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JULY 2009
THE LAST LIONESS - BRONWYN WATKINS (ANIMAL PLANET US/NAT IONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL INTERNATIONAL)
The most amazing thing about this story is that it is 100% true. Lady Liuwa is the last surviving lioness after poaching wiped out her kind. Her desperate loneliness drove her to seek the company of humans, and for the past 5 years, our cameraman Herbert Brauer has been documenting her story. In 2008, African Parks attempted to right the wrongs of our human past by returning lions to Liuwa, but after 3 years of planning, the first translocation ended in tragedy when the lion died from complications during sedation. In May this year they tried again, and two male lions were brought safely into Liuwa. Filming the event was incredibly difficult - Liuwa is surrounded by impassable marshes and treacherous sand roads, and the vehicle had to be floated in on a tiny tin barge. Conditions were tough, dusty, and 5 days in a camera broke. Yet despite these hardships, the move was a success. Lady Liuwa’s isolation was ended at last, and her story has become the most inspiring film of my career.
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JULY 2009
THE LAST LIONESS - BRONWYN WATKINS (ANIMAL PLANET US/NAT IONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL INTERNATIONAL)
The most amazing thing about this story is that it is 100% true. Lady Liuwa is the last surviving lioness after poaching wiped out her kind. Her desperate loneliness drove her to seek the company of humans, and for the past 5 years, our cameraman Herbert Brauer has been documenting her story. In 2008, African Parks attempted to right the wrongs of our human past by returning lions to Liuwa, but after 3 years of planning, the first translocation ended in tragedy when the lion died from complications during sedation. In May this year they tried again, and two male lions were brought safely into Liuwa. Filming the event was incredibly difficult - Liuwa is surrounded by impassable marshes and treacherous sand roads, and the vehicle had to be floated in on a tiny tin barge. Conditions were tough, dusty, and 5 days in a camera broke. Yet despite these hardships, the move was a success. Lady Liuwa’s isolation was ended at last, and her story has become the most inspiring film of my career.
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JULY 2009
PREDATOR BATTLEGROUND – NICOLE ANNEAR (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS INTERNATIONAL)
What I love about this film is that The Savuti comes alive and by doing so, has told its own story. Nathan had a very difficult time filming there as it involved long lens shooting which can be very restrictive. Half the time he couldn’t get across the channel which was almost 3 metres deep then. The flooding caused a lot of problems for the cameramen. I have a deep respect for them – they sit there for hours and don’t get anything and suddenly they film the most stunning behaviour. My favourites scenes in the film are the baboon and dog scene and the climax where the two rivals are hunting together. Its funny how people place their own stereotypes on animals – yet they constantly teach us new lessons. Some of the incredible behaviour we have on film has stumped and excited our experts. These animals tell their own stories – we just have to get out there to capture them. It has been an exceptionally challenging film to make and I have worked with a fantastic team. I have learned so much from our scriptwriter, Jonathan Grupper (USA) about how far one can push the boundaries of story telling and make the story even more exceptional and our editor, Este Nortje has managed to utterly capture this place with her editing skills.
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JULY 2009
PREDATOR BATTLEGROUND – NICOLE ANNEAR (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS INTERNATIONAL)
What I love about this film is that The Savuti comes alive and by doing so, has told its own story. Nathan had a very difficult time filming there as it involved long lens shooting which can be very restrictive. Half the time he couldn’t get across the channel which was almost 3 metres deep then. The flooding caused a lot of problems for the cameramen. I have a deep respect for them – they sit there for hours and don’t get anything and suddenly they film the most stunning behaviour. My favourites scenes in the film are the baboon and dog scene and the climax where the two rivals are hunting together. Its funny how people place their own stereotypes on animals – yet they constantly teach us new lessons. Some of the incredible behaviour we have on film has stumped and excited our experts. These animals tell their own stories – we just have to get out there to capture them. It has been an exceptionally challenging film to make and I have worked with a fantastic team. I have learned so much from our scriptwriter, Jonathan Grupper (USA) about how far one can push the boundaries of story telling and make the story even more exceptional and our editor, Este Nortje has managed to utterly capture this place with her editing skills.
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JULY 2009
MOTHER WARTHOG - BILL-JEAN PARKER (NGCI)
I loved the challenge of a prey species as our main character. From day one I felt I had to do right by the warthogs. Although it is a soft topic it still has to be an epic, classic, blue-chip one hour with all that that entails. So how do you find drama and still be true to warthog behaviour? We didn’t want a broad generic piece on warthogs, so it became a challenge for the camera teams as well. While we were wrestling in the edit suit with story ideas and possibilities for actual warthog characters, they were in the field trying to find them. And they did! That’s when the real story began, with footage of our warthog Mom informing the script. The journey to the end of the film was made more powerful when the actual Half Tusk emerged with her babies, a history and a story. When we found her, suddenly the narrative just flowed – and there was absolute integrity in the story that we were trying to portray.
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JULY 2009
MOTHER WARTHOG - BILL-JEAN PARKER (NGCI)
I loved the challenge of a prey species as our main character. From day one I felt I had to do right by the warthogs. Although it is a soft topic it still has to be an epic, classic, blue-chip one hour with all that that entails. So how do you find drama and still be true to warthog behaviour? We didn’t want a broad generic piece on warthogs, so it became a challenge for the camera teams as well. While we were wrestling in the edit suit with story ideas and possibilities for actual warthog characters, they were in the field trying to find them. And they did! That’s when the real story began, with footage of our warthog Mom informing the script. The journey to the end of the film was made more powerful when the actual Half Tusk emerged with her babies, a history and a story. When we found her, suddenly the narrative just flowed – and there was absolute integrity in the story that we were trying to portray.
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JULY 2009
CAUGHT IN THE ACT EPISODES 3 – 8 BEN HEWETT (NGCI)
This is a fascinating project because we are purposefully combining a range of SD from VHS and HDV to HD in one program so it is very exciting. It is opening doors to give Joe Bloggs a once in a lifetime opportunity – to get his footage and interviews broadcast around the world. It is very challenging. We must copy footage onto Digibeta and then combine it with state of the art graphics so that we can present a show that is easy, engaging and entertaining together. Behind the scenes is fulltime! Writing the program, script and editing is the fun part. The hard work is tracking the footage, arranging and travelling to interviews and sorting out the rights for the footage. Our producers are pushed to the limit as they keep all of these variables on track to very tight schedules. We are currently cutting episodes 3, 4 and 5 and have just had a fantastic response to episode 3 from Nat Geo and this has set a great standard for the rest of the episodes to follow. We also have a brand new totally interactive website where people can watch, upload and keep up to date with the show and the staff working on it. In fact the show is currently airing on DSTV (National Geographic) Channel 261; Sky TV and monthly updates on Radio 702.
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JULY 2009
CAUGHT IN THE ACT EPISODES 3 – 8 BEN HEWETT (NGCI)
This is a fascinating project because we are purposefully combining a range of SD from VHS and HDV to HD in one program so it is very exciting. It is opening doors to give Joe Bloggs a once in a lifetime opportunity – to get his footage and interviews broadcast around the world. It is very challenging. We must copy footage onto Digibeta and then combine it with state of the art graphics so that we can present a show that is easy, engaging and entertaining together. Behind the scenes is fulltime! Writing the program, script and editing is the fun part. The hard work is tracking the footage, arranging and travelling to interviews and sorting out the rights for the footage. Our producers are pushed to the limit as they keep all of these variables on track to very tight schedules. We are currently cutting episodes 3, 4 and 5 and have just had a fantastic response to episode 3 from Nat Geo and this has set a great standard for the rest of the episodes to follow. We also have a brand new totally interactive website where people can watch, upload and keep up to date with the show and the staff working on it. In fact the show is currently airing on DSTV (National Geographic) Channel 261; Sky TV and monthly updates on Radio 702.
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