Jackson Wild: Nature. Media. Impact.
  • Home
  • About
    • Get Involved >
      • Donate
      • Become a Partner
      • Volunteer
      • Internships
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Council
    • Our Team
    • News Room
    • Shop
    • Contact Us
  • Summit
    • 2022 Summit >
      • Summit Photos
      • Program & Schedule
      • Transportation >
        • Airport Transportation
      • Speakers
      • 2022 Partners
      • About Burgenland
    • Summit Archive >
      • 2021 Summit >
        • 2021 Summit Sessions
        • Program & Schedule 2021
        • Speakers
        • 2021 Partners
      • 2020 Virtual Summit >
        • Speakers 2020
        • 2020 Partners
      • 2019 Summit >
        • 2019 Program & Schedule
        • 2019 Session Recordings
        • 2019 Programming
        • 2019 Exhibitors >
          • Exhibitor Workshops
          • XR Demos
        • 2019 Partners
      • 2017 Festival & Summit
      • 2015 Festival & Summit
      • 2013 Festival & Summit
  • Awards
    • Media Awards >
      • 2022 Media Awards
      • 2021 Media Awards
      • 2020 Media Awards
      • 2019 Media Awards >
        • 2019 Judges
      • Media Awards Archive
    • Special Jury Recognitions >
      • 2022 Special Jury
      • 2021 Special Jury
    • World Wildlife Day Film Showcase >
      • Conservation Heroes
      • Recovering Species
      • Forests
      • Biodiversity >
        • Biodiversity: Final Jury
      • Living Oceans >
        • Ocean Finalists & Winners
        • Living Oceans Final Jury
      • Big Cats
      • Elephants
    • Legacy Award
    • Rising Star Award
    • On Tour >
      • Films
      • Schedule
      • Host an Event
      • Tour FAQ
  • Frontiers
    • Media Lab >
      • 2022 Media Lab Fellows
      • 2021 Media Lab >
        • 2021 Media Lab Fellows
        • 2021 Media Lab: South Africa
        • 2021 Media Lab Mentors
      • 2020 Media Lab >
        • 2020 Media Lab Fellows
        • 2020 Media Lab Contributors
      • 2019 Media Lab >
        • 2019 Media Lab Fellows
    • Summit Fellowship >
      • 2022 Summit Fellows
      • 2021 Summit Fellows
      • 2020 Summit Fellows
      • 2019 Summit Fellows
    • Cinematography Lab
    • Partner Labs >
      • African Conservation Voices >
        • Kenya
        • Rwanda
      • 2020 Wild Women Media Lab: Africa
      • 2020 Summit Kenya Lab
  • Collective
    • Narration Writing Masterclass
    • Action Coalitions >
      • 2021 Action Coalitions
      • 2020 Action Coalitions
    • Gear Hub
    • Virtual Event Details
  • Blog

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S LIGHT ON EARTH

Film Info

51 minutes
​​Terra Mater Factual Studios/Ammonite Films, CuriosityStream, with: BBC, UKTV, ABC Australia
Available for Free AND Ticketed events
Synopsis:
The spectacular and magical light produced by glowworms, fireflies and luminous plankton is known as bioluminescence - light made by living creatures. But those quite familiar glows and flashes are just a tiny, easily observed fragment of a previously unexplored, mysterious realm.
Sir David Attenborough will be our guide, as we venture into a world he describes as "utterly unlike our own". He and a team of the world’s leading scientists take us on a quest into the fascinating realm of living light.

Action Items 

  • Visit some of the locations where the program was shot, such as the Waitomo glowworm caves in New Zealand: http://www.newzealand.com/us/plan/business/waitomo-glowworm-caves/
  • Be a responsible tourists. Do not try to touch, swim, or otherwise pollute areas where bioluminescent creatures are active. This is for their safety, not yours. They are very sensitive to changes in their environment.
  • Because bioluminescent creatures are highly sensitive to changes in their environment, their survival is greatly affected by the state of our oceans (where most BL creatures are found). Do your part to keep ocean temperatures from rising as a result of climate change...
    • Use alternative transportation, and reduce your consumption of meat.
    • Reduce pollution of the oceans.
    • Organize an ocean cleanup day.
    • Reduce your dependency on single use plastics and other “trash” and recycle as much as you can - most waste streams end in the ocean!

Filmmaker Q & A

Answers by Joe Loncraine and Martin Dohrn

What inspired this story?
At Ammonite, we have been working in darkness for decades on many different subjects. If you find yourself in a place with absolutely no visible light for any length of time, bioluminescence of one sort or another is often visible. Every now and again, you will see something utterly extraordinary and truly beautiful.  As a film maker, that is inspiration to bring that sight to bring to a wider audience.
film website
Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film? 
The biggest challenge is how to create a competing narrative out of such a large and sprawling subject as Bioluminescence. The trick was trying to find a way to make it a film about bioluminescence and not merely a disjointed collection of short pretty scenes about animals that use bioluminescence. Of course simply visualising not only the faintest ephemeral glow but also the animal producing that light in a completely dark environment it is doing is a huge and unique challenge. 
 
How do you approach science storytelling?
Telling the story of the science of bioluminescence was a particular challenge, as so much is basically unknown. We worked hard with the language of the scientific explanations to make them understandable to all, but without patronising the audience.  This is one of the reasons why David Attenborough was a perfect choice to present the show.
 
What impact do you hope this film will have? 
We hope that people watching this film will come away with a sense that there is still so much to uncover and understand about the natural world. Most people are barely aware of the existence of bioluminescence, and few are aware of how common it is, and how little we know about it. Hopefully this show will persuade people to venture in to the dark, into the wild, to discover this incredible phenomenon for themselves.
 
Were there any surprising or meaningful moments/experiences you want to share?
With something so universal as bioluminescence, yet something that is also relatively poorly known, almost every sequence we tackled was a journey of discovery. The earthworms are one of the most fantastic sights, not just because of their recent re-discovery, but also because their light making seems impossible to understand.
 
Anything else you would like people to know? 
The study of bioluminescence needs more funding and open minded science, not just because it is so little known, but because it is so universal in nature. The frequency of bioluminescence in the natural world suggests it is more than a pretty scientific curiosity, and instead is somehow more fundamental to life.
 
What next?
There are plenty more amazing bioluminescent stories for films, and we are developing ideas. But funding for films about bioluminescence is, as we have discovered, very hard to find. In the mean time, we are making a film about ants.
 
Did the film team use any unusual techniques or unique imaging technology?
In order to make the images for Light on Earth, we had to dig deep into our 2 decades of working in the dark with infra red and intensified cameras. New cameras on the scene enabled us to do the same in 4k. But with almost all the imagery, we also had to develop our noise reduction techniques that went way further than we had ever achieved before.
Subscribe to our e-newsletter
Support us with a donation
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

About Us

Board of Directors
​Shop
Get Involved
Our Team
Privacy Policy
Join our Mailing List
​News Room
​Donate
​
Code of Conduct

Summits

2022 Summit
2021 Summit

2020 Summit
2019 Summit
Become a Partner
Volunteer
​Archive

Awards

Media Awards
Special Jury Recognitions
2022 Media Awards
​2021 Media Awards
2020 Media Awards
2019 Media Awards
​Legacy Awards
​
On Tour
World Wildlife Day Film Showcase

Frontiers

Media Lab
​​African Conservation Voices
​Summit Fellowship

Contact Us

Jackson Wild
240 S. Glenwood, Suite 112
PO Box 3940
Jackson, WY 83001
307-200-3286

info@jacksonwild.org

SITEMAP

  • Home
  • About
    • Get Involved >
      • Donate
      • Become a Partner
      • Volunteer
      • Internships
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Council
    • Our Team
    • News Room
    • Shop
    • Contact Us
  • Summit
    • 2022 Summit >
      • Summit Photos
      • Program & Schedule
      • Transportation >
        • Airport Transportation
      • Speakers
      • 2022 Partners
      • About Burgenland
    • Summit Archive >
      • 2021 Summit >
        • 2021 Summit Sessions
        • Program & Schedule 2021
        • Speakers
        • 2021 Partners
      • 2020 Virtual Summit >
        • Speakers 2020
        • 2020 Partners
      • 2019 Summit >
        • 2019 Program & Schedule
        • 2019 Session Recordings
        • 2019 Programming
        • 2019 Exhibitors >
          • Exhibitor Workshops
          • XR Demos
        • 2019 Partners
      • 2017 Festival & Summit
      • 2015 Festival & Summit
      • 2013 Festival & Summit
  • Awards
    • Media Awards >
      • 2022 Media Awards
      • 2021 Media Awards
      • 2020 Media Awards
      • 2019 Media Awards >
        • 2019 Judges
      • Media Awards Archive
    • Special Jury Recognitions >
      • 2022 Special Jury
      • 2021 Special Jury
    • World Wildlife Day Film Showcase >
      • Conservation Heroes
      • Recovering Species
      • Forests
      • Biodiversity >
        • Biodiversity: Final Jury
      • Living Oceans >
        • Ocean Finalists & Winners
        • Living Oceans Final Jury
      • Big Cats
      • Elephants
    • Legacy Award
    • Rising Star Award
    • On Tour >
      • Films
      • Schedule
      • Host an Event
      • Tour FAQ
  • Frontiers
    • Media Lab >
      • 2022 Media Lab Fellows
      • 2021 Media Lab >
        • 2021 Media Lab Fellows
        • 2021 Media Lab: South Africa
        • 2021 Media Lab Mentors
      • 2020 Media Lab >
        • 2020 Media Lab Fellows
        • 2020 Media Lab Contributors
      • 2019 Media Lab >
        • 2019 Media Lab Fellows
    • Summit Fellowship >
      • 2022 Summit Fellows
      • 2021 Summit Fellows
      • 2020 Summit Fellows
      • 2019 Summit Fellows
    • Cinematography Lab
    • Partner Labs >
      • African Conservation Voices >
        • Kenya
        • Rwanda
      • 2020 Wild Women Media Lab: Africa
      • 2020 Summit Kenya Lab
  • Collective
    • Narration Writing Masterclass
    • Action Coalitions >
      • 2021 Action Coalitions
      • 2020 Action Coalitions
    • Gear Hub
    • Virtual Event Details
  • Blog