I Do Not Fear a Challenge
Updated: 5 days ago
Remote Wildlife Documentary Production in Africa's Kalahari Desert
Making Dust — Part One
Making Dust is a five-part production journal from Rushlight Agency's senior producer and lead cinematographer, Chris Fischer, — a firsthand account of producing a feature-length wildlife documentary in the Kalahari Desert, from a solo scout during COVID to a premiere on National Geographic WiILD across the EMEA Market, achieved by a crew of three. It is a story about remote location production: the planning, the problem-solving, and the standard of execution that defines this team's work across wildlife documentary, luxury travel and destination film, hospitality content, and high-end brand production worldwide. This is Part One.
Prologue
The only way to prove you can make a feature documentary is to make a feature documentary. It's a double edged sword sometimes, but a reality of the business. No co-production partner, no broadcaster, no financier cares how talented you are. National Geographic, Netflix, and BBC don't award contracts, or deals for “good try's.” So the question of, “how do I prove I can create a full length documentary” became a relatively simple answer … just go out and prove it. So I did.
One of my best friends lives in South Africa, and with a tremendous slow down in international tourism that was taking place across all stretches of Africa, he was struggling to find consistent work. And I was itching to find a way back to Africa, honestly the timing could not have been better. I didn’t care we were still in a mild lockdown, COVID presented a challenge, but perhaps a necessary one. Adding a layer of logistical complexity might add burden, but it also creates resilience, story.
Wildlife, Survival, and Finding the Story Worth Filming
For years I have had a deep interest in the ability for animals to adapt and survive in ways that are almost unimaginable to us as humans. Living in places, and across ecosystems that we simply cannot comprehend. Telling a story of survival, change, resilience was where my mind first went. It’s complex, but not overwhelming, and can allow for visually arresting work, something I have always leaned into. I wanted this to have a grittier, more worn in feeling than most projects, and from day one that was always the scope. A project, that when you watch it, you can almost taste the air itself. The harsh, sun-baked world of the Kalahari provided a backdrop that gave me that visual I was looking for, heat, dust, mystic expanse. Lions, with their larger paws to traverse the sandy soil, have larger territories for access to enough hunting grounds and water. Adaptations in a world that was meant to destroy them, yet despite this, they thrive. These questions, these stories tie in, in an almost mythical way.
Validating a Remote Production Concept on a Lean Budget
This was where it started. A basic premise of survival, a story I knew I could tell, in a way no one else had. Now, time to believe and time to execute. Lucky for me, Matt lived a short 6-hour drive from the lower Kalahari desert. This provided such a simple entry point into testing the concept, and we agreed this would be a natural starting point for a larger scale project. It was extremely cost efficient, provided some base level content for a pitch reel, and would help me conceptualize the project in the real world, on the ground, feet in the sand. At this stage, using minimal upfront capital, and only a few weeks’ time, since the world was still shut down – not much was being lost anyway. Not only that, but a cost effective scout trip helps me test gear, assess a team size, how well does coverage work, what hurdles do we have with the filming limitations, budget limitations. I had to answer one question, did I think I could pull it off?
Inside Remote Location Filmmaking: The Kalahari Scout Trip
Flying during COVID was an experience in and of itself. A 767 with no more than 20 people onboard, delays in foreign countries, unknown travel regulations. It was a logistics challenge even for a scout trip, but also kind of the point. If I can navigate this, I can navigate most challenges. Matt met me at the Nelspruit airport, we headed straight to the local market, bought our provisions and started our long trek into the Kalahari. We passed villages, towns, markets … then the world peeled away. Bushveld and trees gave way to sand, scrub brush, open skies and empty expanse. The world lifted and I calmed. I had returned to Africa. We saw our first puff adder before arriving in camp, signs of leopard, giraffe, a world I loved all came hurtling back to me.
Extreme Environment Production: Field-Testing Gear for What You Can't Predict
Days of filming, talking, working, gave way and blurred into each other. We tested audio rigs, car mount rigs, camera set-ups for filming in vehicles that were not properly equipped to film in. How long did batteries last in unrelenting heat, at what temperature did gear begin to fail? How do we revive it quicker? How do we make sure we don’t fry motherboards, keep sand out of recording units, and dust proof our lenses? We answered it all, we had solutions. As much as we focused on filming, we perfected details, the little things we could stack up to tip the odds in our favor.
The scout trip went off without much of a hitch. The point was not just content, but concept. Does this work, how can we tell a story here? What story can be told in a region like this? What challenges did we face, and how do we overcome them for a future shoot? We set the stage, asked the questions, and set out on a plan.
The time for asking more questions was over, it was time to prove it could be done.
That instinct — plan everything you can, test what you can't, and commit regardless of conditions — is how Rushlight Agency operates on every production. From wildlife and conservation documentary to luxury travel and destination film, safari lodge and hospitality content, brand storytelling, and high-end commercial work for national and international clients: the approach doesn't change. A premiere on National Geographic WiILD across the EMEA Market and an Emmy nomination are the credentials. The capability transfers. If you're developing something that demands this level of craft in a demanding environment, we'd like to hear about it.
Continue reading: Part Two — how we planned the full production around the Kalahari's unpredictable rain cycle
