The GPOP Challenge: 1 Camera, 1 Day
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci
Late last year, the GoPro media team issued a department-wide, 24-hour challenge: use one HERO4 camera to create something we have never seen before. Dubbed the GPOP (GoPro Original Productions) Challenge, team members had only a few restrictions: no specialty mounts (except DIY inventions), no more than one camera, and only one day to shoot.
The stunning videos produced are a reminder that simple things can be powerful beyond expectation, and that every moment can be transformed into a story worth telling.
This week GoPro is honoring three of the best videos to come out of the GPOP Challenge. We spoke with each of the producers to get the full story behind the inspiration and execution.
GoPro: Grandma Flies a Drone, Produced by Tyler Johnson
Skate production artist Tyler Johnson has some serious GoPro history. Nearly 4 years ago, at just 17 years old, he was offered a job after GoPro creative director Brad Schmidt tripped over his DSLR tripod at a Colorado carnival. Schmidt asked to take a look at what Johnson was shooting (killer night lapse, FYI) and offered him a position at GoPro on the spot. Johnson is also the editor behind GoPro's most popular video ever Fireman Saves Kitten - which has more than 26 million views.
The GPOP assignment didn't come quite as easily, however. Johnson wrestled with a few ideas but none of them were the one. He knew he wanted something simple that everyone could relate to something that would spark an emotional reaction like that to the Fireman Saves Kitten video. Genius struck in the moment Johnson recognized that GoPro had not done a family oriented video that focused on older generations, and the idea for Grandma Flies a Drone was born.
For the shoot, Johnson worked with his roommate's Grandma, 91-year-old Els Van Boldrik, who lives nearby and spends her days gardening with her dog, Bill. To capture her outdoor routine, Johnson attached a spinny mount to a pair of headphones. The three-and-a-half-foot pole mount had a HERO4 camera on each end (for weight distribution) and spun 360 degrees to capture Van Boldrick's activities and the yard's landscaping. Johnson ended up loaning Grandma a beanie to wear during the shoot to help keep the bulky headphones and pole mount in place!
Johnson hopes that his video strikes a chord with viewers and encourages them to reach out and connect with their loved ones. I'd love to see more GoPro users include their families in their everyday documenting and capture more stories across generations.
GoPro: Retro Revolution, Produced by Ryan Truettner
Inspired by the cinematography in the snowboard film, Into the Mind, production artist Ryan Truettner set off to capture San Francisco in a revolutionary way (literally!). The first step in fulfilling his GPOP project was to DIY a revolving arm rig to capture a series of scenic shots from around the city. One trip to Home Depot and $25 later, Truettner built a light weight, compact rig that would allow him to capture the spinning, 360 degree video.
On shoot day, Truettner cruised the San Francisco streets on his bike, looking for iconic locations that had both an interesting foreground and cool background each essential in getting a shot in the desired revolving style. Video resolution 2.7K at 48fps was used exclusively because Truettner was working on a 1080 timeline and needed the extra resolution for resizing the image in post-production and extra frame rates to slow the footage down. I shot entirely in 48 fps and then slowed it down to 50 percent speed (24 fps) to have more frames for smoother stitching, he says of the editing process.
Truettner's favorite clip in his Retro Revolution video is of the river with the couple in the paddleboat. That was a total accident, he recalls. They happened to come out from under the bridge as I was filming. That moment has inspired Truettner to tackle another production using the revolving arm rig. I think the shot with the subjects came out the most interesting. I'd like to produce another video where there is something happening in every shot.
For more behind the scenes on the Retro Revolution video and snaps of Truettner's DIY arm rig, check out his Making Of blog post on Truettner.com.
GoPro: Pole Vaulting with Allison Stokke, Produced by Josh Currie
Team sports production artist Josh Currie had only 30 minutes with pole vault phenom Allison Stokke to capture his GPOP moment. In just a half-dozen vaults, Currie captured one of GoPro's top-performing YouTube videos ever, nabbing nearly 4 million views in its first week.
Currie affectionately describes the shoot as a scramble. After driving from San Francisco to Orange County, Currie learned that his time with Stokke would be cut short to just a half hour. I had no idea if what I was shooting was coming out because I didn't even have time to review the shots. He mounted the camera in different locations (on the mat, the block, the pole, the bar, among others) and shot Stokke vaulting in quick succession, hoping that he was getting content that looked amazing.
Currie chose to shoot in video resolutions of 960 at 100fps and 2.7K at 48fps in Medium to ensure that she could get lots of slow motion and also punch in the shots for close ups in post production. His special sauce moment came from the camera mounted to the end of the vault pole using the Roll Bar Mount. I didn't think it would look that cool. The way the pole fell, spun, and showed Allison falling on the mat. It was perfect.
Producer selfies - Josh Currie, Ryan Truettner and Tyler Johnson
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
31/08/2025
Legrand | AV, a global specialist and industry leader in audiovisual solutions, returns to CEDIA Expo 2025, taking place Sept. 4-6 in Denver, with a powerful li...
31/08/2025
Global media technology company Backlight will unveil new capabilities in its Iconik, Wildmoka, and Zype product lines at IBC2025 (booth #1.D09), September 12 1...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
The GPOP Challenge: 1 Camera, 1 Day 
