ABOUT

Concept: Explorer Films was a small production company made entirely of interns, PAs, freelancers and a small handful of Executive Producers. We produced a single adventure, travel and culture show entitled "Born to Explore with Richard Wiese," created over 26 hourlong episodes annually for domestic & international distribution on ABC TV and National Geographic. Since our staff was so small, we all participated in the entire process from pre-production through post-production: storyboarding, scripting, researching, transcribing & screening footage and more. For this project, the other lead researcher and I were handed one or two potential destinations in Morocco then assigned to identify storylines, contact & screen prospective guests, work with the producers to build potential segments into three full episodes and plan the international shoots.

Execution: After we created the production book and planned the shoot, our crew flew to Morocco for two weeks. This shoot's crew consisted of EP/Host Richard Wiese, EP Mercedes Velgot, Director & Cinematographer John Barnhardt, Camera Operator Greg Harriott and Location Audio Cory Choy. They journeyed from Bedouins in the Atlas Mountains to the dye pits of Fez and explore everything in between using a mix of GoPros and traditional cameras on dollies and tripods. Once the shoot wrapped, the raw footage was captured on G drives. As part of post-pro, we'd convert, organize and log the footage then hand them off to our editors to compile in FinalCut Pro. Finally, we'd screen the clips and help our EP work on the script treatment and create a rough cut.

Results: One of the three final episodes for Morocco, entitled 'Nomads,' garnered two Daytime Emmy® nominations for Outstanding Travel Program and Outstanding Achievement in Single-Camera Photography. Born to Explore with Richard Wiese won Outstanding Achievement in Single-Camera Photography then continued to gain momentum. To date, the show has won several Daytime Emmy® and Peabody Awards.