wild earth films

2009-08-03T12:58:00.001+12:00

I'm building a new website - you can take sneak preview over at Wild Earth Media.

Docs Rock! - DOCNZ International Film Festival

2009-02-18T17:47:00.003+13:00

Whetu Rere - the sea lion and the comet will soon be screening around New Zealand in the Documentary NZ International Film Festival!

The festival starts in Auckland on Thurs 26 Feb., with our first screening in Auckland on Saturday 28th Feb. and two more on 3rd and 5th of March. The Festival is then traveling to Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin over March and April. Whetu Rere is double-billed with Chance of a Lifetime (49min), a poignant award-winning film about a renowned photographer and the threatened New Zealand falcon, by filmmaker Sandy Crichton.

On the strength of the film's selection for the DOCNZ festival, Whetu Rere also received a special invitation to Reel Earth - the Aotearoa Environmental Film Festival, which will screen in 14 centres around New Zealand starting in May.

I will be attending a Question and Answer session at the DOCNZ screening at the Rialto cinemas in Newmarket, Auckland on 28 February, so hope to see you there if you're in Auckland!

Film almost there!

2007-06-06T22:15:00.002+12:00

Just putting the finishing touches on the film, in readiness for the end of course screening this Saturday.

Whetu Rere: the sea lion and the comet made by Kat Baulu and I , is first up in the programme of six films from this year's Post Graduate Diploma in Natural History Filmmaking and Communication class.

Following it are our classmates films:

A Moment of Clarity
by Sarah Cowhey and Louise Davidson
A film about the life of a beech forest as seen through the eyes of one of its inhabitants.

Shooting to Learn
by Dwayne Fowler
A film that tracks one man's obsession and change of heart over thar.

Geckos Rock
by Julia Kelbling and Jinty MacTavish
A fascinating insight into one of NZ's least known creatures and their biggest fan.

Bluffed
by Katie McSweeney
What is really happening in Bluff to the oyster fishery?: watch and find out.

Prints of Darkness
by Mark Orton and Pip Walls
A real mystery, this is film noir in more ways than one.

Sea lion film - the website!

2007-06-03T12:24:00.002+12:00

Here's a screenshot of the new website for "Whetu Rere - The Sea Lion and the Comet."

See a trailer, read all about the film, sea lions, the filmmakers, and our wonderful composer, Claire Cowan, at www.sealionfilm.co.nz

Whetu Rere - The Sea Lion and the Comet

2007-05-19T10:57:00.000+12:00

At last we have a film title. As implausible as it may seem, it accurately reflects the the actual events that are documented in our film. Special thanks to Sarah White from the University of Otago Dept. of Design Studies for designing our print materials, as above.

Rough cut - screening in one month

2007-05-09T22:11:00.000+12:00

The reason this blog may have seemed abandoned is because I've been absorbed in Final Cut Pro, editing our sea lion footage into something watchable. Here's a clip from the rough cut that shows 'Mum,' the matriarch of Otago's returning sea lions, calling to her new born pup. In the first few days of his life, Mum called the pup to her in this way a couple of times a day. The clip has raw unmixed sound, but you can hear both Mum's calls and the pup's replies.

A world view

2007-03-30T09:32:00.000+12:00

Sometimes you can get completely absorbed in what you're doing and forget to look up and see what's going on around you. I'm taking regular bush walks to get a break from obsessing about sea lions and Final Cut Pro. But if I really want put my daily life in perspective, there are few things more inspiring than literally taking a world view. There are many sources of earth imagery on the internet now (a few are listed in the links to the right), but I find this almost real-time view of the earth utterly compelling. It's from a Japanese weather satellite 38,500km out in space, and this how our hemisphere looked this morning:

This visible light image is refreshed a few times daily, here. At night, and for a clearer view of weather patterns, an infrared image is also available here. Today, you can see a storm system that's been drenching northern NZ with torrential rain for the past few days moving off to the east.

TVNZ on demand

2007-03-21T11:35:00.000+12:00

While we labour over our films and learn about content creation, TVNZ have just taken the dissemination of NZ broadcast content the next step with the launch yesterday of TVNZ On Demand. The service allows users to view or download TV shows over the internet, with an initial focus on NZ programming.

A quick copy and paste from the View Page Source window, and it seems anyone can embed material from the site in their blog or elsewhere, as below.

I had a quick look around for some natural history material, but the closest thing I could find relevant to the filmmaking course is this piece on Otago artist Grahame Sydney, who we were lucky enough to have talk with us in class last September. (Surely some of NHNZ's older NZ material like the Wild South series is deserving of a place in the Classics section!)

If you want to stop, start or otherwise control the video, try mousing over it, and a control bar should appear along the bottom.

To view this video content you need Flash!

TVNZ On Demand potentially opens up an exciting new world of media content accessibility in New Zealand, but it will be interesting to see how well it works out. For example, how will content creators (programme makers) be rewarded for the 'extra' use of their material? And at the consumer end, how much fun is the service going to be while broadband speeds continue to languish? Meanwhile, I'd be interested in hearing your experience in watching the video here - does it work for you, and what computer and browser are you using? As for me, back to video capturing - I've got content to create!

Editing

2007-02-21T15:20:00.000+13:00

Here's a screenshot from Final Cut Pro showing our sea lion pup as he struggles across the beach on a very windy day. I'm having a go at editing some footage to go with music from a composer that we hope to get on board with our film. FCP is a beast of a program, with endlessly complex options to grapple with (not to mention the possibilities!). I have a couple of months to tame it so the film will be completed by the end of May deadline.

A pair of New Zealand films

2007-02-08T19:53:00.000+13:00

There are a couple of local films about to be released that I think will be worth keeping an eye out for. The first is a restored version of literally the first film I ever remember seeing. This is New Zealand was produced for the World Expo in Osaka, Japan in 1970, and was shown throughout New Zealand shortly after that, so I would have been all of 6 when I saw it. Going to the Odeon/Regent/Westend picture theatres in Auckland's Queen Street was a great occasion, and I still remember parts of the film vividly.

The film essentially showcased New Zealand with lavish images of the country's scenery and society set to rousing music including (memorably) Sibelius' Karelia Suite, all projected through a complicated three-screen system. There's a tiny taste of the film in this TVNZ news clip.

Now, a remastered version that doesn't require three synchronised projectors is to be shown here after an official premiere in March. The new version has just won a 'Bronze WorldMedal' for special venue films at the New York Festivals.

I'm looking forward to the film to see whether it can possibly reignite the excitement I felt the first time I saw it, and how much New Zealand has changed. Perhaps it might be worth re-shooting an updated version à la Seven Up!

The other film I'm hanging out for couldn't be more different. Sándor Lau's new film Squeegee Bandit is the story of Starfish, a Maori guy who washes car windows in Auckland. He's rough as guts and a bit of a character. From the trailer at the film's website it looks like a roller coaster story, and I'm intrigued by the funky editing style and unusual spot colour technique used in the film.

Wetlands

2007-02-05T23:29:00.000+13:00

New Zealand's wetlands are wonderfully rich repositories of biodiversity, but they've sadly been selectively hammered by drainage schemes and clearance for the development of agriculture on the fertile soils that they typically occupy.

Just a day after World Wetlands Day I finally managed to make the trip to Swampy Summit , a wetland that has long intrigued me since seeing it years ago on a topo map of Dunedin. After walking up the Leith Saddle Track I arrived at Swampy Summit in full sunshine, but the wind humming in the telecoms mast wires soon delivered a ground-hugging swirl of cloud that obscured the momentarily spectacular view to Taieri Plain, and imposed an eerie atmosphere upon the landscape.

Once into the wetland though, the mist shrouding the view encouraged me to pay close attention to the myriad plants beneath my feet, including a couple of orchid species and a tiny fern:

Thelymitra ?cyanea

Lyperanthus antarcticus

Blechnum penna-marina subsp. alpina

Backlog

2007-02-01T19:59:00.000+13:00

After filming solidly for weeks on end, and experiencing a roller coaster ride of emotions as we thought one, then both of our sea lion stars were dead, it's now time for some quiet reflection.

What that actually means is we are in the throes of the seemingly endless task of logging all tapes we shot. Each 1 hour tape needs to be viewed and the time code and description of every shot recorded with the aim of organising the material, and in the hope of identifying enough of it that's good enough to include in the film.

To be 'good enough,' the shots need to be aesthetically pleasing, but moreover, there needs to be sufficient variety and detail with which to edit a coherent story. Aesthetically pleasing doesn't seem to be proving too much of a problem so far (especially with our charismatic sea lions), but story-forming appears to be a much greater hurdle.

I'm finding the transition from still photography to capturing enough moving shots to stitch together as satisfying film sequences to be a bit of a learning curve. Donna has perceptively mentioned my penchant for shooting great still compositions with the video camera. Unfortunately this won't do the job so I'm now on a self-enforced no-still-photography regime, in the hope that this will assist the development of my eye for shooting moving images. As I'm usually NEVER without the Nikon nearby, I hope my re-education is swift.

Comet McNaught

2007-01-24T18:16:00.000+13:00

The skies cleared again last night for the first time since Thursday so I headed down to St Kilda to attempt a time lapse of the sun setting and Comet McNaught appearing. No luck with that unfortunately, as the comet is much fainter (and smaller) and didn't show until I was packing up to leave. So now I have 350 frames of clouds clearing to reveal an empty sky... All was not lost though, and I also shot a few stills on a longer lens as you can see above.

Main character returns!

2007-01-22T11:36:00.000+13:00

Yesterday our first break in filming this month was interrupted by the happy news that 'Mum' sea lion's back! Just when all hope seemed to be lost that the matriarch of Otago sea lions was still alive, she returned to the beach where we've spent the past few of weeks filming. Although the articles published in today's ODT and NZ Herald indicate she'd been away for only a week, it was the 8th of January that she left the pup (she was last sighted on 11 January).

This afternoon we have a meeting with our executive producer to discuss what it all means for the direction of our film...

Short and eventful life

2007-01-20T10:42:00.000+13:00

Like the view we have of Comet McNaught (pictured 18/1/07), our sea lion pup has had a short and eventful life. Sadly, he died early this morning, having weakened overnight. That he survived for so long after his natural mother was last with him (12 days ago) is remarkable. The efforts of DoC staff and volunteers to foster him to another female were unique, and surprisingly successful. It is tempting to think that if she'd come back to him a day earlier and allowed him to suckle again, this experiment might have been more successful.

Meanwhile, my filming partner Kat and I are going to take a day or two off. Along with my wife Donna, we've been following the pup's progress for almost every daylight hour since he was born in the early hours of January 3rd. I for one could use a rest, before working on where to take the film after all this drama. Verified sightings of'Mum' sea lion more than welcome!

Main character missing in action

2007-01-18T11:58:00.000+13:00

Filming's been pretty tense the past few days as we've continued to wait for the return of 'Mum' to her new pup. Now the Otago Daily Times is on the case with a front page story titled 'Sea lion matriarch feared dead'. Here she is, with pup, the last day we saw her at Taieri Mouth. She's been sighted since at a beach on the Otago Peninsula, but not for a few days now.

Filming begins!

2007-01-12T23:40:00.000+13:00

I'll tell you about my holiday later, but for the past 10 days we've been flat out trying to capture the first few events in a sea lion pup's life. Right now, that means waiting for very long periods on a beach for it's mother to come and feed it. That's four days and counting. Four pretty drizzly days. Luckily the locals are very friendly and are keeping us entertained with long chats about sea lions and other local phenomena as they pause a while during strolls on the beach.

SOS

2006-12-06T07:17:00.000+13:00

That's Save Our Snails.

Today the Save Happy Valley Coalition is seeking a judicial review of the Government's decision allowing state-owned coal miner Solid Energy to "hunt, kill and possess" endangered West Coast snails. The decision allows threatened Powelliphanta augustus snails to be removed from their only known habitat so that Solid Energy can strip native vegetation and mine the underlying coal.

Solid Energy's activities threaten Powelliphanta augustus snails with extinction. The species is only known from the one site, which is to be destroyed, and no-one knows if it can survive anywhere else. Even if the snails do survive elsewhere, who knows what ecosystem functions and interactions will be lost?

The decison is inconsistent with the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy which this government developed.

Goal Three of the NZBS is to:
Halt the decline in New Zealand’s indigenous biodiversity

Maintain and restore a full range of remaining natural habitats and ecosystems to a healthy functioning state, enhance critically scarce habitats, and sustain the more modified ecosystems in production and urban environments; and do what else is necessary to maintain and restore viable populations of all indigenous species and subspecies across their natural range and maintain their genetic diversity.

It is ecologically and scientifically important that native species are maintained in their natural habitats, not only for the individual species’ survival, but also for the natural functioning of the environment and so that we may understand such processes. This is reflected in the Resource Management Act definition of ‘biological diversity’ which ‘means the variability among living organisms, and the ecological complexes of which they are a part, including diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems’.

Not only has this decision relegated Powelliphanta augustus snails to probable extinction, it fails to adequately provide for the protection of the biodiversity of a unique ecosystem.

That the decision paves the way for using non-renewable fossil fuel which will contribute to climate change, only adds insult to injury.

In my view, the decision to allow the removal of the snails is incompatible with the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy, and the Resource Management Act. It will be interesting to see what the High Court decides.

Sea lion rushes

2006-12-04T13:44:00.000+13:00

Here's what can happen when two moderately large sea lions meet on the same patch of beach. This is one of the more interesting interactions I've seen after only a few days of observing and beginning to film sea lions. Most of the time it's been an awful lot of watching sea lions sleep. It seems to me already that the land is something of an inconvenience for them. Looking forward to see what we can capture underwater later in the summer...

Species and ecosystems

2006-12-03T13:09:00.000+13:00

Researching the return of sea lions to the Otago coast for our film has revealed some interesting disparities between people's hopes and aspirations, and the realities of ecosystems.

On the sea lions part, the long story short is that they were hunted essentially to extinction on the New Zealand mainland, where prehistorically they had ranged the length of the country. New Zealand sea lions (that's Phocarctos hookeri) have only survived on a few scattered sub-Antarctic islands. Now, there's the kernel of a comeback as a precious few begin to breed on the mainland again.

This has given rise to mild consternation among local conservationists and others who've put years of effort into the protection of threatened yellow-eyed penguins. The thing is that one or two sea lions seem to have developed a taste for yellow-eyed penguin. It's not exactly a wholesale massacre, but if people were doing it, DOC and the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust would rightly be down on them like a ton of bricks. So what to do about a threatened species feeding on another threatened species?

Well in my view, it shows the need to get beyond species conservation to ecosystem conservation. Getting the conditions right to allow threatened species to build back to sustainable numbers needs the protection and (often) ecological restoration of sufficient areas of suitable habitat. Yellow-eyed penguins and sea lions are obvious parts of the original coastal ecosystems of the Otago Peninsula, but what else is missing? What other indigenous plants and animals could be brought back to the coast to restore fully functional ecosystems here? How big an area needs to be protected so that yellow-eyed penguins can thrive so much that we can afford for a few to be taken by the returning sea lions?

Sea lions

2006-11-23T09:53:00.000+13:00

As part of research for the film, I recently accompanied local sea lion researcher, Shaun McConkey, on his monthly beach survey to identify how many and which sea lions are occupying beaches on the Otago Peninsula. At this time of year, there are a number of large males such as the one above still on the beaches. The big ones are expected to head south to the Auckland Islands shortly, while younger males, and females with their pups from last year tend to hang around locally.

Shaun developed a photographic methodology for identifying sea lions a few years ago, and now uses a handycam to record their features for accurate identification of individuals. A number of the younger ones seem to be familiar with him because he's been paying them visits on his surveys since they were born.

Natural phenomenal

2006-11-21T19:30:00.000+13:00

Here's my view just before 1pm today of an iceberg passing the Otago Peninsula, shot through a 300mm lens and massively cropped.
According to the NZ Herald, the icebergs drifting off the Otago coast have covered 13,500km from the Antarctic's West Ronne Ice Shelf. Their journey started six years ago, when an iceberg known as A-43, 167km long and 32km wide, broke off.

The original massive iceberg is visible fractured into three chunks near the centre of this thermal satellite image made on 28 May 2000 (from: ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/ICESHELVES/
ronne/ronne_w_a14_lcs_000528_2118.temp.jpg)

Today, from near Cape Saunders, a passing fragment was just the merest speck on the horizon through my telephoto lens, and invisible to the naked eye. Last Friday afternoon I saw another iceberg from the same spot, but I hadn't packed the telephoto.

Google Ponder

2006-11-14T22:36:00.000+13:00

'scuse the hiatus, I've been off in Auckland to re-establish a bit of normality with my family who've been putting up with me being holed up in Dunedin for the vast majority of the past four months. Also to celebrate my birthday - thanks everyone for the fun and pressies. Thanks especially Zac and Nat, the new speakers are fantastic in my little room!

So now getting stuck into the nitty gritty of writing the sea lion film, figuring out the story beats and what to point the camera at etc. One matter I've been considering is how to portray the passage of time in the film - in this case the last 2 or 3 hundred years leading up to the present. Over the past few of those years, I've found pondering easily turns into Googling, so '"passage of time" film' quickly leads to the site of Hollywood screenwriter John August.

The man seems to know knows what he's on about, with wide ranging Q and A's on writing and filmmaking topics. My inner writer could relate to his explanation of pitches:
"A "pitch" is the oral presentation of a movie idea, where screenwriters explain to studio executives that their movie is "Ghostbusters meets Titanic." God knows why screenwriters - who spend most of their days typing in dark rooms - are supposed to be able to suddenly become eloquent and impassioned hucksters, but such are the weird realities of Hollywood. Ideally, a pitch should feel like how you describe a really good movie to a friend who hasn’t seen it yet. Casual but excited. Truthfully, I usually write every word I’m going to say ahead of time, then internalize it so it feels like I’m ad-libbing."

No thunderbolt of inspiration for my particular passage of time just yet (unless the sea lions go on a psychedelic journey "across the Brooklyn Bridge, through the Washington Mall, down the Georgia coast and into the heart of Miami’s hotel district"). But I'll be visiting the site again for inspiration, and perhaps the occasional dose of solace that I'm not the only one who finds writing a challenge.

At last, a film to make

2006-10-23T10:20:00.000+13:00

To paraphrase Billy Collins' wonderful poem 'Aristotle':

This is the beginning.
Almost anything can happen.
This is where you find
the creation of light, a sea lion wriggling onto land,
the first word of Paradise Lost on an empty page.*

So, I'm at the beginning of a film, and the decision's been made, it's going to be about sea lions.

My filming partner Kat has been researching them furiously for weeks, but I've been luke-warm, not keen to get too excited until I could see more than a blue-chip collection of beautiful shots and biological facts. At last, on the brink of despair at the weekend, something gelled, and we have found 'the story' that makes me think it will work.

On Wednesday, we will have the pleasure of meeting with our Executive Producer Michael Stedman, who I'm sure will be quick to recognise whether we're on the right track, or not.

*Hat tip to Graeme Tetley.

Big ups!

2006-10-20T13:40:00.000+13:00

...and Kia ora to NHFC alumni Brant Backlund and Thassilo Franke who have just won the BBC Newcomer Award for their film Exhuming Adams at this year's Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, UK.

The film is a forensic investigation drama-style look at the extinction of the NZ native mistletoe Trilepidea adamsii. It was one of the first of the previous students' films we viewed soon after starting the course back in July, and it totally had me hooked by combining two of my loves, botany and film in an entertaining and compelling way. Anyone with an interest in natural history or the environment is sure to find it fascinating, so hopefully the award will lead to the film getting the wide audience it deserves.

Meanwhile, as bizarre as it seems, formal classes are already over for those of us in this years' Natural History Filmmaking course, and we head off on the path that Brant and Thassilo trod just two years ago - to make our own films over the summer. So, here's hoping the Muses imbue us with the creativity to be half as successful they've been...

Seismic events II

2006-10-17T21:28:00.000+13:00

Well, I'm not going to post every time there's an earthquake, but having spent some time in Hawai`i a number of years back, I was interested to see that a moderately large earthquake there made headline news yesterday.

The earthquake occurred in the vicinity of Kona - the side of Hawai`i (The 'Big' Island) that most tourists stay on. The entire island constantly experiences seismic tremors, and these are recorded in lavish detail by the US Geological Survey. Maps and details of Hawaiian seismicity can be seen here or here. The USGS also reports worldwide earthquakes, although many countries have their own online earthquake reporting systems.

The USGS also provides extrordinarily detailed reporting on the continuing volcanic activity in Hawai`i from the
Hawai`ian Volcano Observatory.

While working as a volunteer ecologist in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park in 1992, I had the chance to visit Pu'u O'o, whose continuing eruption is updated here practically every day. The experience was significant for me as it taught me a great deal about the geological origins of my home town of Auckland, a city built on a volcanic field of 50 volcanoes.

The following is an image I made of the lava lake in Pu`u O`o crater back then. We reached the volcano after several hours' hiking through rainforest and across barren fresh lava flows. We had to wear gas masks to protect against deadly sulphur dioxide fumes. Now, from the comfort of their computer desk, anyone can get a current view of Pu`u O`o from a webcam placed within a few metres of where I took the photo.

Seismic events

2006-10-13T10:54:00.000+13:00

What do the recent news that North Korea may have detonated a nuclear weapon and, closer to home, that New Zealand's Mt Ruapehu had a small eruption have in common?

They were both initially detected by seismographs. These simple devices record vibrations in the earth. Until perhaps 5-10 years ago, they were merely revolving drums loaded with a sheet of paper upon which a pen trace registered any movements. Now of course it's all electronic.

Seismic data is now easily disseminated over the internet to anyone who's interested. For example, take a look at the Geonet site which provides live earthquake data for New Zealand, or the earthquake maps at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

However, it is a concern that given the ease of providing this data, it is very difficult to find reliable information on potential nuclear tests - events that I think anyone on the planet should be able to find out about. The methods for detecting nuclear weapons tests seismically are just as simple as detecting earthquakes - a network of three or more seismographs, so that the location of the shock can be triangulated. Of course there are also means for detecting radioactive discharges even from underground weapons tests.

However, there is ongoing uncertainty about North Korea's test. We seem only to have the word of US officials for confirmation of the test.

But frankly, why should the rest of the world have to rely on the word of one country with a dodgy record in all things nuclear? The USA has not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, it has a lacklustre record in reporting on
Weapons of Mass Destruction elsewhere, and it has
10,000 nukes of it's own.

The probable test in North Korea should be a spur for the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization to get it's monitoring data up on line for the world to see. It's probably a week or two's work for any half experienced web programmer.

Meanwhile, here's one of my photos of Mt Ruapehu, the location of the week's other seismic event.

Spring Snow

2006-10-10T07:49:00.000+13:00

While I've barely got into the rhythm of university life, I certainly haven't got into the seasonal rhythms of Dunedin. After enough warm weather to think summer's here, this is what I see out my window this morning:

(That long pale building at centre is where it all happens on the filmmaking course).

Elephants and stars

2006-10-09T21:22:00.000+13:00

If you've been reading this blog from the start, you'll know it really just began as homework for a filmmaking class. Well, that all comes to an end now, for today is the last day for it to be assessed. In fact, with the university semester coming to a close this week I'm in the midst of a frenzy of assessment deadlines. Today it was a narration script, Friday it's the re-narration of a film about vultures, and Monday it's my shooting script for a film that's unlikely ever to be made about a special and rare little native fish. It was a total buzz getting my fairly ropey script narrated in the studio this afternoon, so I'm really looking forward to doing that for a real film of my own.

The university year seems extraordinarily short, and I've barely got into the rhythm of classes when they're about to come to an end. I'm used to a working year paced to end a day before Christmas. Of course there's still a film to be made this summer.

And therein lies the elephant in the 'room' of this blog.

In part, it was supposed to share the process of making a film. And so far, I'd simply say the process would be painfully familiar to anyone who's ever suffered writer's block. My filmmaking partner Kat and I have had no shortage of great topics and subjects, but The Great Story continues to elude us. No shortage of stuff to research though - sea lions anyone??

Never mind, the course has been great fun so far, and I'm sure something scintillating will reveal itself in the story department soon enough. Meanwhile, here's something I've enjoyed experimenting with, under the guise of making the music video - a short time lapse featuring the Southern Cross. This looked great originally so apologies that it will look crap compressed for Youtube. At at least you're comfy in front of your computer, and not freezing in a southerly for two hours on top of an Otago Peninsula hill...

And, in case you were wondering, yes of course this blog's going to continue...

Hooray Nick!

2006-10-08T22:44:00.000+13:00

Thanks to Mark and Tracey for putting on a great barbeque at their styley place tonight, so we could all say goodbye to Nick, who's leaving the world of filming to head back to the world of medicine, in the land of Thylacines. Good luck Nick!

Extra special thanks to Pip, who turned up with a bag of paua. It's been way too long since I had a feed of those delicious little beasties.

Pole cameraderie

2006-10-05T20:35:00.000+13:00

Thursday saw the class at The Portobello Marine Lab to learn about pole cams and aquarium tank filming techniques. Paul Donovan regaled us with tales of filming octopus and crayfish for days on end to capture footage of them mating, laying eggs, hatching, fighting and other important life cycle events. Impressively, he didn't once even hint at being tempted by the culinary possibilities of his captive subjects.

After Ed Jowett instructed us on the basics, we took off with an arsenal of pole cams to see what they are capable of. Some of the results can be seen over at
Jint's blog.

Checking out the exhibits at the Portobello Aquarium.

Jint and Ed try to hotwire a Sony Z1 Camcorder while the rest of the class discusses the merits of the pole cam (with blue handle) at left.

18-35 fo' shizzle

2006-10-04T22:55:00.000+13:00

It's become apparent from recent feedback that (as one of the older students on the filmmaking course) I might have to put in a little more effort to reach younger audiences. As a start, here's my entire blog translated into gangsta rap slang, courtesy of the kind folk at Gizoogle (warning - contains offensive language...).

And if you can't understand it, you'll find help is at hand at the Urban Dictionary.

Fire!

2006-09-28T18:13:00.000+12:00

Here's my view of today's scrub fire that sent a pall of smoke right across central Dunedin. The fire was located in gorse and wildling pines between Logan Park High School and Palmer's Quarry. The shot's taken from the cemetery which is visible at the left of the satellite image in the link.

At it's height, the fire was being dowsed by four helicopters, including at least two from Helicopters Otago, whom we had coincidently visited out at their Taieri Aerodrome base this very morning with Paul Donovan, for a session on techniques for filming from aircraft.

While I was taking photos, the spectators around me included an elderly gentleman who observed that Dunedin was extremely dry for this time of year, and that he'd never seen a fire like it in his 30 years living here. Another chap with two cellphones and a fluoro orange vest, and apparently some ancillary involvement with the fire -fighting process, made the cheery observation that the quarry company had a shed-full of explosives somewhere up the hill from the fire.

As I write, it seems the fire is under control.

Botany etc.

2006-09-27T19:11:00.000+12:00

The course load and keeping up with my family in Auckland has prevented me from exploring the natural delights of Otago very much so far, but I did manage a short walk up the Leith Saddle Track into the semi-wilderness of Swampy Spur a little while ago. The internet has handy satellite images and maps of nearly everywhere now, so you can see detailed satellite views of the track here or here. New Zealand topographical maps and aerial photos are also available only slightly less accessibly courtesy of our Government here and here respectively.

Anyhow, just like in the real study of ecology you can only tell so much from the maps, so off I went for the first time into Otago hill country wondering what I was going to find. The forest at the lower part of the track is a bit of a blur because there's a really flash boardwalk that was quicker to walk along than George St at lunchtime.

What slowed me down though was the vegetation I stepped into above the treeline. There, much to my surprise, I found a southern analogy to the heathland scrubland I once studied closely in Northland for my Master's thesis. It was like walking into a familiar and comfortable place in the most unexpected circumstances. Although I've never been a church-goer, I once had a similar experience in Zanzibar, walking into the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ after travelling in Africa for three months. In the highly unexpected familiarity of that place, I realised for the first time how much I was a product of my broader cultural background, in spite of never feeling I had a great deal of affinity to it until then.

So, suffice to say my Swampy Spur experience wasn't quite in the same league, but I was very happy to find a range of plant genera, and even a few species in a community that I could recognise. There, just like at Kawerua, were a scrubby canopy of manuka, Dracophyllum, and a very few broadleaved species, interspersed with smallish range of other species including those heathland stalwarts Gonocarpus, Gaultheria and Lycopodium. Unsurprisingly, flax was scattered about, and also, too much of that invader from foreign heaths, gorse.

What was different? Up North, the shrubs grow up from amongst a sometimes impenetrably interwoven sward of rush-like 'wiwi' sedges (mostly Schoenus, and Baumea); at Swampy Spur, these are replaced by tussocky Chionochloa species. From all this, it was fairly obvious the vegetation here is hindered by lean soils. But, once a biting wind blew up and a squall of icy drizzle chased me back down the track to my car, I was reminded how the weather is so much more of a limiting factor here than in the 'winterless' north.

Next time, I hope to get up to Swampy Summit, and check out some of the eponymous wetland vegetation. Then, I'll take more time and better notes, so I start to get my head around some of the less familiar southern species.

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the onset of spring, and the sudden blossoming of colour all around Dunedin. In particular, I'm enjoying the unaccustomed abundance of the native tree Fuchsia, kotukutuku, which up around Auckland is relegated to the occasional damp gully due to it's palatability to possums. Here, it's all over the show, providing nectar to tui, bellbirds, and theiving white-eyes. Forest and Bird have a great backgrounder on this little gem of a tree.

Check out the funky blue pollen on these kotukutuku flowers just down the hill from my house!

When Pitches go bad

2006-09-26T18:50:00.000+12:00

Today it was our second film pitch on the course, and our first in our new teams of two (or one plus willing supportive classmates in the case of Dwayne). The response to Kat and my pitch was underwhelming to say the least. When the audience is asking questions about exactly what you thought you'd just told them in crystal clear English, you know things haven't gone well...

So, thanks Post-Graduate Diploma in Natural History Filmmaking course, I think I can now tick "How badly a pitch can go" off my list of things to learn.

Koyaanisqatsi

2006-09-13T20:38:00.000+12:00

A few posts down from here is the somewhat eclectic list of my classmates' favourite films. My pick that particular day was Koyaanisqatsi, which I saw first in 1984. It left a lasting impression - the time lapse landscapes gorgeous, and the juxtaposition with urban chaos disturbing. I was mesmerised.

So, the other day my new filmmaking partner Kat and I went across to the library to check it out again for a bit of inspiration. Time was short, so instead of the whole film we watched the DVD extra "Essence of Life" consisting mainly of interviews with Director Godfrey Reggio and Composer Philip Glass.

Reggio was fascinating. I loved his notion of taking out the foreground of a traditional film (plot, characters etc), and making the background the subject of his films. I was intrigued by his idea that we hardly merely use technology any longer, but live it. One of his preoccupations in the time before he made Koyaanisqatsi was essentially the evil of technology, and how it would lead to people's lives being controlled by the state. I never really got that from the film - as a first year University student, just embarking on my first science degree in Geography and Zoology, I saw it as as a statement about how we're degrading the natural environment. I was astonished to hear Reggio say that some viewers took the film to be an ode to the wonders of technology...

So in 2006, how would one go about affecting an audience with a 'factual' film the way Koyaanisqatsi inspired me? For my part, I'd still be up for wall to wall time lapses of stunning scenery and 'crazy life', though I probably wouldn't go to the cinema to see them every week. However, as one review at IMDB for Reggio's 2002 film Naqoyqatsi indicated, the techniques that were so fresh and amazing in Koyaanisqatsi are now old hat to many, depreciated by overuse in too many TV advertisements.

I hope to get a chance to try the film out on my class at one of our viewing sessions - I'd love to know whether it still works for this smart young group of filmmakers, some of whom weren't even born when the film was made.

Number 8 wire

2006-09-12T07:40:00.000+12:00

When I was very young, my grandparents had a sheep farm up north at a place called Avoca, about halfway between Dargaville and Whangarei. So, some of my earliest memories include riding on a big trailer pulled behind a tractor to go duck shooting at one of the dams at the bottom of the farm, the pleasant earthy smell of the chook shed as we collected eggs, and Pop on horseback whistling the dogs around the sheep.

It was a time that the colloquial 'number 8 wire' mentality that is so now overused to denote 'Kiwi ingenuity' was real, literal and I daresay fairly commonplace. Pop really could fix practically anything with a piece of the No. 8 fencing wire that my boyish hands back then could barely bend.

When my grandparents sold the farm and retired into town, they bought the epitome of modern techology for the new house - a Phillips K9 TV. A colour TV! Nan thought it was the 'bee's knees'.

So what would they have made of this then? With truly commonplace household items (a digital still camera, computer and internet connection), I can make a quick film of last night's sunset, and publish on the web for anyone, anywhere in the world to see.

This is a first time experiment, and it shows. For example, if I'd had a piece of No. 8 wire, I'd have been able to close the curtains better, and avoid the ugly reflection in the top left of the frame...

Music Video

2006-09-10T14:41:00.000+12:00

After what seems like weeks of frantic writing, there's a lull this weekend, and a little time to contemplate my next project for the course - the music video. I've had a piece in mind for this for weeks - something off the SJD album 'Southern Lights.'

There's music everywhere though, and other possibilities keep presenting themselves. Last night Pip kindly mustered a few of us out to a local gig at The Tunnel in Port Chalmers. Highlights of a mellow and thouroughly enjoyable evening were Delgirl and John Egenes. A graduate from last year, Bill Morris, was filming the whole event, and one of the acts is going to be featured in another entry for the video assignment, so I don't need to give those possibilities too much consideration.

But, what to make of seeming seredipity? This afternoon I take a break from working on a shooting script for the vid, and go into the communal kitchen of the big old house where I live for a glass of water. There I bump into new resident Andy, from Sweden. After introducing ourselves, he naturally enough asks "What do you do?" No sooner do the words 'film course' leave my lips, he says "You could make my music video for me," grabs his guitar and sings me a very polished few bars of a song he wrote.

Twelve Most Popular

2006-09-06T16:07:00.000+12:00

Clive Copeman took us on a journey from Hamlet to The Simpsons in a slick presentation about structures for films on Monday. First up was The List or Countdown structure, enjoyed by such programming as The Weather, Top of the Pops, and NHNZ's own The Most Extreme.

So it's in the spirit of the list structure that I present the NHFC student's Twelve Most Popular Films*. This is just one day's result from the number one most popular question we've been asked by presenters on the course so far - "What's your favourite film?"

Chinatown
City of God
Field of Dreams
Heavenly Creatures
Koyaanisqatsi
Lord of the Rings
Rain
The Crime of Father Amaro
The Life Aquatic
The Science of Sleep
Whale Rider

*Except one of us was missing that day, so congratulations for noticing there's only 11 in the list (what's your favourite film Lu?!)

Pitch

2006-09-02T12:28:00.000+12:00

I went up to Tawharanui with Donna a couple of days ago to find out more about the dotterel idea. As you can see, it's a fine location. In fact, thanks to the efforts of TOSSI and ARC it's probably in as good condition as any beach in the North Island. The threatened NZ dotterels here have a good chance of survival and successful breeding due to a predator proof fence, and intensive pest control.

As for my pitch on the idea, it's still bogged down like some lumbering beast in the La Brea Tar Pits. My mind is untrained in the ways of the story, so instead it rushes forth into the practicalities: Would a filming hide bother the birds? Could I record their calls against the noisy background of the sea? Would the connectors get filled with sand if I ran the cables from the hide to a microphone or an IR pencil cam hidden near the birds?

All thoughts which may prove useful in time, but only once the story has taken shape, and is successfully pitched....

Topics and issues

2006-08-29T17:14:00.000+12:00

So I guess I'd better get to the point of this blog, which at this stage is still essentially homework for a filmmaking course. Perhaps one day it might, you know, get a life of it's own. However, right now I'm painfully aware I haven't blogged much about what I'm doing in the search for a film to make department.

The good news is I'm learning something on this course, and Richard Thomas' words of wisdom have seeped in to my bones - a film has to have a story. The bad news is with this new knowledge I can now discern that there's nary a story to be seen - merely a list of topics and difficult-to-film issues.

Witness:

The plight of the rare toheroa. (A shellfish so endangered that it must not be taken, possessed, or disturbed. Unless you know the right local to talk to).

The plight of the rare Augustus snail. (In one fell swoop, state owned coal company accelerates extinction of unique species by mining its only habitat, and the rest of us by filling atmosphere with climate changing CO2).

The, er, plight of the endangered NZ dotterel. As kiwis love their beaches to death, watch original inhabitants as they suffer the consequences.

Um, the plight of robins, kokako, tuatara, kaka, or that of my personal favourite; whio.

Unfortunately, the acme of alliteration, Plight of the Penguin is already taken.

So 24 minutes of celluoid fame could be yours for cheap - just contact me with your compelling story by 9am Tuesday, 5th September (NZST)....

Home

2006-08-28T09:02:00.000+12:00

Six weeks into the filmmaking course and it's midterm break already. It's been an eventful few weeks and time has flown. In amongst all the lessons and assignments I even got evicted from my flat....

But now, I'm home for a week - ah, the luxury! While I'm doing the starving student in a garret thing down in Dunedin (people tell me I've lost weight which is no bad thing), I'm foregoing the daily joys of being with my family and all the comforts of home in the big smoke. Everyone told me it would be hard to be away from home, including some who haven't even met my fantastic wife Donna.

After the strict discipline of Dunedin's 'invigorating' winter, Auckland's acting the shameless hussy with it's very best clear sunny days, as if to rub it in. While I'm here I'll be catching up with friends, and former colleagues at the ARC.

I'll also be working on two major assignments due next week - a magazine article, and the small matter of my first actual film pitch. "You all need to get a good break from study" he said - Yeah Right - I wonder if Tui would be interested in sponsoring Penguin research?...). So I'll also be scoping out one or two of a menagerie of film ideas.

In the meantime, a sunny day and fine coffee beckon, so that will just have to wait...

Behind the scenes

2006-08-23T00:16:00.000+12:00

As you can see from this exclusive 'behind the scenes' view an actual camoflage hide for the purpose of wildlife filming, it wasn't entirely hard work last Friday.

Nick, Mark, Dwayne and Pip enjoy fresh-brewed coffee, blue cheese and crackers, chocolate biscuits and various other minor luxuries. To be fair, it's lunchtime on the warmest day since I've been in Dunedin, and the wildlife is in the restful phase of the day, so nothing was likely to escape unfilmed, and indeed it did not, as you can see below.

Hoiho!

2006-08-21T21:35:00.000+12:00

Well, finally out into it for real - a wildlife filming expedition to Victory Beach. The purpose was to practise camoflage hide building, and then (hopefully) to film whatever wildlife was fooled by our ruse to wander close enough to film.

As evening fell, we were in luck! Several yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho) returned to the beach from a day's fishing, and strolled past our hide within zooming range of my camera.

This filmlet is without sound as I thought I'd spare you from occasional hoiho calls masked by wind buffetting the camoflage net. However, the good folk at the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust have a nice sound-clip here.

Other good online sources of info. on these threatened penguins include the Zealand Department of Conservation, WWF, and the brilliant ARKive site, which provides access to a vast multimedia collection recording the world's threatened species.

Film fest

2006-08-17T16:30:00.000+12:00

Managed to get along to three of the docos with an environmental theme at the NZ International Film Festival: The White Planet (La planète blanche), An Inconvenient Truth, and local entry The Last Resort.

French film The White Planet contains meltingly beautiful scenes of Arctic land- and ice-scapes interspersed with lavish coverage of the wildlife that struggles to survive there at the best of times, but which is now on the brink due to global warming. Highlights for me were a dreamlike sequence of ghostly white Beluga whales gazing curiously from the screen, scenes of a massive caribou/ reindeer migration, and close coverage of the lunging hulks of a group of humpback whales bubble net fishing.

There's probably not much to be added to the blogosphere on Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, which gives details on global warming, where The White Planet only hints at the results. For my part, I was compelled by the graph of atmospheric CO2 concentration which undulates gently with the ice ages over the past 650,000 years, only to end in a towering peak that Gore dramatises by using a mechanical lift reach the top.

There was a disturbing amount of driving and jetting around going on for a film about how fossil fuel use is damaging the planet, and ultimately I think the film's 'happy ending' of not needing to change American consumer lifestyles too much is a fantasy. Change is slow though, and an Inconvenient Truth is a good start.

The eponymous 'Last Resort' of the third film was a campground at Mahia on the North Island East coast that was sold and given subdivision consent, after much anguish and protest, and amid questions about the legality of the gradual privatisation of what was once public reserve. One could buy a bit of it here, should ongoing problems with consent compliance eventually be resolved.

Venturing from there to several parts of New Zealand, the film traverses complex issues of public and private good, foreign ownership, and Maori land injustices, mostly directly through the words of various protagonists. I was fascinated and horrified in equal measure by the film, which exacerbated concerns that I have about the way we manage land here. I hope the film gets free-to-air broadcast time, as it deserves a wider audience. Marginal sound quality in parts may prove an obstacle though.

Shameless Plug

2006-08-10T17:26:00.000+12:00

Today, another great session with cameraman Paul Donovan, who is just so passionate about teaching us, and has such formidable experience. Paul ripped through some basic lighting techniques - all so different with video than for the stills on slide film I'm accustomed to. A minor sidetrack in the lesson was where to get film accessories, and secondhand gear. In my experience, Progear in Auckland and Photo and Video International in Christchurch are great for both new gear, and especially secondhand bits and pieces like reflectors and stands etc. Auckland Camera Centre are usually worth a try too.

Paul referred us to Panavision in Auckland for colour gels, and they're awesome for all sorts of new and used video and medium format stills gear too.

I also noticed Panavison also currently have a handy document giving the lowdown on high definition video terms and formats that would be gold for anyone who didn't keep up with Stephen Downes' heroic traverse of the subject a couple of weeks ago.

Sanctuary

2006-08-09T17:49:00.000+12:00

Have at last had a chance to get out into the bush after a month in Dunedin. Not for long, but what a great feeling! As part of research for potential film, fellow student Kat and I headed off to meet Elton Smith, new operations manager at Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

He took us on a short tour of the land which will soon be protected within a 7km predator proof fence, ready for the reintroduction of various native birds and reptiles. The project comprises a 230ha Department of Conservation reserve covered in regenerating bush, along with a further 18ha of land purchased by the Otago Natural History Trust. The latter will be restored with native vegetation, and will become the site of a visitor centre, allowing people access to experience native flora and fauna.

Orokonui's is probably the newest of a burgeoning number of 'mainland island' sanctuarys scattered around New Zealand. In these, native fauna is being protected from the predators that are decimating it nearly everywhere else.

Projects vary from a couple of pest-proof fenced sites in urban and rural settings such as Karori in Wellington and Tawharanui near Auckland, to the whole forested mountain of Maungatautari being fenced off from pests!

Other sites are unfenced but involve intensive pest control of
unfenced forest areas of varying sizes, generally to protect species
already present, but allowing for reintroductions, such as Hunua
and Ark in the Park, both nr Auckland,
and Hurunui Mainland Island for mohua in North Canterbury. Nelson Lakes National Park is possibly the most scenic setting for a mainland island IMHO....

Still others involve habitat restoration such as at Hinewai on Banks
Peninsula near Christchurch.

The most important wildlife conservation sites in all of NZ are
generally islands e.g. Hauturu (Little Barrier), and Tiritiri Matangi
Islands near Auckland, plus a few others closed to the public to protect specific species such as Kakapo and tuatara.

Kia ora!

2006-07-27T17:21:00.000+12:00

Kia ora katoa, and welcome to wild earth films!

This blog is about my observations of issues affecting the wild earth about us, and my filmmaking experiences on the Post Graduate Diploma in Natural History Filmmaking and Communication course at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

I'm Alastair Jamieson, a New Zealander who has been working as an ecologist for the past eight years on staff at the Auckland Regional Council. Sixteen years after finishing my last degree, I've gone back to university for a year to follow my passion and concern for the natural environment and to learn how to communicate about it in more compelling ways.

So far so good. Just a couple of weeks into the course we've being exposed all sorts of great natural history films from the pros over at NHNZ who co-teach the course, and from previous years' students. Highlights so far have been an afternoon with Rod Morris, NZ wildlife filmmaking and photography legend and author of natural history books, and hands-on filming sessions with cameraman Paul Donovan.

Check back now and then to find out more about natural history filmmaking, and about issues affecting the wild earth, especially down in New Zealand's part of the world.