InBroadcast - IBC2022 Preview - 42

42
www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 12 - Issue 8 | IBC2022 Preview
In
2022
Wildlife filmmakers, rely on Cartoni
Maxima to capture the action
S
talking big cats and spending
months out in the African bush
is more than a workday; it's a lifestyle
for the husband-and-wife team at
Avalon Media Africa. A family-based
company of husband and wife, both
experienced
wildlife filmmakers,
Cissy and Werner Maritz founded their
production company in 2016. Based
in the heart of the South African
Bushveld, a sub-tropical woodland
ecoregion of Southern Africa which
includes Kruger National Park, one
of the largest reserves in the country.
Their work has appeared on PBS,
Nat Geo, Discovery, Animal Planet &
DirecTV.
Despite the harsh conditions
in which they work, the pair
invested in a Cartoni Maxima 40 for
their filmmaking.
InBroadcast: How long have you
been into wildlife in Africa?
Cissy: My interest in wildlife has
always been there. I was born in the
Netherlands, but I chose the wildest
of the wild Africa, and fell in love with
the continent.
Werner: Born in South Africa,
grew up all over Africa. My passion
for wildlife was deeply
into every part of whom I am today.
Spending time in nature between
wild animals is where I
ingrained
feel most
home and at peace. I've been filming
wildlife documentaries for the last 13
years.
InBroadcast: In terms of wildlife,
what is that your specialty?
Werner: I love big cats, especially
lions. They are masters in saving
energy! But there's, to me at least, no
other animal that is so exciting to film
when they do something. When you
are in the presence of a pride of lions
or a nomadic lion by himself, you can
feel their presence. When you spend
time with them, you start
to know
their personalities and individual
quirks.
InBroadcast: What does it take to
get those very close-up shots.
Cissy: Normally we spend weeks
with the animals, staying with them
throughout the day, so they know us,
and we know them.
Werner: We need to study where
are going to walk or what
is going to take
they
path the animal
when hunting. All of this will not be
possible if we don't have the right
gear. We use long lenses. This not
only brings us closer to the animals
but also lets us keep our distance.
Our presence should not change their
natural behavior.
InBroadcast: Why did you choose
the Maxima head?
Werner: I was looking for a head
that can do it all. We shoot with very
long lenses and needed something
that could handle the weight and be
very stable as our
set up 90% of the
time is a Red Gemini
+ a Canon CN20 (50
-1000mm). If
the
head and your setup
is
not
right
the
image picks up your
heartbeat via your
fingertips.
This can ruin an amazing shot,
and trust me, when you are filming
big cats hunting, your heart starts
pumping a little bit
faster.
The
Maxima 40 has served us extremely
well and proven to be extremely
smooth in panning and tilting with
no backups on a start or stop of a pan
or tilt. It just goes where you point it
with extreme smoothness. We also
needed something reliable, robust,
that can handle Africa.
It is super smooth, can handle the
Werner & Cissy's Cartoni Maxima 40
weight and during the 2.5 years out in
the African bush, it
has handled all the
elements extremely
well.
Shooting in
rain, dust, extreme
heat, extreme cold.
It has been a real
beast
field, and it
out in the
has
never missed a beat.
Cissy: Our other issue was also
that we can't always clean it properly
every day. You try to keep all the
gear as clean as possible but when
filming out in Africa, you have the
head-mounted on an open vehicle
bouncing around on the African
plains while
getting covered with
dust. Well, the Cartoni Maxima has
taken this in its stride. The way the
Maxima works
is
just
fantastic:
smooth, fast, and just a pleasure to
work with.
InBroadcast: Has wildlife filming
changed over the years?
Werner: There are a couple of
growing in the wildlife
trends
industry. If we are talking filming, yes
gimbals, drones, trap cameras are
being used more and more. But the
long lens is still the king of wildlife
filming.
https://www.cartoni.com
Cissy Maritz using the Maxima 40
mounted on a vehicle
Cissy Maritz captures sunset
with the MAXIMA 40
Werner Maritz captures wild rhinos
using the Maxima 40
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.cartoni.com http://www.cartoni.com http://www.cartoni.com https://www.cartoni.com http://www.cartoni.com
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