JTI · Iberia Annual Convention

Challenge

Nanook Agency was producing IBERIA CORE, JTI Iberia’s annual convention: nearly five hundred people over three days at Porto’s Super Bock Arena. They brought us in for two jobs at once. First, video and photography coverage of the event for the client. Second, the agency’s own film, showing the production from the inside, from build to derig.

The brief came with conditions. JTI operates under heavy scrutiny: no product or brand references on camera, no business data, no close-ups of employees without express consent. You shoot knowing exactly what cannot appear in frame.

What we did

Before travelling we shot the plenary content in Madrid with our crew there: green-screen pieces at the client’s offices and the tribute film for one of the executives, all approved and locked before rehearsals began.

In Porto we arrived two days ahead of the guests, with the arena still empty, to film the build: 1,790 metres of truss, 89 motors, a central cube with four walls and synchronised 4K screens. We stayed through the derig.

The shooting challenge mirrored the event itself: one space that had to become three different venues in a single day. Morning plenary, with more than thirty-six speakers and the CEO descending six metres on a motorised swing; cocktails once three walls lifted; dinner with table mapping; and the party when the last wall went up. Ninety minutes between transitions. None of it gets a second take.

Four of us travelled: two camera operators and two photographers, working from morning to the early hours on plenary and gala days.

Result

The convention ended on the Friday. The event film — cut, scored with client-approved music and clean of anything breaching the restrictions — was delivered the following Thursday, along with a short cut of the plenary tribute. The long archive version with the full talks and the 500 photographs followed.

It is the most-watched film on our channel: over 4,600 plays on Vimeo. The convention closed as the company’s best-rated annual event and earned Eventsost’s official sustainable event certification.

Fact file

• Client: JTI Iberia · IBERIA CORE annual convention
• Agency: Nanook Agency (Madrid)
• Production company: On White (Seville)
• Venue: Super Bock Arena, Porto (Portugal)
• Dates: 8–10 March 2023, filming from the build onwards
• Attendees: around 500
• Crew in Porto: 2 camera operators + 2 photographers
• Services: multi-camera coverage, event photography, green-screen pieces, agency case film, post-production and music
• Year: 2023