Interviews

How did African Adventure 3D come about ?

BS: I am not a wildlife filmmaker, but I really enjoyed making Wild Safari 3D in South Africa a couple of years ago. Wild Safari 3D was not your traditional wildlife film, but rather a more visceral, immersive film experience. The storyline was very basic. We spent the duration of the film driving around in a 4x4 looking for the Big Five. Yet, moviegoers really went for it and seemed to enjoy the strong sense of being there made possible by the size of the screen and the 3D.

When I decided to embark on another African safari film, I searched for a topic and a location that would enable me to retain the same immersive quality of the first film and at the same time tell a more fully developed story. It all fell into place when world renowned wildlife filmmaker, Tim Liversedge accepted not only to be my producing partner, but to also be the main focus of the film.

Why the Okavango Delta ?

BS: I first selected the destination before I even knew Tim was going to be involved. The Okavango Delta is one of the most beautiful wildlife reserves on Earth. The landscapes are spectacular and the wildlife is extremely varied and abundant. I knew Tim as a fellow large format filmmaker and I had talked to him a couple of times at IMAX conventions. Tim lives in Botswana at the edge of the delta and I decided to give him a call to ask his advice on how to go about filming in that part of the world. It did not take me long to realize that he is the foremost expert on the region. At the end of the first phone call, Tim invited me to pay him a visit. He would act as my location scout.

On the very first day, Tim showed me a couple hours of videotape from his 20 years of filming in the Okavango; rough, unedited behind-the-scenes footage of him working in the delta. The material looked so exciting to me. Remember, I have no real experience as a wildlife filmmaker and I had no idea as to what it really takes to capture animal behavior on film in a remote and inaccessible place like the Okavango Delta. I though I was going to see long sequences of Tim sitting around waiting for things to happen. Not at all! Tim looked and behaved like Indiana Jones with a camera. Over the years he has developed all sorts of amazing shooting platforms and filming techniques. But most importantly, I came to realize that Tim was a filmmaker with a mission.

This life-long environmentalist gave up his career as a game warden, to become a filmmaker. In the 1980s, he felt an urgent need to share his deep knowledge and passion for the Okavango with international audiences. Southern Africa is extremely arid, and thirsty countries in the region periodically eye the Okavango as a wasted source of much needed water. On several occasions, plans to divert the waters of the Okavango were successfully derailed by world conservation organizations. Tim's films played an important role by putting this corner of paradise on the map and getting the international community to act.

How did you approach making this film ?

BS: Most wildlife documentaries we see on TV focus on animal behavior. It was my ambition to use the experience of the giant screen to immerse the audience in the environment, bring them face-to-face with the animals, and to try to capture the excitement of observing these extraordinary creatures at very close range, and, in their own habitat.

How close could you get to the animals ?

BS: We got incredibly close to the animals. At first, Tim was not sure we would be able to pull it off. Our crew was too big, our equipment too noisy. He feared the animals would react aggressively or simply run. For the first couple of weeks it was really tough, but slowly and surely we were able to get better and better footage.

In the end, we got 3 lion sequences, two of the most in your face 3D live action sequences thanks to the cooperation of a majestic herd of giant African elephants, a great Pels fishing owl sequence and a wide array of other wildlife moments.

How did the animals react to your filming them ?

BS: Despite all the equipment we had, the animals recognized us as a non-threatening presence. This was truly amazing considering our unorthodox behavior in the field.

When you go on a photo safari in the wild, you are supposed to sit down, keep quiet and stay still. Well, we stood up most of the time, operating the equipment. We moved around constantly and talked a lot.

The typical shot went like this: We'd get into position and using his laser pointer, Scott Hoffman (AC) would measure the distance between the animals and the camera. He'd shout the reading to Sean (DP) who could barely hear us since he had his head under the camera hood. Sean would then mentally calculate the inter-axial distance and shout the offset back to Wayne Baker (AC) who'd set up the camera at the proper distance. While this went on I'd shout at everyone to hurry up lest we miss the shot. Not exactly the typical behavior of wildlife filmmakers who often sit still for hours waiting for the perfect shot. The animals must have sensed we were trying to achieve the impossible. They left us alone!

How difficult was it to film in the Okavango ?

BS: Very ! On several occasions, I thought we would not make it. Thanks to Tim's connections we were granted the permission to set-up a filming camp in the heart of the delta, but it remained a formidable challenge to move around. Logistics was a nightmare. There were also some serious safety issues. There are wild and potentially dangerous animals everywhere: Lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles. We shot in the winter so we did not have to worry too much about black mambas, boomslang, or other highly venomous snakes.

How different was this production from your first 3D wildlife film, Wild Safari 3D ?

The Okavango Delta is a vast flood plain, which means that almost all of the film takes place on or near the water. Water can bring a fantastic level of visual possibilities to a location. Reflections add mystery and symmetry to the stark locations, and bring very diverse forms of life together.

What particular challenges did you and the crew face filming in the Okavango delta ?

Everything had to be able to work on the water, usually in small, flat boats that could get in and out of swampy locations. When shooting from boats or Road Rangers the compact 3D camera was mounted to a head that keeps the camera level and stabile by correcting on pan, tilt, roll, and slide axis thousands of times a second. With such a camera mount we could crane out from a moving vehicle as it crossed rivers and bumpy stretches of road to get our shots, knowing that the audience would ultimately see a steady moving image on a giant screen. To grab wildlife shots in 3D on a zoom rig we had to be able to accurately pull focus on very long lenses while also changing convergence. Convergence is a 3D control that allows the viewer to more comfortably view stereo images. The challenge came from figuring all that out on the fly as focus, f-stop, pan, tilt and focal length changed constantly.

The elephant sequences are among the most in-your-face 3D sequences ever shot with wild animals, were you really that close to the animals or can you cheat with long lenses ?

For timid or extremely dangerous wildlife I built a special zooming 3D rig that would magnify the image ten times on the screen. However, that 'in-your-face' quality can only come from getting very close to the animals with very wide-angle lenses. The 15/70mm 3D process can recreate reality on a one-two-one basis, which means that if you want that animal to look like its a meter from your face in the theater, you want the camera to be a meter away from it on location.

In the delta water is everywhere, does the humidity affect the filming ?

We were pretty lucky to be shooting film and not a form of tape, which can be much more vulnerable to humidity. Equipment had to be very carefully cleaned all the times and optics had to be completely free of any dirt, condensation or water drops at all times. In a 2D movie you can get away with a lot of dirt or water on the lenses, but when there are two lenses that are essentially recreating what our eyes see in life that dirt or moisture will literally feel as it is it lodged in your eyeballs!

When filming on such a distant location how often do you ship the negative to the lab ? Are you able to screen the footage during the course of the production ?

We camped and shot in a very remote areas that we had to fly into using small chartered aircraft, so we were not optimistic about being able to get dailies shipped back to us in any form. We made several film shipments to RPG Productions in Burbank, California. Rick Gordon, a large format veteran, supervised the processing, telecine, and printing of the film, giving us essential feedback on how things were looking.