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Silvio Pfiffner
@silvio_pfiffner
Photographer and Filmmaker based in Switzerland
Feeling alive above the clouds!
In 2021, since the summer was rather bad, I did not make it to the mountains that often. Out of three challenging hikes, two ended with me getting caught in a thunderstorm, not predicted by the weather forecast. I watched a “How to behave when you get caught by a thunderstorm in the mountains” Youtube video, and the knowledge from this clip helped me find a safe place to hide and avoid some mistakes.
One of the hikes was quite impressive. When I found this place on Google maps a year ago, I was fascinated by this rock formation. But in this case, it was more about the whole experience for me; rushing from work to the hike, climbing up as fast as I could through thick fog, reaching the top just in time, and knowing my plan worked perfectly. The same place without the clouds is still spectacular, but not nearly as much as it was at this particular moment. In the background, you can see many human influences. So, I told myself that once the weather forecast predicted a cloudline high enough to cover the surroundings but low enough for the peak to stick out of it, I would use the opportunity.
I was working in the morning, but knowing this could be my last chance before winter arrived with its full force, I decided to go after work. It felt special to have this contrast between daily life and nature in its purest form – standing on top of that mountain range, knowing that, four hours earlier, I was in a completely different environment.
To feel alive means having the possibility to do something adventurous and also having the courage to do it – knowing that your plan might not work out. But once it does, these are the moments you carry in your heart for the rest of your life.
Let life surprise you and let yourself surprise you – this is how you feel alive!
Full article with Silvio Pfiffner
In 2021, I barely made it to the mountains. Since the summer was rather bad, I didn’t make it to the mountains as often as I’d have liked to. Out of 3 special hikes, two of them ended with me getting caught in a thunderstorm that wasn’t predicted by the weather forecast. I watched a “how to behave when you get caught by a thunderstorm in the mountains” Youtube video once and the knowledge from this video helped me quite a lot in finding a safe place to hide and avoid some “don’ts”.
One of the hikes, the location that you can see in the video I created for the video contest with Nomadict and ColorPro, has been quite impressive. When I found this place on Google maps a year ago I was fascinated by this rock formation. I think in this case though, it was more about the whole experience for me; rushing from work to the starting point of the hike, hiking up as fast as I could through thick fog, reaching the top just in time knowing that my plan came out perfectly. The same place without the clouds is still spectacular I guess, but not nearly as much as it was at this particular moment. In the background, you can see many human influences (such as streets, houses, etc.).
I was working in the morning, but knowing that this could be my last chance before winter takes in to go, I decided to go after work. It felt quite special to have this contrast between daily life and nature in its purest form. Standing on top of that mountain range knowing that only 4 hours earlier I was in a completely different environment. “Feeling alive” means exactly that, having the possibility to do something adventurous and also having the courage to do it – knowing that your plan might not work out. But once it does, these are the moments you carry in your heart for the rest of your life.
While on the top, I shot quite some footage in a short time. Drone footage most of the time looks cool, but while standing there, knowing that the sun is setting very fast, I sometimes feel more stressed than anything else, because you know, you only have this one chance, those 20 minutes until the whole spectacle is over. You want to catch everything, every second of it, and every movement needs to be perfect. And if it isn’t you have to bring yourself back in the same position and do it all over again. Since the light is changing fast, you quickly forget to adjust the camera settings. So, flying a drone can be a very stressful thing. But once you’re back home, reliving the moment and knowing that without a drone none of those angles could have been possible, you forget all about the struggles and just enjoy what you see. I also have to tell you that I sometimes don’t take the drone with me, just to not have the feeling of “having to fly” with it. And I only fly the drone when there aren’t any people in the nearby areas because I’m aware of the fact that some people just might come to the mountains to enjoy the silence and not hear a drone destroying their peaceful moment.
"Then the second difficulty is to select the footage and edit it with music and with a story."
In the original version, I was also talking about my thoughts and my goals for this hike, so it was a video of 5m30. Taking most of that out, helped a lot with shortening it for the video contest. Many things can also be fast-forwarded and still have enough impact or information to tell the story. While the original version it’s more about the struggles of getting up there, the short version for the contest it’s more about the fact of reaching the goal and the experience of living that moment – that’s why I chose the theme “feeling alive”.
I began to put all the footage together and tried to tell the story first. As soon as I had something that I thought seemed to work, I started to try out what kind of sound might fit. I love music and for this video, I created my own soundtrack. I think that landscape photography influences my music more than music does my photography. When I think of a melody, there are many different genres you can work with. The same melody can be put into something ambient-like and can be played on strings or on a synthesizer. All those different approaches affect the outcome. So whenever I come back from a trip and go through my footage, I might think of that one melody I had in my head or listen to the voice memos I created and see whether this melody goes along with the footage I have or not. If it works, I try to figure out what genre fits it the most or what genre works best for expressing the emotions I have when thinking of that one specific hike.
I realized that when I think a lot about life itself, my emotions connected to a hike are more “melancholic” which means that the soundtrack goes more into the ambient, slow electronic side. When I’m hyped, or just happy to be there, motivated, then my music gets more electronic. It’s about how you put the footage together: You can decide what story you want to tell in the editing process (e.g. color grading or the pace of the cuts) and therefore make every music fit. In the end, it all comes down to the emotions that YOU felt while taking the hike and what you want to convey.
I did three different soundtracks that fit nicely, but in my opinion, weren’t perfect. So I kept on trying out until I found something I liked. I guess the process is more a mixture of cutting the sequences I have and then when I get an idea of how the footage looks and what potential it keeps, I start to work on the music.
"Sometimes I start with something completely new, but oftentimes it’s good to listen to my voice memos and see what I’ve got there."
The most important thing is that the music supports the storytelling of the video. When there is a build-up to “that” special moment (in this video it would be reaching the top of the peak) it makes more sense to me to build up the music exactly to that point rather than start with an already big climax. The way the music and the story are built up largely influence the impact of the story. For example, a great story is when you start with nothing, no information about the main characters or their background story, and still, you start to care about their wellbeing. Or you start to sympathize with them, despite the fact that they are strangers or even fictional. One of the most intense series I watched was Breaking Bad. The way it builds up (up to season 3 it’s very slow, but after that..!) is great. Every character has its own very reprehensible character traits and you live their lives and choices.
To me, a great story is a story that is close to reality and isn’t always only beautiful and perfect. Sometimes you just don’t get a happy ending and this is what I like the most – when sometimes, not everything comes out the way you expect.
"Let life surprise you and let yourself surprise you – that’s what makes you feel alive!"
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