expecting disaster, but with a tight schedule and unpredictable weather, things could have easily gone sideways. Instead, everything fell into place.
Adaptability is key.
Things don’t always go according to plan, but some of the best moments come from last-minute decisions.
ALWAYS have a prep day
The sucess of our shoot was largely down to the organisation and preperation done on the previous day. Having scouted locations, tested shots and prepared the set, no time was wasted on the shoot day. Especially when travelling to a new location, where you are unaware of the surroundings and distances between locations, having a prep day enabled us to create a simulation of the shoot day.
Go back to BASICS.
When you’re pressed for time, scale things back. The best shots weren’t the ones we meticulously planned but the ones that happened naturally. Some of our storyboard concepts were too time consuming and we had to abandon them on the day. Being social content, we knew we needed quick short clips, so a run & gun method was much needed. It gave us with so many options for creative editing.
Want to see the full journey? Watch the behind-the-scenes filmmaking vlog on YouTube and if you love raw, unfiltered filmmaking stories, make sure to subscribe for more!
That’s a wrap! See you in the next one.
TRIO STORIES x AMAZFIT TEAM
Bartosz (DP), Kajetan (Producer), Sally-Ann (Director), Yeman (Fast Man), Kacper (Behind the Scenes) & Hanna (Amazfit Client).