South African amateur filmmaker, Kjell Bismeyer's clip entitled 'Elephants swimming by moonlight' has a secured a spot in the YouTube full-length film called 'Life in a Day'.
The film, spearheaded by Google's YouTube, is a cinematic experiment that has collected over 4 500 hours of footage sent from thousands of people in 192 countries. The ambitious project aims to capture and document a single day on planet Earth.
The film was produced by Ridley Scott's company, Scott-Free UK, in partnership with YouTube, as well as Oscar-winning director Kevin MacDonald of 'State of Play', 'Last King of Scotland', and 'Touching the Void' fame, who processed more than 80 000 video clips into a 90-minute documentary.
Love of nature
Bismeyer is a manager at Naledi Bushcamp, a South African game lodge based in Limpopo. He says wildlife film and photography is his passion and would often film animals at the reserve and upload the videos onto YouTube for the lodge's guests to view.
“I was fortunate enough to one day see elephants cross the road at night, and after following them for a while, I was able to film them swimming in a dam. It was a sighting that you don't often see at night,” says Bismeyer.
He says he got a call from YouTube yesterday morning, informing him that the video clip he produced would be featured in 'Life in a Day'.
“I think it's inspirational to show the rest of the world the amazing sights we get to see everyday right on our doorstep,” adds Bismeyer.
Life in a day
According to YouTube, the film clips capture a wide array of life experiences, including a Korean man who has been cycling the world for nine years, a young mother battling cancer and a Russian free-runner making Moscow his playground.
The video social network states contributors whose clip submissions were chosen are credited as co-directors, and 26 of them have been invited to attend the world premiere of the film on 27 January, as part of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Viewers worldwide can tune into the live stream here to see the film before it is released in theatres and DVD later this year. The film will be rebroadcast on 28 January and subtitled in 25 languages.
Executive producer Ridley Scott says: “I am delighted that we're bringing together contributors from all over the globe in such a unique way. I believe 'Life in a Day' will inspire more people to pick up a camera and tell their stories.”
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