At the end of October I had a working trip to Rotterdam.
(Quite pleased with this ridiculous photo taken of me by Geoff 😂 it perfectly captures the essence of stressful travel)
Not only was this the first trip abroad in a long (LONG) time, and not only was this the first time I’ve ever filmed/worked abroad, but this was the first time I’ve been to Rotterdam too.
And wow what a beautiful city.
I was staying in the newer developed part of town with HUGE buildings and super modern fixtures.
It’s not like I got to see that much culture of Rotterdam in the time we had, but I was struck by how modern and clean the whole city was.
(I fully appreciate a clean city - which is basically the opposite of where I live)
Everyone was super kind of welcoming. The food was amazing. I live the sound of the language too. Very cool.
What was I doing in Rotterdam?
I was there to film coverage, Q&A’s and live performances from the Dutch Double Bass Festival 21!
I was shooting on behalf of the fantastic Discover Double Bass, a business I’ve had a long and trusting filming relationship with for many years. The produce Double Bass video content, in case that hadn’t clicked.
We spent 2 days filming at the event and the hosts were fantastic. The venue was fantastic too, with it being a very modern (and brand new) theatre space called ’Theatre Zudplein’. (hard to pronounce)
An immediate highlight of filming, which happened only 2 hours after arriving at the venue that night, was filming very popular legendary double bassist Dave Holland in a Q&A to a packed out room.
He was very cool and generously gave some great stories and advice to the eager audience, as well as to our awesome host Geoff from Discover Double Bass.
As soon as we arrived it felt like we had to leave though.
We spent approximately 8 hours travelling each travel day, and so I felt exhausted a couple of days after. But it was well worth it.
(Photo of Sian, fellow videographer giving the thumbs up!)
It was great to be on the EUROSTAR, travelling through countries at 187mph! Super cool experience.
Filming itself was pretty straightforward. Four cameras packed in to three cases. Easy to figure out what we needed to do even though there was a bit of a time pressure. But all was good.
The whole trip was great, and I look forward to more international travels for work.
And maybe even some for fun too.
I hope all the HIVE family are keeping well!
I’ve been so busy with work and life I’ve not had time much on here, but it’s good to be back for a bit. 😎
🤙🏻