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Race Dog
Before I get into the story I'd like to start off by thanking Anton White from Direct Photographic for his assistance with lighting equipment. He gave us an unbeatable deal on lights and equipment rentals. I'd also like to punt Peter Lambert for camera rentals. This is the second time I've used Peter and he's always given me great deals. Not only that but he also made a huge effort to get me a specific lens on the day that we left for the event. The sponsors were also very accomidating with interviews, KTM gave us the scoop on the new KTM Oryx R and Leatt allowed video cameras into their research and development facilities for the first time. Lastly, the event organisers, specifically Alexander Nel and Wayne Harrison. These two worked rediculasly hard to make this event successful.
One of my interests that I've been developing a lot over the past couple of years has been film making. Over the past six months things seem to have really been taking off, which has pros and cons. The pros generally involve lots of interesting projects and new contacts. The cons are generally that I don't have enough time to get to everything that I'd like to. Busy times to say the least!
I was involved with Amageza from the first qualifier for the 2012 event. I came along as an independant film maker just to see what would be involved with filming such an event. The Amageza rally is of specific interest to me due to my interests in motorcycling and Rally raid events, such as the Dakar. I filmed some content at the 2 Western Cape qualifers and soon figured out 2 things: filming such an event was extremely difficult; the event organisers seemed to be as ambitious as I tend to be when it comes to things they are passionate about.
During the qualifiers there was a variety of people involved in the media team for Amageza. It wasn't quite clear to me (and perhaps the event organisers) how this team would fit together. However closer to the event things began to become clearer. The event organisers asked me to put together a team and take on the project. We'd attempt to put together a feature length sports documentary aimed at DVD and one or two edits for TV. Alexander Nel and Wayne Harrison were to be the producers, I'd attempt take on the role of director / DP and I'd roped in Frants Combrink, Moses Jacobs and Enock Bugaye to assist with camera, lighting and audio duties.
A couple of days before the event myself, Enock and Moses headed of to Sutherland, which would be the home base for the event. We arrived late on the Wednesday, which gave as Thursday to get organised before the event kicked off on the Friday. The Thursday we filmed some stuff around town, to make sure everyone was comfortable and that all the equipment was working correctly. Unfortunately the rain started to come down at around lunch time, so we were stuck in doors. We used the time productively to shoot a short horror movie, which seemed appropriate with the thunder outside. As some of the event marshals began to trickle in that evening, rumours began to circulate that a full on movie production was happening upstairs in the hostels. In actual fact it was just a few bored cinephiles with access to more equipment / toys than they usually have access to.
Many of the competitors also began to arrive that evening, as some of them still had to complete a qualifier before the event started. The qualifer happened in the morning, which we hadn't intended to film, however I did film to start line and a sunrise timelapse. The rain the previous day made the route quite trecherous for the riders and 2 waist deep river crossings. Some of the photographers where on the route to capture the action.
That afternoon the Monster Energy arrived and began to set up some of their equipment. As did KTM. We filmed the scruitineering in the later morning. This is when we really got to meet some of the competitors. We interviewed a few of them and tried to get some pre event thoughts. Darryl Curtis was riding in this years Amageza, and was always comfortable with interviews. Darryl completed this years Dakar rally and also has great success in many extreme enduros, such as the Roof of Africa. We also caught up with Neil Ringdahl, from Peru, who complete the Dos Serteos Rally the previous year. Other riders of notice included the only female rider, who also happened to be riding the biggest / heaviest bike at the rally. These Rallys are often aimed more at the lighter bikes, so piloting the larger machine showed real talent. As it turned out Rynet would become a bit of a celebrity amongst the other competitors and crew, and she would be in for a rather eventful rally. Both Monster and KTM also had riders in the event.
After scruitineering we had the rider parade in town. Each rider was announced to the crowd, and a bit of a spectical was made. This made for good pre event video footage. Unfortunately one of the competitors had an accident on the way from the bivouac to the parade and broke his collar bone. Luckily this would prove to be the most serious injury during the event. We also had the 2 gyrocopters land on the main road in town for the parade. Obviously the road was closed for this. These gyrocopters were at our disposal for aerial video footage.
After the parade came the rider and crew briefings. Riders were given the road books, a series of navigation instructions for the following days route. Navigation plays a large role in any Rally raid event. After this we schedules some more interviews in our makeshift studio in one of the auditoriums at the school where the bivouac was based. We finished these at about 22:00. Afterwhich we had to copy video to laptops / external backups. My forth crew member had had a specifically bad day travelling to the event and was only able to arrive late that night. All in all we got to bed about midnight.
The following day started at 04:00. The field crew needed to be on the rally special before the riders were allowed to start at sunrise. Some of the crew travelled on a few 4x4's. I was on my bike. Riding some of the special in the dark was quite interesting. But this is why we allowed pleantly of time. That day we had one video camera in the sky and three on the ground at various positions, which allowed us to cover more of the event and spots where we though we might get the most interesting footage. Unfortunately one of the 4x4's ended up in the wrong spot, which means we ended up missing some river crossing action. However we did get some interesting footage. I shot mostly at 60p to give me the option of slow motion.
We opted to shoot with HDSLRs, such as the Canon 1D4 and the 5D2 as we were aiming for a more cinematic look. I was hoping for narrow DOF as I was hoping to give it a more holywood look than what you get with most sports broadcasts. For me the content has to be artistically shot as well as covering the story of the event. Although I'm be no means a professional, I come from a DP background so the style in which the video is shot is vitally important.
Wen got back to te bivouac around lunch time. About an hour ahead of the majority of the riders. It is incredably difficult to keep pace with the front runners which such a small team. We had some cameras set up at the finish line, ready to catch the finish and some interviews. I was also on editing duty. Both these tasks took up the rest of the afternoon. It was vitally important that we captured the last riders coming in after dark. One of these riders was Rynet, our female rider. It was important for us to not only capture the front runners but also other riders. Amageza, much like Dakar, is all about the amatuer riders as well as the professionals.
Once again it was dinner and briefings. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do more interviews after the briefings, but that gave us an oppertunity to catch up with other admin, such as offloading helmet cameras from competitors.
It was another late night and early morning. The plan for day 2 was similar to day 1. I had to ride quite a technical route to get to a camera point. I had a large camera bag on my back and an even larger fluid head tripod on my front, which made the route especially difficult, but we were rewarded with an amazing view and an awesome spot to capture the mornings carnage. I was lucky enough to be at the top of a technical incline were at least half of the field came off their bikes. Great action. Also most riders stopped at the top for a breather, some for repairs, so I had an oppertunity to get an update on camera. Our position at the top of a hill also allowed me to make the most of the long zoom I had and the beautiful fluid head. One of the many riders to come acrop on that incline was Rynet. She unfortunately ended up with a hole in her sump and oil all over the place. It seemed sure that her Amageza was over. However over the course of about an hour she was able to repair it and carry on. Made for great drama for the camera!
It seems like the majority of the riders made a navigation error which lead to them missing Moses, set up ready to capture a trecherous decline. Luckily he was able to spot this and he moved to check point 2 to captre the riders at the end of the special. Enock was travelling with the medical / recovery team but also had some navigational errors. Frants, got us some great aerial footage from the gyrocopters.
Unfortunately the action for the day only allowed us to return to the bivouac around 15:00. This meant that we missed many of the riders getting back. Also some, such as Darryl Curtis, were not able to stay for the prize givings, so we weren't able to catch up then. I think we may need to track some people down for some post event interviews.
Ultimately the video production had many ups and downs, but we managed to capture a lot of footage and should be able to put together some great packages. There is still quite a lot of post event admin to sort out. We still need to get some POV / helmet cam footage from some competitors, set up some interviews and organise a commentator to fill in narrative blanks. Obviously lots of post production still required, but watch the space for the end products!
It was great to work with my 3 man team: Fanjan, Enock and Moses. And also the various event organisers and marshals.
Thanks to all!
Jeff Davies
One of my interests that I've been developing a lot over the past couple of years has been film making. Over the past six months things seem to have really been taking off, which has pros and cons. The pros generally involve lots of interesting projects and new contacts. The cons are generally that I don't have enough time to get to everything that I'd like to. Busy times to say the least!
I was involved with Amageza from the first qualifier for the 2012 event. I came along as an independant film maker just to see what would be involved with filming such an event. The Amageza rally is of specific interest to me due to my interests in motorcycling and Rally raid events, such as the Dakar. I filmed some content at the 2 Western Cape qualifers and soon figured out 2 things: filming such an event was extremely difficult; the event organisers seemed to be as ambitious as I tend to be when it comes to things they are passionate about.
During the qualifiers there was a variety of people involved in the media team for Amageza. It wasn't quite clear to me (and perhaps the event organisers) how this team would fit together. However closer to the event things began to become clearer. The event organisers asked me to put together a team and take on the project. We'd attempt to put together a feature length sports documentary aimed at DVD and one or two edits for TV. Alexander Nel and Wayne Harrison were to be the producers, I'd attempt take on the role of director / DP and I'd roped in Frants Combrink, Moses Jacobs and Enock Bugaye to assist with camera, lighting and audio duties.
A couple of days before the event myself, Enock and Moses headed of to Sutherland, which would be the home base for the event. We arrived late on the Wednesday, which gave as Thursday to get organised before the event kicked off on the Friday. The Thursday we filmed some stuff around town, to make sure everyone was comfortable and that all the equipment was working correctly. Unfortunately the rain started to come down at around lunch time, so we were stuck in doors. We used the time productively to shoot a short horror movie, which seemed appropriate with the thunder outside. As some of the event marshals began to trickle in that evening, rumours began to circulate that a full on movie production was happening upstairs in the hostels. In actual fact it was just a few bored cinephiles with access to more equipment / toys than they usually have access to.
Many of the competitors also began to arrive that evening, as some of them still had to complete a qualifier before the event started. The qualifer happened in the morning, which we hadn't intended to film, however I did film to start line and a sunrise timelapse. The rain the previous day made the route quite trecherous for the riders and 2 waist deep river crossings. Some of the photographers where on the route to capture the action.
That afternoon the Monster Energy arrived and began to set up some of their equipment. As did KTM. We filmed the scruitineering in the later morning. This is when we really got to meet some of the competitors. We interviewed a few of them and tried to get some pre event thoughts. Darryl Curtis was riding in this years Amageza, and was always comfortable with interviews. Darryl completed this years Dakar rally and also has great success in many extreme enduros, such as the Roof of Africa. We also caught up with Neil Ringdahl, from Peru, who complete the Dos Serteos Rally the previous year. Other riders of notice included the only female rider, who also happened to be riding the biggest / heaviest bike at the rally. These Rallys are often aimed more at the lighter bikes, so piloting the larger machine showed real talent. As it turned out Rynet would become a bit of a celebrity amongst the other competitors and crew, and she would be in for a rather eventful rally. Both Monster and KTM also had riders in the event.
After scruitineering we had the rider parade in town. Each rider was announced to the crowd, and a bit of a spectical was made. This made for good pre event video footage. Unfortunately one of the competitors had an accident on the way from the bivouac to the parade and broke his collar bone. Luckily this would prove to be the most serious injury during the event. We also had the 2 gyrocopters land on the main road in town for the parade. Obviously the road was closed for this. These gyrocopters were at our disposal for aerial video footage.
After the parade came the rider and crew briefings. Riders were given the road books, a series of navigation instructions for the following days route. Navigation plays a large role in any Rally raid event. After this we schedules some more interviews in our makeshift studio in one of the auditoriums at the school where the bivouac was based. We finished these at about 22:00. Afterwhich we had to copy video to laptops / external backups. My forth crew member had had a specifically bad day travelling to the event and was only able to arrive late that night. All in all we got to bed about midnight.
The following day started at 04:00. The field crew needed to be on the rally special before the riders were allowed to start at sunrise. Some of the crew travelled on a few 4x4's. I was on my bike. Riding some of the special in the dark was quite interesting. But this is why we allowed pleantly of time. That day we had one video camera in the sky and three on the ground at various positions, which allowed us to cover more of the event and spots where we though we might get the most interesting footage. Unfortunately one of the 4x4's ended up in the wrong spot, which means we ended up missing some river crossing action. However we did get some interesting footage. I shot mostly at 60p to give me the option of slow motion.
We opted to shoot with HDSLRs, such as the Canon 1D4 and the 5D2 as we were aiming for a more cinematic look. I was hoping for narrow DOF as I was hoping to give it a more holywood look than what you get with most sports broadcasts. For me the content has to be artistically shot as well as covering the story of the event. Although I'm be no means a professional, I come from a DP background so the style in which the video is shot is vitally important.
Wen got back to te bivouac around lunch time. About an hour ahead of the majority of the riders. It is incredably difficult to keep pace with the front runners which such a small team. We had some cameras set up at the finish line, ready to catch the finish and some interviews. I was also on editing duty. Both these tasks took up the rest of the afternoon. It was vitally important that we captured the last riders coming in after dark. One of these riders was Rynet, our female rider. It was important for us to not only capture the front runners but also other riders. Amageza, much like Dakar, is all about the amatuer riders as well as the professionals.
Once again it was dinner and briefings. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do more interviews after the briefings, but that gave us an oppertunity to catch up with other admin, such as offloading helmet cameras from competitors.
It was another late night and early morning. The plan for day 2 was similar to day 1. I had to ride quite a technical route to get to a camera point. I had a large camera bag on my back and an even larger fluid head tripod on my front, which made the route especially difficult, but we were rewarded with an amazing view and an awesome spot to capture the mornings carnage. I was lucky enough to be at the top of a technical incline were at least half of the field came off their bikes. Great action. Also most riders stopped at the top for a breather, some for repairs, so I had an oppertunity to get an update on camera. Our position at the top of a hill also allowed me to make the most of the long zoom I had and the beautiful fluid head. One of the many riders to come acrop on that incline was Rynet. She unfortunately ended up with a hole in her sump and oil all over the place. It seemed sure that her Amageza was over. However over the course of about an hour she was able to repair it and carry on. Made for great drama for the camera!
It seems like the majority of the riders made a navigation error which lead to them missing Moses, set up ready to capture a trecherous decline. Luckily he was able to spot this and he moved to check point 2 to captre the riders at the end of the special. Enock was travelling with the medical / recovery team but also had some navigational errors. Frants, got us some great aerial footage from the gyrocopters.
Unfortunately the action for the day only allowed us to return to the bivouac around 15:00. This meant that we missed many of the riders getting back. Also some, such as Darryl Curtis, were not able to stay for the prize givings, so we weren't able to catch up then. I think we may need to track some people down for some post event interviews.
Ultimately the video production had many ups and downs, but we managed to capture a lot of footage and should be able to put together some great packages. There is still quite a lot of post event admin to sort out. We still need to get some POV / helmet cam footage from some competitors, set up some interviews and organise a commentator to fill in narrative blanks. Obviously lots of post production still required, but watch the space for the end products!
It was great to work with my 3 man team: Fanjan, Enock and Moses. And also the various event organisers and marshals.
Thanks to all!
Jeff Davies
