The Crimson Wing: Filmmaking takes flight
In the wilderness of Northern Tanzania, close to the plunging walls of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Natron is home to an incredible natural spectacle. Two million crimson-winged Lesser Flamingos gather here to hatch, breed, migrate and die, and capturing all this activity on film requires something more than a wing and a prayer.
Leander Ward on hovercraft.
The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos is a documentary by producers and co-directors Matthew Aeberhard and Leander Ward, who spent an entire year camped out on the shores of Lake Natron. Apple hardware and software made it possible to not only capture this rare phenomenon in all its drama and beauty, but also to complete the project within budget and to the high standard required.
Aeberhard and Ward both have over ten year’s experience working as cameramen in Africa, and as early as 2003 came up with the idea of capturing the Lesser Flamingos’ lifecycle on film. “We immediately felt it had big screen potential”, comments Ward. After several year’s research – and once March of the Penguins had established nature documentaries in cinemas – the duo approached Disney to secure funding.
The resulting film is tremendous, a unique and inspiring story that brings these vivid creatures to cinematic life. Little wonder that it’s been selected for a worldwide theatrical release throughout 2009 by Disneynature, a major new nature documentary series from Disney Studios.
To obtain the footage they needed, the two men planned to live by Lake Natron from October 2006 to October 2007. Right from the outset, they knew that they’d need reliable, rugged technology that would facilitate the transmission of rushes and field edits between Africa and London, not to mention a constant stream of communication with Disneynature in France.
“We’d worked with Apple hardware and Final Cut Pro before and felt instinctively it was what we needed”, says Ward. They built up a complete solution that encompassed both the rudimentary camp established on the eastern shore of the lake beneath the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, and the high-end post-production suite in Soho in London.
Using this long-distance review, the principal photography and the finishing process for Crimson Wing was able to run in tandem. “We were able to begin the London-based edit while we were still filming in Africa”, says Ward. “As a result, it was important for us to be able to communicate ideas with our editor quickly and effectively”.
With Ward and Aeberhard in Tanzania, and Nicholas Chaudeurge in London, each had clone hard drives of all the footage, which were updated as new footage came in. This meant relatively small project files could be sent back and forth over the Internet and media could be relinked in Final Cut Pro. “If we’d waited for DVDs to arrive, it would have taken weeks, as we were out in the middle of nowhere,” comments Ward. “It was great to have instant access to edits”.
Ward worked on assemblies in the field then forwarded them to Chaudeurge for the post-production editor’s input. Once Chaudeurge had completed draft sequences, he sent them back to Ward and Aeberhard for review.
Ward and Aeberhard also used iWeb to communicate ideas with other members of the team. For example, a specialist wildlife cameraman called Philip Lovel filmed an egg hatch sequence at a wildfowl sanctuary in Gloucestershire. The two producers were able to direct Lovel from the shores of Lake Natron, uploading sequences, stills and storyboards to iWeb for his reference. Ward says, “He was able to film the scene – which is one of the key scenes in the movie – in the style we had in mind without ever actually meeting us!”
