Simon Weyhe is a Copenhagen based filmmaker who owns and operates GoodWind Studio. As many great filmmakers do, Simon got his start shooting skateboard videos, embracing the rough-and-tumble element of a good shoot.

He’s a great resource for fantastic film from all over Europe (and beyond), shot with craft and utter expertise. As such, we asked Simon what his go-to gear is, how he prepares for a shoot where anything can happen, and his very first camera.

What was your first camera you shot on and why that one?

My first proper camera was a Sony VX1000. At that time it was the one everyone used for shooting skateboard videos and that´s why I started shooting.

What equipment do you now employ most on shoots?

Canon 1D C, Canon C300, Red Epic, Mōvi M15, Kessler crane and dolly, Zeiss and Canon glass and a skateboard.

Where do you learn/test new equipment?

It´s always been learning by doing and the interest to challenge yourself to do better and learn new technology.

You’re going on a shoot. Detail what goes into your ready-pack in terms of film equipment.

Tomorrow´s shoot is a viral Samsung campaign with professional skater Rune Glifberg. We are doing an interview and b-roll of him. I will try and pack light for this shoot, because we need to move around a lot and we don’t have too much time. So I’m going to pack a Canon 1D C, Mōvi m15, Redrock micro electronic follow focus, Canon 24-105, Canon 70-200, zoom recorder, Sennheiser microport, small hd dp7, Rode stereo mic x, monopod, Zacuto z-finder and a brand new skateboard with soft wheels, indy trucks and swiss ceramics bearings.
Next shoot will be a short film about Copenhagen. We are filming a world famous skateboarder riding through town, focusing on the architecture of Copenhagen spiced up with some skating. For this shoot i will bring out two Red Epics, Mōvi m15, Kessler crane and dolly, wireless focus and gimbal control; we will shoot most of it from a golf car rigged for filming, it´s going to pretty fun!

You’re going on a dream shoot. Detail what goes into your fantasy pack in terms of film equipment and where you are shooting.

Arri mini, Arri Amira, Mōvi m15, a set of Canon cinema primes, Kessler second shooter, Kessler stealth dolly, Kessler crane, an ATV the has been rebuild a little for filming from it, an extra cameraman and an assistant.

We would be heading north to Norway, then on to Greenland and to top it off we would head to Hawaii. We are doing a commercial/documentary for Fjälräven about 6 different outdoor people with an interesting story and a motivation to explore.

Take us through your work for Levi’s. What did you shoot with/on? What were some of the biggest technical challenge and achievements of the campaign?

The Levi’s job has been an absolute dream job to be part of: great location, great story line, interesting people. But it was also a big challenge to go to these far away places with all of our gear. We brought 1 Canon c300, 1 Sony fs700, 1 Canon 5D mark lll and one Canon 5 D mark ll, Kessler crane, Kessler dolly with motor, Syrp, Movi m10 and a bunch of lenses, hard drives, tripods and so on.

On this kind of shoot you never know what´s going to happen, so you will have to be prepared the whole time and ready to shoot, we were also trying to limit the amount of footage because we were out there for almost 5 weeks and we came home with 12 TB of footage that we had to cut down to 24 minutes. I think the editing part of the this job was the biggest challenge. Also the weather conditions in Bolivia were hard to deal with. We were living at the camp in huts wrapped in plastic and you could go from wearing a t-shirt to it snowing in less than an hour. We would get up super early to catch the sunrise, people waking up and so on and we would be staying late at the site to film people working at night, and end the night with loading footage. So it was really long days every day for 5 weeks, and my body was beat when I came home.