welcome to Africa!

So here we are, Namibia! Departed from Holland with Albert Scheffer, his daughter Judith Scheffer, and Albert his collegues Thea Seinen, Date de Vries and and my fellow grad student Jelmer de Jong we drove for 6 hours to Europes largest airport which is placed in Frankfurt, Germany. From there we took a 10 hour flight to Windhoek Airport in Namibia.

But our journey didn’t end there. From the aiport we drove in two cars and drove another 2 hours to Gobabis, the place where Jelmer and me are shooting our film.

Along the way we came across a wildebeest and a gazelle running along with us next to the car and a small group of baboons crossed the road about 50 meters ahead of us. Welcome to Africa!

The way into Botswana

Instead of staying in Gobabis and relaxing a little (something a normal person would do), Date had invited us back in Holland for a trip into Botswana to the Okavango Delta. This was something I personally didn’t want to miss for the world, so we decided to go. We left our film equipment and other unnecessary luggage at hotel ‘Die Dam’ where Albert, Thea and Judith were staying, and we went for another 10 hour trip, this time by car, to the Okavango Delta, in the middle of Botswana.

At the border stop we had to fill in forms, forms and more forms. When we had crossed the border we had to fill in more forms again. On the positive side, we did get some nice stamps in our pasports. But 9 hours later or so, things went a bit bad when we arrived in Maum (pronounced as ma-oom).

We did not have enough fuel, our bank and credit cards didn’t work anywhere in town (we tried about 6 different ones) and we still had to pay for the fuel where we had so desperately looked for earlier. Before we were able to find a place where our cards actually did work, it was allready dark and we had no way of finding our way around properly, ever since road signs don’t have lights here (we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, after all), and road signs are even hard to find during the day around here! Apart from that, at night people walk on the streets, the roads have big holes in them and wild animals from dogs up to hyenas come out – especially at night. So drive carefully ‘cause you won’t see them easily.

We were tired, did not have enough food and water with us (I never went on a trip this unprepaired before, but it was quite an adventure) but in the end we made it to the Backpackers Lodge just outside of Maun at the start of the Okavango Delta. Unfortunately they didn’t have a place to sleep for us, but what they did have in stock was a great dinner in this atmospheric location in the middle nowhere surrounded by the weirdest wild animal noises  that I have ever heard in my life (truly amazing!).

After dinner and a huge healthy fruit shake later, we felt sort of reborn and thanks to a manager at the Backpackers Lodge we were able to find a place to sleep at Audi Camp for the upcoming nights, just a few minute drive away. We were also able to book a ‘Mokoro trip’ for the next day there – this was the reason we came to the Okavango Delta, after all.

The Mokoro Trip

A mokoro – or in plural a mekoro – is a shallow-draft canoe traditionally hewn out from ebony wood or a sausage-tree log. We were able to take a tour through the Okavango Delta with one of these traditional canoes. You are so close to the water level that you really start to feel one with nature. It’s relaxing but also chalenging somehow because after all, you’re in the wild and in the river where crocodiles, hippo’s and other animals rule.

To get to the actual riverbank of the Okavango Delta you have to go by 4 wheel drive, otherwise you’ll be stuck for sure. Big puddles of mud and overthrown roads by riverfloodings will block your way if you don’t have have 4 wheel drive because some are deep and have quite dangerous rapids in them. Also the roads (as for as you can call them that) itselfs are graveled roads and impossible to drive on with a normal car. After this adventurous trip we ended up at a quiet area at the river bank. We were guided by a man and woman who were polars for the canoes. They push the mokoro forward with their sticks. After about an hour in the mokoro we continued further on foot to spot some wild life. No lions, leoperds and cheetas unfortunately, but we did see giraffes, zebras and eliphants. Have a look at a small collection of the pictures at the end of this blog!

Village life

The day after our Mokoro trip we had to go back to Gobabis. Date had work to do there and obviously so did we! But on our way back we stopped at several villages along the way. We had plenty of time for that so why not make the best of it? When I say village, i basically mean 5 till about 10 ‘houses’.

These villages of wood are still pretty untouched by western life, but you can feel the change. They wear more western clothes instead of traditional ones, and they now use money like everybody else to buy their food, allthought traditional way of life (hunting et cetera) still goes on. Have a look at some of the pictures at the end of the blog.

Sandune safari

After Botswana we went back to Gobabis and got to know the place a little better, and each other. Albert is so well known in town by almost everyone (he’s been coming and going here since 1991 for his job) so obviously Albert knows the in’s and out’s of Gobabis by heart. I’ll be writing a seperate blog about that later, though.

By the end of the week Date de Vries had to go back home, his work here was done, and he wanted to finalize his stay with a last safari on the day of his departure back to Holland. And for this departure we went to Sandune, about a 30 minute drive away from Gobabis. Have a look at the pictures below. The day after Date left, two other people came. Another collegue of Albert, Anke de Vries and her daughter Emma.

Thank you!

Today all the Dutches that were with us have left. I would like to use this blog to thank each and every one of them for making us feel home away from home and for introducing us to all these amazing places such as the Okavango Delta and Harnas (Harnas will be coming in a blog post soon and it will be filled with lions and cheetas et ceterea) restaurants and for letting us meet with so many interesting new people for the last 2,5 weeks. Now Jelmer and me are on our own, but we had a great introduction that will help us greatly in making our film.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

On the second of july 2010 I’ll be flying with fellow CMD student Jelmer de Jong towards the second least densely populated country in the world which also happens to be one of the driest continents on the planet. This country is positioned above South Africa and is called Namibia.

Personal Reason

We were asked by a teacher at our faculty to make a film in Nambia. Jelmer and I were both still looking for suitable graduation film subjects, and this subject (which will be explained below) touched us both. So we decided to do some research, meet some people and take the job!

Purpose

For the last 15 years the Namibian municipality of Goababis and the Dutch municipality of Smallingerland have had a fellowship that is connected by development aid. Several projects have been set out in Gobabis for the last 15 years such as HIV/AIDS prevention, housing projects and many more.

The municipality of Smallingerland wants us to make a film about the last 15 years of development aid that has been brought to Goababis. They want to know how things are going today. So in short: what’s going great and what could be better?

They want us to shoot from our perspective – from a new way to look at the whole piece – and also with an eye to the future.

Symposium

The film will be played in october on an international symposium in Drachten which obviously is about development aid. the film is set to inform and create a discussion between the people at the symposium to create steps for the future.

On the 4th of september we’ll be back in Holland. I’ll try and post as many text and video blogs as I can about the proces, but it will be hard staying online where we are. I’ll also need a USB device so that I can connect my MacBook Pro with a telephone based internet connection but so far I haven’t been able to find one yet, not even the Mac Store.

More news coming soon, about the pre-production, the production and the post-production.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite ]]> http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/index.php/2010/06/25/namibia-part-1/feed/ 3 http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/index.php/2010/04/21/my-showreel/ http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/index.php/2010/04/21/my-showreel/#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:27:33 +0000 Jaap Ruurd Feitsma http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/?p=976 Just recently I have finished my showreel 2010. It’s been on YouTube for a short while allready, but I haven’t even had time yet to put it into my own blog. But here it is! The reel contains material that I have either directed, co-directed or shot myself. To get a discription about each project in the reel, have a look on the YouTube page itself by clicking on the YouTube logo in the lower-right corner in the video of this blog, or feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy my one minute reel!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

On december the 29th I flew back to The Netherlands from Lisbon, Portugal. My internship at CheckTheGate had come to an end. After very nice goodbyes with both company CheckTheGate and other people that I’ve met over the past 4 months that I was there, I was packed and ready to go back home to work on my graduation project.

I’ve decided to make a documentary and at this point I have several options, both local and abroad. The most important thing for me right now is to find a place to put the film. What I mean with that is that I need an institution, a channel or a website that’s interested in what I would like to make and possibly, if necessary willing to finance it. In the upcoming posts I’ll write about the various subjects and options that I have at hand.

I would also like to use this blogpost to share some of the pictures on the filmset I worked on for the NGOL Commercial in Lisbon for CheckTheGate.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

The commercial was shot with two Red One cameras and the post production was done in Tobis, the first post production house in Portugal.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

The next day the short films that were nominated a few months earlier were shown in the ‘filmhuis Leeuwarden’ which included my short film Letting Go which ended up in second place in the highest catagory (Semi-Pro). I’m very happy with the second place of Letting Go, also because at first I wasn’t planning on sending it to a festival in the first place! I added the film in this blog below.

The competition was also very enjoyable because some friends & family came along and also the crew and actors were there. Koen Leerink (DOP), Arne Mulder, (DOA) Boa Mulder (set photographer), Christopher Morgan (actor) and Vassilena Valchanova, who was the actrice in the film, came to the festival from Bulgaria to the Netherlands. In the end it was a great week for me of networking, inspiration, motivation, agknowledgement that we made something good,  and off course meeting up with family and friends.

And now it’s finally time to put the short film Letting Go on my blog! Hope you enjoy it

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

The first video is the song Iyi Yolculuklar. I wrote it for the film under a different title at first, but later I kind of took some elements from a previous song (iyi yolculuklar) that I was unable to finish before.

Iyi yolculuklar is Turkish for ‘Safe journey’ or something like ‘happy traveling’. I promised and enjoyed composing it for a very good friend of mine from Istanbul.

The second song is called ‘Brand New Start’ and basicly begins during the end credits of the short film.

Hope you enjoy the music and stay tuned for the short film!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I hope you like the still frames from the film. I think it will give you an honest idea of the look and feel of the short film, which for the moment is better than nothing I suppose!

After the 14th of november I’ll be uploading the full film on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Hyves, and off course my blog. In other words: stay tuned two of the stills contain shots that were filmed with a crane, one shot contains an over shoulder and one shot is a close-up of Christophers expression. The other two are a thumbnail and the begin screen of the DVD menu.

Enjoy the stills!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Location: Filmhuis Leeuwarden, Ruiterskwartier 6, 8911 BP, Leeuwarden

Date: saturday, 14th of november 2009

Time & catagory:  12.00 – 13.20 UUR CATEGORIE STUDENTEN AUDIOVISUEEL / SEMI-PROFS.’

In English, I’ve translated the synopsis as followed:

Jaap Ruurd Feitsma – Friesland – 5’39 min.

A romantic meeting between a couple in love in a beautiful poetic scenery can easily find a dramatic turn.

(English spoken, Dutch subtitles).

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

So far, I hadn’t had the chance of looking for the ‘real’ Lisbon yet. For people who read this and want to visit Lisbon, keep it in mind that a lot of areas in Lisbon are pretty unsafe (drug addicts, criminals et cetera), so don’t wander of f too far from the main roads. My iPhone being stolen last weekend is nothing compared with what can happen, especially when you carry a professional camera that you are not willing to give up easily. Try to blend in as much as possible (a bit hard for me with blond hair and blue eyes, but what the heck!)

Anyway, some even more interesting days are coming up as well! I’ll be working first hand with the Assistent Director (AD) on the upcoming film where we did the scouting for. Apperantly he is the best AD in Portugal, so no doubt that I can learn a lot! More info soon!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite