National Geographic
Johann Vorster (Vossie) explores the continent with National Geographic
A collaboration had Vossie travel across Africa, meeting up with National Geographic explorers, telling the African story the African way. The campaign was focussed on some important unsung heroes and their quest to conserve the natural world. Vossie wanted to place the characters in their natural environments and for each human to share the screen with their wild animal counterparts. This was a huge challenge and time was very limited for this campaign.
Beauty abounds in every direction one points a camera.
As a technical crew of only 2, they set out and travelled all across Africa on an adventure of a lifetime. Rwanda, Madagascar, Kenya and more. Each location had it’s specific travel day and 2 shoot days allocated which meant that every second was as precious as the subjects.
01. PLAY - RWANDA
02. PLAY - CROWND EAGLE
On our magnificent continent, beauty abounds in every direction one points a camera and of course, at a certain time of day, the bush can be the most magical place imaginable. Vossie scheduled his daily shot lists and itinerary to capitalising on golden hour, shooting early mornings and late afternoons and filling the in-between times with travel. Things happen and change so fast, especially when dealing with wildlife, so he had to be agile and nimble, constantly adjusting scenarios and constructing scenes to fit in with what nature decided came next. Mindfulness is a skill afforded to so few, the ability to live in this very present moment and let reality unfold. The gift is having the ability to capture that moment and transfer it’s magnificence to the heart of another.
Having spent a huge amount of time in the Central, East and South African regions of the continent working with local crew, Vossie has woven a network of incredible contacts and has become a very special resource too. He’s currently back in Botswana on another National Geographic project where his primary role is that of Mentor and Director & Cinematographer, training and up-skilling local crew. He’s been invited back to Kenya towards the end of the year to host a 3 week training course with a non-profit organisation called USAID and looks forward to growing the industry on the continent in any way he can.
With the whole Cake team having a wealth of knowledge and experience around creating content for Africa and producing commercials all over the continent, it’s a wonderful opportunity to have when we’ve received so richly that we can give back.
Behind the Scenes of National Geographic
