The thing that I love about what I do is the fact that I am constantly learning. I get to meet a diverse range of people and get to travel around the world visiting places that I probably would never get to see otherwise. In the case of this case corporate video that we shot for Hawaiki, I got to travel to Auckland, Samoa and American Samoa! We partnered up with Evolve Social to create an initial corporate video showcasing what Hawaiki was planning. Their project was installing a huge submarine cable that would link Australia with America via a number of pacific islands including New Zealand, Fiji, American Samoa and Hawai. The first video in the series was filmed in Coogee. This was the landing point for the Australian section of cable. We documented the cable reaching dry land, interviewed the staff involved and spliced in underwater footage provided to us by the divers on site. This was a huge project for Hawaiki and would impact millions of lives for the better. It was incredible learning about the process involved and the sheer scale of it all. The cable would be laid in sections across the Pacific ocean by specialized ships carrying thousands of kilometres of cable. In the video the crew explained to us that the sea bed is just like the landscape on dry land. There are mountains and canyons down there so the cable needs to be dropped precisely to avoid damage. Special underwater surveying equipment is used to measure the sea bed and she ship above needs to deal with harsh weather conditions in order to keep the cable to within 1m accuracy. With the Coogee cable attached it was time to move on.
Our next section of the corporate video production was to head to Auckland. This would be video number two in the series. In this video we actually got to board the cable ship and capture footage of the inner workings. This was an incredible learning experience. The crew are on board for months at a time and we got to capture what it would be like to live aboard this ship. We saw the huge cable runs where the cable is stored and the equipment used to feed all this cable down to the ocean floor. We interviewed board members, engineers and local representatives of New Zealand that this cable would really benefit. We then hired a car and travelled for three hours up to Mangawhai Heads. This would be the landing spot for the NZ cable section. It was a historic moment and we were honoured to witness local elders blessing the cable coming onto the land. The weather was against us so we had to waterproof our camera equipment in order to face the elements. We managed to get a small break in the weather and fly our drone to capture some fantastic aerial footage.
To continue our corporate video series we then flew to American Samoa. The only way to access American Samoa from Australia was by a light aircraft from Samoa. We landed in Samoa and took a two-hour overland trip to the small airport on the opposite side of the island. We then weighed all of our gear, belongings and even ourselves and boarded the small aircraft. It was only a 30-minute flight but in a plane of that size, it was long enough!! We then headed straight to the HQ of the largest telecommunication company in American Samoa, Astca. Astca gave us a lovely welcome and a brief tour of their headquarters. We headed back to our accommodation to rest and prepare for the events over the next few days.
We woke early to head to the coast to catch some beautiful sunrise shots. We mixed drone and timelapse shots that we would use in the final edit. We interviewed many of the people involved in the American Samoa section and we were even able to interview The Governor of American Samoa which was a real honour. We witnessed the monumental moment where the cable was brought onto the shore. This cable will improve the lives of thousands of American Samoans by increasing job opportunities that this cable brings.
It was an intense few days of long hours in extreme humidity but we got the job done and the client loves the results! American Samoa is not really set up for tourists so we decided to spend a few days back on Samoa. We hired a car and drove around the island to capture some of its natural beauty. Every shot you see in our videos has been captured by Exposed Wolf. We never use external stock footage unless we have no access to certain areas or the times of year don’t match the project.
I’ll never forget my time shooting these corporate videos for Hawaiki. A big thanks go out to Evolve Social for partnering with us to capture the content. It was an incredible experience and I got to learn about new cultures and visit places that are usually reserved for postcards. This is why I love my job.
Thanks for reading!
Gareth Carr
Cinematographer & Photographer based in Sydney, Australia
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Exposed Wolf is a video production & photography company based in Sydney, Australia. With over 20 years of industry experience, they can help you with planning, shooting and editing your projects to give you months of powerful content to raise your business and brand.