So
you want to be a Wildlife Film-maker?
How
to get started
 There
are many different routes into the wildlife film-making industry
and many of these involve luck and chance. There is no set path
that will guarantee you success, but there are definitely a number
of things you can do to prepare yourself for the best chance.
Let's start by looking at a few general ways you can prepare yourself,
whatever job in wildlife film you are looking for:
1.
Learn about Natural History
This should come naturally to you! If you are not passionate about
natural history in the first place perhaps you will be better-off
pursuing a career in another area of film/TV that will be easier
to get into and better paid!
Learn about natural history by studying, by reading, by watching
TV and through first-hand experience in the field. A good knowledge
of wildlife throughout the world is highly desirable (but not essential
as you always research your topic), along with a good grasp of world
geography. Although there may be specific aspects of natural history
you specialise in, you can't guarantee work in your particular field
of interest, so a wide general knowledge can only be a good thing.
Your
learning about natural history should include animal behaviour,
and much of this will come from watching wildlife films, and from
nature itself. Spend time in the field watching wildlife for long
periods, make notes, understand what the animals are doing, start
to learn fieldcraft so that you can watch animals without being
seen, heard or smelt. Get yourself a good pair of binoculars. Practise
tracking animals, building hides, pretend you are making a film
and make notes of shots you could have taken or sequences you would
like. This is useful whether you want to be a camera operator, or
a producer, writer, picture editor and so on.
Read books on natural history, and magazines such as BBC
Wildlife Magazine. Study atlases and test yourself on where
in the world various creatures (and plants) come from. Strive for
expertise never stop learning.
2.
Watch TV
 It
may sound like an obvious thing to do, but I am amazed at the number
of people I talk to (both wannabes and those already in the industry)
who haven't seen, or maybe haven't even heard of, certain landmark
programmes or series. So, watch as much wildlife TV as you can.
Subscribe to satellite or cable TV if available and regularly tune
into channels such as Discovery Animal Planet and National Geographic
as well as any wildlife programmes on your regular national channels.
And don't tell me you can't afford satellite/cable if you badly
want to make wildlife films it's a priority.
When you are watching wildlife programmes it is useful to record
them so that you can go over certain points later. For each film
make notes on all the credits and remember who it was produced by.
Get to know the names of personnel connected with various companies/productions.
Pretend you are a judge at a wildlife film festival and analyse
each film carefully. Not all that you see will be good! Give the
film a score for various aspects such as photography, sound, editing,
script, narration, animal behaviour, educational value, scientific
content, music and so on. Build up files of notes on films you have
seen for future reference. This may sound like a lot of hard work,
but it is free (!) and a very valuable way of learning the art,
and understanding the elements that go to make a good film.
 It
will also help you develop your own style what type of programmes
'work' for you, how could you improve on what has been done before,
what would you have changed if you had been the producer/writer/editor
etc? At the same time be conscious of changing trends what sort
of films are being shown at the time, what doesn't work anymore,
what styles are favoured by different channels. All this will help
you build up a picture of the industry. Again making notes on
channels/styles etc will help you remember the information and will
form a useful reference for future research.
Make a special effort to see films that win awards at the wildlife
film festivals. You can find lists of the most recent winners at
each festival's website. Find out when the films are airing from
the producers, or buy them on video, or you can view them in video
booths at the festivals. Think about why they have won the awards
they have do you agree with the judges?
3.
Get informed
The more you know about the industry the better so:
4.
Develop skills
First of all there are a number of skills that will be useful to
you whatever job you want to do.
 Computer
skills are needed across the board these days so make sure you
are completely happy with the basic necessities such as emailing,
surfing the Internet, word processing (especially using Microsoft
Word), and generally using PCs (even if you are an Apple Mac die-hard
you have to face the fact that the vast majority of people use PCs!).
Strive to ensure your typing is up to speed you don't need to
be a 100 word-a-minute touch typist, but it is painful to watch
somebody typing up a shooting list with occasional jabs of one finger
while constantly searching the keyboard for the 'm'!
Other skills such as image manipulation (eg using Adobe Photoshop),
desktop publishing, video editing (eg Adobe Premier or Final Cut),
website editing (eg Macromedia Dreamweaver) and interactive programming
will be a bonus, and may even make the difference between you getting
a job or not. Develop your computer skills through courses, teach-yourself
books, watching someone already skilled, and lots of practice.
 Communication
skills are also essential whatever you do. This may sound obvious
yet I have employed people in the past who were highly skilled at
specific jobs yet unable to communicate adequately. I had to let
go an incredibly talented database programmer recently because he
simply couldn't make himself understood on the phone! You need to
be able to speak clearly and confidently, giving the right amount
of information at the right pace and in the right tone. You need
to be able to do this on the phone, face to face, and to a group
of people. You also need to be able to communicate effectively in
writing by email and letter. If you feel unsure about any of these
skills they can be improved by short courses in communication and
by lots of practice!
Financial skills
will certainly be important if you are a producer in charge of the
film budget, but will also be crucial if you are to be self-employed.
You can take short courses in basic accounting and book-keeping,
or study from teach-yourself books. Practice using spreadsheets
on your computer (eg Microsoft Excel).
Then there are all the skills to develop that may be more closely
allied to the job you are aiming for. You will benefit from the
following skills whatever job you are aiming for, as I keep mentioning,
the more you know about the entire process the better-off you will
be.
Production
Planning read as much as you can about TV production
(although it is unlikely to be specific to wildlife, it will still
be very useful) the PACT
guides are pricey but very informative. Pretend you are in charge
of a new production and go through every part that a producer will
have to deal with. Make copious notes and flow charts plan everything
you will require to realise the production (staff, equipment, logisitics
etc) cost everything up and prepare a budget and timescale.
 Research
choose a topic for a film and go through the research process.
Use libraries and the Internet to find out as much about the subject
as you can, and condense your notes to the facts that you think
will be most relevant for the film idea. Get to know the most effective
and quickest routes to get the information you need.
Writing
study award-winning scripts and practise writing your own. Examine
subject-selection and story-line structures. Develop an idea for
a wildlife film in your head and just start writing what you envisage
the narrator saying. Then keep going back to it and re-writing.
Get someone else to read it to you and see how it sounds. Take courses
in creative writing (correspondence courses or at adult education
centres). Find a mentor who can guide and advise you.
 Camera
work assuming you can't afford to buy a top end High
Definition camera and dive in at the deep end, the best way to start
practising is with a DV camcorder. Even the cheapest palmcorder
will at least get you taking moving pictures and analysing your
results. Practise your camera skills and your fieldcraft together
then watch the footage on your TV and make notes about what you
need to improve. How do the pictures compare to films you want to
emulate? Learn to understand filmic-grammar. Improving your stills
photography skills will also help you understand the basics of lighting,
exposure, lenses, framing shots etc.
 Sound
recording you can start to practise recording wildlife
sound with almost any sort of portable recorder solid state, DAT,
Minidisc, open-reel tape (eg Nagra), even cassette tape. Get yourself
a good directional microphone and a pair of omnis and you're off.
Practise recording atmospheres as well as individual animal sounds,
mono and stereo. Find the best methods of reducing hiss, and avoiding
traffic and handling noise. Parabolic reflectors are not expensive
and will help you pick up sounds from animals without having to
get so close that you disturb them. Also practise editing the sound
you record the best method these days is to do it on your computer
with software such as Sound Forge or CoolEdit. Great advice can
be had from the Wildlife
Sound Recording Society
 Picture
Editing a good way to start is with plenty of practice
on your computer. Only recently have computers been able to handle
the large file-sizes involved with video, so you are starting at
a good time! These days many computers come ready equipped with
firewire ports so you can 'capture', video onto your computer from
a DV camera. The basic editing packages that come free with computers
(MovieMaker on a PC and iMovie on a Mac) are perfectly good to start
practising editing. Then later you can upgrade to a more versatile
platform such as Final Cut Pro. Experiment using sequences in different
ways. Write and record a narration over the top it will help you
develop a flow for the production.
Presenting
team up with someone who wants to be a camera operator, and practise
together! The more you do it the less self-conscious you will feel,
and the less likely you will be to stumble on words (and tree roots).
Develop your own style; watch other presenters on TV and analyse
what they are doing. Get other people to watch your results and
tell you what they really think. Write down their comments and make
necessary changes. Work at it. It doesn't always come naturally
everyone can improve
5.
Network
 It's
true that it's often 'whom you know' not 'what you know' that gives
you the biggest breaks in this industry. 'Networking' is simply
meeting others in the industry, introducing yourself, getting your
name and face known, seeking opportunities, selling yourself. It's
vital, and it's a skill that doesn't come easily to some.
Letters, emails
and phone-calls are some methods but there is nothing like meeting
people face to face, and wildlife film festivals are the best place
to do this. Go to as many festivals as you can - IWFF, Wildscreen,
Jackson Hole etc. - details of these in the festivals directory
of www.wildlife-film.com and Wild Pages: The Wildlife Film-makers' Resource Guide. They all have excellent masterclasses, workshops, seminars etc..
Networking
when you are young, unsure of yourself and unknown is far from easy.
It's often a fine line between making a good impression and being
a pain in the neck! You need confidence but humility, enthusiasm
but respect. You need to be memorable, but for the right reasons!
You need to leave people thinking 'yes I'd like to work with
them' or 'they had some great ideas I must remember them' etc.
Be honest tell people if you love their work and would love to
work with them. There's no shame in admitting to nervousness, or
in being direct about what you want.
Work, overall, on being the sort of person others will gladly want
to work with. When I think of the people I have met at festivals
and ended up working with, they have largely been people I simply
liked and got on well with! Practise as much as you can and just
go for it. Once you get stuck in you'll find you are talking to
people with the same passions as yourself and it will get easier.
Ways
In
You are very unlikely to find an advert for your ideal job. Wildlife
film production companies get so many unsolicited requests for work
they rarely need to advertise positions (although some, like the
BBC, advertise on principle). Occasionally jobs are advertised in
Wildlife Film News but it is not common! Other posts can sometimes
be found in the national press, but it is best to assume you have
to be more pro-active in your job-hunting.
Let's now look
at a few of the common ways in:
 If
you are interested in a career in production, there
are a number of ways to get a foot in the door:
# Approach production
companies for work-experience as an assistant/runner/researcher/dogsbody
This may be unpaid, or for a very small wage if you're lucky, but
it will be a foot in. Once there, you will learn huge amounts about
how the whole business works, and when you impress all around with
your enthusiasm, efficiency and ideas you will be in a good position
when a proper job becomes vacant. You will find contact details
for production companies in Wild Pages: The Wildlife Film-makers' Resource Guide. Approach with a brief covering letter explaining exactly
what you are looking for, and your CV/résumé. Bear
in mind that this has to impress within a matter of seconds busy
people with a stack of mail to get through are not suddenly going
to stop work for twenty minutes to wade through your unsolicited
life story.
# Some entrants to
the wildlife film industry started their careers by working in other
areas of television news or childrens programme production for
example. You may find these genres easier to get into, then you
can learn skills and approach the wildlife producers with more ammunition.
# Pitch an
idea. If you have a great idea for a programme (and better
still the contacts/access to the story) then you can pitch the
idea directly to a production company/distributor/broadcaster. Ideally
send no more than one page introduction and one page synopsis, plus
your CV. In your covering letter explain exactly what you see your
role being (eg researcher) and be realistic you won't be taken
on as producer if you have no previous experience. You may find
the following exercise useful as a template: Carefully research
and target the companies you approach. Find out what sort of programmes
they produce and where they are broadcast, and pitch to the sort
of companies who already produce programmes in a similar style,
and for a similar output, to your idea. Find out the name of the
right person to send your pitch to and whether they have any guidelines.
Be aware ideas can get stolen! There is a minority of unscrupulous
producers who may find out all they can about your killer idea and
then go and make the film without you. BUT this is very rare,
and if you keep your film to yourself it will never get made. Remember
it is 'only an idea', and you should have lots of other ideas, and
in any case many people may already have had the same idea and approached
the same company with it! In the guide Wild Pages: The Wildlife Film-makers' Resource Guide, companies have indicated which are open to pitched ideas and how best to approach them.
 If
you are looking for camera-work then the following
are possible routes in:
# Approach camera
operators to see if they need an assistant or are happy for you
to shadow them. This may well be unpaid, and you may even have to
offer to pay your travel and expenses along the way, but it will
be invaluable experience if you can get it. It will certainly be
hard work and you may have to do everything from carrying equipment
to driving and cooking. You can either contact camera operators
directly (you'll find them listed in Wild Pages: The Wildlife Film-makers' Resource Guide), or approach production
companies and ask if they have any camera assistant work-experience/shadowing
with any of their camera operators. 'Shadowing' basically means
you just accompany a camera operator (unpaid of course) and learn
from watching them. If you're lucky they will teach you a great
deal.
# If you are already
skilled enough you can approach a company with your showreel
on DVD. This should be about 5 minutes (never more than 10) of varied
footage showing what you are capable of. It could accompany a pitch
if you have a strong film idea as well. It has to be stunning
or why should they use you rather than the camera operators they
are accustomed to using?
Package it in a DVD case with a beautifully designed inlay card,
with colour shots and title. Also address, phone, email, website,
details of equipment available, and locations for material on the
showreel.
If you want to be a presenter then again one approach
is to target production companies with a showreel. It is incredibly
competitive. Companies get many demos from wannabe wildlife film
presenters and many of them are dreadful! Don't send yours in
until you are sure it is as perfect as you can achieve practise
endlessly, get feedback, develop your style. Don't spend years waiting
to be discovered get a life in the meantime! If you can get work-experience
with a production company, for example, you will better placed in
the future to land your showreel-to-die-for on the appropriate desk.
 Wannabe
wildlife sound recordists can compile an audio
audition CD. You may also get unpaid work-experience by shadowing
an accomplished sound recordist. Another approach is to contact
camera operators directly to see if they need someone to help on
the sound side with any forthcoming projects. You can also increase
your skills by working in sound in a different genre other areas
of television or video or music production for example it's all
good experience.
Don't forget
this is a very varied industry and there are other opportunities
besides the conventional production company/television route. Some
have successful careers using their skills for multimedia productions
or for education and conservation. Some combine working part-time
on wildlife films with other work (such as producing commercials)
or with completely unrelated ventures. Others do not pigeon-hole
themselves with just one job/skill but take on a variety of work
such as writing, narrating, editing freelancing here and there
as they find the work. Job security is not what it was, to say the
least! Adaptability and flexibility are key for survival (no pun
intended!).
Above all you have to CREATE YOUR OPPORTUNITIES.
No-one will come and seek you out you have to be pro-active
and you must be passionate about the business. Be positive forward-thinking
seize every chance you can plan focus put yourself in the
right places get yourself known for the right reasons!
Your life is your work of art. Make it a good one!
Education
and Training
One of the questions I am most often asked is 'what qualifications
do a wildlife film-maker need?' Of course there is no easy answer
to this. Some of the most successful people have almost no qualifications
certainly no relevant ones while there are others who would
not have got where they are today without a university degree in
zoology.
Factors affecting
the qualifications you should aim for are:
 Many
other factors are often more important than qualifications in this
industry determination, enthusiasm, talent, experience for example.
But, having said that, qualifications will always be a positive
attribute, and in some cases are essential.
In all jobs connected with wildlife film-making the more you know
about natural history the better. Much knowledge should come from
your own interest, but qualifications in biology/zoology should
certainly be pursued at school. Whether you go on to take a university
degree depends on what you want to do if you want to work in production
with a large company, for example, then a biology/zoology degree
will be highly desirable sometimes a prerequisite.
If you're a school-leaver and not sure exactly what you want to
do but know you want to work in the wildlife film-making industry
then a degree is probably the next-best step. Having said that
I would definitely advise talking at least a year off before going
to university. Get some experience of life/travel/the world etc
and it will help you clarify your direction.
If you are seeking further qualifications there are various
possibilities such as the specific courses in Natural
History Film-making:
 These
courses are an excellent background but occur only in a couple of
places in the world so are beyond the reach/means of many people.
If you want
to specialise in some aspect of natural history then you could follow
other postgraduate routes such as a doctorate (PhD). If you specialised
in ape behaviour for example, this may help you get work on an ape
film (as researcher/producer), but you need to be aware that you
cannot always expect to work in your chosen area of interest so
good general knowledge is important too.
Another approach is to take the film-school route. There are many
film schools throughout the world (as this is an international guide
we can't possibly list them all) and some have excellent courses
specialising in documentary production. This route is more applicable
if you are aiming for work as a camera operator, video editor etc
but, like biological qualifications, film-school qualifications
can be useful whatever you do, giving you a great technological
base.
 For
those without the time/means/inclination/academic ability to take
three years or so to do a degree, there are plenty of other options
for further training. Wildlife Film Festivals run various excellent
workshops and masterclasses. For those wishing to improve certain
specific skills there are short courses in all manner of technical
and production skills (not specific to wildlife) at various colleges,
training institutions, and studios (see Wildeye
courses below). For example you can take short courses (from a day
or two to a few weeks) in subjects such as editing, script-writing,
DV camera operation etc. Of course you have to pay for these courses
and they can be quite expensive. Bear in mind that experience in
areas beyond your speciality may be very beneficial for example
if you intend to be a camera operator, but get a chance to do an
editing course, then this will help you to understand how a film
is put together, and what sort of footage is needed to create the
finished product.
If you are employed by a larger production company then they should
be willing to send you on a variety of short courses to improve
your skills and enhance your career prospects take every training
opportunity you can. For some, the perfect start will be work-experience
with a production company that also sends you on a number of training
courses.
For those aiming to be freelance it is true to say that your experience
and skill is more important than qualifications. Particularly if
you have camera operator ambitions, your showreel will be your most
important tool but having said that, any background knowledge/training
you have in natural history and film production techniques will
be to your advantage, and help you to get a more complete picture
of the industry
 Wildeye
Courses
Wildeye
run a number of courses for aspiring wildlife film-makers. If you
are just starting out we suggest you start with the Introduction
to Wildlife Film-making weekend in Norfolk, UK. From there you
can go on to take more specialist weekend courses such as wildlife
camera operator, creative video
editing or wildlife sound recording.
If you
need advice contact us at info@wildeye.co.uk
Extracts from 'Careers
in Wildlife Film-making' ©
Piers Warren
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