Nike

It started with a phone call over the Easter holidays. A producer at Stefi Productions had contacted my colleague Konstantinos Kritikos and needed a budget for crew and equipment within three to four days, for an athletic event with very little information attached.

The project ran through four companies: Nike, a foreign advertising agency, a foreign production company and Stefi Productions in Greece, who brought the two of us in as line producers. The full picture never arrived all at once, and the event was only weeks away.

What began as crew and kit hire grew into line production. We hired the local team (drivers, gaffers, production assistants, make-up artists and a videographer), rented all the equipment and moved it from Athens to Litochoro. The director and most camera operators flew in with the foreign production company.

I also stepped into transport and scheduling, which wasn't part of the original plan, and we closed gaps as they opened, often on two or three hours' notice. Years of documentary work, where you end up doing every job on set, are what make that pace possible.

The relay was filmed in one 24-hour push along the old national road from Livadia to Litochoro. I had to leave Athens at short notice to deal with issues in Livadia, then rode the first half of the night in the convoy, five of us and the DIT in a minivan, following the runners.

Every problem that came up was solved on the road. Nike was our second job for Stefi Productions, after filming a Madrugada concert for a Norwegian documentary about the band, and Stefi brought us back again for the Coca-Cola HBC conference in 2025.