“Well, the whole shoot in the Knysna forest and mountains was an incredible experience. Once we had shot all the essential scenes that we could control to some extent, we began with the unknown - tracking the spoor of what seemed to be 1 elephant with 65000 hectares of dense forest in front of us. No paths or roads to follow but simply brush marks on trees and branches and impressions in the forest bed that only the incredibly skilled trackers could read and follow. Hauling the Panasonic HD900 camera with 2 radio mics and headphones attached for days through this environment (safely) was very challenging and my one crew member followed with the tripod without once complaining – only smiling - in fact it was in a way quite exhilarating! The greater the challenge, the greater the reward - and that keeps you going!

It was hair-raising when we got to the river where we had set up a camera trap system to film the elephant crossing – the elephant had come through and ripped the camera box (SonyZ1 inside) off the tree we had secured it to, in spite of the disguise and covering it with ground fresh chillies. We thought it was gone and smashed, but when we got to the other side we found the box about 10m away with a big tusk hole through the back, but the camera was totally undamaged – almost a miracle and we were so relieved! No footage though because the elephant crossed at night.

And then after many days and miles following the spoor on foot and each day coming quite close, the magical moment finally happened and it was quite ironic. We had actually called the day off and were driving through the forest back to our other vehicle and all of a sudden, Wilfred, the one tracker who was driving, noticed something around the corner about 100m down the small overgrown road and yelled at me to get my camera out. I was out of the vehicle in a flash with camera rolling and there it was, slowly appearing through the trees. The first thing I could see were the tusks, and then the head appeared. In order not to risk making noise and losing time while getting the camera onto the tripod, I used a bean bag on the bonnet of the vehicle. Not as stable but under the circumstances, instinct kicks in and this was the right choice, because when after 4 minutes of filming, I did finally get onto the tripod, the click of the lock catch alerted the elephant and it disappeared back into the forest. We were all just utterly speechless and I had so much adrenaline rushing through me I actually got a bit of a headache – but, man it felt good! A moment in my life I will never forget!”  

3   What is your advice for newcomers to the industry?