Luke has a thing about taking pictures of every single digger, tractor, crane, basically anything yellow and to do with construction and to top that off he has a little teddy bear from Harrods, which he brings along with him on every shoot. Every person, animal or digger of interest, Luke will get them to pose with the teddy so he can show his little son Noah when he gets back home. Hmmmm. A slight distraction to the shoot, but each to their own!
I love aerial day!
Aerials are a big deal, it involves a lot of work behind the scenes as production managers, co-ordinators are having to deal with uncooporative customs agents and having to pay huge deposits so that the specialized aerial filming equipment can be imported and then exported out of the country. Dave the Cineflex operator then flies out to wherever we are with all his gear. A cineflex is basically a gyro stabilizer mount for the camera which is rigged to the front of the helicopter. It is controlled by a massive console unit, a bit bigger than a Playstation(!) which is operated by Dave. Whatever the pitch, speed, angle or vibration of the helicopter, Dave has full control and delivers a smooth and steady picture.
The helicopter was parked at the private hospital in Kampala. The company that runs it is owned by Simon Everett, who happens to be Rupert Everett’s (the actor) older brother.
We decided to divide our aerial day in three 2 hour stints.
The first 2 hours we flew up to the Rhino sanctuary about 150km north of Kampala. We took Luke up on this flight, dropped him off on the ground when we got there and filmed him from the air as he went looking for rhino’s with the head ranger. This shot would then tie in with the ground shots we had already filmed a few days before.
We flew back to the Hospital, parked up, had some lunch, met up the Marc and Nathan and organised our next shoot which involved filming Luke driving around the Ugandan countryside and through small towns and villages and filming aerials of Kampala and anything else that looked interesting from the air.
The last aerial shoot was during magic hour, just before sunset. We flew over lake Victoria towards Ngamba Island, filming all the chimps that we had met on our first day.
We got a great shot of the Alpha male chimp as was slightly distressed by the presence of the helicopter over his patch of land, he was going besrk, throwing rocks and branches, while all the other chimps cowered away from him.
This is it, the last shoot. Time has flown like you wouldn’t believe. I can still remember the first shoot in Malawi back in March!! Painfully remember Marc, Nathan and myself fretting about storylines, the pressure of working with a first time presenter and here we are ten months down the line, 5 programmes already edited and at Sky waiting for broadcast and all I can say is what an experience! It has got better and better the more time has gone by.
We have seen some amazing animals, people and places.
Wow!
Let’s hope this is a good one!
After our gruelling 17 hour or so flight from London, we finally made it to Costa Rica. Despite the bumpy ride, the lack of in-flight entertainment and not so great service, we all felt relieved and happy to be in San Jose, ready for the last adventure of them all. We have no idea what we are up against.
We stayed in some roadside hotel before making our way up the mountain, past Heredia to a dog sanctuary where Luke was to get his stripes before being able to operate in the country. I have to say some of the scenery was breathtaking.
We have all woken up with bed sores and stiff backs. The four of us had to share two rooms with bunkbeds. Ermmm!! I can’t remember the last time I slept in one of those. Not that I am one to complain all the time, but it wasn’t fun, they were damp and hard as nails. I had to get up in the middle of the night and sleep on the couch in the living room which was slightly softer.
I was glad when the day was over, Luke got his stripes and we headed off down south to Manuel Antonio, which lies on the Pacific Ocean near Queso. It was s great drive as Marc playing cracking tunes on his ipod all the way down there. The vibe is good. I think its going to be a cracking trip!
Filming a baby sloth being taught how to do its first ever poo is exhilarating enough, but when the person teaching it is Luke it makes for great TV!!
We had stayed the night at the Blue Monkey lodge in Manuel Antonio, about 10kms outside of the town of Queso. A lovely place with lots of character and great food!!
Refreshed from yesterday’s driving we headed off to Kids Saving The Rain forest, a small sanctuary helping poached and rescued sloths, monkeys, raccoons and birds.
Pia who is the resident vet at the sanctuary is adorable and was superb in front of camera. We did a great interview with her talking and showing us these two adorable baby sloths. One was a two toed sloth, it was tiny, not as hairy as the other more renowned three toed sloth, which was going through a bout of pneumonia,
Pia took the three toed sloth to do its weekly pee and poo by a little tree. She showed Luke how to perform the operation, which wasn’t as simple as just putting it there. It required dexterity and agility as the sloth grappled on to the hand while Pia maneuvered this way and then that way, doing a little dance, stimulating the sloths backside on the ground (I think) and just waiting for something to happen. It did, it peed. Unfortunately it didn’t do the number two, so she put it back in its little box and then took the two toed sloth, handed him to Luke and told him to have a go by the same tree.
Guffawing and abashed, Luke took to the challenge; went over to little tree, put the tiny little thing in his hand and did the merry little dance around the base of the tree, (I have just realized that what i have written can be seriously misconstrued!!!!)
To everyone’s delight the little sloth did a big poo, the size of a pebblestone, great stuff. Luke’s handy work did its magic. Pia was more ecstatic as it was the little sloths first time it had a done a poo at the sanctuary.
