Polecam Systems supplies rig to Sir Ranulph Fiennes ‘Coldest Journey’ Antarctic Expedition

(London) Polecam systems delivered a Polecam rig to Sir Ranulph Fiennes and
his expedition members on board the research ship ‘SA Agulhas ‘ at its River
Thames mooring in London recently before it left on the first leg of its journey
to Antarctica.

The Polecam will be a great addition to the other cameras on board the boat.
Not only will it give increased production value to what they already have,
but be able to provide some unique perspectives of interviews and training on
board, the loading and unloading of all the equipment, and the documentation
of the expedition’s progress. The whole production team are very excited about
using their ‘new toy’. The Polecam, fitted with the new Polecam Long Head, will
be mounted with a Panasonic HPX250 P2HD camcorder.

After a short stopover in Cape Town the ship will sail to the ice edge in Eastern
Antarctica, arriving mid January 2013 where the team will set up their base.

The veteran explorer will take on what many consider to be the last true remaining
Polar challenge by attempting to cross Antarctica in the depths of winter. The
six month expedition is being called ‘The Coldest Journey’, and will see the
team of six crossing around 2000 miles, mostly in complete darkness and in
temperatures as low as -90 degrees C. The expedition is looking to raise
US $5 million via fund raising for ‘Seeing is Believing’ with Standard Chartered
providing dollar for dollar matching to take it up to $10 million.

On the 21st March 2013, they will begin the six month journey sailing on from
South Africa to reach the Ross Sea. Their Polar journey from the Russian base
of Novolazareskaye (‘Novo’) to Captain Scott’s base at McMurdo Sound, via the
South Pole, will test the limits of human endurance.

Previously the furthest any expedition has ever ventured into Antarctica during
the winter is 60 miles. The six man team, led by Sir Ranulph, will have to be
entirely self-sufficient. There will be no search and rescue facility available,
as aircraft cannot penetrate inland during winter due to darkness and risk of
fuel freezing.

The expedition will also provide unique and invaluable scientific research
that will help climatologists as well as forming the basis for an education
programme that will reach up to 100,000 schools across the Commonwealth.

Seeing is Believing

A fund raising global initiative will run side by side with the expedition
with the aim or raising US $10 million for Seeing is Believing (SIB) – a global
collaboration between Standard Chartered Bank and the International Agency for
the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) to tackle avoidable blindness in developing
countries.

Polecam Systems

Polecam Systems is the company today that has grown from the early days when
extreme sports cameraman Steffan Hewitt designed and built the first Polecam
rig for himself to use, and when others saw what it could achieve, they wanted
one themselves.

Polecam’s attraction has always been a winning combination of portability,
speed of rig/derig, adding production values without hassle, getting crane shots
where no other crane could go, and getting right in to where the action is.
Crane shots up a mountain, no problem. On a small boat, no problem.

Steffan has continued to develop and refine Polecam, never standing still,
and today Polecam Systems offers a wide choice of ways to own a rig, from the
Polecam Starter Pack, an entry level configuration that will take a DSLR or
Black Magic Design Cinema camera right up to the full Polecam rig with 7th Heaven
extended reach of 8m/26 feet.

There’s a whole range of cameras, heads, accessories, recorders, not
to mention 3D, underwater add-ons and Extreme SloMo too.

Resources:

www.thecoldestjourney.org

www.polecam.com

www.polecamusa.com

Polecam Systems supplies rig to Sir Ranulph Fiennes ‘Coldest Journey’ Antarctic Expedition