The European Mission of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) took athletes from different Olympic modalities to train and compete in Europe after receiving authorization from the Government of Portugal, through the intermediation of the local Olympic Committee, the BOC sent sports delegations to the European continent, following a strict protocol to combat the contamination of the new coronavirus.The BOC objective was to provide the best training and safety conditions for Brazilian athletes with the intention of continuing their preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

This video of Canoeing Slalom at Europe Mission shows the routine of the Olympic athlete Ana Sátila Vargas, who together with her husband, a French athlete, went to train in the city of Pau, France, known for its tradition in the sport.

For the creation of this video, I spent 3 days together with the Brazilian athlete, and her husband, who were in real training.

Usually the videos I make for the Brazilian Olympic Committee are mini documentaries that portray training situations, where my interference must be minimal, however, when following the athletes for 3 days in their routines, I had the opportunity to script the story at least.

For the creation of this story, the previous choice of the soundtrack that would support all the script to be told, was fundamental.

Even before leaving for France, as the only member of BOC Communication, to capture this video, I talked to Ana and we aligned our agenda of everything we would do. Through a virtual meeting, we decided on the recording locations and our entire agenda, combined with her training routine.

For the introduction of the story, it was necessary to explain the reasons for the Europe Mission in France, highlighting the beauties of the old continent and the return of sports activities. The first morning of recording consisted of taking shots of the couple's running training, in a beautiful park near the castle of Pau.For this scene, in addition to a Canon 6D, with a 70-200mm 2.8 lens, I used a Gopro7 on a 1.70m pole I bought before the trip, and a Mavic Air Drone.

Ana's husband and I, who is French, found in the country's regulations that we could fly a drone of up to 400g without the need for a permit, and even so we were surprised by the local civil guard who came to scold us. Lucky for me I had already landed the drone and recorded everything I needed.

In addition to training on the slalom track, we recorded some details of the couple's routine, such as Ana waking up and going to buy bread at a beautiful French bakery, as well as details of breakfast.On the last day of recording before leaving for Portugal, I got up very early to record the sunrise in the Pyrenees, in a place where there was a transport cable car, which connected the lower part of the city to the upper part of the city, and I wanted to make a timlapse with gopro.

I usually say that the energy we dedicate to a scene is directly linked to the result. You don't film the sun rising after it has already risen. You have to get out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the place and prepare the equipment. Dedicated energy makes all the difference. And that's to use just a few seconds of footage in the video.

People don't think about how much you put into those seconds, but they think it's beautiful, and that's all that matters.

Like a manual focus shift, which you have to insist over and over again, patiently waiting for the athlete to complete a full lap of the track.

To give a charm to the end of everything, I used a tracking mask to reveal the final scene, from the movement of the barrier.

This is a video that I really appreciate, as I was able to create a story from a plan, which normally doesn't happen very often.

At the end of the days in France, I went to Portugal, where I would make videos of three more sports, and as I needed to test for Covid and wait 24 hours for the result in a room of the accommodation, I used my time to edit this video about Canoe, which managed to complete it in 12 hours straight of editing, with only small breaks for meals.In this video I also decided to use the cinema bars for a wider effect and for the first time I was able to use sound effects, thanks to the signature of a platform of tracks and SFX that we had made before the trip.

I also work the Color Grading to give it a "hopeful" look, like a post apocalyptic world. (Post pandemic).

Unfortunately what seemed to be the end of the pandemic, it was just the end of a first wave of COVID in Europe, but at that moment no one knew about it and I wanted to send a message of comfort with this video.