Client: Garmin
Agency: The Gren Group
Production: Let’s Film
Director: Cameron Karsten
Garmin GPSMAP9000 global product campaign.
Global launch campaign for Garmin’s marine navigation system. Five days at sea on the Mediterranean coast, a crew of 30, two boats, delivered for international markets.
The brief
Garmin was launching the GPSMAP 9000, their marine navigation system, across international markets. They needed a launch film and a photo campaign.
The product is complex and the audience runs from professional crews to private yacht owners. The film had to speak to both without turning into a product demo.
The challenge
Shooting on water is one of the hardest jobs in production. It is also one of the ones we like most. The boat is never still, and every setup takes longer than it would on land.
But the hard part of a job like this is not the camera. It is keeping 30 people fed, moved, briefed and in position across five days at sea, on two boats, with a shooting window that closes when the light goes. If the plan holds, you get the film. If it does not, you lose the day.
The GPSMAP9000 added another layer. A screen based product has to stay sharp and readable on camera, even under direct sunlight. The footage must show the product the way Garmin engineered it: precise, clear, easy to trust.
We ran the whole production, not just the shoot.
Ground logistics first. Vans and transport for crew and equipment on every shooting day, in and out of the port. Catering coordinated and delivered for 30 people, on two boats, at sea, on time. Call sheets that survived contact with the sea.
Then the units. The main boat carried the director, DoP, first AD, gaffer, makeup and hair, stylist and stylist assistant, plus the client and the agency. The support boat carried the camera assistants, the grip, the rigs and the supports we needed to shoot while moving. Two Red Komodo X bodies and a Ronin, built to work with the motion of the sea instead of fighting it.
We tracked the sun and built the shot list around the light. We gave each setup the time it needed.
The screens took a second layer of planning. A product built around a display has to stay sharp and readable on camera, even in direct sunlight. We managed the reflections, matched our exposure to the display, and lit it so the interface reads as cleanly on screen as it does on deck.
We shot two solutions rather than betting on one. First live, with flags, bouncers and diffusion. Then green screen with tracking markers, so post could drop in any interface content later. Garmin ended up with every version they needed, from one shoot.
The crew was excellent and everything landed where it was supposed to, when it was supposed to.
The result
A global campaign for a product the industry went on to rate best in class. The GPSMAP 9227, the flagship of the 9000 series, took an IBEX Innovation Award in 2023. Garmin has been named Manufacturer of the Year by the NMEA every year since 2015.
We gave that technology a face on the water, in the exact conditions it was built for.
Credits
Client: Garmin Agency: The Gren Group Director: Cameron Karsten Producer: Let’s Film First
