Felipe Leite in the Canadian Rockies
We have been silent for the past two weeks because we have been working on a very big project that will impact on everyone who makes video.
Now, we are ready to go public with it.
This week we are launching a new webcasting network that comes is both new, but in many cases, hearkens back to the classic days of National Geographic, or even the Royal Geographic Society – yet it is very much 21st Century.
What do I mean?
On January 13, 1888, just over two dozen explorers and scientists gathered at Washington DC’s Cosmos Club.
They were there to found a new society, dedicated both to exploration and adventure; and for the ‘increase and diffusion of knowledge’.
A few weeks later, one of the society’s founders, Alexander Graham Bell met with his new son-in-law, Gilbert Grosvner and suggested that he should start a magazine reflective of their newly launched society.
When Grosvner asked his father-in-law what the magazine should be about, Bell replied “the world and all that is in it.â€
The society they launched would become The National Geographic Society, and the magazine, the iconic yellow publication that would on to capture the world’s attention and respect for more than 100 years.
It was the mission of The National Geographic Society to underwrite and support exploration and intellectual adventures all over the world. From The Galapagos to Antarctica; from Jacques Cousteau’s adventures under the sea to Jane Goodall in Africa, National Geographic supported the concept of the bold individual in search of the truth. The magazine, and later television became a vehicle for sharing those stories with millions.
It was more than ‘entertainment’. It was a passion, a belief and a mission.
Today, we pick up the banner of that passion for individual exploration and information and marry it to the vast potential of the new digital world.
This week, Filipe Leite, a 25 year old Canadian journalist sets off on the adventure of a lifetime.
He is going to ride two horses from Calgary, Canada to Brazil. The trip will take him two years.
When we first met Filipe, his dream was only a dream. But it was a dream we believed he could accomplish. So we flew him down to Nashville, gave him the video gear and the training he needed to tell his on-going story to the world, and also gave him (and will give him) the support he will need to make his dream a reality. Now, the rest is up to him.
But we’ll be following his adventure all along the way. Filipe will be shooting and editing; posting his videos; blogging and live webcasting (when possible) and talking to people online throughout the entire trip.
What do we expect in the end? A feature film? A book? Hopefully. But more hopefully, we expect that Filipe will return a changed man for the experience and the world will know a lot more about him, about long riding and the plight of horses, and the kind of adventure that some might have thought no longer existed.
This is ‘real’ Reality TV, unlike anything that has ever been done before.
This is not about putting a bunch of 20-somethings in a house (or on an island) with a massive support team and camera crews and having them ‘compete’ with each other. There won’t be any eliminations here. No ‘prizes’.
Instead, this is about one man and his dream and his unbelievable effort to see it come true.
The world is still filled with dreamers and adventurers and explorers. People who want to do real things; hard things; do them well and share them with the world.
Filipe is the first, but the first of many, who we will be training, equipping, supporting and sending out to conquer and discover and report.
We’re looking for more.
Many more.
If you have a dream like Filipe’s, get in touch with us.
