An exciting and unique opportunity to train to become a filmmaker specialising in wildlife in South Africa. This exciting course, covers all aspects of the filmmaking process and even enables you to shoot in 3-D. Set in the heart of the  Tsitsikamma forest you will spend a month shooting movies and even create your own short film. Perfect if you are seriously considering a career in media television.

 

Wildlife filmmaker course South Africa

The Xtreme Gap Year film school in South Africa will give you all the skills and practical experience you need to produce a nature orientated documentary. The filming will be done location in some of the most beautiful parts of South Africa, in the heart of the Garden Route. This will be perfect if you are interested in a career in television or filmmaking, and want to build practical experience and learn something new and exciting on your gap year.

Courses split into three sections, pre-production, on location and post-production.

Wildlife filmmaker course Highlights Include:

  • Learning about and creating your short wildlife documentary
  • Living in a nature reserve is surrounded by Africa’s wild animals.
  • Picking up the skills techniques and experience to help kickstart your filmmaking career
  • Learning from some of the top wildlife 3-D filmmakers in South Africa!
  • Following the filmmaking process from start to finish and creating your own documentary to take home with you.

The Xtreme Gap Year film school in South Africa is a 2D & 3D wildlife film school offering workshops, photographic/filming safaris and 30-day courses on the Garden Route of South Africa. Our mission is to pass on knowledge to benefit the new generation of wildlife filmmakers and enthusiastic amateurs.

With a maximum of 6 students, we offer a unique 30 day course on a private 200 hectare farm in the heart of the Tsitsikamma Forest. Our location is a haven for plant, bird and animal life.

We cover all the basics of Pre-Production, Production and Post Production with the latest technology (3D) in a fun, beautiful and peaceful environment.
Lectures are presented by professional wildlife filmmakers in classrooms or out in the field. The course is structured exactly the same as a documentary would be directed and produced. The best part of the course is that you will get to produce, film and edit your own broadcast-safe short nature documentary on a topic of their choice.

 

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Full Details

Throughout the course you will be guided and mentors by exceptionally qualified staff. The course is split into three separate stages as follows:

Pre-production

Starting off with an orientation session, you will be taken out on location and given an overview what can be done and where it can be done taking into consideration what kind of film you want to shoot. There will be a brainstorming session about the different topics available to choose from when shooting your own short documentary.

Then it’s on to learning about script writing and viewing wildlife film screenings of award-winning international films. You will be given a complete introduction to 2-D and 3-D camera technology as well as the techniques needed to successfully shoot movies in both 2-D and 3-D.

You will learn all about 2-D camera traps, and each student will have plenty of opportunities to setup camera traps themselves, enabling them to get unique and exciting footage of the local wildlife.

Expect bush pigs, duikers, bushbucks, vervet monkeys, baboons, reptiles….caracals and leopards!

The course will provide an introduction to sound and voice-over recordings and then finalising your script to get your shortlist ready.

Classes will take place in both classrooms and on location, and typically lectures given from 9 AM to 5 PM with a one-hour lunch break.

Production on location

So once you learn the basics it’s time to get out there and apply practical experience to learn the techniques. This is a great opportunity to get all the footage you need for your film, but not only this you will be responsible for the maintenance of the equipment as well. At all times you will be accompanied by a highly experienced wildlife filmmaker and also a game Ranger depending on the topic you choose, as after all you will be out there in wild Africa!

Expect long hours behind the camera, typically wildlife documentary cameraman will be up at the first crack of dawn and staying up well into the night to record ambient sounds so if this is really a career that you want to get involved in expect long hours were not much sleep.

Not that your mind this, the experience will be incredible! You will spend a few weeks gathering the required footage under the guidance of our experts, and then the final section of the course takes place.

Post-production

With all of your footage obtained it’s time to start editing, you have a movie to make! All the equipment and tools needed will will be provided, and once again you will be expertly taught the best techniques to bring all of your raw footage to life. You will have an introduction to Mac and Final Cut Pro editing software, and an introduction to 3-D editing with 3-D monitors 3-D televisions.

It’s a definite acquired skill to cut down all of this footage that you will have, into 3 min, is the most difficult part of any editors job, picking the best footage. Not to worry though, our team will be there to advise you and help develop your skills.

We will then work on voice-over narration, this can either be done yourself or you can have one of your fellow students do the voice-over depending on your preferences.

We cover topics such as introducing colour grading, laying down voice-over narration and even the finer details such as where to acquire royalty free music and ambient sounds for your film.

In the post-production section of the course we will do a final audio mix, and then finalise your documentary making it compliant with all the regulations for broadcasting and finally exporting it to a customised menu DVD.

Once all of the films from our students have been completed on the final evening we have our screening night.

The final day of the course is yours to enjoy at your leisure, there are plenty of activities to do in the surrounding area (at your own expense) like quad biking hiking whale watching is booked between June and December, you can even go snorkelling with Cape fur seals. There are plenty of adventure activities in the nearby location, canopy tours paragliding mountain biking, surfing and deep sea fishing.

On the final day we will drop you off at the airport (George airport) or you can carry on travelling with new found filmmaking skills under your belt.

Trip Frequently Asked Questions

Can you tell me more about the location of the course?
The course  takes place in a forest 14 km east of Plettenberg Bay. Set on a privately owned game farm of over 200 characters, there is plenty of wildlife all-round especially plant bird and animal wildlife.

Can you tell me more about the accommodation?
Throughout the course you will be based in dormitory accommodation. There is a fully equipped kitchen, and wooden lodge overlooking rolling valleys of the forest. During your free time there is also Sports fields, swimming pool, guided hikes and many activities to choose from on the side of your wildlife film course.

It would be wrong to visit South Africa are not have a good Braai. So there is a barbecue area…Perfect for star-gazing and catching a glimpse of the fire-flies while sitting around a roaring fire.

What is the weather like there?
In Africa it can get hot surprisingly! However, the Garden route has a Mediterranean maritime climate, with moderately hot summers and mild to chilly winters. Being the southern hemisphere seasons are reversed so in winter (June and July and August) expect a bit of rain mainly brought on by humid sea winds.

The summer months from November to March you can expect warmer days with December to February seeing Midsummer daily temperatures of up to 30°C. Just remember the days maybe bright and warm but in the evenings it can get chilly, especially important as you will be shooting at night time and in the early morning.

Do I have to worry about malaria?
There is no malaria in this part of South Africa, there are mosquitoes though so you will want mosquito repellent.

Price

  • Adventure option shared dorm: £2469
  • Luxury option private room £2669

Included

  • Dormitory accommodation
  • Housekeeping services once a week
  • All meals and unlimited tea and coffee
  • Airport pickup and drop-off
  • All transportation throughout the course
  • All equipment in both 2-D and 3-D
  • All lectures and tuition by expert filmmakers
  • Detailed course notes to keep
  • Unlimited access the school’s library of books and DVDs about nature filmmaking
  • Mandatory filming fees for locations in the area (with the exception of Knysna Elephant Park (This is a minimum fee that students pay directly to the Elephant Park and the money is then distributed among the elephant handlers as a Thank You for their help for the Production.)
  • Course completion certificate
  • A copy of your own broadcast safe three-minute nature documentary.

Excluded

  • Flights
  • Travel insurance
  • Knysna Elephant Park filming fees if applicable
  • Personal laundry (it can be arranged once a week on site with Ingwe Forest Adventures for a minimum fee)
  • Personal expenses such as drinks, phone calls, tourist activities, souvenirs, tips to the staff from Ingwe Forest Adventures

Dates 2014

  • 06/01/2014 – 05/02/2014
  • 20/02/2014 – 22/03/2014
  • 06/04/2014 – 06/05/2014
  • 21/05/2014 – 20/06/2014
  • 05/07/2014 – 04/08/2014
  • 19/08/2014 – 18/09/2014
  • 03/10/2014 – 02/11/2014
  • 10/11/2014 – 10/12/2014