Tom Snelgrove’s first Contact
Let’s be honest here, when Tom Snelgrove contacted me, and asked if we were able to help with his video, I had to look at his work at least twice to appreciate it, and understand what it is that he wanted to achieve.
Tom Snelgrove is a true artist. His work draws you in, and keeps you captivated.
Then he told me what he was planning. He wanted to shoot his next project in Luderitz, on a small budget, in the windy season. (It’s almost always the windy season) For the un-initiated, Luderitz is situated in the Sperrgebiet. (Diamond Fields, for the non-German speaking). This was to be a trial by fire for Awesome Chapter’s film services.
Planning
Tom Snelgrove contacted us months in advance to his arrival in the country. First on the agenda was some sort of brief. The more we know about a project, the more directed our efforts can be. In the case of this project, it required quite a bit of paperwork and planning.
My good friend Bernd Curschmann at Lemonreel Film Services proved to be invaluable with advice and contact details of the right people to contact. Documents were couriered across the globe. Applications filled out, ministries begged for information and so on.
A plan was formulated, calculated down to the last dollar to stay in budget. With a one man show like Tom, budget is an important concern.
Scouting Trip
The road there
Isolde and I went down to Luderitz to be the feet on the ground for Tom, to provide him with as much information that he needed to make his shooting list. Being the frugal type, we booked into the cheapest accommodation that we could find.
Elemental Riders back packers fit the bill nicely. As you can probably surmise from the name, they are more aimed at surfers, who on average are quite frugal, and more concerned with the elements! However, since it was off season, they let us stay in the Krabbenhoft & Lampe building. We were housed on the top floor, with a nice view of the town.
You can imagine that we were both a little cranky from 800km of gravel road from Walvis Bay, our home town, to Luderitz. We took the most direct route, to save on fuel. The scenery along the way was absolutely stunning! Even the names of the towns along the route bring images of desolation. Solitaire, Maltehohe, Helmiringshausen and Aus.
With fresh ocean air, and the most romantic town in Namibia greeting us in the morning, all that grumpiness evaporated. Right next to the accommodation is a cozy coffee shop, the Diaz Coffee shop. They have an impressive menu, and very friendly staff. The old area of Luderitz that we made our base in for this scouting trip has an impressive array of national monuments, almost every house is one!
Scouting
So, it was off to work, exploring the surrounds of Luderitz that one is allowed to go. Sturmvogel Bught is the bay where the remnants of their whaling station is still standing. At Diaz point there is the impressive monument, as well as camping sites. What caught our attention, though, was the houses that were just on the other side of a rocky outcropping that the lighthouse was standing on.
All along the peninsula we were looking for desolate rocks and ocean landscapes, and photographed them all. Griffin bay, the Fjord and Gosse Bught were all considered & did not make the cut, in the end.
Closer to town The Shark Island and Agate beach were actually much more useful to us. Shark Island and Diaz Point is part of Namport, so we had to apply for permission to shoot there, as well as use the drone. Agate beach is Municipal grounds, so they had to be begged for permission as well.
The last location was Kolmanskuppe. The guys from Ghost Town Tours run the place very well, and provided stellar assistance for our shoot. If you are ever going to Luderitz, and you miss out on Kolmanskuppe, you missed a lot!
So, two days were spent taking pictures and sending them to Tom Snelgrove, and then going back to some of the locations and shooting some more pictures until we were happy that we had enough material.
We even had some time to look for local talent for the shoot in the afternoons. In the end we used a local in Luderitz who sourced us some talent for the shoot.
Then, it was the long, arduous journey back to Walvis Bay. This road took it’s toll, and afterwards we had to replace the gearbox on Ouma, our trusty FJ80 Cruiser. To be fair, the gearbox has been warning us for a while.
The Shoot
Once we had all the ducks in a row, Tom Snelgrove could make the final plan for which days he wanted to be in each of the locations, and we could start to get the National Park permits applied for. These permits are per day of shooting, and quite inflexible.
Finally, the day came where Tom Snelgrove was waiting at the airport in Windhoek to be picked up. We drove down the easy way, with tarred road all the way to Luderitz, sleeping over in Mariental. Some of the best steaks and beer ever is at the Kooperasie, if you ever find yourself in that area.
Accommodation for Tom Snelgrove and I was the Obelix Guesthouse. With Wifi, an excellent bar and restaurant it was the perfect base from which to shoot. Safe and secure parking was essential, as the last thing we needed was a break-in and loss of gear.
Prior to shooting we did a mini-scout again, so Tom Snelgrove could see each of the areas for himself, and put the final polish on his shooting plan. We had weather forecasts and everything, to get maximum use out of the time here. Turns out that the forecasts were very, very accurate. Luderitz has some of the most extreme weather on the planet, but at least it is predictable.
We met with the talent, and then it was off to the first location. Tom Snelgrove is an amazing cameraman and director, and pretty soon the talent felt at home in their weird and way out costumes.
The shoot itself went to plan, with absolutely no surprises. Which was surprising to Tom Snelgrove and I. Evenings we tried out the various restaurants of Luderitz. Barrels turned out to be our favorite. The Eisbein is simply awesome! Of course the atmosphere was great too, and we did have quite a few chats with the locals.
The ten days of shooting in Luderitz were over in a flash. On our way to Windhoek, Tom Snelgrove wanted to add some more footage of Sossusvlei. The road there was absolutely amazing. It had been a few years since I traveled it last. Wide open spaces, mountain ranges and the feeling of solitude is overwhelming.
Of course, the closer we got, the worse the road got. This area is visited by nearly every visitor to Namibia, and our poor country just cannot keep up the road maintenance. Tom Snelgrove and I spent the last 100km or so of the road through the Namibrand reserve in relative silence from our side while the deafening rattle of the corrugation drowned out any other noise.
Accommodation here was right at the gate to the park, with some of the most amazing views. One day was spent scouting for the proper scene and talent, and the next was spent shooting. We spent the one lunch making a Barbecue of some awesome 1kg well aged steaks that we brought with us from Luderitz, washed down with a Windhoek or two. A worthy celebration of a job well done.
As Hannibal from the A-team was so fond of saying: “I love it when a plan comes together”
The last remaining item on the list was to get Tom Snelgrove and his gear safely on a plane out of Namibia. The road up to Windhoek was the usual Namibian awesome road. We did lose one tire on the way, though.
This was close to the valley of a 1000 hills area, and also quite desolate. Usually the pressure sensors in the tires warn me of a leak, but this sensor was still reading 2 bar when the pieces of tire started flying past us. Must have been sleeping on the job! No worries, we carry two spare tires at all times, and were back on the road in no time.
Tom Snelgrove’s last night in Namibia was spent in the Okapuka Lodge just outside Windhoek. With wild animals drinking at the watering hole just outside the restaurant, relaxing in luxury was a fitting end to a very successful project for both of us.
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