Flamingo Moments: Filming in Bahrain

The last few international shoots I’ve been on have all taken me back to countries I’d visited before, so I was particularly pleased when our latest assignment took me to Bahrain - country number 70 on my personal ‘have-visited’ list. (Airport transits excluded - you have to have some ground rules.)

We packed a lot into a short trip: interviews, filming and plenty of B-roll to capture the atmosphere of this small, charming country. As we moved between locations, I found myself thinking about other trips to the region - Oman, Jordan, Qatar - and the great privilege of looking (often quite literally) through a lens at the lives of people and places you might otherwise never have encountered.

And often, it isn't the moments in front of the camera that I remember most. It’s the conversations over a cup of tea. The team lunch. The stories that emerge when everyone relaxes for a few minutes between takes. Over the years I’ve heard some extraordinary stories in those in-between moments, shared in passing. On this trip in particular, I met some real legends of the film industry, and I suspect some of their stories will stay with me for a long time.

But the highlight of the trip was something completely unplanned. One day, while we were driving over a bridge spanning an estuary, I spotted a single flamingo below us. Just one, striding around serenely. Later that day, after filming, we crossed the same bridge on our way back. This time an enormous flock of flamingos took off and flew low over the car, their spindly necks and legs stretched out awkwardly front and back, like puppets on strings. It was spectacular. Our producer, Rory Ford agreed: that was the highlight of the day.

And so, for the rest of the trip, we started talking about our daily “flamingo moment” - the small, unexpected thing that made us stop and look. Over fattoush, tabbouleh and kofta skewers, accompanied by minted lemon juice and inordinate amounts of hummus, we’d compare notes.

Perhaps that’s what I’ve learned from travelling so much for work. The big things are obviously memorable: the locations, the shoots, the people you meet and the countries you visit. But over time, it’s the little things that accumulate. There have been countless flamingo moments over the years, and they’ve all amassed themselves in my subconscious into a general feeling of gratitude for the experiences I’ve had through my work.

Country number 70 is now in the books (a couple more than my brother Ben Wylson, but who’s counting?). I hope there are another 70 to come. And, as we have live briefs involving a couple of new ones on the desk, I’m hoping for more flamingo moments along the way.

Written by Jack Wylson, co-founder of The Big Sky.