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 What did you learn from the making of this film? Directors make and shape their films, but it is also true that films make and shape their directors.; They reduce what you take for granted. For me, making Day Zero radically altered my conception of “Earth” for example, and “Nature”. With every location these concepts became more precious, more fragile, more vulnerable. The expression ‘living in harmony with Nature’ took on a new and challenging meaning. And because Day Zero - a global water crisis - is now a near certainty, a catastrophe that will soon affect everyone; and because its impact can be alleviated only if we all pull together in a concerted global effort, the making of the film revealed to me the debt that each of us as individuals owes to humanity as a whole. We can’t turn our backs on this story. How do you approach storytelling? These days, there’s always an apocalypse happening somewhere, but it’s normally happening somewhere else. Global warming, climate change, water crisis, most people may have strong opinions about such things, but they can’t always find them. We thought it was our job to help them. We wanted to make an environmental film for people who do not watch environmental films. We wanted to beat drums. We had a message and we wanted it to be heard. We wanted to give climate change a human face and global crisis a local habitation. Yes, Day Zero is a film about potentially catastrophic shifts in natural weather patterns – but it’s also about your hamburger and fries. Water is the element that links everything to everything else. Just like film editing. So Day Zero would tell the story of the Water Crisis in a way that only film can. It would be a film that could cut from Outer Space to a slum kitchen in a South African township; from the Civil War in Syria to the cattle pens in Kansas; from the vast underground caves of Florida to the heart of the Amazonian Rain Forest. Day Zero was conceived as a rallying cry -an unashamedly demotic, down to earth film about the future of the Planet. It is a beautifully shot film with a terrifying warning, but also a film that finds in our shared humanity a solution - a way to fight back. What impact do you hope this film will have? Modern life on earth, the life we have grown used to, Is unsustainable - there’s not enough nature to go round. Near the end of the film the narrator says: “People used to say that water was Nature’s way of talking to mankind”. We hope that people will start listening. It is common to blame the oil, transportation, and agriculture industries for environmental degradation, but they are not the only ones causing harm. Solely focusing on the most potent players can stop us from looking at other contributors, for example, the entertainment industry.
According to BAFTA, the British film organization, an hour of television in the U.K.produces 13 metric tons of carbon dioxide. A UCLA study found in 2006 California's film and television industry created 8.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and the U.S. film and TV industry created 15 million tons of carbon dioxide. In addition to energy intensive operations, such as air travel, set up operations also have detrimental effects on the environment. For example, props, tech, and people hurt ecologically sensitive areas. Filming 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road damaged places on the African coast, endangering local reptiles and cacti. Despite these statistics being disheartening, they can also inspire change. Here are some steps we can take to remedy the impact: -Shoot locally to help the local economy and reduce flying miles -Feed crew members with sustainable food, which can include organic, plant-based, and meat free meals -Replace plastic bottles with reusable bottles -Have recycling and composting bins on set -Turn off lighting and tech when not in use -Invest in alternative energy for the film set -Hire a Sustainability Officer We have to implement these changes to create a greener future for the film industry. The history of the camera can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Abu Ali al Hasan ibn al-Haytham, an Arab Muslim scholar born around 965, was the first to use the camera obscura, an optical device that consists of a dark room with a small hole. Light passes through the hole and projects an image of what is outside the room. Since the Middle Ages, numerous technological advances in photography have produced the modern day camera, which is now virtually accessible to everyone. In light of National Camera Day, we have invited two photographers based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming to answer questions about their photography experience. Anya Enloe - Vanilla Pine Photo - @vanillapinephoto |
Photo Credit: Memories of the Future
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Photo Credit: Memories of the Future
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Q: How did you approach telling this story?
BFM: I have no singular appraisal of my approach to storytelling. To me, a documentary project must in some way offer itself to be told, and then it becomes my responsibility to resonate with that, and learn along the way how to make it speak. But I suppose one element or another of my experience inspires me and a path begins from there; sometimes I can follow with little effort, other times it’s like having to chisel it into existence very deliberately. Memories of the Future was a mixture of these two approaches, in that a fascinating mystery brought me along for the ride without anyone knowing what to expect. Retrospectively, we had to piece together material gathered somewhat haphazardly along the way that could somehow convey our own sense of wonder and discovery.
BFM: I have no singular appraisal of my approach to storytelling. To me, a documentary project must in some way offer itself to be told, and then it becomes my responsibility to resonate with that, and learn along the way how to make it speak. But I suppose one element or another of my experience inspires me and a path begins from there; sometimes I can follow with little effort, other times it’s like having to chisel it into existence very deliberately. Memories of the Future was a mixture of these two approaches, in that a fascinating mystery brought me along for the ride without anyone knowing what to expect. Retrospectively, we had to piece together material gathered somewhat haphazardly along the way that could somehow convey our own sense of wonder and discovery.
Photo Credit: Memories of the Future
Q: Were there any surprising or meaningful moments / experiences you want to share?
BFM: Though Memories of the Future recounts the scientific process of investigating an ecological anomaly, I don’t feel I’m exaggerating in saying that the greater journey involved countless surprises and meaningful experiences. I will share one. After one sampling expedition, we took a few days to journey along the San Pedro River downstream visiting other sites interacting with the river system. From the remains of bustling cities of trade from the Mayan empire, to crafty fish traps built in the eddies and outflows of the San Pedro, we eventually reached the rivermouth, where we were stunned by the enormous scars of razed mangrove forest being removed for an oil refinery project called the Dos Bocas Refinery.
It was surreal traveling through history to arrive at such a particularly visual and violent present moment. Sometimes, intellectual debate on environmental issues gets lost in theory, broad geopolitical contexts, themes of economic growth and national security--but when you stare at a bulldozed forest, watching trucks haul away soaked earth as factory plans are laid--there is a visceral sense of regret--that there was some other way to have acted, and there should be some better way to act now.
BFM: Though Memories of the Future recounts the scientific process of investigating an ecological anomaly, I don’t feel I’m exaggerating in saying that the greater journey involved countless surprises and meaningful experiences. I will share one. After one sampling expedition, we took a few days to journey along the San Pedro River downstream visiting other sites interacting with the river system. From the remains of bustling cities of trade from the Mayan empire, to crafty fish traps built in the eddies and outflows of the San Pedro, we eventually reached the rivermouth, where we were stunned by the enormous scars of razed mangrove forest being removed for an oil refinery project called the Dos Bocas Refinery.
It was surreal traveling through history to arrive at such a particularly visual and violent present moment. Sometimes, intellectual debate on environmental issues gets lost in theory, broad geopolitical contexts, themes of economic growth and national security--but when you stare at a bulldozed forest, watching trucks haul away soaked earth as factory plans are laid--there is a visceral sense of regret--that there was some other way to have acted, and there should be some better way to act now.
Photo Courtesy of Taira Malaney Taira Malaney was interviewed by Robin McGahey, guest writer
Taira Malaney is an independent filmmaker from Goa, India. Her newest film, My Mollem: Goa’s Green Heart, is an ode to her beloved home of Goa, and a call to action for the Goan government. The beautiful film discusses the rich biodiversity in Mollem National Park, and the potential impact of deforestation. Our guest writer, Robin McGahey, sat down with Taira, to take a look behind the scenes, into Goa’s Green Heart.
To watch the film in English: https://bit.ly/3bsCqXx
To watch the film in Konkani: https://bit.ly/2NOPpuA
Q: What inspired this story?
My Mollem initially came to me through social media. The campaign had already begun by the time I came on. It was engaging and thought-provoking, and as it was discussing deforestation in Goa, it hit very close. I reached out to a friend, who is running the core team, alongside the scientists and citizen scientists, artists, painters, and animators. I knew after diving into the project, I wanted to tell the story in a short documentary.
Q: What inspired you to join the Mollem campaign?
My involvement with this film actually began in 2019 at the Jackson Wild Summit. I connected with a fellow filmmaker from Goa. She reached out to me during the pandemic to come on as an editor for her film. After spending time together, learning about the lockdown struggles in our home, I was inspired to create a story surrounding the beautiful state of Goa. The pandemic really showed me how special and rewarding it is to stay local, working on stories close to home, with the people living through it.
Q: How did you approach telling this story?
Coming into this project, I knew I wanted the POV to be from the community. Located in southern Goa, the village of Mollem is very small, isolated, and densely forested. I wanted the narrative to focus more on the people and community voices, while still keeping the risk to biodiversity at the forefront. I reached out to local scientists to be our guide, and found a young, energetic girl to be our voice. I wanted to weave in the idea of intergenerational equity, an economic concept that refers to the wealth of the state's natural resources and the need to preserve it for the future generations. In this case, we’re looking at the question, “What are we leaving for the future of our children, if we let the main water sources of the state be destroyed?”
Coming into this project, I knew I wanted the POV to be from the community. Located in southern Goa, the village of Mollem is very small, isolated, and densely forested. I wanted the narrative to focus more on the people and community voices, while still keeping the risk to biodiversity at the forefront. I reached out to local scientists to be our guide, and found a young, energetic girl to be our voice. I wanted to weave in the idea of intergenerational equity, an economic concept that refers to the wealth of the state's natural resources and the need to preserve it for the future generations. In this case, we’re looking at the question, “What are we leaving for the future of our children, if we let the main water sources of the state be destroyed?”
Q: Who is the lovely narrator?
We actually have two narrators, because there are two versions of the film. For the English version, we met the young girl through a local colleague. A friend of hers heard about our project, and she, and her nine-year old daughter really wanted to help out. I knew immediately when I met her that she would be a great fit. She had an amazing voice, filled with passion and so much emotion. She was the right person to take us through this story.
In the Konkani version, the local language of Goa, our narrator was a young girl we met through the incredible Goa Outreach Program. It was a really cool experience because she wasn’t aware of the threats facing Mollem, so she got to learn, and be part of this project.
We actually have two narrators, because there are two versions of the film. For the English version, we met the young girl through a local colleague. A friend of hers heard about our project, and she, and her nine-year old daughter really wanted to help out. I knew immediately when I met her that she would be a great fit. She had an amazing voice, filled with passion and so much emotion. She was the right person to take us through this story.
In the Konkani version, the local language of Goa, our narrator was a young girl we met through the incredible Goa Outreach Program. It was a really cool experience because she wasn’t aware of the threats facing Mollem, so she got to learn, and be part of this project.
 Photo Courtesy of Taira Malaney |  Photo Courtesy of Taira Malaney |
Q: Talk to me a little bit of the visuals of this film. What did you use?
So much comes back to Jackson Wild. At the time, I was paired with Tom Mustill, who uses a lot of stock footage in his films. We spoke about reducing carbon footprint and cost by diving into archives. I had seen how powerfully this had come together in his recent short film Nature Now, and so decided to give it a try. We sourced all the footage through stock footage, except the interviews. People were really welcoming when it came to sharing footage, and excited to collaborate.
Photo Courtesy of Taira Malaney
Q: Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share?
While filming, we took the time to meet with the community, especially the students and scientists. Two interviews especially stayed with me. One was a botanist and the other a med student that specialized in zoonotic diseases. I was amazed to see the people in the village fighting this hard to save Mollem. They had these incredible points of view and strong opinions about the local biodiversity. The botanist, a young woman, had focused her career on a specific species of fungi that lived in the forest. I realized the ignorance I came into this community with, looking at the community as something that needed to be understood, when really, they are doing it on their own. I was so inspired.
Another good moment was on the first day of shooting. There was a thick fog bank, and we ended up losing our drone. Thankfully a local man came to our rescue, climbing, of course, the tallest tree in the forest to retrieve it for us. I took it as a sign. Know the forest before you send a drone into it.
Q: What did you learn from your experience making this film/program?
This was my first impact film, so as you can imagine, I learned a lot. My biggest learning was that a film can be made with a really small crew and budget and still have a significant impact. With the goal of impact, we worked with the campaign team from the very beginning. It created opportunities for connections and collaboration that made it so much better in the end.
Q: Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share?
While filming, we took the time to meet with the community, especially the students and scientists. Two interviews especially stayed with me. One was a botanist and the other a med student that specialized in zoonotic diseases. I was amazed to see the people in the village fighting this hard to save Mollem. They had these incredible points of view and strong opinions about the local biodiversity. The botanist, a young woman, had focused her career on a specific species of fungi that lived in the forest. I realized the ignorance I came into this community with, looking at the community as something that needed to be understood, when really, they are doing it on their own. I was so inspired.
Another good moment was on the first day of shooting. There was a thick fog bank, and we ended up losing our drone. Thankfully a local man came to our rescue, climbing, of course, the tallest tree in the forest to retrieve it for us. I took it as a sign. Know the forest before you send a drone into it.
Q: What did you learn from your experience making this film/program?
This was my first impact film, so as you can imagine, I learned a lot. My biggest learning was that a film can be made with a really small crew and budget and still have a significant impact. With the goal of impact, we worked with the campaign team from the very beginning. It created opportunities for connections and collaboration that made it so much better in the end.
Q: Speaking on impact, what impact do you hope for this film to have? Is there a Call to Action?
When we initially released this film on social media, we immediately saw a spike in campaign engagement. The video was viewed by hundreds of thousands across India. Shortly after that people began protesting, and the issue was brought up to the Central Environmental Committee (CEC) in the Supreme court of India. They have already performed a site inspection earlier in January 2021. The state has vowed to go ahead with the projects, despite local opposition, saying that these projects are needed for Goa’s development. This is where the campaign comes in. With enough pressure from the public, they will be forced to recognize the threats against the Mollem forest and take action to protect it.
For more information visit: https://actforgoa.org/my-mollem/
Follow My Mollem on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ZxuKxp
Press Release: https://adobe.ly/3qDOpId
When we initially released this film on social media, we immediately saw a spike in campaign engagement. The video was viewed by hundreds of thousands across India. Shortly after that people began protesting, and the issue was brought up to the Central Environmental Committee (CEC) in the Supreme court of India. They have already performed a site inspection earlier in January 2021. The state has vowed to go ahead with the projects, despite local opposition, saying that these projects are needed for Goa’s development. This is where the campaign comes in. With enough pressure from the public, they will be forced to recognize the threats against the Mollem forest and take action to protect it.
For more information visit: https://actforgoa.org/my-mollem/
Follow My Mollem on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ZxuKxp
Press Release: https://adobe.ly/3qDOpId
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story?
Sébastien PINS of Alchimie Productions: I have often admired the work of loggers with their workhorses in the Ardennes. I wanted to share the discovery of that ancient and beautiful job with as many people as possible, so I got introduced to one of the last workhorse-loggers in Belgium.
I‘ll always remember the first time I met Marc and his horse Nina - an animal of several hundred kilos. She could pull by herself several pine trees, outpacing her master who seems so small next to her. From time to time the man would give almost inaudible orders to his horse. The coordination between both was obviously perfect, a real symbiosis.
One day, around a campfire, Marc the logger told me about his worries about the future of his job...he told me that now he was considered as “the last of the Mohicans,” picking up trees with his horse Nina in places machines couldn't reach. According to him, the number of the loggers in Belgium can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
I observed Marc and saw a man marked by life and the hardiness of his job, but above all I discovered a passionate man, a passion he had even transmitted to his son. The young man had indeed become a logger like his father.
At that moment I decided that to turn my idea into a short film to reach more people, even beyond the frontiers of Belgium, to let everybody know about this fascinating job.
Covering all four seasons, this short film should have been shot in one year, but it turned out to become a true obstacle course for more than three years.
TRACES © Sébastien PINS
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
SP: While a man's life is short, the life of a tree can span centuries. I therefore tried to choose unusual points of view by placing my camera amongst the forest’s gaze on the logger. I also put an emphasis on moving the camera to join the point of view of the logger and his horse.
To film certain shots, we used a cine-drone, a paramotor, a tower, a shoulder camera with an easyrig and numerous other techniques… In terms of shooting with a drone, it was very complicated as we were in locations which did not offer any satellite assistance and each shot therefore needed to be a real work of art under such shooting conditions. For close-ups on the logger or the young girl, I chose to use a shoulder camera which allowed me to be as close as possible to my characters, in order to capture everything going on within them with this more “organic” camerastyle. The main technical question I asked myself was whether this mix of different shooting styles would provide us with shots which could be tied together in post. There remained some questions about the feasibility of connecting a perfectly fluid drone shot with a less stable shoulder camera shot. And, in the end, it was a relief to see that each shot came together well.
With my team, I used different techniques in order to capture the flight of the birds. For example, we used a paramotor to get closer to the cranes, which meant we avoided having to work with a telephoto lens. It might also be interesting to know that, when the camera is beside the cranes in the sky, that is the product of a year’s work for 5 seconds of images.
TRACES © Sébastien PINS
What did you learn from your experience making this film?
SP: I believe that the future of logging is a close collaboration between machine workers and a good logger pulling his horse. While scouting, I noticed that where there was a workhorse, the machine was often left idle. A horse which is able to skilfully maneuver on the terrain can find trees in places where, if it were down to a machine, the forest would need to be razed in order to allow the Timberjack, tractor or skidder to pass through. To my mind, the horse is too often seen as a step backwards in terms of technology, when it is actually the source of a perfect complementarity between economic, social and environmental functions. What is more, these days it constitutes an important aspect for the development of green tourism.”
How do you approach storytelling?
SP: I wanted to develop with “Traces” a simple story, touching and accessible to all.
With the word “Traces," you may believe the film to be about a vestige of the past, but this is far from being the message of my film. It takes place in the present and shows the impression left by a logger and his horse in the heart of a young girl over the seasons.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
SP: Being a director is, for me, a life choice linked to my wish of leading a team to work together in creating a project with meaning.
So, with this film, my goal is to raise awareness and value the work of these men who, since the dawn of time, have contributed to the wellbeing and safeguarding of our forests. It also describes the extraordinary symbiosis between man, animal and forest.
The whole concept of transmission takes its meaning in the loggers act of transmitting to a girl his passion of for his work. Some encounters can create new life goals! Thus, the short film "Traces" shows that young people can also be actors in the preservation of our forests.
I hope to arrive with "Traces" to reach my audience so that it can germinate in him the desire to participate actively in the preservation of our forests.
I hope that my short film will contribute to the survival of their profession.
Photo courtesy of Traces
Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share?
- When he learned about the shooting of "Traces," the famous astrophysicist Hubert Reeves, as well as Ségolène Royal, ambassador in charge of international negotiations for the Arctic and Antarctic poles, decided to support the project, it made me happy to hear that in their eyes, the film meets the objectives of the United Nations (Goal 13 and 15).
- I wanted to test the first screening of "Traces" in front of a young audience composed of teenagers said disturbed and rowdy. Throughout the screening, these young people remained silent and focused on the screen. At the end of the film, many of them had tears in their eyes...it moved me a lot!
Any fun facts about the film, the subject matter or the production crew that might surprise the audience?
- Nina, the workhorse in the film, was not trained to listen to others, but she was responding to my orders at the end of the shoot. When I said "action," she started walking and when I said "cut," she stopped!
- For the interpretation of the music of "Traces," the Royal Orchestra of Macedonia and its 60 musicians were directed by the French composer David Reyes via "Skype."
Anything else you would like people to know?
SP: The Ardennes, a real temple to nature and land of legends, constitutes by itself the setting for “Traces." Throughout the movie, you will travel to the four corners of this magnificent territory filled by forests and valleys. You will fly over Bastogne, Houffalize, Herbeumont, Saint Hubert, Roc-La-Tour and many more places.
Photo courtesy of Traces
What next?
SP: Making the Traces short film travel around the world is our first purpose and we are particularly looking for broadcasters such as the BBC, National Geographic, ARTE, Netflix and more ...
A short film and a feature documentary are also in preparation. To achieve these different projects, we seek production partners, whether private or institutional.
For more information, please contact us!
How can audience members take action to help the cause or issue featured in this film?
SP: I have never felt more alive than when shooting this film. The contact with nature, the horse and the logger was emotionally very fulfilling.
Your audience should not hesitate to go and meet these last loggers, so they can listen to their story and share for a few days their daily life to understand how important their job is.
As a logger with a draft horse, you live in deep communion with the nature which cradles us through the seasons. This job also represents a responsible act of safeguarding the soils of our forests.
As Chesterton said, it is in human nature to always pursue things that vanish and to appreciate them as soon as they are about to disappear.
Five Questions for Filmmakers: Nigerians Fight to Protect the World's Most Trafficked Mammal
2/3/2021
We reached out to our World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program.
Director and Producer Katie Schuler: My crew and I took safety and security precautions before and during our two weeks of filming in Nigeria. That said, we still faced potentially hazardous encounters with corrupt government officials who tried to confiscate our cameras and increasingly volatile situations with frightened poachers and sellers of pangolins and pangolin products. The most challenging thing we filmed was the actual butchering and decapitation of a wild white-bellied pangolin, which was too gruesome to use in the final film. In the end, it was worth the risk and helped us better shed light on how the demand for pangolin scales in Asia is expanding the illegal trade of pangolins in Africa.
Photo courtesy of Nigerians Fight to Protect the World's Most Trafficked Mammal
Any fun facts about the film/program, the subject matter or the production crew that might surprise the audience?
KS: We arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the largest (if not the largest) hub for illegal pangolin trade in Africa, to document how the illegal trade operates. Instead, we came away with an entirely different story about the people going to extreme lengths to save this threatened animal. Most notably the star of our story is Dr. Mark Ofua, a veterinarian who at risk to his own safety and career, regularly visits Bushmeat markets to rescue and rehabilitate pangolins. We witnessed him do this with 8 different pangolins (including some baby pangolins that were separated from their mothers) during our two weeks filming with him. The highlight for me and my crew was witnessing Mark releasing these lucky pangolins back to the wild in a protected forest.
Photo courtesy of Nigerians Fight to Protect the World's Most Trafficked Mammal
What next?
KS: One of the greatest challenges in creating conservation strategies for pangolins is that we simply dont know much about them. Science and data collection is vital to the survival of this species and yet there are very few teams studying them around the world. I was lucky to spend a couple of weeks documenting the incredible research on the black-bellied pangolin by PHD candidate, Mathiue Assovi in Cote d’ivoire earlier this year. I’m excited to share the resulting doc with audiences in the coming months in an effort to inspire more people to value and support science and research of pangolins.
We reached out to our past World Wildlife Day Film Showcase filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story?
Director Lesley Chilcott: Captain Paul Watson himself. He is living his life like a superhero in an action movie, every moment is dedicated to saving the life in the ocean, on or off the high seas. I’m always looking for a new way to talk about biodiversity and extinction, and making an action movie masquerading as a documentary seemed like a fitting way to tell Paul’s story.
Were there any surprising or meaningful experiences you want to share?
LC: The sheer numbers of fish and creatures of the ocean we kill every day is even more staggering than I previously knew. This is a problem with many solutions and most of the time we do nothing, primarily because it is all done out of sight of the public eye.
Yet when you swim or scuba dive with some of these magical creatures, say a humpback whale or a tiger shark, and they look back at you and allow you to get close to them, you realize there is a whole other type of intelligence we really know very little about.
Photo courtesy of Watson
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Photo courtesy of Watson
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What impact do you hope this film will have?
LC: I hope that people will appreciate the sheer beauty of the ocean and all that lies within it, and that starts by paying attention to what is on your plate. And if you don’t care about that, then perhaps think about how up to 70% of our oxygen coming from the ocean itself.
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film.
LC: Captain Paul has done so much over the years, maybe ten major pieces of action per year for nearly fifty years so it was difficult to choose the actions or campaigns that could fit in a 99 minute film while still showing the breadth of his unique experiences and outlook on life. A good problem to have, but challenging nonetheless!
Photo courtesy of Watson
What drove you as a filmmaker to focus on biodiversity?
LC: Biodiversity is the key to individual health as well as the health of our planet. It’s so extremely interesting and it never ends…so many more stories to tell!
We reached out to our Jackson Wild Media Awards filmmakers to ask them five questions about the experience of making their films.
What inspired this story?
Writer and Director Peter Stonier: When National Geographic Explorer Naftali Honing, Research and Development Director at African Parks in the Congo, granted the Esri's visual storytelling team an interview, we could see that he had a great story to tell. The question was how to tell it.
The story was one of how a technology, not much known beyond the community of specialists who use it, has tremendous potential to take on some of the world's greatest conservation challenges -- such as wildlife poaching and trafficking. Naftali was putting the tech to great use protecting elephants and rangers from some of the most formidable armed poachers in the world -- and winning. This was all clear from his interview. We captured him on video telling us all about this - but doing the story justice required b-roll. There was none. Filming in the Congo would be costly, getting good wildlife shots time consuming, and shots of poachers dangerous, if not impossible.
Thus came the idea - let's animate it! We could still feature Naftali photo-realistically, but get all the shots we needed by drawing them! That's how the journey began.
Photo credit: African Parks - Protected Area Management
How do you approach storytelling?
PS: Two things we immediately realized in taking an animated approach to the story were:
a) We could tell a story in the most basic sense of the word - as a "Once upon a time, in a wild kingdom far away" ... narrative drawing from conventions of Hollywood fiction. "Story" is probably one of the most overused words in corporations. Narratives devoid of character, conflict, drama, hope, fear, climax and resolution are often still described as "stories." Lists of software features are even described as stories. Here we clearly had all the ingredients for a story - exotic locations, animals, compelling characters, protagonists, antagonists, as well as relevance to an important issue of global concern. Our writer, with years of experience scripting for Hollywood and the BBC, decided to make this into what any child would recognize as a story. By drawing the images, instead of working with a camera on the ground, we had complete visual control. This helped us borrow from the compelling conventions of dramatic fiction, even though we were producing non-fiction.
b) We knew that documentary footage of animal poaching could be seen as overly gruesome and violent for some audiences. Animated illustration allowed us to still communicate the realities of the violence, and be emotionally evocative, while softening the tone.
Photo credit: African Parks - Protected Area Management
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program?
PS: Perhaps the biggest challenge faced was not a production challenge but one of getting our marketing team on-side to support the project. We needed to overcome a bias that animation is "for children" and "inappropriate for a technology company." In other words, despite the flourishing of animation across so many genres of storytelling - some still equate animation with cartoons. A major turning point came when the video was first showcased at an Esri user conference where Jane Goodall and Ed Wilson praised it as a "fantastic way to communicate how GIS is vital to supporting conservation."
What did you learn from your experience making this film/program?
PS: That technology has evolved to the point where mixing photorealistic and animated forms of storytelling can be done relatively quickly and cheaply. What's hard is figuring out how to mix the mediums into relevant, compelling storytelling!
What impact do you hope this film/program will have?
PS: We hope to raise awareness of the effectiveness of GIS technology in fighting poaching and wildlife trafficking and get it used more widely throughout the world. A joint initiative between National Geographic and ESRI is helping achieve this.
Photo credit: African Parks - Protected Area Management
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