Keep calm and apple

‘Keep calm and carry on’ - Probably everyone has heard or seen that slogan. It was made by the British government in 1939, several months before the beginning of the Second World War to raise the morale of the British public in the aftermath of widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities. It was forgotten for a while and rediscovered in the year 2000. It has changed completely its meaning and some people even don’t know its roots. 

Nowadays it is used widely in all social media channels, it has got so many different versions so sometimes you can simply forget what was the original one. One of the newest versions created by my friend is: ‘Keep calm and apple’. Yeap! Exactly! An apple. Simple and tasty green apple. It’s so tempting to have a bite, to try a little, just a little. To try an adventure apple year journey. Probably journey of your life! 

When all that started, my Dream Year, I was still in Germany with a lot of ideas in my head. I knew that when I get to Trondheim I need to encourage people to do a video about dream year. To do something cool!

- We should do a video! To show people how cool this project is! Writing a blog or posting pictures on Instagram are nice ways of promoting it but showing it through a video will catch much more attention! – I said.

- That sounds great!

- But how we do it?

- Well first of all we need an acceptance of Peder that we can do it and get some cameras for that. Without proper equipment it will be impossible.

- What do you think about that Peder?

- Well I think it’s a good idea. So please present me what do you want to do and we can discuss it and make a decision. – Peder said.

We went to the conference room and started a brainstorm session: ‘How to make a nice, easy and funny video that will cost as little as possible?’ Of course I did some research before and showed to my team other cool videos, such as: ‘Where the hell is Matt?’, ‘The longest way 1.0’ or some others with people travelling around the globe. So definitely those were the examples that would help us to make a similar but different and unique video. After hours of intense discussion we decided that we will be throwing, passing, rolling or simply walking with an apple.

Why an apple? Well, it’s easy to carry on, you can buy it pretty much everywhere (at least this is what I thought at that time), it is light and has a nice, positive meaning. In the end it is a simple, green, healthy and tasty apple.

Later on we presented our idea to Peder and we got a GREEN light for this project. Company colors are green, apple is green, costs for the whole video won’t be high cause basically we will be filming ourselves in the places we are going to travel and work (so no extra costs, just an extra time we need to spend on that). So this is how our story begun. We were sent to the new locations with some apples, ekhm… I meant officially with one green apple, but the reality is slightly different:

- Our first shots in Trondheim were pretty much silly, amateur and some of them sooo weird. We still didn’t have our tripods so to make a proper and stable shot we were walking through the narrow streets with…. Ironing board! Yeap, lack of resources increases creativity! But you know, setting our ironing board on the bridge and watching out for cars passing by or pedestrians giving us a strange look… That’s definitely moments that will stay in our memory forever.

- In Akumal dreamers were trying to catch an apple while balancing on slippery rocks waist-deep in cold water in near complete darkness while exploring underground jungle caves.

- In Tayrona National Park in Colombia managing to save to the apple but losing a flip flop in the river was a real work dedicated sacrifice :)

-  In Xico (Mexico) running frantically after an apple rolling away at a surprisingly fast pace to the amusement of several curious onlookers or later on looking for some apples being lost in the jungle during video shooting.

- In Thailand in Kanchanaburi searching for a simple green apple took more than 3 hours and miles of walking and searching! There were absolutely no green apples in the stores or supermarkets so finally green apple was found in some bar with cocktails and smoothies. You should see the expression on the face of one girl when I was begging her to sell me just an apple and not a smoothie made from apples! Priceless! Later on that apple died in Tiger temple when some little tiger cub was playing with it. R.I.P. my dear apple.

- In Malaysia some apples were eaten by hungry and cunning monkeys.

- In Chile the customs and border control officers didn’t let the green apples go through the border.

- In Malacca 3 apples are being totally crashed when trying to threw an apple up into the air and catch it afterwards. Definitely lack of juggling or simply catching skills caused the death of few apples.

- In Peru 3 apples were being carried for 4 days in the backpack with a poncho (why the hell I wanted to carry a poncho with me for the whole Inca trail!?) to do a simple shot in Machu Picchu.

- In Thailand another apple was smashed by some elephants passing by.

- In Milford Sound in New Zealand an apple was struggling with strong wind and high waves whilst being filmed on the deck of the boat.

- Filming an apple in Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia took ages and you should know that running on the elevation of almost 4000 meters is not that easy! It’s like running half marathons all over again and again and again on the salt desert!

- Hiding on Easter Island behind Moai statues wasn’t that easy either.

- Getting totally soaked by heavy rain in Tulum is also not what you want.

- And many many others...

- However sometimes apples had nice time and nice happy ending. Being on the beach in Cartagena with beautiful Argentinian girls around, having a companionship of cute little kangaroos in Australia or lying on the amazing beach in Maldives… ehhh…. such a lovely time.

Definitely this year was and still is an amazing experience. Sometimes filming ourselves with apples was tough and challenging but for the most of the time so funny! It was completely new way of travelling. We were keeping all the time apple shots in our heads.

Working for a small company can give you so much joy, new experience, new responsibilities and tasks. Sometimes it’s difficult but definitely you can learn a lot and what’s important if you have a good idea you can do it! No bureaucracy, no strict hierarchy, no need to wait ages for response, just explain with details what you want to do and how to achieve it and you can get a GREEN light for your own project! And for those who are wondering how much that might cost. The total cost that company needed to spend for this video was insignificant! Impossible? Nothing is impossible if you really want :)

At the end I just want to add that this is not over! It’s just a beginning so yeap, there are more shots with green apple and new movie will appear soon! :) So keep calm and apple! :)