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Sebastien ROMBI
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Date of Birth: 19th January 1982 Place of Birth: Libreville – Gabon (Central Africa) Nationality: French (In possession of a South African Residency Permit) Address: Portion 45 Glencoe Farm – Hoedspruit – Limpopo – South Africa Email: [email protected] Contact Number: +27 72 303 0582 Driver License Code 8 + PDP (Professional Driving Permit) Wilderness Guide Qualifications : FGASA Level 1
Professional Experience: Highlight of my career so far: Being a Wildlife Camera Operator for Wild Earth.TV and their LIVE Safaris in Sabi Sand Game Reserve for almost 2 years! They are now on Nat Geo Wild as part of Big Cat Week – Wild Safari Live. Click HERE for more info.
Course Director / Camera Operator / Video Editor for Beyond Borders
Productions and Beyond Borders Wildlife Film School
March 2010 - Present Beyond Borders is a natural history production company based in Hoedspruit, near Kruger National Park. Production companies from South Africa (but also from all over the world) can hire my services from Beyond Borders as a DOP (Director of Photography), wildlife camera operator, fixer and video editor mainly for wildlife documentaries but also for promo videos and journalism orientated programs. Main production companies I worked for via Beyond Borders : Wild Earth.TV - Foster Brother Productions – In The Zone Productions – France 3 – Wildlife Conservation Channel In 2013 Beyond Borders has opened a wildlife film school and the company offered me the position of course director. I have been organizing, marketing and supervizing our 25 day wildlife film courses (in 2D and 3D) since the school opened. I am also the main lecturer about camera techniques (2D & 3D) and video editing (2D & 3D) to students from South Africa and all over the world. The school now operates from the famous Kruger National Park and also offers mobile photographic and filming courses throughout South Africa. I guide and lecture these latest additions to the school.
2D & 3D Senior Video Editor for Wild Earth.TV (Via Beyond Borders Productions)
April 2012 – December 2012
Wildearth.TV is a LIVE broadcasting company that produced a series about meerkats in the Kalahari in Tswalu Game Reserve. The series is called ‘Meerkats of the Kalahari 3D’ and I was responsible for all the off line 2D and 3D editing work. From logging footage, cineforming it, editing it with Final Cut Pro 7, adjusting convergence and vertical alignment to obtain perfect 3D, adjusting sound levels, adding music, voice over, buzz tracks, doing color correction and exporting the final edit to different resolutions such as PRORES and MP4 to name a few. 3D Senior Editor for the Foster Brother Productions/Sense Africa (Via Beyond
Borders Productions)
December 2011 Foster Brother Productions is a wildlife filmmaking company based in Capetown. Brothers, Craig and Damon Foster are widely regarded as South Africa’s top documentary filmmakers. I got involved in one of their latest documentary called Dragons 3D which is about 3D underwater footage of crocodiles in the Okavango Delta. The film is part of a trilogy of three documentaries called
“Into the Dragons Lair”, ‘Touching Dragons” and finally “Dragons 3D”. I edited one hour of already cut 3D footage shot with a JVC camera and a 3D rig with a bim spliter. My work involved :
- Organizing all the 3D equipment needed for 3D editing (3D TV, 3D software such as 3D Stereo Toolbox
- and Neo 3D) - Creating 3D clips using 3D Stereo Toolbox in Final Cut Pro and Neo 3D - Adjusting 3D convergence and vertical alignment using 3D Stereo Toolbox and Neo 3D - Transforming 2D shots into 3D shots using 3D Stereo Toolbox - Color grading
Damon Foster had already cut the one hour film for their executive producer with some music. He contacted me to do the 3D editing as he had limited experience in 3D. As a freelance cameraman/editor he offered me a part time job in December to edit their documentary into 3D for their executive producer. Field Guide and Interpreter at Chitwa Chitwa Game Lodge (Via Beyond Borders
Productions) – Sabi Sands Game Reserve – South Africa In 2011 I have been free-lancing as a field guide and interpreter for French and English guests at Chitwa Chitwa Game Lodge. My main work involved guiding and hosting the guests. I also did some interpretation work for some of the French guests.
3D Senior Camera Operator and 3D Senior Editor for Wildearth Safari TV in Djuma Game Reserve (Via Beyond Borders Productions) – Sabi Sands – South
Africa
June 2010 – December 2011 WildEarth Safari broadcasts LIVE safaris daily from the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, which is part of the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa. Every day there is a safari from 06h30 CAT to 09h30CAT and one from 15h30CAT to 18h30 CAT. The safari consists of a Presenter/Expert Field Guide who drives around the reserve looking for animals both big and small. A camera person sits on the back of the safari vehicle and their camera is your eyes. If you want to ask a question to the Ranger in real time, you can email the question through to [email protected] and the director will forward your question through to the ranger. The LIVE game drives can be seen on different platforms such as : www.wildsafarilive.com www.wildearth.tv, www.youtube.com and www.ustream.com . They have also been broadcasted live on TV in France on channel 166 with the Freebox and in Turkey. My duties at Wildeath Safari TV consisted of : • Presenting live game drives (Field guiding twice a day, in front of a camera) • 3D HD live camera operations from a prototype 3D rig for 3D live safaris (over 500 hours spent behind camera) • 2D HD camera operations from a Sony HD NX5 for 2D live safaris (over 800 hours spent behind camera) • Working with Wirecast (broadcasting software) • Directing live shows • Camera maintenance • Vehicle and workshop maintenance • Working with batteries and chargers • 2D & 3D editing on Final Cut Pro.
My work as an editor involved cutting an entire 3D Safari Series made of 13 episodes of 30 minutes each for worldwide distribution and TV broadcasts. I have also been involved in a 3D wildlife Encyclopedia consisting of 20 X 3 minutes clips. Each clip being about a different species occurring in Africa. My work on these two post production projects involved: - Adjusting 3D convergence on 3D footage with 3D Stereo Toolbox - Color Grading - Making sure each episode is broadcast safe - Recording voice over - Recording buzztracks - Laying down voice over into final project - Laying down music - Working with sound effects, sound levels and buzztracks - Working with Sound Track Pro - Compression to required specs using Compressor, Quicktime Conversion and TMPEGnc Video Mastering Works 5 - Working with MD5 Hashes and FTP server procedures and codes - Working with xml files - Uploading procedures to different servers throughout the world I have also cut some 3D Promos for the company as well as a significant amount (170) 3D and 2D diaries for our internet viewers. I also made a Best Of 100 diaries. I have created a page on YOU TUBE where you can watch a few of my diaries, promos and best of. I joined the team at Wildeathsafari TV after an internship with Africa Wildlife Films where I was involved in the production of documentary about Great White Sharks. The position called for an editor/camera operator, based in Sabi Sands Game Reserve. After an intense in-house training on how to film and edit in 3D I got involved into many projects for public sales, TV productions and internet. I gained a phenomenal experience in both editing and camera work and I proved my skills through a few promos and an entire 3D Safari series (390 hours of 3D content beautifully cut into 13 episodes). I also got involved into some presenting work which consists of field guiding for a few thousands of viewers and answering their questions live.
Field Assistant with Africa Wildlife Films (Via Beyond Borders Productions) South Africa
April 2010 – May 2010
I assisted Philip and Lynn Richardson on a production called “Swimming Scared” for National Geographic. The documentary is about Great White Sharks and seals and it was released around august 2010. My work involved: • Assisting Philip Richardson on camera (changing filters, doing white balance, setting tripods, lapel mikes and lights) • Assisting the crew on the boat with their camera equipment • Confectioning a fake great white shark in fiber glass with an underwater camera for some scientific researches • Confectioning rubber seals to pull behind the boat in order to get some breaching shots of great white sharks • Collection and maintenance of camera equipment and lapel mikes
Guide and French translator for Sunway Safaris (Via Beyond Borders Productions)
Southern Africa
March 2010 – April 2010 I guided and translated a three week overland tour from Capetown to Victoria Falls through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia with 10 clients from France.
Wildlife Film Academy course – Entabeni Game Reserve – South Africa
January 2010 – February 2010 One month practical during which I produced, filmed and edited a three minutes movie called “The Journey of the Chameleon”. I decided to interpret and put into motion a very interesting African tale about The Chameleon and First Man. The tale and the movie explain why the chameleons now possess the magical gift of a skin that can change colours. The tale is recounted by Chef Peter Monaledi in Tswana around a fire with an English voice over. My three minute movie can be watched HERE. During this course I learnt about script writing, camera work and editing with Final Cut Pro.
Tour Guide and Tour Consultant for XO Africa Safaris – South Africa March 2008 - January 2010
Office Assistant and Tour Guide for BIWAKWANGO CC – South Africa
March 2006 - March 2008 XO Africa Safaris and Biwakwango CC are two French Tour operators based in Cape town, organising some national and overland Tours to explore the African subcontinent where awareness and respect of the environment and its inhabitants are essential. Places where I guided Tours for XO Africa Safari and Biwakwango CC: Johannesburg/ Blyde River Canyon/ Kruger National Park/ Swaziland (Shewula, Malolotja, Mliwane)/ Imfolozi- Hluhluwe Game reserve/ False Bay/ St Lucia/ Durban/ North Drakensberg (Royal Natal National Park; Cathedral Peak; Golden Gates National Park)/ Lesotho (Malealea)/ Wild Coast (Lusikisiki, Cutweni, Manteku and Port St Johns)/ Port Elisabeth/ Addo Elephant National Park/ Tsitsikamma National Park (Storms River Mouth)/ Knysna/ Wilderness National Park/ Oudsthoorn and surroundings/ Swellendam/ De Hoop Nature Reserve/ Franschhoek/ Stellenbosch/ Capetown/ West Coast.
Logistic Manager on the « Gorillas Project » - Gabon January 2001 - August 2001
« Operation Loango » is a conservation project which is based in the south west littoral of Gabon – precisely in the Fernand Vaz lagoon and Iguela Nature Reserve. Operation Loango regroups many scientific research projects and a lot of conservation actions. With « Gorillas Project » we translocated three gorillas (male, female, juvenile) from a research centre (in Franceville- Gabon) to a controlled island called “Ewengue”.
The main objective of the project was to create great conditions and facilities necessary to the scientific observations of this gorilla family. The Project has also developed some tourist activities and some educational actions with the local population. My work on the project involved the following: • Preparation and realisation of the translocation from Franceville to Ewengue. • Participation in the scientific work to reintroduce the gorilla family. • Observation and behaviour study of the gorillas in the wild • Logistic management on the island.
Education: Highlight of my time at “school”: Wildlife Film Course with Wildlife Film Academy and Game Ranging and Lodge Management Diploma with Damelin in Cape Town.
• January-February 2010: Wildlife Film Making Course in Entabeni Game Reserve with the Wildlife Film Academy. • June 2007: Culture Guide qualification : Level 4/TGC74 Competent to guide as a regional tourist guide in the following areas: Breede River; Cape Metropole; Overberg; West Coast; Winelands: Western Cape Province; Garden Route, Little Karoo and Kannaland; Eastern Cape Province; Free State Province; Kwazulu Natal; Mpumalanga Province • June 2007: Refreshing First AID Course level 1 with Dynamikos. Certificate number: 2694 • June 2006: FGASA level 1 – Kruger National Park and surrounding private Game Reserves. FGASA number: 8473 • November 2005: Diploma in “Game Ranging and Lodge Management” at Damelin in Mowbray (Capetown/South Africa) • September 2005 : Advanced certificate in Game Ranging delivered by Eco-Training in Makuleke Concession (North part of Kruger National Park-South Africa). • July 2004 : Certificate in Game Ranging delivered by Ecotraining in Selati Game Reserve (South Africa). • June 2003 : Diploma in « African Wildlife Conservation » at Wildlife School in Garoua (Cameroon). • June 2000 : Technical license of Agriculture to specialize in « European wildlife management » in Vendome (France)
Languages:
• French – first language • English – fluent writen and spoken
Interests:
• Wildlife photography ( Sonny Alpha 200 with a 70- 300 mm lens + tripod) You can see some of my photographs HERE. • Birding • Medicinal uses of plants • Astronomy • Editing (Adobe Premier Pro and Final Cut Pro) • Reading * Cycling * Running • Surfing • Fishing • Hiking and camping.
References:
• Nick Worsley – Beyond Borders Productions – (CEO) – 082 857 4539 • Brian Gow – Wildlife Conservation Channel – (CEO) – [email protected] • Sandrine Bossy – France Televisions - Production Manager - [email protected] • Richard Leonard – In the Zone Productions – Director – 074 102 3385 • Wildearth Safari TV – Will Fox (CEO) – [email protected] – 079 354 8538 • Wildearth Safari TV – Graham Wallington (director) – [email protected] – 073 274 5761 • Wildearth Safari TV – Emily Wallington (Director) – [email protected] – 082 885 2317 • Wildearth Safari TV – Peter Braat (Director) – [email protected] – 079 973 7729 • Foster Brother Productions – Damon Foster (Film Producer) – 078 397 7382 • Foster Brother Productions – Craig Foster (Film Producer) – 084 411 1164 • Africa Wildlife Films – Philip Richardson (Director) – [email protected] - 082 337 2213 • Wildlife Film Academy – Khanyo Nzunzu (Operation Manager)-
[email protected] –072 545 7977 • XO Africa – Christian Dettori (Director) – 083 309 0467 or 021 486 27 00 ext147 • Biwakwango CC – Thierry Pagnot (CEO) – 083 391 1966
