Research and Production for Wildlife Documentaries

Research and production are essential elements of the wildlife film industry but the activities involved and techniques required are not always obvious. This course combines presentations from experienced researchers and producers, who can guide you through the pitfalls and teach you the tricks of the trade, with practical work and examples from real productions.

Working as a wildlife researcher or production assistant is often the first step in the wildlife film-making industry but getting a job can be hard. This course will give you a thorough grounding to all the skills required and be a valuable addition to your CV. If you are planning on 'going on your own' as a researcher/producer the information gained from this course will be invaluable. The skills learned are applicable to team members or solo film-makers.

The course is taught by Caroline Brett, who is a highly experienced and award-winning producer/ director, Alan Miller, an accomplished director, writer and editor, and Claire Thompson, an experienced natural history researcher.

The location is Hall Farm House in North Norfolk, UK. No experience or equipment is required, but do bring your laptop if you have one.

Itinerary

Friday: Aim to arrive by 6pm on the Friday the course starts, directions will be sent when you have booked your place.
7pm - Evening meal served (no problem if you arrive later)
8pm - Introductory chat - who we are, who you are, and what we will be doing this weekend.

Saturday:
8am - Breakfast
9am - Introduction to research, what the producer wants, getting the best out of a vast resource.
11am - Coffee break
11.30am - Analysis of various film treatments (proposals) both successful and unsuccessful. Which ones were commissioned and why?
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Research practical - internet research, approaching scientists, presentation, writing treatments/proposals.
4pm Tea Break
4.30pm - Presenting the research proposals.
7pm - Evening meal served followed by the showing of wildlife films relevant to the course

Sunday:
8am - Breakfast
9 am - Pre-production - including recces and what to look for, how to collect information, meeting scientists; how to make promos; writing budgets. Viewing a selection of promos - which helped sell the film and why?
11am - Coffee break
11.30am - Production - co-ordination, logistics, verifying figures for the budget, booking flights, equipment and accommodation. Call sheets, people skills. Filming behind-the-scenes footage, sound recording. Logging, transferring footage to computer. Location and consent forms. Preparing credit lists.
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Post-production - the editing treatment, sorting sound files. Graphics, maps and organising facility houses. Commentary writing and fact checking. Booking narrators and studios. Music and rights. Grading, pre-mix, the dub. Titles and credits. Production of versions. Final print and DVD/Blu-Ray design and production.
4pm - Course ends

Staff/Tutors

Caroline Brett - a highly experienced and award-winning producer/ director. Caroline worked for twenty one years for the prestigious Survival series making programmes in numerous locations including out on the ice in Arctic Canada, in the rainforests of Sierra Leone, high on the tundra in Alaska and on a remote Vietnamese island in the South China Sea. She produced the highly successful ‘Predators with Gaby Roslin' and directed some of the ‘Wild about Essex with Tony Robinson’. She is now employed by the Save Our Seas Foundation as their film director/producer for which she has won several awards including Wildscreen Pandas.

Alan Miller has been directing, writing and editing wildlife documentaries for almost 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 and is a recent Wildscreen Panda award-winner.

Claire Thompson is an experienced natural history researcher and brings a wealth of conservation and zoology experience into her work. After years spent living in Indonesian rainforests studying the behaviour of gibbons and orangutans for her Masters, she has also habituated chimps in Africa and searched for extinct rodents in the Caribbean. After joining Wildscreen's ARKive project where she worked as a Media Researcher, she progressed onto working at Aardman on a BBC1 series with Wallace and Gromit. Claire now works for ITV Studios Anglia specialising in wildlife development research and currently has one of her own wildlife ideas in development with an independent production company. Having started her TV career making endless cups of tea as a runner, Claire understands the difficulties and dedication involved in succeeding in the industry.

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.

Booking Information

Costs: £250 per person
This includes tuition and meals.

Accommodation: a limited number of shared rooms are available for £15 per night in the farm house (allocated on a first come first served basis), campers are also welcome (free) alternatively there are also B&Bs nearby. There will be excellent home-cooked food.

Dates:
27-29 July 2012

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.

Recommended reading:
Wild Pages: The Wildlife Film-makers' Resouce Guide
Wildlife Film-making: Looking to the Future

Research and Production Staff and Students - September 2011

Research and Production Staff and Students - April 2011