The scout book — Zimbabwe
Ten places I keep on file. Each one carries what a line producer asks first: how far it is from base, when the light works, what you will hear on the track, and how long the permit takes.
Mortarless granite walls raised from the eleventh century, and the monument the country takes its name from.
Granite two billion years old, weathered into whalebacks and boulders balanced in ways that do not look survivable.
The largest park in the country, and the one for elephant in numbers. Waterholes give you a static frame that fills itself.
Nyanga, Mutare and Chimanimani. Cloud forest, waterfalls and cold mornings within a few hours of open savannah.
Drowned forest standing in open water, houseboats you can shoot from, and sunsets that need almost nothing doing to them.
Markets, street life, tower blocks, colonial-era civic buildings and quiet northern suburbs. Base for most productions.
Pale sand on the Kariba shoreline, hot springs, and Tonga communities with their own story to tell.
A place of pilgrimage and considerable stillness, east of Harare. Sensitive ground, so filming runs on relationships.
Rough granite country and the black-granite quarries, with villages working the land between them.
A limestone system holding water of an improbable blue. Lighting and safety are the whole conversation here.
Field figures are indicative and confirmed at recce. Drive times assume dry-season roads and a loaded vehicle, not a bare one.
Planning — Before you pick
Choosing a location is really choosing a season, a travel day and a permission. These are the constraints I would raise with you first.
The wet season runs roughly from November to March. It brings the country green and the waterfalls full, and it also softens roads and grounds drones. Both are workable, but not by accident.
Hwange, Binga and the Eastern Highlands are not day trips from Harare. Pairing locations badly is the commonest way a schedule loses a shooting day to a vehicle.
National monuments, parks and community land each answer to a different authority, and some to a person rather than an office. Lead time is the cheapest thing you can give me.
Reference — Moving footage
Reference material filmed by others, included so you can judge the places before spending a recce budget on them.
Next — Your project
A bustling street, a remote river valley, a mission church, a mine, a stadium. Describe the frame you want and I will tell you where it is.
