With the embargo lifted and the TV show now life on air I can share my behind the scenes of this amazing adventure in Sweden. My friend and outdoor buddy Stijn van Oss / TheMakerSessions was asked to assemble a team of creative, ambitious, adventurous and hard working craftsmen to set the stage of a TV show called Love Raft. Big thanks Stijn for the invite! Love Raft is a brainchild of VincentTV.

Memories … here’s a big shout out to the ‘building’ team @Stijn @Raoul @Victor for an insane 3 weeks together.

With Stijn in the lead on set design we created multiple camps in the wild. Actually they were more like glampings with fluffy duvets, a fully stocked beverage box, chopped wood for the campfire and a rotating gourmet menu. We had a blasts building it … over and over again. Victor was in charge of the custom build signature wooden table using local logs, this would bring the casts together for dinner. For the last night we even re-designed it and sank in a live cooking station. It’s all about the details and keeping our TV buddies over the moon…

I loved the collaboration with the production team and TV crew. As it take a village to raise children … it certainly takes a massive crew to pull off a big TV production. All working crazy hours to deliver the best possible result. As a creative you wanna work the beauty shots at best light, meaning early mornings and end of the day. During the peak of summer in Sweden the days a looooong (and the sleep short…).

I ended up wearing a two creative hats. Along side the build I got commissioned to photography the show. Working along side the TV crew to capture the Love Raft essence and behind the scenes. As always … TV gets prio, but understanding production I know when and where to step in to capture the still images. Years ago I wrote a blog posts about photography on a film sets. A good read if you wanna know more about the To do’s and not To do’s.

I love many things about Sweden. The lush nature and soooo much space! In The Netherlands we have 17,5mln inhabitants, Sweden has 10mln. And Sweden is 14 times bigger. You can do the maths about personal space. Their iconic red houses are spread around the country, most of them without a fence around it. Occasionally we would pas a Lopis, which is heaven for a collector like myself. These second hand shops could have the coolest antique items or authentically worn outdoor stuff. We had our best conversations in the sauna, which you’ll find everywhere. Going the full monty; chop wood, light fire, heat the place, steam up, strip down, sweat, chat and ultimately jump in a random cold lake. You can hear it we had a real blast.

Without an amazing casts there is no show. Big thanks to Sharon, Lucienne Maxime, Denise, Fleur, Maurits, Timo, Semm, Humphrey and Mathijs for sharing the adventure with us. I trully enjoyed to stand on a sideline and see you guys creating a unique experience together. You guys had such a great time. Lot’s happened! If you wanna find out what… watch the series. It not up to me to fill in the blanks, but below are a few trailer to get a feel of the story.

Till the next!

Wk.