On Friday 3rd June Bristol Wildlife Filmmakers welcomed fifteen students to Folly Farm to begin the packed weekend of workshops, hands-on filming and editing that make up our Introduction to Wildlife Filmmaking course.
© Darin Smith
The theme of this year’s summer course at Folly Farm in Somerset was Badgers and Butterflies. Folly Farm has two great wildlife assets that come into their own at this time of year. Its beautiful wildflower meadows have never been spoilt by the use of fertilisers or pesticides and the profusion of flowers brim with insect life. And its badgers come out of their sett to forage, groom and play whilst there is still light in the sky, so are clearly visible to those happy to sit quietly and wait. But first came lunch and an opportunity to meet fellow students and tutors.
© Rob Harrington
Students were allocated into four teams and each team tasked with coming up with an outline for a film loosely based around a filming brief. The idea was that each team would use the creativity and imagination of its members to produce four very different films. Camera tutors Tim Shepherd and John Waters, gave everyone an overview of the cameras (Sony Z7 and Sony Z1), tripods, jib and other equipment they would be using. And with the sun shining and the swallows flying there was an opportunity for everyone to go outside and get to grips with operating the cameras, working with the different lenses and handling the jib and tripods. Following a workshop exploring sequence building (accompanied by tea and freshly baked cakes) students and tutors walked up to Folly’s wildflower meadows to get a sense of the place they would be filming tomorrow – and some inspiration for their films.
After dinner editor, Martin Elsbury, gave a wonderful talk on the Art of Editing complete with film clips of the first known moving footage and the first example of an edit in a film. Two teams then set off for the woodland with a Z7 camera and an infra-red camera and monitor (a specialist camera for use in low light conditions) to film the badgers, whilst the remaining students stayed behind to enjoy some of the many delights Folly Farm has to offer. The badgers were very co-operative, came out on cue and stayed around the sett long enough to entertain and delight all.
Later that evening one of the researchers at Avon Wildlife Trust was setting humane traps for great crested newts as part of an ongoing research programme. A number of filmmaking students joined her very early the next morning to discover what she had caught and watched as she released these rarest of amphibians back into the natural environment of Folly Farm’s beautiful pond.
The weather held for the filming on Saturday and using specialist macro-lenses, jib, mini-tripods and beanbags the students filmed an amazing variety of shots down amongst the flowers in the meadows, including rarities such as slipper and bee orchids. And patience and observation paid off as some wonderful insect behaviour was captured in sharp focus. Tutors, cameraman Tim Shepherd and producer Steve Nicholls, also made their on-camera debuts, Steve starring as himself in The Entomologist …
It was just as well that we were all inside for workshops and editing on Sunday because the weather changed dramatically and the rain came down. Editors, Martin Elsbury and Rob Harrington worked patiently and tirelessly with students to produce their finished short films and producers, Sarah Pitt and Karen Partridge explored the importance of research, the ethics of filming animals in the wild and developing storyline and narrative structure in films.
Whilst Martin and Rob were preparing all the finished films for their final screenings, senior sound supervisor at the BBC, Dave Parkinson, offered the students (and some of the tutors) an invaluable and entertaining insight into recording sound for wildlife films and gave advice on microphones and gathering sound in the field.
As ever, the food was wonderful and Folly Farm a truly an inspirational place to be for a weekend. And the films weren’t bad either!
Some Student Comments:
I just wanted to say that the course was inspirational and I have come home with a list of things the Botanic Garden should have and also ideas about short films we could be making.
Excellent. Top quality professionals sharing their skills with us. They provided a mass of valuable information and inspirational guidance and fellow students came from a huge range of backgrounds but sharing passion and enthusiasm.
Absolutely awesome. I was really happy about the level of personal learning despite a huge variety of skills with other attendees. Tutors were amazing about splitting their time. I don’t want to leave!
Invaluable. Well thought out and well executed. The first step on the journey of my dream
