My Africa

In Northern Kenya, the futures of wildlife and people are intertwined. Stand in the midst of a thundering wildebeest migration, witness a lioness snatch her prey—and meet a community dedicated to saving Africa’s wildlife in My Africa. The film allows you to experience Northern Kenya in 360 degrees and celebrate the relationship between wild animals that roam freely and the communities that protect them. I am proud to have helped film My Africa with Passion Pictures, Vision 3 and Deep VR for Conservation International. The film is an official selection of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

A 360° experience by Conservation International Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o and presented in stunning virtual reality, “My Africa” transports viewers to an elephant sanctuary in Kenya, where a community is reknitting the bonds that have long enabled people and wildlife to coexist.

As the first VR production team to film a complete 360° documentary in the Masaai Mara In the form of Exodus: The Great Migration, We were commissioned to film the Masai leg of this global piece,
after the invaluable experience we gained from the first trip we hit the ground running and our film crew managed to capture the worlds first kill by a lioness in full 8k Stereoscopic beauty, as well as providing 360° capable drone services & crossing footage of the yearly great migration spectacle.
This piece was a huge success winning a Jackson hole science media award and becoming an official selection for the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018.

Filming 360° in truly wild landscapes is a completely different game, having to predict the paths of wildlife and get cameras in position ahead of time was extremely challenging & exponentially rewarding,
fortunately this time round we had, for the most part, scrapped the older GoPro 360° arrays and started capturing with the latest 360 cameras available at the time, making use of the Kandao Obsidian R and Insta360 Pro made this trip just that much more efficient, not having to worry about syncing up to 24 cameras or individual GoPros over heating, the technology development over the course of a year really helped us get to the work that really matters, without worrying about equipment failure which was the main obstacle while filming the Great Migration the previous year.

walking silently along the banks of the Mara river as not to spook the massive single minded herds, while hoping not to disturb any predators with the same idea was a nerve-wracking experience to say the least, but all said and done on review of the footage, it was all was worth it, even the dysentry.

“My Africa is a transporting film. The nine-minute video narrated by Lupita Nyong’o takes viewers inside the life of an elephant keeper in Kenya. The effects in this film range from cute (a baby elephant licking the camera) to terrifying (a wildebeest stampede right out of The Lion King). It’s education with a twist, which is one of VR’s big advantages.”
OBSERVER

“Stereoscopic 360 cinematography, striking in its dimensionality… a world so complete in its presence you feel a deep, moving empathy for the people and their struggle to live in harmony with nature.”
FORBES

Behind the scenes: Bonus

Not just with VR & 360° productions, but with filming of any kind the script changes when your subject is a wild animal, Lions are the complete masters of their domain so when they stumbled upon one of our Array rigs, they naturally assumed ownership, watch as we lose & try recover said camera.

The Lioness can be seen chewing our lenses, dismantling our Audio hardware as well as giving the whole rig a good sanding down through the dense bush.

 

Behind the scenes footage of Telmo dos Reis placing the GoPro omni camera in front of a lion for the opening shot of ‘My Africa’. Filmed in the Masai Mara Kenya. Filmed with Deep VR.