Late last year I released a short movie I produced in conjunction with Untitled Film Works in the Arctic on what it was like to travel on a dedicated photographic expedition to the Polar regions – A Joshua Holko Photography Polar Experience Video. This video was a huge amount of fun to produce and work on with the crew from Untitled Film works. During the filming we were fortunate to experience and capture some truly spectacular sights including an incredible free standing iceberg collapse amongst some incredible landscape and wildlife experiences. The video was shot on a combination of a RED Epic Cinema Camera and a couple of Canon 1DC 4K Cinema Cameras. Audio for the film was recorded separately by a dedicated sound person. The entire movie was shot over a two week period in the Arctic using our ship ‘Polar Pioneer’ as a base of operations. We departed from Iceland in August and sailed across the Denmark Strait to Greenland where we explored the many fjords before we sailed across to Svalbard and docked in Longyearbyen. If you have not seen the movie click on the image below to watch it in full high definition. 
One of the really enjoyable things for me during the production was the video interview we shot high in the Arctic near the calving face of one of Svalbard’s glaciers. The full interview includes all of the final cut footage included in the film as well as all of the outtakes, stumbles and slips that are a part of video production and interviews. The full unedited interview is included below. Enjoy – And remember its outtakes as well!
Equipment for this Project
Since the release of this video I have had a few emails asking me specifically what equipment was used to produce this film. So I am including below a list of hardware we took to the Arctic and utilised for the production of this movie. All of the editing and post production work was completed by Untitled Film Works at their studio in Sydney and a number of different software programs were used depending on wether the footage in question was shot with the RED Epic or the Canon 1DC cameras. The RED Epic RAW footage requires different grading to the motion jpeg produced in the Canon 1DC cameras and so it was necessary to process them separately before combing the footage in the final edit. The entire project was however shot in 4K resolution and much of it was also shot in very high frame rate on the RED Epic.
Camera for this project included:
- Red Epic 5K Cinema Camera for high frame rate slow motion footage in 4k resolution
- Canon 1DC 4K Cinema Cameras x 2
- Canon 1DX Camera (behind the scenes)
- Canon 5D MK3 Cameras x 2 (behind the scenes)
- Several Go Pro Cameras were also used for filming but none of the footage was included in the final cut
Lenses for this project included:
- Sigma 15mm Fisheye
- Canon 17mm F4L TSE
- Canon 24mm F3.5L TSE
- Canon 24-70mm F2.8L MKII
- Canon 70-200mm F.27L IS MKII
- Canon 200-400mm F4L IS with inbuilt 1.4 TC
- Canon 2X Teleconverter
Other Equipment included:
- Really Right Stuff TVC-24L 4 Section Tripod x 2
- Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ballhead x 2
- Really Right Stuff Levelling Plate x 2
- Really Right Stuff L Mount Camera Brackets for Canon 1DC, 1DX and 5D MK3 cameras
- Really Right Stuff Lens Plates for 70-200 and 200-400mm lenses
- Really Right Stuff MonoPod with RRS Ballhead
- Miscellaneous Really Right Stuff Accessories including Multi-tool and universal clamps
- Glide Cam
- Miller Video Tripod and Fluid Head
- Various Rode shotgun and lapel microphones
- Audio Recording Devices
- 15 Terrabytes of Hard Drives and numerous laptops and associated accessories.
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