Making Azores – São Miguel
In the summer of 2013 I made my first visit to the Azores Islands with some friends camping for a two week vacation. Iam Portuguese but I had never visited the island before so I was immediately struck by the beauty of it all and so glad I brought my GH2 along. Filming this video was such a relaxing experience that I actually didn’t know if it actually would result in anything. Just a curiosity, my sister appears at 0:57 and at 02:25 minutes.
When I first started editing the footage, I had no idea if the final outcome would do justice to the place, specially because I had so much footage and about 70% of the that was handheld (later stabilized in post), and for the rest I used a small tripod. So I’ve made split screens in order to reveal as much of the surrounding as possible and referenced the places with graphics on a map. I also made the music arrangements well, as usually do with most of my work. I and named the song “Natures Embrace”, and yes I know, the music sounds a bit less cliché.
A as I write in early 2018, the video itself reached about 200k views, featured on numerous travel agencies and rent a car websites throughout the world, on tourism cine festivals, a cable channel program, and even on Robson Greens Extreme fishing episodes on the Azores. Not bad all things considered!
I hope that all this videos on the Azores that have been made (mine included), wont inadvertently advertise a type of mass tourism that would somehow tarnish the immense natural beauty that the islands are known for. As far as my experience goes, filming São Miguel was a pleasure and privilege which I hope to repeat once again.
// Respect places & people // Follow rules // Avoid mass tourism //
