Bigbro's African Safari

14/15th? You're going to miss Bamboo Ben at the Tonga Hut on the 8th with the new Bamboo Ben mug!

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-12-06 23:01 ]

I know! Somehow I have managed to be out of town this year on almost all of these lovely Tonga Hut events, damn!

Since I have a day off, I have ample time to post some impressions from yesterday's shooting day. We had a couple of scenes in the local Laingsburg township, which in comparison to the previous page's Capetown hood is an almost quaint place!:

The scenes were of the "They're poor, but they are happy!" type. Sure.

Oh, how colorful!:

Here they are, those happy ghetto kids:

Flowering vine growing on barbed wire. All the buildings were government built, brick, standard size huts.

A green oasis.

Art imitating life: A hut decorated as the local trader's store.

Really cool toy truck for the kids. Alas, a prop, I am afraid... :)

Truly, you are a legend in your own time, BBT. Bravo. Now don't get eaten by anything outside the cage you're in, or inside the cage you're out of, as your fans are looking forward to your triumpant return to the local watering hole.

BTW, I have that Shelley Mann "Daktari" album (made quite an effort to track it down, in fact), and kitch as it may be, it's great listening (whatever made Clarence's "cross-eyed" sound). May I also suggest for your on-the-road thematic downloading pleasure, Stuart Copland's "The Rhythmatist", and John Barry's "Zulu" (splendid, sweeping stuff for epic landscapes).

Also, damn fine gaffing on that earlier interior set post. And uh, nice product placement, too...

Happy Aloha-lidays, Cheers as best you can, and stay the hell alive,
SOK

Bigbrotiki, this is Ojaitimo, over

Bigbrotiki, do you copy over?

What is your status, over?

static, hiss,crackle..................

LOL

Well, as usual, great shopping pictures...you are so good at capturing life. Hmmmm, wonder why those irons aren't selling well.

Thanks, folks. Now we are coming to the end of my swinging safari. It was fun, but I am glad I will be homeward bound soon. Not glad that a more than 24 hour flight in coach lies between me and LA, though. Wish they would have some kind of cryogenics/deep freeze sleep technology for that. Maybe Trader Jim can hand me a MaiTai at Heathrow, like the support team for a long distance runner..rummer?

Speaking of drinking, here is my key grip, Ryan, at the thatched roof hotel bar in Laingsburg:

My favorite new drink I was introduced to in South Africa was the "Rock Shandy": Equal parts of Schweppes lemon and clear soda, ice...and a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters, to taste. Great refreshing drink, not too sweet like a soda pop usually is, kinda like a cocktail without the alcohol (...well Angostura has 45%, but you'd have to drink a lot of Rock Shandys to get a buzz). Try it kids, it's delish.

Here are some locally made spirits, I was very impressed by that barbed wire bottle, what an appropriate packaging concept for Africa.

And now some random impressions found in the African desert:

The sands of time

Got stuck

African sunset

Sunset skies over the crew

Desert dust at the end of a shooting day. What does my fortune read?

Tribal art with actresses and Kinoflo lighting (...the preferred light for my Tiki mug photos!)

And finally on the road to Knysna:

Hut architecture at rest stop.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

To be saved by us from getting run over by trucks!

No salvation for these birds: Ostrich transport in Oudshoorn.

Asking the locals for the way to Knysna.

Aaaah, two nights and a day at Knysna Elephant park, what a nice final perk after two weeks of breathing desert dust:

Green views.

Tribal art greeted you when entering the rooms.

Carved head board

Cool elephant art

This is what they USED to do with elephants: The Duke of Edinburgh and his hunting party.

The result: Ivory trinkets

But the real treat was this:
We got in kind of late, and I was told that the elephants were just being put away for the night. I was bummed, but I quickly shot a photo of the last ones outside, including the baby with which we were gonna shoot the "poor lil' elephant baby orphaned by poachers" scenes the next day. They were kind of far away:

So here are the elephants' night quarters:

They got a nice dinner of fresh green branches:

Here is the upstairs lobby of the park's lodge, (with my room door open):

And here we have the REVERSE ANGLE from that lobby !!!!!:

We were sleeping WITH the elephants! I have never heard or seen of this concept. What an incredibly elating experience to live with the animals!
I felt like I fell into the lap of tourist luxury. Here is the view from my room door:

...and another room with a view:

What a wonder-full surprise at the end of a hard shoot.

The next day:

Baby having breakfast

The toddler is being led to the set while mom has to stay behind

This lil' guy was very feisty and curious...

....chasing the Steadicam and rubbing shoulders with crew and equipment.

Here are the big guys stepping on the set for the poacher scenes

Bad bad poachers!

The last set up of the last shooting day: Dawn of the elephants!:

The gang at the local watering hole:

Then, waking up today: Good morning elephants!

Here they are, going to work for the tourist dolla in the morning light:

Bye bye elephants. Bye bye ...AFRICA! (fade up dramatic Les Baxter score)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2007-12-13 08:47 ]

Amazing!

Have a safe journey home!

WOW!!! What a great experience...to sleep right there with the "real stars" of the movie. I love that headboard!!! Thanks for sharing such great pictures again. :)

I enjoyed every post. Thanks for sharing. have a safe trip back to LA

Yeah - and don't forget your trunks.

Makes me want to listen to the "Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini.

SVENTARI!! :)

Have a safe trip back Sven!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

What a great adventure. Have a safe travel home Bigbrotiki.

I think this may have been one of the best threads on TC ever.

Yes, GROG enjoyed this thread immensley. Thanks bigbro.

Yes, I agree I read this post last night and enjoyed it allot.
Loved the pictures and the story Mahalo.

One of my favs (slightly altered), welcome back to the right way to drive.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-12-15 22:39 ]

Thanks guys, I'm back home now. I just enjoy to share images and visuals I like with others, and use them to tell a story. That's what I do with my books, and that's what I do as a cinematographer.

If I find time this holiday season, I might feel inclined to open a new thread like the above, about my trip to Havana earlier this year. It won't be "live" (there was almost 0 internet connectivity there), but I shot a bunch of nice material, of which only a small percentage will end up in Pete Moruzzi's upcoming book.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2007-12-15 16:47 ]

Glad you are back home safe....would love to see a Havana thread. :)

Yes, I have seen some of the Havana photos and I do think they would make another excellent travel thread as well.

Why is this not on the Cool & Current list?

This thread has been thoroughly entertaining, educational, and inspirational! Thanks BigBro for taking us all on this journey with you! I look forward to seeing those Havana pictures as well.

Now all you GMs click the little button and vote to put this on the C&C list where it belongs!

Yeah, I'm not sure why it hasn't been Cool and Current. Can't wait to see your Cuba pictorial Big Bro. My friend John has a number of short videos of street musicians on You Tube. Here is my favorite with the old man playing mandolin as good as it gets.
Quinteto Puntarena live in Varadero, Cuba September 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiAKkXt1yZM

Absolutely awesome thread, great reading Sven! With your skills in researching, writing and photography you should write a book! :lol: :lol: :D

I still dont know what was wrong with the cars on the road, looked like the correct side to me :wink:

Big Sven's safari hut?

-Duke

Wow! The stuff you dig up, Duke...
Why is that African warrior next to the camera wearing an American Indian head dress? :)
I wonder if the play set initially had little miniature toys to go with it...

Here is one of my favorite possessions, a 1936 Cigarette card collector's album about the German colonies, love the embossed cover design:

Germany tried its hand at being a colonial power kinda late, and from the late 1800s to the early 1900s had grabbed a couple of states in Africa and the South Seas. Of course, when Germany got its pee pee whacked after loosing WW1, that pie was cut up among the victors. This book bemoans that fact and idealizes the "glorious" chapter of German colonialism, very much in the nationalist spirit of the emerging Nazi party in the 1930s.

First, in accordance to this thread, some pages from the African colonies:

In the South Seas, we "owned" the territory of Micronesia, like Palau:

... and in Melanesia, the Bismarck archipelago:

Not to forget, in Polynesia, SAMOA:

These little color pictures came in your pack of cigarettes, and you could send in 1.- Reichsmark to get one of many themed albums that the different series fitted in as illustrations. This particular series had 270 cards to collect, and my album is complete. Here is the back of a card:

Never seen what a pack of "Eckstein Nr.5" cigarettes looks like, unfortunately, there are no ads in the album.

And last not least (from today's time), I found this postcard at the Capetown airport. This one's for you, Ernie! :D :

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2007-12-21 18:11 ]

Now THAT's too funny!

Dang! Just stumbled upon this lovely photo. If I'd only known that THIS could have been my camera assistant!:

:lol:

My life has been just too busy lately. I took the time to finally read this incredible thread. I do agree, one of the best on TC ever.

Sven, great travels, great documentation, great photos. Made my Saturday. Thanks so much for sharing!

Wow what a adventure! whats happening with the production now?

It is being edited in Cologne, then sometime in February I will go to Munich to do the color correction at Bavaria Studios, and then it will air at a not-yet-set date this year on Germany's ARD Channel 1.

Awesome photos! If you need a white female "victim" or "captive" I'm available. :)

Cool Bigbro, so do you still have that bug infested carving or did it get kept by customs? I think we need a proof of life photo.

But of of course! It is hanging on my "Africa Wall" in my kitchen now. The colors are a little muted because before I hung it on a WOODPANELED wall I doused it in termite spray, that has to dry. Took the varnish of the wall were it touches, so that should do them in...

The big plate above it is by Marc Bellaire, the yellow wall ceramic below is from post war Germany

The mask looks beautiful next to your book...it was meant to be the companion. :)

Hmmm.... Could be a photoshop trick and how do you explain this Bigbro?

Like it needs explaining..... :roll:

[ Edited by: GROG 2008-01-02 21:13 ]

I just started reading this thread, and after reading of your visits to lodges, and seeing the pics of you filming the lion, I took a break to check some news. The first headline I saw on bbc.com was: LIONS DEVOUR MAN AT SA GAME LODGE.
Oh my God! I clicked on it and the story was slow to load. In the meantime, I had all sorts of dire visions involving our esteemed author of tiki tomes. Finally, the story loaded...
**
A South African man has been killed and eaten by lions at a game lodge where he worked 150km (90 miles) west of Johannesburg, police say.
Samuel Boosen, 36, was attacked after entering the enclosure on Tuesday where an estimated nine lions were kept.
"Only his spine and skull remained"...
**
Whew! Well, I mean, not for Mr. Boosen, of course, but... Anyway, now I see you're back and I can make my way through the rest of this excellent thread with peace of mind.

My friend is going to Cape Town in South Africa and wanted to know if there was any Tiki to be found there.
I thought of your safari post Sven and just read through it again looking for Tiki in Cape Town.
Great post but it looks like Shapiro's Curio shop is it.

Bump