Wildscreen Campaign Award Winner: Rethink the Shark

Another fantastic clip brought to my attention by The Nature Watch.

Will Work for Nuts from the Wildscreen Film Festival

Wildscreen Film Festival nominee "Will Work for Nuts" was high on my list of must-sees since I found out the reason for the presence of a two foot peanut at the Panda awards!

Will Work for Nuts was a collaborative effort from Tigress Productions based in Bristol, Five UK and BDH. From programme to programme we see animals' natural abilities put to the test in creative, fun and exciting ways.

The first episode documented the first bee race ever followed shortly by goldfish football (You may need to install the latest version of Flash to view this clip).



Presenters Lloyd Buck, Matt Thompson and James Cooper are querky michievous animal-lovers out to show what their favourite furry, feathery and otherwise fabulous friends can do.

Lloyd, the cheeky Essex lad, is a bird trainer who considers himself the equivalent of a mate to his pet golden eagle and enjoys putting his phenomenally fast falcons to the test.



Joker Matt has a background in wildlife tv production and seems to prefer the hard way when it comes to up-close encounters with bird-feeders disguising himself as a bin to get a camera-phone shot of a bluetit.

James is a mischievous Techy who finds ingenious ways to tackle the wild including inventing a self-taking bird feeder cam and creating digitally altered human bird song.


Episodes tested the reaction times of the fastest bird on the planet, the peregrine falcon, the possibility of birdwatching using your mobile phone and the bizarre concept of an eagle lie detector. However, my favourite and one of the most ingenious ideas was that of human birdsong. The boys slowed down a recording of wren song by 1000 times to approximately human voice frequency. They then sang along to this recording their efforts, and sped it back up to bird frequency...result? Human birdsong! No experiment is complete without a realistic test: they crept up on a hide full of seasoned birdwatchers and played their effort. Amazingly the birdwatchers identified the song as that of a wren - Brilliant!


You can find out more about Will Work for Nuts on the BDH website and Five's blog. There are currently no plans to schedule repeats but some Will Work for Nuts clips are available on youtube if you missed it.

You can also buy the show's book at Amazon.com for just a fiver!
And watch Matt's hilarious response to being a runner-up at the Pandas on youtube.

Related posts: Wildscreen 2008 Panda Awards

Wildscreen Volunteering Uncut: Day 5

Thursday
The final day of Wildscreen

Speedpitching
A new format for Wildscreen, Speedpitching gives filmmakers the opportunity to attempt to get their ideas commissioned by some of the best in the industry.
Understandably this can be a difficult and intimidating process for pitchers when they have only three minutes to present their ideas to commissioners such as Tim Martin the series editor of Natural World, Shannon Malone from National Geographic, David Glover from C4 and Animal Planet International's director of programming Mark Wild. However, the opportunity to pitch to commissioners that would usually be difficult to get hold of, and in an environment where critiques and advice are freely given, is one not to be taken lightly.
A pitch must always be commissioner specific - a hurdle at which many pitches can fall by the wayside - but with such a valuable resource available, many Wildscreen delegates found themselves adapting their pitches on the spot to have the chance to push their ideas at other exciting commissioners.

Videotheque
Throughout the week delegates have access to all the Wildscreen Film Festival entrants at the videotheque. This is open every day allowing delegates to drop in at any time, with the biggest rush hours between workshops and talks. In previous years DVD players have been used but this year Wildscreen has upgraded its Videotheque to use an online library for much easier viewing: a major benefit being that more than one delegate can view a single programme at once!
The final day of Wildscreen sees the videotheque packed with delegates hoping to see the winning programmes which were announced at the Pandas the night before.

Wildscreen's final day is busy everywhere with queues throughout the Watershed for the closing talks, debates and screenings.

The Watershed on Bristol's waterfront has yet again been the perfect host and is well worth a visit on Friday for the screenings of the Panda Award winners...
Alastair Fothergill at Wildscreen
...and it's always nice to see a few familiar famous faces in your favourite cafe!

Wildscreen 2008 Panda Awards

And the winners are...

BBC NEWCOMER AWARD: The White Wood
Filmmaker: Lou Astbury (UK)

CAMPAIGN AWARD: Rethink the Shark
Save Our Seas Foundation (Switzerland) Co-produced with Saatchi & Saatchi

UWE CHILDREN’S CHOICE AWARD: Bama’s Journey
Commissioned by Al Jazeera International

PRESENTER-LED AWARD: Adventure Yukon: The Long Journey
Studio Hamburg Produktion GmbH/NDR Naturfilm (Germany) Co-produced with Parthenon Entertainment and ORF
Presenter: Andreas Kieling

FIVE AWARD FOR POPULAR BROADCAST PROGRAMME: Meerkat Manor: Journey’s End
Southern Star International (Australia) An Oxford Scientific Films production for Animal Planet International


EARTH SCIENCE AWARD: Earth: The Power of the Planet – Atmosphere
BBC (UK) Co-produced with National Geographic US, ZDF & BBC Worldwide

NEWS AWARD: China’s Killer Zoos
Sky News (UK)

ARKIVE NEW MEDIA AWARD: Earth-Touch weekly podcast
Earth-Touch (South Africa)

PARTHENON ENTERTAINMENT AWARD FOR INNOVATION: Smalltalk Diaries: Predators
Ammonite Ltd (UK) Co-produced with the BBC in association with Off the Fence and Big Squid New Media

WILDSCREEN’S AWARD TO PROMOTE FILMMAKERS FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: Irani Wildlife
Seyed Mani Mirsadeghi (Iran)

GRANADA AWARD FOR ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR: Eye of the Leopard
Wildlife Films (Botswana)

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM ENVIRONMENT AWARD: Battle to Save the Tiger
Mike Birkhead Associates (UK) Commissioned by BBC Natural History Unit

THEATRICAL AWARD: The Theatrical Award was not presented this year. After much deliberation the judges did not feel that this year’s finalists met the criteria of the award, and so have not put forward a winner.

ANIMAL PLANET INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE AND ANIMALS AWARD: Saving Luna
Mountainside Films Ltd (Canada) Commissioned by CBC

CHRISTOPHER PARSON’S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Masaru Ikeo – Executive Officer, Business Development, Media International Corporation
(Formerly of NHK, Japan)

BEST EDITING AWARD: Expedition Guyana (Programme 1)
BBC Natural History Unit (UK) Co-produced with BBC Worldwide & Discovery
Editor: Peter Brownlee

FILMS AT 59 AWARD FOR BEST SOUND: Galapagos: Born of Fire
BBC Natural History Unit (UK) Co-produced with BBC Worldwide & National Geographic US

BEST SCRIPT AWARD: Saving Luna
Mountainside Films Ltd (Canada) Commissioned by CBC
Scriptwriter: Michael Parfit

BEST MUSIC AWARD: Christmas in Yellowstone
Thirteen/WNET New York (USA)
Music: Lenny Williams

Disappointment for the crew of Life in Cold Blood as Smalltalk Diaries takes their only nomination...
BEST SERIES AWARD: Smalltalk Diaries
Ammonite Ltd (UK) Co-produced with the BBC in association with Off the Fence and Big Squid New Media

PANASONIC AWARD FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Earth Pilgrim
AGB Films Ltd (UK) Co-produced with BBC Natural History Unit & BBC Worldwide
Camera: Warwick Sloss

JURY’S SPECIAL PRIZE: Lobo – The Wolf that Changed America
Brian Leith Productions (UK)
A BBC and Thirteen/WNET New York co-production in association with PBS
Scriptwriters: Steve Gooder & Brian Leith

GOLDEN PANDA: Life in Cold Blood - Armoured Giants
BBC Natural History Unit (UK) Co-produced with BBC Worldwide, Animal Planet & the Open University.

Wildscreen Volunteering Uncut: Day 3

Tuesday

Research Workshop
Tigress APs and researching gurus Laura Harvey and Natalie Dunmore led this workshop on production research.
With information on the role of a researcher, where to find ideas, fact cross-checking, phone call checklists, handling cold contacts and logistics, this is by far the most thorough workshop I've attended this year.
Laura and Natalie, a highly approachable pair, have over 10 years in the industry between them and were absolute fountains of knowledge when discussing production research.
Outsiders approaching the industry may find it difficult to fathom the actual day-to-day duties and pressures of specific roles in film-making: I left this workshop excited, with a clear concept of what is required of me if I am to push myself into the researcher role.



Masterclass: Sound - The Cinderella Craft
This afternoon masterclass session featured advice from experts Martyn Harries (BBC Dubbing Mixer), Kate Hopkins (Freelance Dubbing Editor), Joe Stevens (BBC Sound Recordist) and Patrick Morris (BBC Producer).
Now I don't know much about sound but after just an hour of intense listening, I was intrigued. I had no idea how a soundtrack was put together, who would be involved in the process and where soundbites might come from, never mind which microphones are used for what and that sounds obtained can influence the footage used as well as vice versa.
Patrick Morris described a fantastic example of where a recording of locals singing about a bird's behaviour was built upon to produce a soundtrack which changed the entire format of a visual sequence - and with a beautifully moving result.

This evening's debate upon whether "People must be kept away from endangered animals" saw intriguing arguments from both sides. The conclusive vote turned in favour of the motion with 205 votes for verus 132 against.

Wildscreen Volunteering Uncut: Day 2

Monday



Today I was scheduled in to be on the front desk for Workshops. Whilst some of these are based off-site around Bristol, most take place in the Marriot Royal Hotel conference rooms.

The first was "Breaking out of the box: A guide to multi-platforming" run by Paul Williams (BBC NHU researcher and founder of TheNatureWatch.com) with guest speakers Paul Deane (Senior Content Producer: Big Cat Live) and Jody Bourton (Radio AP: World on the move, BBC Wales).


This was a fantastic hands-on workshop directed at those new to the world of blogging, RSS feeds, youtube, flickr, twitter and all manner of online content outlets! This was perfect for many of the delegates attending this workshop but a bit basic for me so, as with many aspects of a volunteer's duties, I ended up assisting with the activities being run.
It was easy to be reassuring and helpful as, having only started blogging a few months ago myself, I know how daunting HTML and other gadget codes can be, and how easy it is to find online advice. There are even blogs about blogging!

Importantly it was noted at the beginning of the session that the BBC's use of the phrase "Multiplatforming" tends to apply to all web-related content. Paul Deane, Senior Content Producer for Big Cat Live took us through the BBC's use of online feeds, blogs and video uploads for the Big Cat Live event, focussing on the importance of a community feel for the success of such programmes. With Twitter technology the Big Cat Live team could text in their latest news as it happened...

Wow - we've just had the most amazing lion kill live on webcam1. Sorry we pulled away - it was getting quite gory. Anything could happen!

Big Cat Live Twitter feed

Jody Bourton, Assistant producer for Radio 4's World on the Move discussed the benefits of small camcorder video feeds from the field and gave us tips on directing our videos to be suitable for the web. We were given a chance to try our hand at this and told to concentrate on framing and lighting, being careful to keep shots simple for faster uploads. The results can be found at the Wild Wildscreen Website.


Monday's evening event was the Parthenon Party, with a Russian theme: Pictures coming soon!

Wildscreen Volunteering Uncut: Day 1!

Sunday

Wildscreen is upon us!

A volunteer's day starts early. You will never see the Clifton Triangle or Park street looking this quiet at any other time of week but Sunday morning!


My first duty of the week? Registration desk! This is where it all begins for delegates attending Wildscreen and it's really important that they get given all the right information and literature, and there's a lot!


From 9am every morning a delegate's first view of Wildscreen will always be a smiling volunteer and the following thrust into their arms...

1. Delegate badge: VITAL! Without this the delegates can't get into the Watershed to enjoy all the festival events and activities. There's usually a dashing photo or two with the occasional celebrity who needn't be pictured because everyone will know them. This year's white space faces include Sir David Attenborough, Bill Bailey and Joanna Lumley!!

2. Invites envelope: This has all their evening event tickets including those to the prestigious Panda awards, that is, providing they've bought one. All the other evening events are free to delegates but for the Pandas there are limitted spaces, invites only!

3. Wildscreen bag: This is a classic eco-friendly shoulder-bag containing their Wildscreen goodies; including pens made from recycled car parts, USB sticks, notepads, sweeties, sponsor literature, maps, the festival diary, and the much sought delegate directory. The delegate directory lists all the films submitted to Wildscreen with those nominated for awards highlighted and gives every delegate's contact details, so when you bump into that life-changing career-making producer, you know you'll be able to get hold of him or her, with just a flick of the fingertips!

4. Directions: This is an obvious one! Wildscreen film festival is spread across various areas of Bristol with many workshops being off-site. Delegates will need to know either where they can meet their guide to a workshop or how to get there themselves. And of course volunteers are always giving directions to the nearest toilets!

5. A Buddy!: Wildscreen has had the great idea of helping newcomers to find their way around and kickstart their networking by introducing them to a buddy. Buddies have to be pre-booked in order to match up pairs but there can be the occasional delegate loitering at the registration desk hoping to just sign up!

Being on the registration desk is great fun! You get to meet loads of people on whom you will automatically make a good impression, and there's usually a few who like to know your name or are keen to take a business card!

"Oo she sounds useful - are we short a runner? We should get her in for some work experience!"

Tomorrow I'm on workshops: Multi-Platforming and Managing Production...stay tuned!

Wildscreen Volunteering Uncut: Day -2!

Thursday

A visit to the Wildscreen office this afternoon found me in the company of the Wildscreen Festival Heroes all working hard and late into the evening!

Volunteering at Wildscreen is an amazing opportunity to hobnob with the best in the wildlife filmmaking business and to learn about working in the industry. It's an opportunity not to be taken lightly and one for which I am truly grateful!
For this reason you frequently find volunteers spending the days prior to the festival in one of the Wildscreen meeting rooms getting repetitive strain injuries as they do the fill-in jobs that the festival managers simply do not have the time for.

My festival diary starts in this meeting room where I spent but a few hours putting delegate invitations into their welcome packs, ordering these packs for registration and stapling together volunteer guides.
There's so much happening at the festival: the coordinators need to be sure that the volunteers will represent their presence throughout; checking that delegate-only rules are applied, health and safety issues are sustained, and talks and workshops are run smoothly.

It's a large amount of paperwork that the festival coordinators get through but I am reassured that numerous recycling bins are placed around the festival to make sure we don't waste this paper - they've thought of everything!

I stay until just before 8pm (having only arrived around 5) but the office is still busy and bustling when I leave.

I can't wait for the festival to commence!!!

' Twas the week before Wildscreen...

Wildscreen Film Festival is fast descending on Bristol and we mustn't forget its focus. The Panda awards are known as the Green Oscars and represent the cream of the crop from the natural history filmmaking industry.


New to the awards this year we have the Natural History Museum Environment Award, the Animal Planet International People & Animals Award and the Presenter-led Award.
If it wasn't for this event we couldn't have imagined the leaps and bounds this industry has taken to be possible.

Time and time again we see the BBC Natural History Unit raise the bar for wildlife filmmaking with pioneer blue-chip programmes and unique multi-media ventures, but without this review of their competition would they push so hard and so far? Would their competitors have been left straggling behind?

Here's a quick look at the BBC NHU entries to the Panda Awards this year.

Extreme Animals: Sports Stars has been nominated for the UWE Children's Choice Award. Extreme Animals: Sports Stars examined who would win the race to be the tip top fastest fittest animal from ten contenders. Although the fastest animal is the Peregrine Falcon, reaching speeds up to 200km/h, the Cheetah took the top position!

Galapagos: Born of Fire is up for the Panasonic Award for Cinematography for its spectacular images of outstanding natural beauty and the camerawork that brought them to the public eye. This Award actually marks the competition between three nominees all produced or co-produced by the BBC NHU: one of which involves co-production with previous Panda Award stars Halcyon media. Wye: Voices from the Valley has similar undercurrents and tone to the award-winning My Halcyon River which wowed the judges at Wildscreen 2004, and, like Galapagos: Born of Fire, was nominated for both best cinematography and the Films @59 Award for Best Sound.

Expedition Guyana (Programme 1) is a hopeful nominee for the Best Editing Award. Expedition Guyana followed a group of adventurers and scientists into the unexplored depths of the jungle to seek out new species and behaviours. The team made exciting discoveries and conquered dangerous landscapes to make this fantastic programme but the editors had to wade through hundreds of hours of footage and reduce them to a few succinct episodes!

Buddha, Bees and the Giant Hornet Queen, one episode of an outstanding Natural World series by the BBC, is up for the Parthenon Entertainment Award for Innovation. This programme shows the unique and mysterious connection between a monk, his bee colony and the hungry killer hornet army that amasses on his doorstep. Definitely a strong contender for this award and definitely worth finding on DVD or borrowing from your local video library.

Elephant Diaries (programme 4) has been nominated for the Five Award for Popular Broadcast Programme. The diary format is one with which we are all familiar and the recent successes of the BBC NHU with Big Cat Diary demonstrates how popular their work in this genre will continue to be. Competitors in this category are up against the best in the business!

Life in Cold Blood: The Cold-Blooded Truth is a strong nominee for Best Series Award. What would a Panda Award ceremony be without David Attenborough? And yet they may find themselves pipped to the post by Ammonite Ltd's fantastic series Smalltalk Diaries which makes up for in character, what it lacks in cinematography.

All in all this year's nominees represent the consistently improving quality of Wildlife film being churned out around the world. Without Wildscreen we couldn't qualitatively scrutinise such programmes to push them forward in their own creativity; and without the BBC's NHU who would set the bar to get the rest of the industry to keep their socks pulled up?!

Wildscreen Volunteer Diary

With the Wildscreen Film Festival fast approaching GiantsOrbiting is bringing you an insight into what goes on behind the scenes where the real heroes of Wildscreen work.

As a volunteer you have access to almost every area of Wildscreen from cinema screenings to the celebrity green room, from workshops to the watershed cafe, from the registration desk to the prestigious Panda Awards!

Sir David Attenborough with volunteers Jonas Stenstrom and Samantha Dixon at the Panda Awards 2006.

Nikki Waldron (volunteer coordinator) is responsible for making sure the 30 strong volunteer team maintain order at the festival to keep it running smoothly. The volunteers must man events, screenings, talks and workshops and check that only those who've paid (dearly!) for the Festival's activities are permitted. Nikki is there to ensure that the excited volunteers keep to their schedules and ensure an enjoyable event for all.

Wildscreen Film Festival is a whirlwind adventure for everyone especially the volunteers! Keep an eye on GiantsOrbiting to find out all about the goings on behind the scenes for the Wildscreen 2008 volunteers.

Wildscreen Film Festival 2006

Director: Bobby Proctor
VFX: Aardman

Coming soon: Wildscreen Film Festival

The international wildlife filmmaking event of the year is about to descend on Bristol this coming October.

Wildscreen is a Bristol-based charity who work globally to

promote the public appreciation of biodiversity and the conservation of nature through the power of wildlife imagery.

The biannual festival that Wildscreen runs is a week-long event through which film makers from around the world get together, compare their work, learn about the making of some of the best programmes from the last two years and compete to win Wildscreen awards.

The Wildscreen Film Festival Panda awards are equivalent to the Oscars for wildlife filmmaking. I was lucky enough to be selected to volunteer at Wildscreen Film Festival 2006 and introduced myself to David Attenborough at the Panda Awards.

The "Green Oscar" or Panda award

The much sought volunteer positions for Wildscreen 2008 are already filled but I believe delegates can still register on the Wildscreen Film Festival Website.

Registration gives you access to all events, talks and screenings, as well as the opportunity to enter workshops to learn more about aspects of Wildlife Filmmaking such as researching and getting commissions. There is also a brilliant video library run throughout the week giving delegates access to every Panda award entry including Life in Cold Blood's "Armoured Giants" and "The Cold Blooded Truth", as well as Expedition Guyana, "Wye": Voices from the Valley, and Meerkat Manor.

See the Wildscreen Film Festival 2006 Showreel here.

COMING SOON: Behind the scenes at Wildscreen Film Festival - a volunteer's experience!
And
My Favourites from Wildscreen 2006, including the Bedi Brothers' "Cherub in the Mist".