Dispatches from Africa #2: Lake Natron, Flamingoes, and the Grugrux King

This shallow salt lake is famous for its pink color and an incredible amount of flamingoes: A perfect breeding ground, Lake Natron is host to 2.5 million of the distinctive pink birds that live in the Great Rift Valley.

My Masai friend Thomas did a great job of sneaking close to the birds and waiting until I gave him the signal. Some other members of the team offered some blockage from the persistent wind oscillating the camera on what was never a perfect tripod. But once I had the RED ONE set up with a lens filled with birds, and the 4k sensor set for 120 frames per second, I was ready.

I gave Thomas the signal, he scared up the flock, and filled my frame with so many birds that I knew it was going to be an amazing, surreal shot.

Two out of three rubber tripod-leg caps decided to stay in the mud afterward, and were plucked out by Thomas. I would have liked to stay on the water's edge, following the birds and getting more shots. But with the RED on my back and the eight-person Land Rover looking smaller than a Matchbox, I got walking. Not before putting on the album I finally remembered I had on my iPhone, though: the Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey & The Grugrux King.

You know how music often becomes associated with trips? Our finished film will be filled with such music; from orphans to Masai Warriors, organized groups of dancers to an impromptu a capella treat by the porters on Kilimanjaro.

But I will also forever link DMB to my trip. It's One Sweet World!

More later,
Mark

Del Padre-Produced NASA DVD Released

Completing a project that began two years ago, we've just received our first copies of a three-part educational movie filmed for NASA, for which we served as directors, animators, editors, and producers.

Spacefaring: The Radiation Challenge, addresses the topic of radiation and human space flight, and was produced in tandem with the Space Science Institute. We combined live action with 3D animation and compositing to create a trio of video shorts for DVD. The plot follows three young astronauts encountering a solar storm on their way to Mars, but it's more than just a movie --classroom activities accompany each act of the story, designed for both middle school and high school students.

Spacefaring also includes video-game-level special effects, and is available in both standard definition and HD formats.