It’s a wrap! We did it. 26 episodes, 52 days of shooting, close to 700 pages of script, over 1600 camera set ups and over 10 hours of television content. The days were long, the weeks were long, the nights were short and the freedom to create was abundant. Working here in Kenya has been a life changing experience for me. The crew worked hard, the cast gave it their all and the producers made sure we finished on time.
I was lucky to have a top-notch and very talented DoP, Marius Van Graan, by my side the whole way through. Together we managed to make this extremely low budget TV series look good. And the crew and cast backed us up all the way. Dedication and professionalism from the majority of those involved help make it happen. And I am proud to have been a part of it. The first 13 episodes have their pictures locked and the rough cuts of the last 13 episodes are being done as I write. I am planning on bringing home at least the first 4 episodes on DVD that are finished products with sound design and titles.
Our last shot was last night at around midnight. We started shooting at 8 a.m. and pushed on through to the end. We had an interesting night scene where one of the characters gets hit by a car and run over. Talk about testing one’s ability to think filmicly - wow. Earlier in the week we had to shoot a character falling down some stairs. Sounds okay right. Well, there aren’t any stunt people here or stunt coordinators and suddenly I became the stunt coordinator and the actor became the stunt person. Welcome to shooting in Kenya.
All of these experiences have brought me to the forefront of getting the job done. Having to make things go right regardless of the level of resources is quite demanding and enlightening. For instance, directing action sequences requires the skill of an editor, the vision of a dance choreographer, the safety-awareness of a stunt coordinator and the mind-strength and people skills of a team coach. All of that in addition to working with the DOP and the actors. And to top it all off, it’s a blast!
I am very much looking forward to returning home. Back to my world of coaching actors, acting and directing. Kenya is a wonderful part of the world and even though I know I will return here, home will always be home.
Thanks for following my blog. I apologize for having to miss last week. I had to shoot all day for a new series they are starting up here. We shot 8 pages for a short edit that introduces the characters and the style of the show.
See you all when I get back.
Neil
The TV series, "Higher Learning", is being sponsored by Coca Cola and, more specifically, Sprite. As part of the promotion, they refinished this basketball court and painted it. We, of course, were obliged to shoot several scenes there.
Here are the grips setting up the crane on a track. We got some really great shots here.
This is the camera we used. Believe it or not it is a stills camera with a video function. These Canon cameras are revolutionizing the film and TV industries. This model is the 7D which can shoot in PAL (the format they use here in Africa and in Europe). The 5D Mark II is for North America using the NTSC format. Because of the size and weight of these high quality, high definition cameras the speed at which you can change a set up is phenomenal. It's one of the reasons we were able to get so many pages done in a day. Even the American Cinematographer magazine has done a 4 or 5 page write up on these babies. And the cost? With lenses, only around 6-10 G's. Far from the days of spending 100 G's!
Kabash (sound) and Marius (DOP) getting waiting for lighting. This was the location for the Dean of Students Office.
Signing off from Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.
Neil
