Morning in Beijing

Despite a gruelling two weeks of intense filming, myself and producer James Levelle had a morning off in Beijing before flying back to London; so we decided to get up early and visit the Forbidden Palace and experience it from a tourists perspective.
These photos are just quick snaps, i never intended to show them off, quite the opposite; but a little bit of inspiration, a nip and tuck in photoshop, a white border and all of a sudden they took on a different meaning.

Old Africa Video

Some shots I did during the African nations Cup in Burkina Faso in 1998 (was it that long ago!!) and while filming a football documentary in Ghana in 2000.

India - Tigers

We went to Ranthambhore Park, about 350kms south west of Delhi in India to film some tigers for a documentary we are making on the tiger skin trade.


Scary, yet what a majestic animal.


Paw prints.





Cooling down in a creek.


We followed this tiger for about 10 minutes as she marked her territory along the road.





Slumdog kids showing off.











Lackeys at work at Delhi station


I don't know how they do it, all for a few rupees!


Dog waiting for the express train to Delhi











Rajhastani's have some of the most fascinating photogenic faces


The boys!


Gypsy woman and child.





Gypsy painter.











First class from Delhi to Ranthambhore


Filming with the Ranthambhore Park Guards


Group picture


Filming the guards act a poaching arrest.


Filming a panorama of Ranthambhore park. Stunning.


Beggar


Washing tea cups using dirt as washing up powder.

Zambia

Filming in Kafue National Park, roughly 250km west of Lusaka, I got the chance to direct an aerial shoot for our upcoming series of Vet Adventures. It was an amazing experience, I was so wrapped up in what I was seeing that I forgot to take any pictures of the wilder beasts, the herds of buffalo or the hippo's.


There aren't any private helicopters in Zambia so we had to hire one from Botswana, which is approx a 5-6 hour flight to Kafue National Park. The next day we filmed aerials over Lusaka, the capital.
We paid for about 15 hours of flying time, so after you deduct flying to and from Botswana and from Kafue to Lusaka we had a total of 2 and a half hours left for filming, not much, but absolutely worth it, the results were stunning. I felt like I was watching BBC's Planet Earth.
The ball mount on the front of the helicopter is a Cineflex mount, that's where the camera sits and it provides motion stabilization for rock solid aerial shots. The operator sits in the back and controls the camera movement on a couple of joysticks and lots of buttons. There is a picture of Dave operating further down.


The land has recently been burnt by poachers who then place traps for the escaping animals.


Flying over the bush.


The helicopter could only go so high with all the equipment and three people in it which unfortunately meant that the elephants got a little bit stressed by the noise, so we tried to stay as far away and be as quick as possible.


Really tiny, tiny elephants!



As we drove to the airstrip to head back to Lusaka, this young elephant decided to charge towards the vehicle. This photo was actually taken by Luke Gamble who was sitting in the back of the jeep.


A wide of Kafue National Park. Its twice the size of Belgium and it has only 250 people to look after all the wildlife!


Implala in the distance


Dave the Cineflex operator and all his gear spread over the whole back seat of the chopper. Pretty amazing equipment. It requires more dexterity than operating a playstation console.


Right to left: Annie (Pilot), Dave (Cineflex Operator), Myself (Myself)


Impala running away from the helicopter as we make a quick landing to clean the lens on the cineflex (the camera mount which is on the front of the helicopter)


Filming at the David Shephard Elephant Orphanage Project, a great charity based in the heart of the park. They look after orphaned elephants which they eventually release back into the wild.


Absolutely adorable as one elephant scratches its bum on the other one's back.


Smelling my feet


Filming a shot of Lusaka from the top of The Intercontinental Hotel


Albino boy


Albino boy and his two brothers

Engines on from Adam Docker on Vimeo.

About to fly to Kafue National Park in a very small plane. Luke, Brendan the Irish Pilot, Myself, Nathan, Nick and James.
Before landing we hit an air pocket and we all banged our heads on the ceiling. Luckily we were all fine, but not a very pleasant experience!


Safe and sound on the ground.

The Law - Television Satellite

The story behind this video was we had filmed "Don't Stop, Believe" the day before in the bands rehearsal rooms and despite the hard days work we all met up the next morning bright and early. I had a basic outline of what to film but we were minus the drummer Marty. He hadn't shown up. The record co and the rest of the band got on their mobiles calling everyone they knew, hospitals, police stations and even ex girlfriends (!!) but all to no avail!
Panic set in as we headed to the first location, Law Hill.

The Law Hill really is a hill, it takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon hlāw (modern Scots law) meaning a (grave-)mound or hill, it has 360' views of Dundee and at the top is a TV tower. It ticked all the boxes

We couldn't wait all day for Marty and it was decided to make changes to the original script and turn it to our advantage. The song is about a "friend" who as soon as he gets his Sky box sacrifices his social life for TV and disappears for months and in this instance thought it was quite apt as Marty had similarly put his social life ahead of the film shoot as well; so we all agreed to make the video a tribute to Marty and that he he was to run up the Law hill and around Dundee as a penance.

Eventually at about 2pm, Marty was found alive. The girls from the record company went to pick him up. He had gone to a party, passed out, had woken up in a strangers bed and had completely forgotten about the video shoot. I went to the bottom of the hill to meet him and told him what was in store for him. The look on his face said it all, I felt so sorry for him, but it was all for a good cause!

Marty dutifully ran all the way up the hill. The poor guy, he was so hungover I was afraid he was going to pass out! As soon as we had finished filming he got down from the tower and vomited. It was all too much for him. I think the rest of the guys had had their revenge!

It was great fun making this video and I thought despite everything, Marty was a real star!!