Drilled to tell real stories
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Sunday March 12, 2023 06:00
This is so because as part of the build up to the film premiere, National Geographic Society together with RED Digital Cinema and Botswana Wild Bird Trust hosted a three-day storytelling Workshop in Maun for 18 local storytellers.
The workshop was aimed at training local filmmakers on telling impactful stories and using the RED professional cinema cameras. Facilitators included representatives from the National Geographic and RED from the United States of America. The 18 selected storytellers were drilled on how best they share stories about nature and reclaiming the African narrative stories.
As part of that training, the cohort was sent to Moremi Game Reserve on Sunday where they shot and produced a short docu-film titled Kgetsi ya Tsie. According to the instructors, this was meant to give them the practical part of the workshop. Participants had a chance to work with RED cameras in the field and learnt techniques of building up a sequence that tell a story.
One of the participants, Legodile Kemong said the workshop was an eye opener as it exposed them to the real world of top tier film production. "Working with high end cameras and sought-after producers enabled us to see the rich potential in telling our story the Botswana way. We learnt the basic components of constructing intriguing stories as well as building community impactful concepts," he said.
Kemong, who is the creative director at Tlhase Film Works, added that they were also encouraged to apply for National Geographic Society grants to advance their crafts in order to become part of a larger NatGeo community. Kemong has produced documentaries for different channels although it was just on a smaller scale. Among those include a documentary titled Seabe Same produced for NowTV channel in 2019.
"I have also worked on a wildlife impact short documentary for the Rode Reel titled Gentle Giants that addresses the role of elephant rehabilitation after conflict with humans," he added. Like his colleague, Mmoloki Donald Sejo of Parable Motion said the REDucation experience was an eye opener for him looking at the fact that the local film industry is not yet at the international level so the training was a preparation to serve a larger international market.
"This was a free workshop from NGOWP, Impact Story Lab, Wild Bird Trust & RED Cinema Company to come and train upcoming wildlife filmmakers in Botswana as a way of establishing relations with local talents for more projects to come. We learnt key technical specifications such as proper storytelling through framing, RED Cinema camera resolution, frame rates, sensor size, dynamic range, colour depth and codec options.
This is the camera which is being used to produce blockbuster films and its workflow is unique that is why we needed that comprehensive training," he said. He stated that it was a privilege to be part of such training because it puts him among the few trained cinematographers who are able to use RED Cinema cameras around the world and that opens up chances for international jobs. "RED Cinema cameras offer a range of advanced features that can be used to create unique and creative shots. These include slow-motion, exceptional HDR, and RAW recording options, as well as the ability to shoot in different colour spaces and that makes it a unique camera of choice to big studios.
As a Motswana, this is very valuable for storytelling; this means I can produce a world standard film if I have this knowledge at hand," he said. Keoagile Bonang also hailed the workshop as a good platform for reviving the creative industry especially in the story telling section. Like the rest of them, he sees this as an opportunity to also improve on a personal level. "All along I had been having some difficulties on how I can structure my concept for it to be a fine story. But what I learned for the past three days opened my mind on how to structure a winning documentary. On the technical or practical part, it was more like updating a computer software, because I am familiar with camera work and editing, the interaction with industry cinematography equipment of RED was a big motivation for me," said Bonang.
On the other hand, Bonang said he had the opportunity to network with active passionate people who are real storytellers with passion in wildlife filming that he has been far from. Our cummunity has a lot content, what matters is how it can be packaged for it to be relevant," he added.