As all of you well know I have done a lot of freelance video work for outdoor commercial movies. Middle of 2008 Charl and I decided to start up a proper media company and get it from the ground.

So here it is.


Big Five Productions
www.BigFiveProductions.com

We are currently running a introduction special that works out to just less than R15 000.00 less than $1500.00 US at todays exchange rate to film a 7 day hunt (includes travelling days) with editing included. This is for a non commercial home DVD which is still professionaly filmed and edited just not finished to put on sale.

What you pay extra:
Transport for the cameraman and full boarding and accomodation.
Speed courrier for your finished DVD's otherwise we will send it with regular registered post.

What you get:
- One cameraman and gear needed to film the hunt.
- Editing of your hunt.
- 3 Copies of a fully edited DVD of your own hunt there is no copyright on the disks so you can make copies as you please.

If you would like to book the cameraman for a longer time period it will be R1650.00 per day extra and R600.00 for travelling days.

We keep our rates in Rand so you can get the best deal possible.
This special will only run untill end of April and is valid for the 2009 season only so book now to avoid dissapointment.

PS. I'm off to Namibia on the 3rd to film a hunt there and will be back on the 10th please send all inquires to Charl till I'm back.

Fredrick,

Please don't tell me that you are also, like me, becoming a part time PH - and, unlike me, a full tine videographer?

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

Andrew,

This reply is a team effort from me and Charl as I’m in the office today with him and we just saw your post.

We take exception to your remark, and insinuation that I only hunt part-time pro. This image you project of me reflects negatively on Infinito Safaris and must be addressed.

Just the type of answer I expected from you, and was waiting for some of the other part-time PH’s on here to also throw in their worth, after reading this.

Surely I cannot be classed, or admit to, part time PH’ing as I booked 213 days in my register last year. If you go through the trouble of looking at our Big Five Productions web-site you will notice a FULL-TIME video-grapher by the name of Ruan introduced. Your answer is that he will do most of the work.

You see, business have to make sense, and these two ventures run hand in hand when it comes to hunting and fishing. It also give us much needed revenue to get through the “drier” months of November, Dec. and Jan.

I will only film when I'm not hunting myself. Which is very likely that Ruan or another videographer will be doing the filming. We are usually finished hunting in October so I'm open to all those late minute deals on good ele's in Zim

Also if you had proper look at the website you will see we do much more than hunting, weddings, events and other outdoor excursions like fishing. I also write for a couple of outdoor magazines (see current African Outfitter p81, African hunter and fisherman, Sporting Rifle UK) as an outdoor guide (hunting and fishing) and we are bussy securing shares in a very well known taxidermy business. Will this take me out of the bush? Hell no! Will this enable us to offer a better, FULL-TIME hunting experience, hell YES!

You just cannot resist taking the piss out of other Outfitters. Why? We are NOT competition to you. Most of the folks on here think we are an ok bunch, and no one on here that has hunted with us have anything but good to say about us and our services. We use AR for Info, banter and marketing, unlike other so called outdoor professionals swamping AR all the time, with their Infinite (pun intended) wisdom……

Maybe you are jealous of the fact that some young bucks are doing something successful that you could never do, but dreamed about. Please do not take it out on us then, but get your own thing going.

Andrew, I’m saying this with a lot of respect, you are 63 years old, and in our culture age demands respect. We make up part of the future of pro hunting in Africa. Support us in this and your grand children will smile 50 years from now. Fight us with shit like this, and we make our enemies stronger.

You can sugar coat a comment like this as much as you like, you offended us.

I don't know if you saw his smiley face, but I think you took Andrew's comments the wrong way. He said nothing to take offence too.

Also, it seems generous of you to offer there is no copyright and one can make copies, as you are being paid it would be considered a "work for hire" and whoever paid for the video work would then legally own all copyright. What is your daily rate for filming if you exclude editing? I do my own editing but sometimes hire other videographers. Also, what equipment do you use?

filmit,

The rate per day would be R1650.00 and R600.00 per day for travel days.

To make clear about the copyright we would like to use some of the footage for our own promotion and future productions. Obviously the footage used will be approved by the hunter first.

Then we use the canon XM2 as work horses which has been doing great so far all over Africa and we are currently working on getting the new canon xha1.

Just returned from filming a sucessful leopard hunt for KarlS in Namibia.

Everyone was more than happy including the client and Karl if you need to ask any questions about the way we work.

no offense man, but CMSafaris just charges $150 a day, all included for a video.

Rich
Buff Killer

I think CM safaris 150USD a day is not with editing ? 150*7 =1050 + editing ? That would probably be a higher price than 1500US with editing! It is a very good price from both Charl and Buzz IMO.

One less leopard available for me when I hunt with Karl!

seriously...glad it went well...

This is not meant to be critical at all, but for real production (not home/personal stuff) I would think an XH-A1 would be the least quality you would want to use...I own one and it is pretty decent, but not great for production work.

Going rates for videographers in the US working for outdoor TV shows are $150 - $400/day (there may be a very few higher). The $400 guys are shooting on the $50-100k ESPN quality true HiDef cameras - with wireless microphones, $2000 tripods, etc. That is without editing- just filming and travel days vary around half of daily rates. Cameraman has no right to footage unless otherwise agreed, these are for hire rates. So if my calculations are right (does the USD$ = 10 Rand?), you are not bad off on price for quality work.

I wish you guys the absolute best in your endeavors and hope it all exceeds your hopes for the project.

I have had all 3 of my Safaris videoed by a professional.

Sadly he is no longer in the Safari business.

Having you hunt videoed, by a PROFESSIONAL, is the BEST money you will ever spend.

It is worth EVERY penny.

Tim,

Thank you, yes we are far off from producing weekly tv productions but good enough to really show off to your friends at home.

Yes the rand is hovering around R10/us at the moment. You are going to have a great time with Karl believe me, second time I film and hunted with him.

Rich,

I really think our rates are very fair. From CMSafaris website:

"Make use of our highly talented cameramen and editors and top of the range high definition cameras to capture your own safari. We offer this service at cost price to ensure promotional footage for future use."

Could be why they are so well priced as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Tim Herald:
One less leopard available for me when I hunt with Karl!
.

I leave to hunt with Karl in a 5 weeks-------hopefully I will lower the population for leopard by one more!!

But I promise Tim, I will leave the small ones a lone

seriously,
best of luck and I will post my report when I get back

HA! Thanks for the update that I will have one less to choose from...I appreciate you leaving the cubs for me...

best of luck and I look forward to seeing your cat...

Frederik - do you have any photos of the one you filmed?

Nothing better than a DVD to bring home to show the fellas (as long as you leave out the mistakes).

Good luck with the new company!

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
no offense man, but CMSafaris just charges $150 a day, all included for a video.

Rich
Buff Killer

We hired a video grapher from them for our 2007 hunt. Very disappointing experience where the cameramen failed to get most of the shots on video for one reason or the other. Between my father and myself, we have made much better video our self of our hunts.