THE VIEWFINDERNEWSLETTER : ISSUE NO 22, DECEMBER 2000 [Changes] [New Website] [Dawn at the real new Millennium] [Kenya wildlife service] One of the problems of employing pretty young ladies is that there is a good chance of them leaving to get married. Juliet Owles is marrying Charles Nightingale on New Year’s Eve, and they will be living in Naivasha. This does not mean that she will be gone for ever, as there will inevitably be times when we need to call her back to come and help with our many crews. In fact, as an extension to our service, she will make herself available to accompany any crew that needs a production coordinator to accompany them. Juliet is a hard act to follow, but we hope we have found the answer. From January 2001, we will have Chania Paterson on board as the third full time member of the team. Chania is a Kenya girl, with a degree in hotel management and a good knowledge of East Africa. We promise a photograph soon. Yet more thanks are due to Piers Warren, who has given us a website linked to wildlife-film.com. Please check it out. We will update it quarterly with our newsletters, and possibly more often if there is any news that merits it. DAWN OF THE REAL NEW MILLENNIUM
Another of Juliet’s spectacular photographs from our digital camera - taken in the Maasai Mara in November. We take this opportunity to wish film makers all over the world a happy New Millennium - may the industry grow to new heights. Filming fees in National Parks have remained unchanged for many, many years. KWS are looking into changing them, despite the fact that the majority of stakeholders feel that now is not the time to increase fees. We are monitoring the situation closely, and pressing for as much notice as possible in the event that changes are agreed upon. We appreciate that many producers have already set their budgets for the year 2001. Smart cards are now in operation in Nairobi, Nakuru, Aberdares and Tsavo National Parks, and Amboseli will be next from 1st February. The cards can only be obtained at ‘Points of Issue’ at Nairobi, Nakuru, Tsavo East and Mombasa. Once obtained, they can be loaded with a monetary value at a ‘Point of Sale’ at Nairobi, Nakuru, Tsavo East, Aberdares, Mombasa, and Malindi. If you are not able to obtain the card personally, we can do it for you but need a colour (passport sized) photograph and original passport, and there is a form that you have to sign - we can get this to you via fax for signing. There are three categories of card - Kenya Citizen, Kenya Resident, and Non-Resident. Despite spending the first six and a half months of the year in a box, following our disastrous flood in December 1999, we have still been incredibly busy. During the year 2000, we have broken last year’s record by looking after 105 crews, and will be on the run until almost the day before Christmas. Clients have included several crews from the BBC (Warthogs, Lions, Mammals, Wild Africa Mountains, Coasts and Savannahs, Rhinos, Big Cat Diary), two Canadian IMAX crews at the same time, and other crews from UK, Germany, France, Uruguay, USA, Netherlands, Austria, South Africa, Australia and India. We have had crews all over Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and also one in ‘West Equatoria’. Yes, we too had to look at a map - it is the name given to the western area of Sudan, close to the borders of Central African Republic and Congo. Subjects have been as varied as ever, and some of the problems even more challenging than anyone would think possible. We told you that Echo had a female calf in early August. She is doing fine, and has survived the serious drought. The Born Free Foundation held a fund raising auction to name the calf, and the winner was British comedy actor Martin Clunes, who named her after his own daughter, Emily Kate. The rains have now come to Amboseli again, and Mt Kilimanjaro is once more covered in now. Having experienced frustrations in the matter of Special Passes from the Immigration Department, we finally cried "enough" and complained in very strong terms. This resulted in a top level meeting with the Principal Immigration Officer. The situation is that film makers coming to Kenya require both a business visa (US$50) AND a Special Pass (US$26) in order to work in the country. We do not consider that this is conducive to encouraging film makers, and are trying to get the authorities to abolish one or the other. COMMUNICATIONS In 14 years, we have only once had an ‘incident’ involving any kind of danger to a film crew. Over the years, however, there have been isolated incidents involving tourists being held up, articularly in isolated areas such as parts of Northern Kenya. We are in the process of joining the Safety and Communications Centre of the Kenya Tourism Federation, based at Kenya Wildlife Service HQ. This organisation monitors all tourist and visitor traffic 24 hours/day, and supplies up to date information on the security situation all over the country. They liaise with police and rescue services countrywide, and we feel that membership will benefit our clients. Our congratulations to Martyn Colbeck for winning the cinematography award for "Elephants of the Sand River", filmed in the Namibian desert. Martyn is an outstanding cameraman, and we consider this award to be well deserved. After the preliminary judges dismissed films from Africa as being "nothing new", it was somewhat surprising that the winner of no less than three Panda awards (including best of festival and delegates’ choice) was a film from Africa - The Great Dance. Which all goes to show that life is full of surprises, and no-one gets everything right all the time. |
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