True North

Filming at the threshold of cold, distance, and human resilience

Degrees of Exposure is a film shot during a 13-day self-supported ski expedition in Svalbard. The journey crossed glacial terrain with no fixed camp and no resupply—just a small group, a pulk each, and the brutal clarity of the Arctic.

Base Camp Studios joined the expedition to document it from the inside: not just the movement, but the toll. We handled concept development, on-location cinematography, sound, and stills—shaping the raw material for a slow, human-centred film about cold, isolation, and the mental gaps that open up when comfort disappears.

What We Delivered

• Expedition Film Concepting
  Working with Lucy Shepherd and the guiding team ahead of departure to define a story arc that respected the expedition as it unfolded—no forced narrative, no fiction.
• Cinematography in Extreme Conditions
  Shot handheld while skiing, in sub-zero conditions, with no dedicated film crew. The system had to be fast, silent, and always moving. Primary footage captured on Fujifilm X-T5 and DJI Osmo Pocket 3, with X100VI and drone for stillness and scale.
• Still Photography
  A full stills package shot alongside video, covering individual portraits, pulk movement, landscape texture, weather shifts, and group dynamics. Framed to support both the film and potential brand partners.
• Creative Direction and Story Language
  Defined the tone of the piece post-expedition: a slow, meditative rhythm focused on physical repetition, discomfort, and internal headspace—cold as a character, not a backdrop.
• Sound, Texture, and Score Curation
  Captured ambient field sound on-location. Current edit is guided by a minimal, layered soundscape with intermittent spoken word and voice fragments—more reflective than declarative.

Our Approach

This wasn’t a shoot layered onto an expedition. It was an expedition, filmed from within.

The biggest creative constraint was movement—there was no time to stop and stage shots. We had to design a camera system and shooting rhythm that could live inside the journey: pulling a pulk, keeping pace, staying warm, while still making images that spoke.

Rather than chase dramatic summits or scripted interviews, we focused on what persisted:

• the endless sound of skis and wind
• the weight of repetition
• the quiet unraveling that happens after a week with no walls

We called it Degrees of Exposure because that’s what we were testing—not just frostbite or whiteouts, but exposure to each other, to silence, to the things we usually medicate with comfort.

Outcome

The film is in post-production and early conversations with partners (including 66°North) have been positive. It stands apart from commercial cold-weather content—slower, quieter, and more human. The footage is already feeding into editorial, stills campaigns, and long-form storytelling pieces.

It’s not about conquest. It’s about what the cold reveals.