africa blog: June 2012

a cute gal was eating a burger at Art Caffe so i asked from the adjacent table
"How's the burger?" it turns out robyn's a film producer from new york city in
nairobi for some family business. next thing i know her sister rebecca in the UK
is calling me about a doco about some cyclists riding from london to kigali,
rwanda, to raise money for school kids in rwandato play sport. so...after i
finished my quick tour of rwanda, uganda, and ethiopia on another shoot,
i was back in ethiopia for a week in a chase van heading south to the border
shooting said cyclists. the cool part was my nephew theo flying in from LA thru
Frankfurt, Khartoum, addis and nairobi joined me flying back to addis and was
my 1st AC/Bcam operator for the cycle chase.
then, another gig popped up back in addis for the BBC also thru producer sis
so we shot that as well and now it appears we're headed back to rwanda and
uganda to follow the cyclists finish their journey! all because i asked
"How's the burger?". you just never know.
oh yeah, and now it looks we might be shooting another doco in sierra leone
in august or september thru another contact from robyn. so things at slingshot
are getting busy. and having theo along for it all is amazing fun. his visit to
kenya is shaping up to be a 4 country tour of africa as a working vacation.
perfect for him to earn a little bread for grad school. he shoves off back to
pasadena june 30th. i'll be in kigali til july 4th.

lots of pics this blog, so let's get to it. feeling very blessed as work is coming in
and travel is included. COTW is very happy with the divine kismet. and theo is
earning COTW status as well.

working girls at gahaya links in rwanda watch themselves in playback. the joy was palpable.

most had probably never had their picture taken.

rwanda genocide museum was quite sobering. that country has rebounded unbelievably!

landing in entebbe at dusk. then a 4 hour drive north to Jinja.

lake victoria in the horizon.

cool label honoring the Nile river.

nile river. flows north to egypt.

lorella explains the next shot in jinja at a paper bead factory. amazing art.

lots of interviews that trip.

the local school put on a quite show for us with dancing, singing, and drama. not on the tourist trail.

Lo boards the Slingshot corporate jet. well, not quite, but we're working on it!

the cup producer dwells on the whirlwind schedule. next stop nairobi, then addis ababa.

oh yeah, a quick drive thru NBO nat'l park with clients. the giraffes walked right past us!

in addis we shot footage of the women carrying fuel wood 10 miles down a mountain road. donkeys are
more expensive.

ethiopian coffee. the real deal.

another interview with mark priddy from full circle exchange. making a big difference through economic
empowerment.

theo boards the plane and we were surrounded by burqas.

no doubt her first time on a plane as these young girls are sold and shipped off to saudi arabia.

covert iphone shot inside the addis airport.

front running cyclist pete g. at the radison hotel in addis. rebecca brought new tires and tubes.

producer rebecca. yes, the shoot was heaps of fun.

becca and theo in front of the beer garden inn. little did i know when i was here in october that i would be in addis 2 more times in 9 months time.

pete found an abandoned puppy on the road that was near death. becs nursed it back to life.
we named it Lucky.

daily lunch in the van was peanut butter and honey sandwiches. courtesy of our producer. it was yummy.
a working lunch i suppose you could say.

theo rides in the back. we removed the back two benches for maximum shooting options.

theo sizes up a shot as the local villagers sign off on it.

Always good to let to show the producer what we're getting. more support from the peanut gallery.

pete devours some fresh strawberries. he was averaging 100 miles a day. on third world roads.

a one night stand at the ziway hotel. memorable to say the least!

demiss was our driver. when he mimicked us saying "copy that" we knew he was on board!

coca cola in ethiopian.

theo with rear hatch open. we made quite an efficient team!

shooting from the roof we saw a lot of beautiful country.

lunch break pounding carbs as pete checks his GPS. "demiss, how far is the border again????"

we drew quite a crowd, especially when rebecca, looking like a super model jumped on the roof!

yes, she was wearing a dress....

they thought we were nuts. they were right.

from ziway hotel to the aregash lodge. definitely an upgrade!

four beds to a hut. and great food. totally africa.

theo operates the Zoom on a boom with a "dead kitten" wind screen.

our fearless leader. she did a great job.

the colors are so vibrant.

becca on top of the van. her favorite perch.

watching playback.

the 400mm with the 2x extender made for some great long lens road shots.

theo was an immense help. "copy that, flying in!". he spoiled me.

pete and becca before we headed back to addis.

some countryside. lots of hills for the cyclists, with a headwind. ugh.

lots o love for the crew.

we stayed a second night at the aregash lodge. one of haile salassie old digs.

again, the colors. and a crowd every place we stopped.

a quick coke at the haile salassie resort was fortuitous. the other riders had left addis so we changed
our travel plans to catch them.

demiss was eager to move up from transpo dept to camera dept.

julian and pete w. take a short break for some fuel. julian's frame had cracked again.

pete w. tells us his story of the trip.

theo gets grimier as the day wears on.

A local welder fixed julian's aluminium frame. it lastes 1 hour on the road.

butchers all over ethiopia. we had some more tibs on our way back to addis.

a proper lunch. it was raining outside the terrace.

donkeys do most of the heavy lifting. even in the rain.

the BBC gig had us do a story on Sole Rebels shoe company. CEO bethlehem gets interviewed before she flies
off to denmark to interview the CEO of Lego.