Graeme Duane - A brief CV

I'm one of those people that loathe having to write things about themselves, but for the purposes of those who need to know, here goes... Apologies for the clumsy prose and confused tenses.

Intensive study saw me graduating from Natal Technikon's Video Technology course, I began my career in broadcast video production at Access Studios in Durban, South Africa in 1994. After serving as an ENG and studio sound recordist, I began producing and shooting corporate and broadcast programs on BETACAM rigs. Local broadcast programs such as inserts for Top Billing, Carte Blanche and independent documentaries were worked on. Many high profile corporate videos for clients such as Portnet, Pick 'n Pay, Illovo Sugar and Telkom were produced.

I left Access studios to travel abroad in 1997 and after spending time in Mexico, USA, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, I based myself in the United Kingdom and spent six months shooting soft news inserts for Sky News in London.

On return to South Africa, I moved to Johannesburg where I began work for Gallo Television as Director of Photography for long-form documentary. I shot and directed two 56 minute wildlife docis for distribution by Southern Star to National Geographic and various US networks. "In search of Africa's Maneaters" was a co-production between Gallo and Panthera Productions USA, and involved a three part series on sharks, crocodiles and lions, being shot on Digital Betacam and Dvcam. The movie "Shark Attack" was the beginning of my work as a freediving underwater cameraman. The success of this film was largely because of my ability to operate the digital underwater camera in close proximity to Great White, Zambezi and Ragged Tooth sharks without the use of SCUBA apparatus or cages. This resulted in a shark film that was completely different in mood and perspective than any other. This film has subsequently won various awards at US film festivals. This has aired on the National Geographic Channel over the past year. The following stills are from this production...

In the past my water work has been the most damaging thing that I've done to my own business. I actually stopped doing water shoots for a year or two because I was constantly classified and restricted as an underwater shooter, and lost out on normal land-based shoots because of this. I wasn't given a golden eye and didn't go to film school for nothing!

The same method of filming was applied to the crocodile film, which also aired on Geographic. These films resulted in my being hired as first cameraman for the National Geographic series "Explorer's Journal" for Southern African insert shoots. I was second cameraman on "George and the Rhino", a 56 minute film for the Discovery Channel which was shot in Pilanesburg, Kruger Park and Malawi. This film was recently nominated as a finalist at the Wildscreen Festival.

I am the cameraman of choice for inserts shot in South Africa by "Focus TV" on Pro 7. This involves investigative and adventure inserts for Germany's pay channel. I shot a great insert for Carte Blanche on the Marlin fishing controversy of tag and release at Sodwana bay. I was commissioned to complete a small amount of shooting for the film "Mamba" produced by Tigress Films in Bristol and have also sold large amounts of underwater footage to numerous international producers.

I also shot the film "A Family of their Own", based on the battle of egos in an elephant back safari business in the Okavango Delta. The film has since been bought by National Geographic and is currently being aired.

I am the cameraman of choice for National Geographic's "Crocodile Chronicles" in South Africa, having just completed another episode involving the tracking of reptiles using GPS and cellphone technologies.

A National Geographic shoot has recently been completed in Uganda for "Ultimate Explorer". Dr Brady Barr went on a mission to save a local Nile Crocodile population on Lake Victoria, and conducted croc capture training for Ugandan Wildlife Rangers. I was the shooter for the field production.

I have recently begun shooting The MegaFlyover, an expedition funded by The National Geographic Society, to be produced and broadcast by NGTV. Environmentalist Mike Fay and pilot Peter Ragg have set off around the 93 eco-zones on the African continent to map and add to Mike's existing database to define man's "human footprint" in Africa.

"The Perfect Swarm" is a 56 minute doci which covers the effects of vast plagues of locusts that emerge in North Africa every summer. The African swarms are compared to similar events in US history. The African segment of this film was shot exclusively by myself. This is another National Geographic Television & Film production. This film was aired in the US at the beginning of 2005.

During the shooting of the Mercury OET, a Marlin fishing competition for South Africa's Supersport, I was the shooter that covered the actual fight of the marlin underwater, around the boat, and the tag and release. The technique for this was fast and furious, find the boat fighting the fish via GPS, and jump overboard to find the marlin.

Carte Blanche recently broadcast two inserts, one on rising food prices in South Africa and the other on the tracking down and prosecution of a con man selling bogus cruise ship packages. I was the cameraman for part of these two programs.

A subsequent trip to Burundi with National Geographic ended in a change of plan when the civil war coincided with our attempt at shooting the capture of "Gustav", a 6.5m crocodile for the "Dangerous Encounters" series. With numerous killings in Bujumbura, and the ambush of a bus near our hotel by mortar, we decided to leave two days later and fly to South Africa, where we managed to catch a 5m Nile Crocodile, saving the shoot. I was the cameraman on this project.

The success of this salvaged shoot led to the production of "Bite This", a 54 minute show on the relative bite strengths of various predators. This involved shooting Lions, Hyenas, Wild Dogs, Great White Sharks as well as the aforementioned crocodile actually chewing on a bite force metre.

On a recent production for NGT&F, I was sent into the Congo to shoot the bed for a 54 minute program on giant snake captures. Using existing sequences of big Anaconda and Python captures, NGT needed a common thread linking these together both sequentially and biologically. The shoot involved a 60 mile trek through Congolese swamp forest to the remote Lac Tele. Problems such as humidity and the weight of equipment made this a difficult shoot. To add to our problems, swarms of bees and a lack of flat dry land to sleep on, made the shoot particularly uncomfortable. Having covered the entire trek, all the hardships, the different environments, as well as the capture of a Gaboon Viper and a big Python, the shoot was a great success.

I've just wrapped a documentary shoot in Nairobi for the NBA, which follows one of their past pros' charity work amoungst the kids in the slums. This was HD (Varicam) and is currently in post in the U.S.

Recent work within South Africa has included human interest magazine inserts for Mnet's Studio 53 as well as more controversial issues in Carte Blanche. These shows rely on a well lit and composed interview that uses cut aways to compile the programs.

I've also been doing plenty of editing work, cutting sports shows and docis with FCP. To me this is a priceless discipline for a shooter, dealing with ones own camerawork in post provides revelations that all cameramen need to be exposed to.

Apart from commission and contract work, I've been busy producing my own documentaries, from story development to final mix, I've produced two programs in the last year. Shooting on any DVcam and cutting on FCP, I've sold more than 400 copies worldwide.

These productions are highlights of a busy few years as a director, editor and cameraman, both above and below the surface. Various new projects are in the development stage and there are still many stories and locations available in Southern Africa.