DVD Producers Richard & Julia Kemp

Richard and Julia Kemp have been a husband and wife team of wildlife filmmakers for 30 years. Emma Outmen met them to hear about their extraordinary journeys. Watching one of Julia and Richard Kemp's old Survival videos makes you realise that there is a world of wildlife out there we would simply know nothing about if it wasn't for filmmakers such as them. Watching their film The Mysterious Journey it really hit home that the husband and wife camera team have been on more journeys than most of us could dream of in one lifetime. Made just over 20 years ago, The Mysterious Journey was certainly was not the first they had made together, but at the time it was regarded as one of the toughest and most hazardous expeditions ever undertaken for Anglia Television's Survival series.

They had taken their three-year-old son Malcolm with them and had spent seven months virtually cut off from civilisation in a remote and desolate region of the Sudan, filming for the first time the migration of one million white-eared kob antelope in one of the harshest climates in the world. Normally Richard and Julia remain behind camera at all times but in The Mysterious Journey, young Malcolm is almost the star of the show. As well as the one million migrating antelope of course. Julia said of her son: "We called him our ambassador. It breaks the ice as soon as you meet new people, especially tribal people - they immediately relate to you if you are a family turning up."Turning up in remote regions of the world has been part and parcel of Richard and Julia's life. All in all they have made around 30 wildlife films together, many for Anglia Television's Survival series, as was.

Now Malcolm is 24-years-old and a "jolly good photographer" in his own right, according to his proud parents.
Referring to The Mysterious Journey, Julia said: "We never like being in front of the camera very much. We didn't want the story to be about us. We wanted the story to be about the animals."
Richard had learnt to fly his own aircraft especially to find the migrating herds and make the film. All in all, the Kemps flew, drove and walked six thousand miles, endured flood,drought, tropical diseases - although Malcolm did not suffer any -and narrowly escaped capture by rebels.
Sitting around the kitchen table in their farmhouse home near Norwich, they could spend hours at a time reminiscing about journeys which to you or I might sound like one long endurance test after another.
"It almost rolls off the tongue," said 53-year-old Julia of the matter-of-fact way they can recall such events in their life.
Julia made up the other half of the team, even when heavily pregnant - with Malcolm. Richard turned to his wife and recalled: "Four weeks before you were due you were carrying my tripod up the mountain!"
Richard was born within the sound of Bow Bells. He came to Norfolk at the age of 12, when his parents bought a tiny isolated cottage on the River Bure.

His ambition was to be a filmmaker of some description, and 40 years ago he started his career in London, as a film editor, first for ITN and for Anglia's Survival series.
London was where Richard and Julia met, over a game of poker.
Julia had been training to be an occupational therapist at the time, but her career path was about to change direction completely. As soon as her training was finished she was off to Kenya to join Richard.
Six months later they were married.
It sounded like the perfect match. "I couldn't believe my luck really, "added Julia. "I'd always loved wild places." But she could have been an occupational therapist, I commented. "What a thought - Just think what I would have missed!" came the reply. "As soon as I went out to Africa and saw these wild places I got hooked immediately. I love working with animals and understanding their behaviour. "They began by working with acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Alan Root and his first wife Joan. It was she who taught Julia how to be calm with animals. It was at this point in the proceedings that Richard then said something that only one wildlife filmmaker could say about another! "Didn't we just hear he'd been bitten by a gorilla?"

Richard and Julia's first film together was Hell's Gate, about the ecology of a beautiful volcanic gorge in Kenya, "which we were lucky enough to get with Survival," said Julia. For their silver wedding anniversary Richard and Julia took their children, Malcolm and Emma now 18, back to Kenya, where it all began. As well as Africa, they have worked extensively in different parts of Russia, and Richard was the first to film the Siberian tiger in the wild (in 1992), in India and in Spitzbergen.

It almost goes without saying that the world of wildlife filmmaking has changed since Richard and Julia first started out. Julia said: "ITV barely puts on true wildlife now. If it does it is a "how I wrestled with a crocodile or narrowly avoided the venom of a spitting cobra "It is the US TV industry that call the shots now. But Julia said: "We've been lucky to live through the good years of wildlifefilm making. And the programmes we made were enormously successful and profitable. In the old days if you were nursing a new idea for a programme, a chance meeting in the passage could be enough to set the ball rolling. Richard & Julia still prefer film but are also using a video camera now. But the camera that has served them well for more than 20 years is an Arriflex 16 SRll.

Richard, who is clearly passionate about what he does, said: "I think these sorts of projects are really fascinating and there must be a slot for them somewhere in television."As for the filming itself: "Wonderful things happen when you are there." Like when I filmed a cheetah family in Namibia and they pulled down an Oryx calf. But its mother was not going to accept the predators had the upper hand: she and her companions charged the cheetahs with their sharply pointed horns and chased off the cheetahs. Miraculously the still dazed calf got up and tottered off, sticking closely to Mum.

Richard added: The wolf is a very illusive animal but, I managed to find and film 2 different wild packs in northern Spain. But for the den and cub-rearing sequences we had a pack of wolves. It was something Julia was very involved with. Julia recalled: "To someone they know they can be very confiding, like a dog in the way they can treat you, but not like a dog at all with other people!" I wondered what dangers they had faced over the years. But Julia commented: "the animals very rarely give problems - it's more likely to be people." The biggest problem, "without any doubt" she said, is the bureaucracy in foreign countries.

But Richard continued: "There have been times when I've thought I've gone too far." One such time was when he was filming Bears of the Russian Front in 2000 in Kamchatka. A huge bear we called Scarface was chasing a rival. We were hidden, but not sensing our presence he ended up less than forty meters away, too close for comfort, staring after the other bear. The Arri was rolling as I captured this giant's every move, the guide and crew barely breathed. I gave a soft squeak to turn his head. His ear twitched and several tense moments elapsed as I began to regret my action. His head and body turned to confront us as he took two steps in our direction his eyes trying to penetrate the camouflage netting. However he seemed satisfied there was no threat and turned back to pursuing his main enemy, leaving a trembling Malcolm and the rest of us very relieved."

You laugh off these stories but your number could be up," said Richard. Richard and Julia were shocked by the news that the guide Vitaly on that trip has since been killed by a bear: he was a respected scientist and spent his whole life around bears.

Julia said of her husband: "The only time I really worried about him was when he was right up a mountain-side in northern Spain filming bears there. "Apparently, Richard had been caught out by the tail end of a hurricane and only had a "tiny little tent" for shelter. "I thought he had been blown off a mountain and eaten by a bear," she added.

Richard recalled: "The most worrying time happened in the Pyrenees." He had made a hide and positioned it behind a big boulder. "There was this sound of thunderabove me. It got louder and louder and louder and I realised it was an avalanche somewhere. It broke about a thousand feet above me. "I remember running and running and running. Have you ever been in one of those dreams when you are running but you can't run fast enough and you are almost horizontal to the ground? Boulders passed me." Not that such terrifying experiences would put him off his vocation in life. "It's a momentary thing," he said of such episodes.

By this time Richard was based in Spain working on a series of Survivals, including the ominously sounding Bonebreaker's Mountain. It showed the first ever film of a wild Spanish brown bear."I'd actually filmed this phantom of an animal," said Richard. "I'd justcaught a glimpse of her. It was one of those beautiful September evenings. And he added: "I realised there were three cubs. I couldn't believe my luck. It turned out the mother only had three legs. "And yet she had managed to rear three cubs." The Spanish likened his experience to 'seeing the virgin'.

The Kemp family lived in Spain for a number of years. The children effectively grew up there. Julia said: "The children have learnt a lot about living in different places, having to cope with different situations. They will get on with anyone."But she added: "They missed out on schooling every now and then..."Richard interjected at this point: "They both went to school in Spain for awhile."

It sounds as though being a husband and wife camera team works for the Kemps. Most of the films have been a joint effort. Julia said: "I don't think I would allow him to go without me. "We always get on best working," said Julia. "Any frictions that come are more home based."Julia added: "We complement each other like any pair does. Richard is the technical guy, the one who is capable in any situation, any dangerous situation or any difficult mechanical situation. You can rely on Richard to get you out of it. I have to do the logistics, make sure he remembers to eat! "

Richard's most recent projects have involved working with Artists for Nature, an international group of wildlife artists. Last year he went on a recce trip to the Tumbes region of Peru and is in the last stages of producing a DVD of the group's work out there. It will be shown alongside the artists' work at the British Bird Fair at Rutland Water on August 20-22nd. He said of this recent trip: "Your first impression is that it's a horribly dry place then you realise it's teeming with birds.

"I just saw the most exquisite little bird called the Marvellous spatula-tailed humming bird. That's one of the rarest birds in the world. "Its forest is disappearing so fast in a couple of year's time it could be extinct."

He said of the wildlife generally: "When you first go in there you don't see much moving around, but it's there and you know it's there. And it's an extremely important part of the world."It's got more endemic species than any other part of the planet. It is so rich"

Richard and Julia certainly would not describe themselves as "bunny huggers" although Julia said: "We like respect for animals. They must be given the space."Although in his late 50s, Richard is showing no obvious signs of wanting to slow down - Julia agreed: "He's fit, you see, compared to a lot of people, rushing up mountains with cameras on his back.

"Richard replied modestly: "I think I've just been lucky really. I'm resourceful, I know what makes a good image." She concluded: "We've been incredibly lucky with the life we've had." I left with Richard turning to his wife and saying: "We must go to Uganda and see the Gorillas".

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