FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Optical Devices Division, announced that “War Elephants,” a nature documentary featuring the cinematography and conservation efforts of DP Bob Poole, was shot using FUJINON lenses. The documentary first aired on April 22, 2012, at 8pm ET/PT on Nat Geo WILD.
“War Elephants” also won the best documentary prize at the prestigious Sun Valley Film Festival in March. A link to the beginning of the film can be found here.
NGTV’s in-house Director of Photography Eric Cochren for “War Elephants” turned the cameras on Poole, whose award-winning cinematography sheds light on the dangers facing the majestic but threatened animals of the African plains. “War Elephants” prominently features the elephants that roam Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. Starting in 1977, a 16-year-long civil war ravaged the country, leaving more than 1 million people dead and wiping out nearly 95 percent of the park’s wildlife. Elephants, poached for their ivory, were among the hardest hit; their population was reduced from more than 2000 to just over 100. Today, peace has been restored to Mozambique, but the surviving elephants still carry the emotional scars of war.
Bob Poole’s lifework — including his efforts to document the life-and-death struggles of elephants against natural and manmade threats — is the central theme of “War Elephants.” Cochren employed an extreme telephoto HA25x16.5BERD HD Premier Series zoom lens to document Bob’s work. Throughout the film, Poole is seen shooting with his FUJINON HA25x16.5BERD and HA13x4.5BERDHD super wide-angle zoom lens. Poole also used his FUJINON TS-P58A external stabilizer for shots requiring image stabilization on either lens. For both Poole and Cochren, FUJINON lenses have proven to be durable and rugged in inclement weather conditions, such as the powerful winds, extreme heat and massive sandstorms common to the African plains.
Footage of Bob Poole on camera in “War Elephants” can be found here.
