Here we go...
...The first night in my tent was an absolute dream and I could not have slept better and as I awoke bright eyed at dawn i still smiled at the sheer size of my tent and the fact that I was sleeping on something that resembled a matress.
It was around 6.30am and had received a lovely wake up call from a lovely local woman who worked for the safari company that was part of the experience. For the next 3 weeks she acted as our housekeeper, something I did not expect. She was an amazing lady, kind, caring and with a large bright smile that was always there.
As I stepped out of my tent I quickly adjusted to my surroundings and had a look around, the main hub of the camp I could just see through the trees where a fire was burning away and breakfast was being prepared buy our lovely hopes. I was a happy man and keen to learn everything I could and get underneath the skin of Africa once again.
The next 9 days followed the same schedule with an early wake up call followed by breakfast around the fire, lectures in the morning, lunch, and then lectures in the afternoon. Once this was finished we had a couple of hours to spare before dinner and then time spent around the fire, which was known as the african television (every night it is a different channel!).
During these 9 days me and the other course participants were put through our paces in areas such as scriptwriting, shot selection, story development, pre-production and how to use a camera and to most importantly treat it like it was your girlfriend (Jurgen's term, not mine!). We were told to sleep with our cameras and to get to know them inside out, but to not get emotional with them. We were here to get the shots and make the best films we could. The pictures to the right and below give you an insight as to what the camp was like.
Some of the highlights of the first camp included analysing previous films, learning about how to get ideas commissioned (a massive plus for me) and having the constant battle with the local troop of monkeys so that we kept our lunch. The two that really stand out however were going for a canoe trip along the hippo channels in the delta and getting to know our teacher Jurgen who was honest, straightforward and pasisonate through and through. If I ever make it on television then it will be partly due to the man whose picture is below (who also looks a bit like Gerald Durrell).Now i was going to explain the 5 days of filming and 9 days of editing but due to the fact that we basically filmed everything we could have dreamed of (Leopard, Wild Dog, Elephant, Lion, Lioness hunting), plus I almost got charged by an elephant whilst filming. So I am going to extend this part of my blog to a 3rd and final part. Apologies, but I feel like I need to do the filming and editing part justice, especially as my learning curve went through the roof.
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