Leo King

in Kenya
Dust, wind, sweat and tears - it's all in a day's work as Cut+Run editor Leo King says hakuna matata to Kenya on this epic shoot for the British Army

We arrive in Kenya's capital Nairobi and are immediately transferred by minivan to our home for the next two weeks… a tented city in Magadi. We are here to cut the next set of Army commercials directed by Michael Geoghegan at Spank Films. So far, cutting the Army jobs has taken me to the Salisbury Plains and Belize, but I get the feeling this is going to be the biggest challenge yet.

Camp is in the middle of the desert with salt flats on either side of us. Accommodation consists of a tent each, a bucket for a shower, a hole in the ground for the toilet, no air conditioning and lots of dust. The temperature when we arrive is deceptive as it is only about 25 degrees and lightly drizzling, but we are warned that we should expect it to rise by at least 15 degrees over the next few days.

All the tents are in rows and in the middle of camp is the 'mess tent', where we will eat our three meals each day. Camp is run by Ben, who normally takes groups of about 15 people on Safari. This camp has 110 people staying in it, so it's all on a much bigger scale than he's used to. Most of the workers in the camp come from Nairobi. But they have also hired some local Masai, who wearing traditional clothing add lots of vibrant colour to camp.

The production company, Spank, have laid on a few luxuries to keep the morale up, such as guitars, a football and a film projector. The first night we all sit down to watch a film. We all enjoy this and I think the local Masai find it particularly interesting viewing!

The next day Phil (my assistant) and I test the gear. The latest Army commercial is all to be shot in the first person perspective, with Michael Geoghegan 'wearing' the camera rig. He has a helmet with a camera attached, and a small visor over his eyes. On his back, he is carrying a custom-designed backpack, which houses an XDR HD recorder. With his Army clothing on we rename him "The Geogheganator".

We'll edit using the playback, which is transmitted wirelessly to the playback op, Karl Taggert. Karl transmits the footage down a cable to us. Then we can take a live feed, sync up the sound from Nick Robertson, and be cutting as soon as the take is done. We will be cutting on laptops using Avid. We have also brought with us 10 TB of drive space, to store and backup all the HD footage.

All the tests run smoothly. We are ready to shoot.

The first two days are spent in a small village about an hour's drive away. We set up our gear in a tent and start to experience the full force of Kenyan heat. By nine o'clock on the first morning, it is already 35 degrees. There are 500 extras, as the script is situated in the middle of a humanitarian crisis.

Cutting the playback works very well, particularly because Michael is not in his normal place of watching each shot on a nice monitor in the shade, he's in the thick of the action instead. Therefore after each set-up, he comes over to check how the cut is coming along. This really helps to decide which bits are missing from the story so he can pick them up later on.

After a long day of heat and dust we head back to camp for more… heat and dust. There's no clean air-conditioned hotel room to go back to and when the wind gets up, you and the gear get caked in a layer of dust. But you just accept it and carry on. As we work some of the local Masai guys crowd round and watch the footage.

The next few days are spent baking in the fourth hottest place on earth. We are now shooting in the salt flats where there is no cover or breeze. The temperature gets up to 53 degrees. We have to bring in two fans just to stop the equipment from overheating. In this kind of heat, everyone is told to constantly drink water. Over the next 14 days the crew will get through 10,000 bottles.

This location requires everyone to be hidden, as there is a 360 degree lock off. Michael could look anywhere at any time and therefore so could the camera. Shooting stops only to let the Masai farmers walk through with their herds of about 5,000 goats.

From the salt flats we move to the town of Magadi. Magadi was built to house the factory workers and their families who process the salt from the salt flats. It's quite a strange place as all the housing consists of purpose-built blocks of flats, built in the 1950s. We set up behind the compound that will be shot. We are next to the local public toilet, which doesn't seem to have been cleaned since the fifties. Every time the wind changes, our tent fills with the smell of it!

The scripts shot here have lots of explosions, so because of the interest in what we are doing, the crew has to put up with a lot of unwanted extras. The crew also has to deal with the changing weather. Everyday at four o'clock, it clouds over and starts raining. Rivers start flowing though our tent and the dust turns to mud. It's time to pack up and move on.

Our final location is back in the desert. This is where the conditions finally take their toll on our equipment. On the morning of the ninth day of shooting, one of the drives that holds all the footage does not start up. We then go to copy off the backup clone drive, which does not work. These two drives hold the only copy of the nine days worth of footage, so all editing stops to sort this out.

After many phone calls back to the UK and probably the worst few hours of my life, an executive decision is made. Jack, a runner from Cut+Run, will fly out to Kenya to pick up the drives and fly back to get them looked at in London. Over the next few days the drives make their way back to our technical support. The drives are cleaned out and reassembled and thankfully 99.9 per cent of the files are recovered…. phew!

The next day we leave Magadi and head to Mombassa. I am sad to say goodbye to the Masai friends we have made and also to the way of life we've become accustomed to, all living in camp together. But as we say goodbye to Magadi, we say hello to what can only be described as luxury compared to living in tents! We are now in a beach resort lying on the Indian Ocean and all is good. We have a couple of days to swim, eat and generally recuperate. As always though, being editors on set your work is never done. Therefore Phil and I work a few hours each day, to catch up on the last two weeks.

Our final shoot location is Mombassa Old Town. This is a very poor and dirty place. There is a legend in Mombassa that you will be cursed if you kill someone else's animals, therefore there is livestock roaming around everywhere. Just next to us is a group of goats, chickens and some very mangy looking ducks (and I don't see any rivers). We are working in a small square surrounded by tall buildings. The streets are so narrow we have to get tuk-tuks in to deliver our gear.

Mombassa is a very Muslim city, so bringing in a film crew, 25 British soldiers and Army vehicles was a bit of a challenge. Despite signs hanging everywhere saying things like 'Muslim Army stand up and unite' the people are very accommodating and just interested in what we were doing.

It's the final night and time for the wrap party! We're on the beach back at the hotel. John Golley the producer has organised a projector and we all watch a 'Making Of' that Victoria and Al from COI have put together whilst the shoot has been going on. We have a few drinks and round off the trip with a moonlit swim in the Indian Ocean.

I've had an amazing, unique experience in Kenya. Even with the heat, the dust, the sweat and the tears I wouldn't change anything. I always say cutting an Army job is a bit like what I imagine childbirth to be like. It's painful and really hard work when you are doing it, but once it's finished you always want to do it again