Profile: FIlming in Kenya
“The infamous, oh-so-talented Mr. Jesse Oxford just left the project here after a whirlwind tour with a shotlist a mile long to create Nuru’s next two videos. The dude was absolutely AMAZING. He literally flew 19 hours, rode a “bus” for another 7 hours with some momma’s butt crushing him up against the window the whole time – only to hop right off the bus when he arrived onto a motorcycle to head to shoot his first video of the trip with [a Celebrity donor]. I mean, the guy had a tight timeline… but he got it all. Where do we find these guys?”
– Jake Harriman // Nuru International Founder & CEO
Nuru International
Nuru is a new kind of humanitarian organization committed to ending extreme poverty one community at a time. We accomplish this by training and equipping rural communities in the developing world to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. We don’t give any handouts, instead, by listening to the community, we pursue holistic solutions based around 5 areas of development: agriculture, water & sanitation, healthcare, education, and community economic development.
Nuru is committed to telling stories that inspire the developed world to join with us to end extreme poverty. We aspire to produce best-in-class videos that “speak the language” of popular culture, and that is why we turned to Jesse Oxford.
Nuru & Jesse
In summer ‘09 we sent Jesse to our project in Kenya to document our maize harvest and the drilling of 4 deep wells. This was an extremely important assignment that was not only technically and artistically challenging, but physically demanding as well. It takes 3 days of travel to arrive at our project in Kenya, and in order to document our work, Jesse headed out by motorcycle each morning for 10-12 hour days in the field under the hot Kenyan sun in remote, rural locations.
Together Jesse and I roughed out a schedule and a shot list. Jesse then assembled the camera package and all audio recording equipment. From the moment Jesse arrived in Kuria he tirelessly and excellently documented all of Nuru’s work. He shot dozens of hours of footage and interviewed scores of local community members and Nuru staff. Jesse not only got every single shot we needed, but he also trained a local volunteer to shoot video and properly use a boom mic. During his “off” time, Jesse categorized and logged all the footage on the ground before he returned from Kenya. Jesse succeeded in capturing exactly what we needed, and his work was incorporated into one of the most impactful field update videos Nuru has ever had.
// Doug Scott is Chief Marketing Officer for Nuru International. He is passionate about telling stories that mobilize ordinary people to do extraordinary things. To learn more about Nuru’s work, visit: nuruinternational.org.