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| Filming Sir David Attenborough's suitcase in Nairobi
September 2002. BBC One in the UK is getting ready for the premier of the latest David Attenborough epic Life of Mammals. They were going to run a massive promotion campaign for the series and one bit of that was filming a trailer video. The concept: one battered suitcase is leaving an airport in the UK. Then you keep seeing this suitcase in the most unlikely places - the desert, the Arctic, the South-east Asia rainforest, the East African savannah and so on. At the end Attenborough himself picks up his suitcase, somewhere in Asia. Sounds simple but the finished clip is stunning. One of the locations that was in the script was a busy African street. The production team from BBC London, who were doing the trailer decided to shoot this in Nairobi. Here are some pictures from the day the team spent filming the footage, four brief shots of which were eventually used in the final cut of the 60-second trailer: |
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The team setting up for filming on one of the streets in Nairobi city centre. | |
| Filming the luggage being off-loaded from the jeep. Nairobi is a hot place all year round! As you can tell by the palms in the background. |  |
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Adrian is the director and he takes care in every shot that is being filmed for the trailer. | |
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At the same time that the shots are filmed, a video-linked monitor is used by Barry (who wrote the concept for the trailer) to watch all the action as it happens.
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| Sarah (speaking on walkie-talkie) is the producer in charge of this shoot. She's responsible for the crew's safety on location, among other things. |  |
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The jeep with David Attenborough's suitcase was filmed from several vantage points and all the time the crew attracted the attention of passers-by. |
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Recording of sound was taken very seriously and Quillon was the one doing it. |
While the sound-recordist must be as close to the action as possible he also must be out of shot at all times. This is why he's hinding behing the jeep on the opposite side to where the rest of the crew is filming from. |
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And now... filming from a vehilcle. |
| Filming the jeep with the suitcase pull over. |  |
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Yet another angle to the same scene. |
| Everyone's happy as one of the scenes is completed. |  |
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Onlooker, interested in the filming. |