Back in October, we found ourselves exploring the stunning Brecon Beacons in South Wales. We landed this shoot through Jalbert Productions (www.jalbertfilm.com), who commission us on the UK Tough Mudder events. The shoot revolved around British photographer, journalist and explorer Levison Wood, who’s latest expedition is both awe-inspiring and crazy!
His audacious plan is to be the first person to ever walk the full length of the Nile, which means passing through 7 countries and walking around 4250 miles – all within a year! Our brief was to shoot a promotional film about Levison, sponsored by Land Rover, for their #Driven series, that would be shown on an American TV channel, Outside TV (www.outsidetelevision.com). With our brief and gear in place, off we went to the Brecon Beacons!
This was, of course, the perfect occasion to christen our (at the time) brand new camera, the Sony FS700, giving us the opportunity to capture some jaw-dropping ‘action’ footage of Levison in super slow-motion, set against the stunning landscape that surrounded us. That includes some incredible shots of the 2014 Range Rover Sport driving off road – one of the many positives about having Land Rover as a sponsor! And even though we weren’t editing the film, we were extremely excited about the footage we captured. JPI (Jalbert Productions International) did an amazing job with the edit to produce a film that we’re really proud of. As well as the Standby and JPI team, we were also working with another crew who were shooting 360 footage of Levison. They also just happened to be the creators of Google street view!
As expected, the traditional British weather did not let us down over the three days. But we battled through the tough winds, bracing rain and long exhausting hikes, to capture the stunning landscapes and the remarkable strength and stamina of Levsion (as he left us gasping for breath, struggling at the bottom of every mountain we scaled). The final location was pretty cool too… the real BAT CAVE (which you can see the behind the scenes of here). And as if that wasn’t enough, the wrap party ended up being quite an adventure in itself, one that lasted until the very early hours of the morning (5.30am) and involved a mighty impressive bar tab! An appropriately dramatic end to an extremely full on few days.
Having set off in November, Levison is already a few months into his journey. So sit back, and >ENJOY Levison Wood training to walk the Nile.
youtube.com/watch?v=3DSrS28pqSQ
Follow his awesome journey now, as it happens:
Twitter: @WalkingTheNile