Matthew Aeberhard, Leander Ward

Born in London, Matthew Aeberhard was a keen amateur naturalist as a teenager. In 1993, he gained early experience as a wildlife cameraman working with filmmaker Hugo van Lawick on the feature films The Leopard Son and Serengeti Symphony. He subsequently produced and shot films about golden jackals and baboons for National Geographic. Leander Ward grew up in London and took a degree in Creative Writing and Filmmaking at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1998, he worked as a cameraman on the BBC documentary Cape Buffalo: The African Boss. It was during this shoot that Leander met Matthew Aeberhard, and subsequently began to develop The Crimson Wing.