Stay on the Carcass
Making Dust - Part Three
On Location: Filming a Wildlife Documentary in the Kalahari
Making Dust is a five-part production journal from Rushlight Agency's director 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 three-year premiere on National Geographic WiILD across the EMEA Market, achieved by a crew of three. This is Part Three: three weeks on location, the daily discipline of remote wildlife production, and the single decision that defined the entire project.
The Daily Discipline of Remote Wildlife Filmmaking
We were in rhythm within a day or two of being on the ground, dust already on our boots, the taste of sand in everything. Coffee before sun-up, long mornings driving in search of our next subject. Lunch was spent cooling off, looking for a break from the unrelenting sun. Our days were simple, up at 5:30 and working on kit, prepping gear and loading up. Coffee and a little food at 6:00, then off and heading to the park by 6:20. Typically this is a little later than we would normally head out, but the park itself didn't open until 7:30, and it was a 40 minute drive, so we had time. We would arrive at the Boteti river ferry, always early, and wait to be the first car across the hand pulled ferry each morning. Then, work begins … hours driving the dusty roads in search of elephants, giraffe, and our main subject, zebra.
The herd didn't tend to make their way to the river until late morning when the sun became unrelenting. But when they arrived, it was like a swarm emerging from the dense brush, all at once. They would pile along the berms, and slowly cautiously make their way to the water's edge. For hours we would then run up and down the banks, eyeing better angles, gimbal shots, different behaviours, patterns, interactions. Then, almost as suddenly as they arrived, but about 2pm, they vanished again, back into the brush for as much shade as they could find. We would tend to stick around for another few hours, picking out shots that might fill in our needs, details, landscapes, and after some time, it was time to head back to camp. The ferry stopped running at 5 so we always had a hard stop.
Back at camp, each night was spent doing the same thing. We could grab a drink, generally something with gin or whiskey, find our best river vantage point, and post up our cameras. The camp was situated along the Boteti river and from about 5:30 until sunset each night we simply waited for sunset shots, landscapes, hippos and birds, with the occasional zebra encounter.
Nights end with a meal, content offloading, gear prep, battery management and making sure everything is ready for the morning … rhythm.
We filmed this chaos every day along the Boteti, for 7 days, nestled on the edge of the Okavango Delta.
Deeper Into the Kalahari: Searching for Wildlife in an Empty Landscape
Our time here came to an end, it was time to move where we really needed to be, deeper into the Kalahari.
Here, our flow changed … not in a way you would expect, the hours are the same, but our access to filming locations was eased and we could be filming within moments of being outside camp. It was the way in which we had to work. Wildlife became elusive, shrouded behind miles of open expanse.
We did this for days on end, we had to search, work, and cover ground to find what we needed. We pored over empty landscape, sat with meerkats, then did it all over again, all in the blistering heat.
Still no rain.
It took us 7 days to find the lions we were looking for. The land had to be covered by us alone. COVID left these camps, these parks, these expanses empty, desolate. We were on our own to find the wildlife.
The Decision That Made the Documentary
Our first lion encounter of the trip then became a testament to decision making, and being able to make proper decisions on the fly.
We had not seen them, we heard them for days, far in the distance, late at night and early mornings, calling. We saw signs, footprints, but no sightings.
It wasn't until day 8 that we had our break. We spent our lunch-time talking with a few people, and they agreed to help us. A small group of tourists had joined us in camp and their guide decided he could help us spread out and look for those lions. It wasn't 30 minutes into our search when he radioed up that he had found them. And within another 20 minute drive, we were sitting with both males as they ate the final remains of their kill.
male lion as he walks toward the camera
I would love to say it was a wildly unique sighting, but it wasn't. They had made the kill almost 12 hours earlier and they were on their final meal. We sat with them and filmed details, and coverage for some time, before they both, stuffed, got up and moseyed off toward the scrub brush.
Our driver started the engine, eager to follow. I signaled for him to hold for a few seconds while Matt and I confirmed with each other. They were walking due north, toward the scrub brush. It was probably 108 degrees outside. Water was half a mile due south. They were full, lazy and hot.
They are walking in the wrong direction for water and there is no action that these two are going to feel up to anytime soon. After a few moments of discussion, we agreed, we needed to stay on the carcass for a while longer. As the lions got further away, the world became more bold around us. The vultures, and jackals descended, materializing out of almost nothing. Within moments, the carcass was covered in feathers and teeth, and for the next 45 minutes, that mob picked the remains of that kill clean.
black backed jackal and vultures fight over scraps
We watched until the last of them had their fill. Packed up our kit, and drove 5 minutes to join back up with the lions, who slept through the whole thing. One decision, chosen based on an understanding of a number of competing concepts, led to the best content of the project. A pairing of wildlife behavior, and risk / reward outcomes. Making that decision on the fly and living with the results. This defines what makes me, unapologetically me, an ability to make those decisions confidently, and withdrawing emotion from the analysis. What does the data, the research, and my experience tell me we should do. Then no matter what the emotion tells me, we do that thing. Is it always right, no. But the math supports that it's right far more than wrong … and therefore always worth listening to.
When the Rains Finally Arrive
That night, the rains arrived.
We sat in the dining hall, listening as the rain beat down on the world around us, knowing that in just a few short days, this world was about to change.
The rains were spotty, coming off and on. Temperatures were all over the place as rainclouds dropped heavily upon us, the sky could clear, and the heat would return. The rain persisted off and on, but the wildlife was yet to arrive.
Then, just 4 short days after the first rains, we awoke to a different world, zebra, everywhere you looked. The plains, empty only a few days earlier were now teeming with life.
Zebra move across the pans in Botswana
The herd had arrived exactly where we needed them to be.
Over our final few days our time was spent bouncing between a chaos of sightings, lions returning, zebra herds, huge expanses now full of wildlife, cheetah, all of a sudden, everything was here.
It's hard to quantify what those last few moments on those plains were. A mixture of chaos, stress, activity, relief, and fun … but most of all, it was simply fun to be out there, those final moments doing exactly what we had come to do, filming a story that this land needed to be told.
That instinct — read the environment, strip emotion from the analysis, and make the call — is what separates footage from film. It's also how Rushlight Agency operates on every production: wildlife and conservation documentary, luxury travel and destination film, safari lodge and hospitality content, brand storytelling, and high-end commercial work for national and international clients. 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.
