What are you driving at?
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”
John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Human nature tries to understand new things by categorising them with something that is known. This has led to a stock of standard interpretations of what exactly The EXPEDITION Project is. To some, it was a documentary film project. To others, it was a holiday in disguise. For some, it conjured images of Kingsley Holgate’s overland journey from the Cape to Cairo. Others were only perplexed by the question of profitability.
Perhaps the name was always going to obstruct vision or obscure explanation. Not many modern expeditions are true to the dictionary definition of the word:
A journey by a team on a mission of purpose.
I added “project” to it, which is defined as:
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.
I did not want to create the association with “terra incognita”. The borders of South Africa, my homeland, would confine the EXPEDITION Project. I was not heading into unknown physical terrain. I wanted to create a template that could be replicated in any other country… by locals, not benevolent and idealistic foreigners.
I underestimated the cost and structural requirements of filming. I also did not realise how important it would be to the project’s future. What started as a grand dream of a sweeping documentary has now been whittled down to hyper-realistic snippet inserts. Think Twitter for TV and you won’t be far off the mark.
This is where we are with that concept:
The world is moving faster
We are moving faster to keep up
We don’t have time for all the fuss
So let’s cut to the chase
The heart of the matter
The heart of the people
And the heart of our country
In 36 five-minute episodes, we will condense our country into bite size chunks
Each will be a story within a story
It will show our successes
Our fears
Our failures
Our culture
Our lives
Sometimes funny
Sometimes sad
Always informative
And definitely entertaining
Join our very own soap opera - reality show - documentary
It is everything you always knew and never spoke about
And many things you didn’t know and wanted to learn
Join ‘The EXPEDITION Project’
To be continued...
