This is a good, explanatory message. However, the most telling line in this message is "Nick... [was]always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell." This describes the difference between entertainment (the story the person filming wants to tell) vs. science (recording the story the subject is telling).
Warren W. Aney Senior Wildife Ecologist Tigard, Oregon -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Cara Lin Bridgman Sent: Friday, 24 September, 2010 00:23 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media In 2003, my husband and I were fixers to Nick Upton, a BBC-trained producer of nature films. We helping him and his camera men work with Taiwan's scientists and local people to produce the film 'Typhoon Island.' To this day, I think this film is the best introduction to Taiwan's geological and ecological diversity. The scientists acting as advisers were most pleased with their interactions with Nick (who actually read their papers) and with the scenes portrayed in the film. On some of his other films, Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. Almost all the herp shots and night shots were filmed on constructed sets in labs. Many of the close-ups were filmed in Taipei Zoo. Many of the mammal shots were of animals raised in captivity since they were young. Even so, the animals do what animals do. Other than trying to get frogs to hop at certain times and snakes to slither in certain directions, hiding raw chicken meat in rotten logs, and offering branches laden with acorns to captive bears, there wasn't much in the way of training or manipulating the animals. There is, however, a great deal to be said for careful editing, especially for scenes that appear to portray close calls between predators and prey. No animals were hurt in the making of the film, but the film crew were nearly sucked dry by mosquitoes and during one on-scene outdoor shoot a skink escaped captivity, managing to return to where it had been originally captured. This film has been enormously enjoyed by all age groups in Taiwan. I've shown it to my undergraduates every semester, because they have such a poor understanding of their own country's wildlife and environments. Taiwan's own wildlife photographers, however, have been almost uniformly critical of the film. Many of them have spent years in the field and never seen some of the things Nick documented. Nick was accused of using computer graphics, of training animals, and of filming animals and places outside Taiwan. As someone who has spend years trying to observe a rare species in the field, I can understand the complaints of Taiwan's own photographers. They spent years trying to film the animals in the wild. Nick, who spoke no Chinese, spent <6 months in Taiwan, sometimes filming in the wild, sometimes filming in the zoo or lab, but always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. My own experience is that even when filming animals in the wild, it's hard to say the animals are truly untouched or unaffected by humans. A little documentary made by a Taiwanese photographer of my own study species, Taiwan's mikado pheasant, was mostly filmed in my study site, used blinds constructed by my research team, and featured animals I had watched and followed for over two years. The most important thing I have learned about nature filming is that when film crews and scientists cooperate, great things can be done and stories can be told accurately and well. Nick did his homework, finding out from scientists and local people the times and places where things were most likely to happen. CL who has no problems with hiding jelly beans in carcasses for grizzlies to find or imitating splashing sounds, who liked the few Steve Irwin shows she saw, but who has been unimpressed with Bear Grylls type of man-vs-nature films where the narrator psychs himself up to harassing an animal. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cara Lin Bridgman [email protected] P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin Longjing Township http://www.BugDorm.com Taichung County 43499 Taiwan Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
