Five Questions for Filmmakers: Big World in a Small Garden

We reached out to our festival filmmakers to ask them questions about the experience of making their films.

Big World in a Small Garden- Finalist Trailer from Jackson Hole WILD on Vimeo.

What inspired this story?

Martin Dohrn, Filmmaker: Steve Burns (from CuriosityStream) wanted me to try and make a short film that allowed us to see the world from a different perspective - in this case with the special lenses and cameras we have developed in the past at Ammonite. Since Steve also made clear there was only a small budget available, we decided my back garden was the only place we could afford to make the film.

Photo courtesy of Big World in a Small Garden

Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.

MD: Initially, I was worried that we would struggle to find enough dramatic behaviour in my small 10x30 metre city garden, in a short space of time. My fears were unfounded and the miniature garden wildlife performed brilliantly.

How do you approach storytelling?

​MD: Films about insects and small invertebrates are few and far between, so it was no problem to find fresh material. The basic premise was that if you look closely at the world of small creatures, a small 10x30 metre garden can become a huge nature reserve full of lurking predators and spectacular unstudied life forms. Linking the different subjects relating to scale and specific lenses or cameras was a simple process.

Photo courtesy of Big World in a Small Garden

What impact do you hope this film will have?

MD: I hope it will inspire people to investigate and value even the smallest piece of land in the most unlikely places.

Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?

​MD: Even though I know the garden well, I was surprised how easy it was to record images I had never seen before, and behaviour that probably hasn't been described before.

Photo courtesy of Big World in a Small Garden

Anything else you would like people to know?

MD: The world is bigger than you think.

​What next?

MD: We are making a series about the seven living big cats, their prehistory, their history, their present and future, for CuriosityStream. We are also making a film about a giant ant supercolony with David Attenborough for BBC and Terra Mater.