Wildlife Film Masterclass
- Make a Wildlife Film in Five Days -

The premise of this course is simple: to make a complete short wildlife documentary, from scratch, in five days. Guided by professional film-makers at every step, with a high tutor-to-student ratio, this the perfect way to learn every aspect of film-making from idea development to post-production.

Working in small teams you will be led through planning and pre-production, to shooting the footage, recording the sound, and then putting it all together in the edit to create a finished production. The resulting films will be shown on the Wildeye website and can also be used on your showreel. Your attendance on the course itself will be a useful addition to your CV.

The course is suitable for all specialities that you may be working towards within wildlife film-making: camera operators, sound recordists, researchers, producers, presenters and editors.

It is taught by wildlife film-maker Mike Linley, Simon Beer - a video camera specialist from Production Gear Ltd., Piers Warren - Principal of Wildeye, independent wildlife filmmaker Adrian Cale and Alan Miller who has twenty years experience of editing wildlife documentaries.

The location is Whitwell Hall Country Centre in the centre of Norfolk, UK, with practical work at the Animal Ark and Country Park (formerly the Norfolk Wildlife Centre). Accommodation is shared rooms (or there are nearby bed and breakfasts/hotels if you prefer), and there will be excellent home-cooked food.

Itinerary

Monday: Aim to arrive by 12pm in order to unpack before lunch.
1pm - lunch
2pm - introductory chat - who we are, who you are, and what we will be doing this week.
3pm - a recce trip to the Animal Ark and Country Park with a guided tour
4.30pm - return to Whitwell Hall for tea break
5pm - pre-production - what needs to be done before the shooting starts. During this session you will be split into your filming groups and will discuss and develop your ideas for your production.
7pm - evening meal served
8.30pm - preparations for filming, setting roles, choosing equipment and familiarisation.
10pm - time to relax, chat with new friends, and watch wildlife films in the viewing lounge.

Tuesday:
8am - breakfast
9am - research, scripting and story-boarding
11am - tea break.
11.30am - set off for the Animal Ark and Country Park to start filming and recording
1pm - lunch at the Park
2pm - further filming and recording
5pm - return to Whitwell Hall for tea break
5.30pm - checking and downloading footage - logging
7pm - evening meal served
8.30pm - further wildlife films will be shown and you will be free to continue chattng to the tutors and working on your production.

Wednesday:
8am - breakfast
9am - set off for the Animal Ark and Country Park to continue filming and recording
1pm - lunch at the Park
2pm - final filming and recording
5pm - return to Whitwell Hall for tea break
5.30pm - checking and downloading footage - logging
7pm - evening meal served
8.30pm - further wildlife films will be shown and you will be free to continue chattng to the tutors and working on your production.

Thursday:
8am - breakfast
9am - introduction to editing
11am - tea break.
11.30am - editing - arranging the pictures, telling the story
1pm - lunch
2pm - editing - further practical
4pm - tea break
4.30pm - editing - tuning and trimming - adding music and narration
7pm - evening meal served
8.30pm - further wildlife films will be shown and you will be free to continue chattng to the tutors and working on your production.

Friday:
8am - breakfast
9am - editing - mixing the audio, adding titles and credits, final tweaks.
11am - tea break
11.30am - burning the masters.
12.15pm - viewing the finished films - the tutors will choose their favourite film of the week and the winning team will receive a prize!
1pm - lunch
2pm - course ends - depart

Staff/Tutors

Mike Linley (pictured left) Mike was a producer and scientific advisor to Survival the Internationally acclaimed wildlife programme making company from 1980 until its demise in 2001. During this time he filmed and produced over 60 documentaries, many of which won major International awards. He also researched, wrote and produced over 200 wildlife programmes for children including the series Animals in Action. He then formed Hairy Frog Productions Limited, an independent wildlife production company.

Simon Beer (pictured right) Simon runs Production Gear Ltd, a company specialising in the sales of broadcast and professional video production equipment. Simon has worked in the broadcast industry since leaving school in 1993, during this time he has been involved in varying capacities on numerous projects with roles including grip and camera operator. Simon has extensive technical knowledge of production technology and has in the past written articles on cameras and post production for magazines including DV User and IOV Focus.

Adrian Cale (pictured left) is an independent wildlife filmmaker, writer and naturalist. As an accomplished producer and camera operator, he brings his own stories to life and has worked with wildlife both behind and in front of camera in a vast range of countries and capacities, his life-long passion affording him a broad knowledge and profound experience of the natural world. He set up Pupfish Productions in 2005: an umbrella group of like-minded independent filmmakers and has gone on to produce, film and write award winning content www.adriancale.co.uk/

Piers Warren - Principal of Wildeye - Piers is well known throughout the wildlife film-making industry as the editor of Wildlife Film News and producer of wildlife-film.com, which he created in the 1990s. With a strong background in biology, education and conservation, he has had a lifelong passion for wildlife films and has a wide knowledge of natural history. He cut his teeth in the industry as a sound engineer and multi-media producer, running a studio for many years. He is one of the founders of the international organisation Filmmakers for Conservation and was Vice President for the first three years. Piers is the author of many magazine features and several books including Careers in Wildlife Film-making and Go Wild with Your Camcorder - How to Make Wildlife Films.

Alan Miller (pictured left) has been editing wildlife documentaries for twenty years. BBC trained, Alan started editing wildlife programmes at Partridge Films and worked on many of their Wildscreen Panda award winners. He has worked for many companies, including Granada, BBC, NHK Japan and Nature Conservation Films for whom he edited two wildlife feature films. He has also written and directed many documentaries but remains passionately interested in editing. He is experienced in both Avid and Final Cut Pro systems.

Booking Information

Costs: £595 per person
This includes tuition, accommodation, and meals.

Forthcoming Dates:
To be notified

To be informed of future courses please add your email address in the column on the right to receive Wildeye Bulletins.

Booking: If the home page shows that there are places available for the course of your choice - please complete the online application form and send in your deposit/fee as detailed.

Thanks to the following companies for loaning equipment for the training:

Production Gear Ltd - cameras
Vinten - tripods
Olympus - Linear PCM Recorder LS-11
Rycote - windshields, windjammers etc
SCV London - Fostex recorders and microphones