Hawking at nature’s splendour

Amalshan Gunerathne

Out for the kill

Not knowing that a third party is spying on him, the tiger closes on his prey. To be on the safer side, he tiptoes towards the prey and gazes around as if to make sure that no one will catch him at the scene of crime. But little does he know of the presence of all seeing camera eye which gazes and monitors all of his killer moves from the shadows. Not aware of its vigilant presence he slays his prey, only to be caught red handed at the scene of crime. Such is the challenge of wild life film making, that to seize those exclusive moments with precise timing, the film crew has to be patient, observant and be quick on their feet.

Dominick Weston, a known British wild life film producer, a writer and a director shared his professional expertise on documentary filmmaking. Dominick was here on Sri Lanka in parallel to the ‘Wildlife and Environmental Film Festival’ which was organized by British Council. Dominick has worked with many popular television channels including BBC, National Geographic, Jetix, Thirteen/WNET, Discovery and Animal Planet. He is an expert at crafting stories through delicate interaction of pictures, sound and effective storytelling.

All creatures young and small

Peeping Tom

Sharing his experience on the field Dominick explained, “It is a huge amount of hard work. Lots of it has to do with the camera and camera technology. When screening wild life movies, we have cameras set up on trees which are activated through infrared. Some of them are on wires which enable us to move them through jungles and forests. At times we are descending cameras through thirty or forty feet above the ground. We also use cranes to lift the camera up and then move around. Some of it is done on studios. If there are small animals that you are never going to get access in a forest, we built realistic sets and cast the film there. It is a lot of technology, lots of handwork and lots of planning.”

At the first glance, the process of making a wildlife movie sounds very complicated and expensive. But wildlife filming is not always about technology. Even if you have the most expensive technology at your disposal, it won’t do you any good, if you don’t have the creative sense to capture the scene in an artistic manner.

“No point in having an expensive camera if you don’t know how to shoot. You don’t necessarily have to start big. You can always start with minor resources, filming is not about the technology, it is about practice and building up your skills. Yes you can even do that with the cheapest camera in the market. You can learn to shoot even with the very basic camera. But the main point is to start trying to make something. And even if you fail you have to keep trying. That experience is more valuable than any technology. The technology will come and you will get access to it in due time,” Dominick explained.

The genre of documentary movies has its own cinematic value. A good moviemaker should be able to grasp the viewer’s sense and arouse a sense of awareness in the viewer’s mind eye through his artistic proficiency.

The documentary movies are a good way to arouse the viewer’s mind to the burning problems of modern times. But Dominick believes that conveying disturbing news through documentary films will not make the desired impact. “If you make people despair, if you make them upset, you will lose the message. People start to worry, instead of getting the real message. It is much better to make people excited about the environment. Then they will want to protect it,” Dominick explained.

Dominick Weston Picture by Lalith C Gamage

Most wildlife documentary movies revolve around violent and aggressive themes. Dominick says it is a trick to attract the youth to their programs.

“Young men are the ones who will spend most money on movies and therefore the advertisers want it to be appealing to the younger audience.” The violent and aggressive themes don’t necessarily mean that the film makers should cut back from the story telling aspect. The storyline and the narrative aspect of the documentary should still be the main focus of the movie director.

It is through effective storytelling and a good narrative that the documentary film can grasp the viewer’s attention “The main thing is to have a good story. You got to have a good story and you should be able to communicate it. You got to be very clear that everything you do is for the right reason and that the whole scheme is not just something that you are interested in and what you are experimenting for your own sake,” Dominick articulated.

In parallel to the film festival Dominick conducted master classes where he shared his professional expertise with Sri Lankan students on making short-films at an affordable cost.

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page