London Zoo Trip

The trip was a success! well sort of. It was a really really really funny day! The plus point is we managed to smuggle the twig cage and pebble in with no arrests. The negatives were - it cost £15 each, it was a muggy day, it was really busy because of half term, and to top it off the gorillas decided to stay in the indoor section of the cage for the best part of the day - typical.

We headed straight for Gorilla Kingdom upon entry after a panic stricken ordeal at the entrance - Alec was really worried we'd get searched for some reason. Anyway it was clear that there were no gorillas in the open enclosure so we wandered inside. We were a bit peeved at first because the gorillas were all sitting down behind big glass windows with loads of people crowding around the barriers making it almost impossible to achieve the nice pan down shot we so badly wanted. Plus there was no shrubbery or bushes indoors apart from a little penned off area containing a few palms surrounded by high netting. There were a few guards around, one elderly lady who insisted on no flash phtography and some guy wearing a britney spears type micraphone. He immediately started blaring out information right next to us so that location was out of the question - security was tight lol.

We compensated and managed to place the cage in a bush right next to the gorilla kingdom sign. We filmed a few nice pan shots down here. We were fairly happy with this however it was not ideal - more of a backup. We also placed it near monkey cages and attempted pans there, however the cage looked blatently empty so that was gay lol.

We then went off to a discreet area of the zoo where there were a few bushes that resembled the ones near the sign we had filmed - perfect for our still shots. We filmed and took pictures of all the camera angles needed. By this point about 10 people had asked why we were carrying a twig cage around the zoo, and what it was for. 2 of the zoo keepers stopped us but when we said it was an art project they retreated looking rather grumpy. 3 guys crowded round an empty 30cm high twig cage in a bush taking pictures and making funny noises must have been a hilarious sight!

So yeah we were about to call it a day when we decided to go back to the inside gorilla cage and try and chuck the cage over the shrubbery fence to get our gorilla pan shot! It honestly was like a military operation - Alec threw the cage over the penned off palms when none of the keepers were looking, then positioned it throught the bars! It was so funny, the shear effort we went to to get a twig cage in a bush unoticed and film it. We got a couple of ok pans in the end and headed back to the exit.

BUT! When we walked past the open enclosure gorilla cage on the way back they were out! So we quickly postioned the cage in a nearby bush, and began pan shots from the roaming gorillas down to the bush. The battery was just about to die when I pulled off the perfect steady pan! It literally was the last shot of the day, I panned down to the bush, stopped for a second and the battery died! Too lucky. Anyway we were really pleased with that last shot and headed home.

All in all a great day out and all live action footage and pictures are ready to be imported into Maya tommorow. Plus we managed to film a few sneaky extras.... ;)