Finally we are off. Hope all the development, research and prep work is going to pay off. What do I expect? We are going to film with animals … and Luke, so I guess I have to expect the unexpected.
Can’t wait to get the show on the road.
We arrived in Lilongwe a day before Luke. We are ready to go, but twiddling our thumbs because the talent is not here. Nerve racking, just want get started.
Luke hurry up!
Luke arrived, fresh as a daisy. Well, a tad wilting after a 23 hours trip from Cranborne. But he is in the zone and wanted to film straight away. So finally, we are rolling, feels great!
First day of shooting with Luke. I must admit, I was a bit nervous. At the end of the day, Luke is a vet from Dorset and has never done anything like this before. We don’t just follow him and film what he does as a vet, he also presents to camera. It’s great to see how comfortable he handles Adam sticking the camera in his face. Absolutey no worries, Luke is a real natural.
Had a great day in the lush Malawian bush. Real privilege to meet Andrea, the researcher who is tracking the release baboons in the wild on a daily basis. She is so dedicated, living out here on her own in the bush for up to six months. Really admire that.
After just one week of filming the roles are already clearly defined as you can see in the picture (last pic on page 2). Walking back to the car I grabbed Adams camera that he was lugging around all day. In the meantime, Luke has a leisurely stroll back to the car before getting driven back to the lodge. Being a ‘talent’ is tough!
Sharing a room with Nathan. He is a warm shower boy – don’t want to go into details here.
Loving the heat and I think, combined with cold showers, it’s a real winner. Sleep is a bit of an issue for pretty much everyone at the moment except Nathan. He can sleep anywhere at any point during the day or night. I haven’t seen it, but I bet he can sleep standing up.
Great thing about this job is that you never stop learning. To follow Nathan’s lesson theme, here is one: When producing an animal programme, never sleep on top of an animal shelter! … unless you are Nathan.
… beats me. I have been living in the UK for ten years now, but I still am in the dark about this English tradition.
Went out with JP and Clare from Lumbadive to track down some hawksbill turtles. I went down with an underwater camera, because Adam hasn’t been diving before. Bit of pressure there as we desperately need a shot of Luke diving with a turtle. Went down twice in two different locations, but no luck. We had one more chance late in the afternoon at a dive side with strong currents. Luckily we found two turtles and I hope I got the shot with Luke in it!
I am really looking forward to the India shoot. I am not worried at all as I am sure we will come across great stories in this enchanting, chaotic and beautiful country with it’s eccentric and engaging people. Adam gave me a book last year called Shantaram and it’s still top of my favourites list. For me, it’s a must-read and the author, Gregory David Roberts, sums up the character of India’s people perfectly for me when he wrote:
“… There is so much Italian in Indians, and so much Indian in Italians. They are both people of the Madonna – they demand a Goddess, even if the religion does not provide one. Every man in both countries is a singer when he is happy; and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop corner .For them food is music inside the body and music is food inside the heart. The language of India and the language Italy , they make every man a poet and make something beautiful from every banality. These are nations where love –amore, pyaar- makes a cavalier of a Borsalino on a street corner, and makes a princess of a peasant girl , if only for the second that her eyes meet yours.”
Brilliant, love it!
On top of that, my wife, Julia, is half Indian, half English. Well, she is very much English as she grew up in the UK and went to India for the first time when she was 24. But nevertheless, I have a somewhat special connection to the country now and admire how there is somehow an invisible, unwritten and unspoken structure to what looks to the foreign eye like utter chaos.
India doesn’t disappoint and Luke is in the zone. Today, Susie, an Aussie on a spiritual holiday, turned up at the shelter and told Luke about an injured donkey she saw at the other side of the town. It all went really quickly. Susie and Luke jumped in a tuk tuk while Adam grabbed another one to film them whizzing across town to find the donkey. Nathan and I scrambled the kit together, packed our car and tried to catch up with them. It took us quite a while to navigate through the traffic pandemonium of tuk tuks, cows and people, but eventually I saw Adam. He was hanging off the side of a tuk tuk with one hand, while in the other hand holding the huge Sony 700 HD camera pointing it at the other three-wheeler. The next minute he was hanging outside Susie and Luke’s tuk tuk filming them having a chat while weaving through the Indian traffic. Adam was in and out of tuk tuks, stopping and directing traffic while shooting at the same time. He was on fire and loving it! No doubt, the footage is going to be great.
