Day 5 - Sudden Pitch to Business Bank Executives

More egg, toast and beans for breakfast this morning and I'm not complaining, they cook the eggs well done here which is a way I've never tried before, I'm easily pleased I guess but It's been good to me this week so far before heading out each day. Another surprisingly good thing about the trip so far is no upset stomachs, fingers crossed this lasts.

It was an earlier wake up call this morning at 08:00 in order to prep and leave the house for 09:30, our driver was outside ready to go as always with his straight, focused face we're so used to seeing, he is quite simply the best driver I've ever seen behind the wheel, what he does and what tricky situations he gets out of, (which happen a lot in Lagos' traffic) take a lot of skill in such a big car (Toyota 4x4). Sam couldn't help but take more photos of him today during the times we were waiting in the car. 

Photography by Sam Davis

Today's itinerary was a bit of a late notice one to Sam and I, Dayo didn't have much time to prep us for our important pitch to business executives representing some of Nigeria's most popular banks. We had two scheduled, one this morning at 11:00 and another at 14:00. Ultimately due to traffic we arrived late to our first one, the waiting time we then had till we could get another slot would have meant missing the second one which was a preferred potential client for Dayo, so we left Diamond bank and headed for Eco bank taking another while in the car. My favourite point throughout each day so far has been in the car shooting slow motion of the activities going on in traffic and of the public in street markets, the traffic may annoy the hell out of Nigerians but to us, the slow driving speeds can be perfect for a tracking shot of outside at up to 400 frames per second, a frame rate we shot a lot on today looking better than expected.

Photography by Sam Davis - An angry taxi driver at rush hour

Fortunately we arrived at our second meeting on time. As I have been on the project for only a short time I played a very small part throughout the pitch yet an important one for representing the western population who would be interested in our film. We met with a few men including the head of corporate sponsorship and brand manager and overall head of corporate communications, slightly intimidating but Dayo did well in his presentation pretty much pitching alone throughout, Sam had a few words to talk about his role and what he has done and learnt so far. As I said, I have only just joined this project with this trip being my first time to Nigeria so I shook their hands, sat down and smiled looking quite strange at the end of the table I'm sure. It went well though, they were very interested in the project and want to have a further meeting with Dayo early next year, he did well although they can't help with sponsoring anytime soon due to their bank shutting down with no left over budget to spend around November time each year. 

Dayo took some good constructive criticism and feedback back home with an earlier return time at 16:00ish. The rest of the family were still at work so the generator was off till 18:00, this seemed a good excuse to jump back in the pool for a while and cool off. Dayo was chuffed this evening, tomorrow's schedule has become a busy one with our first pitch rescheduled, another interview planned and our behind the scenes of a Nollywood film reset for the afternoon. Pretty excited for it! 

I blogged the last two days this evening and caught up with logging before heading to sleep at 00:00. We learnt our lesson for heading to bed later last night when we realised the generator turns off at 01:00 so all fans stop, we hoped to be asleep by then tonight. 

Day 4 - Our first Interview

I realise that at a time where any free moment I have to do my dissertation, I seem to be prioritising my blog over it - "oh that's a bummer, I'll do it tomorrow", well from now I'm going to try and keep posts shorter.

Print Screen of today's Interview

Today was a good step in the right direction, Dayo managed to organise an interview with someone from an up and coming Nigerian digital media tech company. The interview lasted approximately half an hour located within their block of offices, unfortunately I can't say what was spoken about due to the conversation being withheld for the documentary but also because I just didn't register what was said, too busy operating sound and second camera which can always be a bit of a struggle at the same time but manageable.

Sam's face when he found out that he
 would also have to present at the meeting

Beforehand we had a second and last meeting with Dayo's business advisor at a location out of town, Sam and I found out that they had managed to secure a meeting with the heads of brands and comms from a couple of popular banks of Nigeria tomorrow. What had to be done now was to prepare and rehearse the presentation and pitch, we learnt that Dayo's advisor will be leaving tomorrow so as support the two of us will be presenting also.

On our way out of the meeting with Dayo's advisor, we met three young locals who were sat at a bench chilling. We couldn't resist but get a few shots of them, the opportunities are endless for natural aesthetics and rawness around Nigeria.

Photography by Sam Davis

Going back to the interview, once we had covered cutaway shots the man we interviewed took us up to the rooftop, the views were outstanding, 360 lookout point around Lagos with the longest bridge and hectic rush hour traffic in eye-line. On top of this there was lighting at sunset.

At Viewpoint

So those were the highlights of today, we got home around 20:00, no time to dip in the pool after dinner unfortunately. After DIT'ing and blogging it was 01:00, plus the generator at the house turns off at 1am so no air conditioning, fans or electricity after then. We had a sweaty night to look forward to.

Day 3 - Spent in the Car

It's been a couple of days since I last managed to find time to blog, somehow we've found ourselves to be having busy days without much time in the house, yet we have unfortunately had very little productive time towards Dayo's documentary. It seems it has been harder to gather late notice interviews and on set time than he first thought.

We woke up for breakfast and were glad to find it was egg, beans on toast. I think the kitchen staff are getting used to our boring, unadventurous appetite but when your planned to be shooting all day, having a breakfast we're comfortable with was appreciated, it went down very nicely. Dayo had organised for us to set up and film a pre-production meeting that was going ahead for a Nollywood film, directed by a prestigious Nollywood Director who has had plenty of experience in today's top rated Nigerian films. The meeting was scheduled for 11:00 so an earlier leaving time than yesterday's with an earlier wake up call of 08:30(ish), I have fallen into 3rd place out of the three of us when getting out of bed and jumping in the shower (this is fine with me as it gives me half an hour extra in bed, those of you who know me would have no surprise here). 

Jumping ahead to this evening's meal, we were chatting about Nigerian people's time keeping and managing skills - basically it's extremely difficult for them to have any. Apparently you will find that a lot of the time if you have a meeting planned or arrangements with someone, there is always bound to be someone who arrives late, the main cause of this is the traffic in Lagos. The traffic here run's throughout the day, everywhere you go, at any time you will get stuck in traffic, it amazes me how meetings can even take place. Well today was a great example of it with our first shoot cancelled due to the lady who we planned to meet having other arrangements and delays that would cause her to be 2 hours behind schedule, on top of this it didn't help that she was only able to tell Dayo this once we were close to the meeting point, he wasn't impressed. We were forced to go to plan B which was to go and pick up Dayo's business advisor who so happened to be in Lagos too for the next couple of days. 

Whilst we've been driven around today, Sam and I have been shooting as much as we can. One person will be shooting at 25fps on the 5D Mark III whilst the other will be shooting slow motion on the FS700. The rushes are looking lovely, with our windows being tinted black for security and privacy they also add another stop or two in aperture for our cameras, on top of this when it rains the droplets can provide a hazy effect on our picture which has been happening a lot today due to a rainstorm half way through.

Photography by Sam Davis

Our driver is called Sunday, a reserved character who rarely talks. The photo was taken by Sam who mentions in his blog; "A lot of Nigerians offer a very ‘real' photo - never posing or forcing a fake smile. This is his face for the majority of the time. Even when a large lorry comes speeding within inches of his car, he does not flinch. He simply honks his horn and pushes through." You can find a link to Sam's blog here;

http://absolute-piffle.tumblr.com/post/66862979250/l-a-g-o-s-again-i-find-my-self-in-lagos-nigeria

We picked up Dayo's business advisor and headed to a bank, at this point in time Sam and I had no idea what was going on, a feeling we're getting used to now, we understand the difficulties Dayo must be having almost improvising on the spot trying to find new plans, Sam and I being here is a constant reminder that each day that goes by without anything being filmed is a waste. We soon realised that Dayo and his advisor had an appointment with someone at the bank, a chance to try and explain his project which is currently looking for funding on top of it still being filmed. This meeting was a chance to organise a future gathering where Dayo can really present his ideas and previous work to a board of people from the bank and seek sponsorship that can help finish this feature length documentary, the documentary we're here to finish filming. Once the meeting had finished we headed to a nearby office where Dayo and his advisor could get an internet connection, a nearby office taking an hour to get to due to traffic. Their meet had been an encouraging one, they now had to send off an online pitch presentation by 18:30 to the bank in order to arrange a future meeting in Lagos before we head back to the UK. 

Sam taking a nap in the car

It was 14:30 when we arrived at the office. At 18:30 Dayo was pleased having just made the deadline. In the space of time between, Sam and I had quite a bit of time to spare in the car. 

A man selling pirate dvd's of Thor 2

This evenings journey home took quite a while with rush hour traffic, having to cross a couple of lengthy bridges on the return trip that were well known for their awful hold ups. With thousands of slow crawling vehicles packed into 4 lanes, salesmen and women wavered in between offering cold snacks and drinks, objects that would be as handy as a mobile fan and as quirky as a framed painting of a flower. We haggled for a bottle of water, bag of sweet popcorn and the driest sausage roll. The traders would chase your car if you signalled showing interest, waiting for a chance to catch up as the traffic hits you again. I could never get bored of these journeys, with a camera that shoots slow motion at hand, you can always find interesting stuff going on.

Dinner was served as we got in, spaghetti and chicken in a spicy sauce. Embarrassing when it turns out they haven't put any spices of such in, it's just the kick of an african pepper, to me it's the perfect level of spice, as far as I'd go to enjoy. To Dayo and his family it's boring, I'm merely a weakling when it comes to spicy food. Another dip in the pool after dinner to cool us down in moonlight hours, sweet bromance between Sam and I. We logged our rushes for the day before heading to bed at 01:30.

Fast food on the Motorway

Day 2 - Trip to the Mall

Miley Cyrus had a joint on stage and David Dimbleby has got a tattoo at the age of 75. The news that is coming from the Western world all the way to Nigeria doesn't paint us a great picture. God knows what Nigerians must think of us, why we'd have a huge price on our heads I do not know.

Anyhow, we woke at gone 10:00 this morning and prepared for breakfast. Dayo's Aunty had gone to work so it was just us and the workers who cooked us an interesting meal to get our day started. We had porridge on the side of a dish made out of beans, corned beef and sardines (Moi Moi). Both Sam and I preferred the porridge although I ate as much Moi Moi as I could, my stomach isn't quite ready for corned beef at that time in the morning I suppose, I made a decent effort though. Watching Dayo is funny, apparently our meals are toned down in spice and general 'African-ness', we had chicken and rice last night while Dayo dug into Bokoto, a cow leg delicacy, I couldn't taste much of the leg when I tried it though due to the internal mouth scars the spices were creating.

Busy Traffic during rain storm

Our itinerary for today didn't have too much on it, the most important thing was getting Dayo's business head screwed back on, he had been away from a working phone now for a day and needed a new sim card in order to contact people we could potentially interview for the Nollywood documentary. As I mentioned in the last post, our original plans had been cancelled due to the festival organisers not booking our flights to Calabar on time, so Dayo is having to find new ways of getting the material he desires for his project. We organised one of Aunty Ronke's drivers to pick us up from home at mid day and take us to a shopping mall half an hour away. This was our first chance to get some footage of the hectic traffic and roadside activities around Lagos, more opportunity for super slow motion shots also.

Angry driver during motorway traffic

The traffic is mental here, speeding across a bridge with 4 lanes on both sides there are times with no road markers that determine which lane your in. The horn is used often by each car in order to let other drivers know what your doing, although how much time you give them is unpredictable, it is every man for themselves, just mental. I'm not much of a writer so trying to explain what it's like out here is difficult, print screens of shots taken just seems easier and quicker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYF3sXrD6Ig

We arrived at the mall and had a short wait for Dayo to collect a new sim card, during which time we had lunch at a place called Chicken Republic. A place you would hope offers good chicken, it really didn't. This was no meat. What looked like a double beef burger when only chicken was on the menu, it tasted like what I can imagine ass would taste like. It was overcooked so badly that it just becomes rubber as well as the norm in standard of chicken at this fast food chain, one not to go to again. Surprisingly, Sam and I weren't as intriguing to the rest of the mall's public as I originally thought, of course we were in the middle of town though so foreign people weren't over-extraordinary. We caught a lift back to our accommodation for the week, whilst Dayo spent the afternoon making calls and organising the trip, Sam and I shot some more footage from the 3rd story balcony of the house overlooking a main road. Sam managed to download magic lantern once our internet was set up and running so that a time-lapse could be taken this evening, something we hope to get a lot of throughout the trip.

Landscape shot with colour correction (105mm)

We logged and transferred all footage and took another dip in the pool this evening, staying in till dark. It's weird having so many bats flying around you whilst having a swim. For dinner we had the same meal as last night but fish instead of chicken, Dayo had spicy soup and rice, we will have to take more pictures from now on.

We're now currently blogging and Dayo has managed to organise a behind the scenes shoot of a Nollywood film that is currently in production, called 'Lagos Cougars', an earlier start tomorrow so lights out at 01:00. 

Day 1 - Settling In

It didn't take too long to get through passport control, we had one really nice guy at the final desk who stamped our passport, he welcomed us to his country and told us that he had a vision where he would meet a student from London. An interesting start to our trip.

Baggage was quickly collected, 3 suitcases and 2 tripods. We made our way to some seating where we would wait for Dayo's Aunty to pick us up, we were stopped by a couple of security staff who seemed more interested in checking mine and Sam's documents than anybody else, they were keen to see our Passports and Yellow Fever certificate (something I was incredibly lucky enough to get. Back home there is currently a worldwide shortage of yellow fever vaccinations, I managed to get the last one going at Gatwick Airport just two weeks before leaving, most other doctors I had got in touch with had already given away their last ones). We sat down briefly, for about 10 seconds before being told that we couldn't as the seats were for other passengers, local ones only. Ten minutes later and Dayo's Aunty had arrived, she had such a gracious smile as she walked up the lobby towards us. It was the first time Dayo had seen her in 7 months, after sharing a big hug Sam was next, they had already previously met the last time he came out. I made do with a polite hand shake, she was lovely and very excited to get us home, we headed for the car which was waiting for us outside...along with what looked like a blockade of people wanting to help carry luggage for tips, I had already been stopped by a few lads who wanted a photo taken with me, because I'm white, or just funny looking...probably both.

We were picked up by one of Aunty Ronke's personal drivers, Dayo sat in the front whilst Sam and I sat in the back with Ronke in the middle. Sam and I were positioned tactically next to the blacked out windows, something we're advised to keep doing throughout the trip, a guidance most Nigerians with white guests may follow. Apparently Dayo's Uncle once told the driver of a car Sam was in on his previous trip; "don't stop anywhere on the side of the road as you have a million dollars in the back of your car", I laughed as he told me although looking back I'm not sure I was totally humoured by it?

The drive took around half an hour to get to Ronke's home, off the main road we drove through a guarded gate to get into a richer estate. She lives in a spacious 3 story house with a swimming pool, not quite the accommodation I was originally expecting! Of course, plans have changed for this trip, Dayo was not able to get the flights he originally hoped for that would take us to Tinapa, the location of a Nollywood Film Festival that we were planned to shoot. So the first thing on our list of things to do was to get Dayo up and running with a Nigerian sim card so that he can organise new plans for the trip, with other shoots that should help his Nollywood Documentary (the main reason for coming to Nigeria). The only problem was...it was a Sunday, everywhere was closed. So we thought it would be best to use our first day as a day to prepare our equipment and organise it all with kit lists, take some test footage and chill out whilst settling in (my favourite part).

Ronke and her kitchen staff cooked us breakfast (well done eggs, plantain and beans on toast), plantain was a first time for me, it went down well although I doubt I'd be keen enough to get it myself back home from the corner shop in Charlton, the only place I've seen it sold previously. After breakfast the three of us unpacked and felt tired enough to nap, strangely despite Nigeria only being 1 hour ahead in time difference, we were all shattered from the journey. With it being an overnight flight, I had the most sleep catching only a few hours.

We slept till 13:00.

This afternoon was a lot of fun, the FS700 came out of it's bag and the trunks came on. Super slow motion footage diving in the pool. Dayo was enjoying his time with his family whilst Sam and I easily spent a good few hours taking shots.

Print Screen of Sam's Slow Motion Dive

This evening we had another good meal of chicken and rice in a tomato sauce with Dayo's Aunty, Uncle and Cousin. Afterwards we set up Dayo's cool light (only lighting we were able to bring with us on the plane) and tested out all of our equipment to make sure everything was ready to go. Kit lists were finished and test footage was logged, we're happy with what we've got and are keen to start filming documentary footage.

Test footage of Dayo (35mm with Cool Light)

Hopefully tomorrow will be a slightly busier one, although today was well appreciated. In bed at 01:30.

Print Screen of Sam and I during our first daily Video Blog

Journey to Lagos

Looking back, our journey on the way to Nigeria is all a bit of a blur.

After spending the day with good old Russ watching Breaking Bad and eating a ridiculous amount of food, using up what I had left in the fridge, I headed to Dayo's work office in North Greenwich for 18:00. I just managed to catch the bus that would get me there on time, a weird journey stood next to the world's grumpiest bloke, a man wearing a Charlton Athletic football shirt who cursed at everything we drove past. I learnt a lot about the guy in the short space of time it took to get to North Greenwich tube station, apparently he hates car parks and women drivers.

I arrived in the lobby of Dayo's office to find my good friend, Sam Davis signing in, dressed a little more appropriately for the current weather outside, miserable rain and cold winds. I came in just one layer, a thin t-shirt with  jeans, no way was I going to be carrying around a coat and jumper for the trip duration in Nigeria. I'll just have to man up on my return to the UK in two weeks time. We were greeted by Otto, one of Dayo's colleagues. Dayo, of course, was fashionably later than us, as cool as always as he arrived lugging along his tank of a suitcase. A suitcase that looks like it's made out of crocodile skin and big enough to carry the carcass inside. We took our time with checking in online and condensing down our suitcase space with added equipment from the office, time we would later on need in order to have a stress free journey. We all love a bit of stress before a flight to catch.

We left at around 19:30 and caught the tube from North Greenwich, our planned journey was going to take us straight to Heathrow tube station with a change at Green Park onto the Piccadilly line. This would have been far too easy so what we ended up doing was catching a taxi from Gunnersby station after two line changes due to the Piccadilly line being closed between Hammersmith and Heathrow. It was only thanks to our speed freak Taxi Driver who cruised at 90mph that we got to the check in desk on time, a driver who almost took a speed camera flash for us, sheer commitment.

Fortunately the rest of the journey was more relaxed. With our delayed arrival, we were more or less able to jump straight onto the plane. I was lucky enough to catch a lot of shut eye on our flight that ended up being just under 6 hours, with two meals during. Sam wasn't as successful and had to put up with the cheesy feet smell the young lady who sat next to me produced.

We arrived just after 06:00 local time at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria. Keen for the rest of the trip!