WHY FILMS?
Films allow us to experience a setting in a way that still photographs simply can't.
I've been a filmmaker since before I considered myself a photographer; making mini-movies with friends since we were eight, and continuing to pursue it more seriously in some aspects. I find photography less exhausting. Making a good wildlife photograph requires time spent in the field and time spent editing one frame after combing through more. Yes, it is a good amount of work, especially depending on the location and species photographed, but it's less than: spending much more time in the field, editing video clip after clip after clip, setting it to a score, color-editing every shot, etc. It's a more labor-intensive process, but one of love. When I make a film, it deepens the connection between its subject and myself, because of all the time spent observing it out in the field and on my monitor back home.
My process for wildlife films, if you care, tends to go something like this. I tend to take footage when I'm out and about and spy a good photo opportunity -- I try to get some video of whatever's good. Then, after a few months, I've accumulated colorful footage of elk and snails; and, wondering what to do with it, I begin to compile them through a common theme. For example, the 'Epic' film was composed of animal footage I thought was awe-inspiring, the animals portrayed with a majestic air. Or so I say. Pretentiously. Perhaps that's just all the footage I'd racked up after a time and I was itching to do something with it. Other times, I go out shooting a specific thing, with a specific end product in mind, such as with the 'Damselflies' film. For this I went out collecting footage for what I knew would become a damselfly mini-documentary. Honestly, I just wing it and hope that the wind currents take me somewhere worthwhile.
I hope you'll enjoy some of the films displayed here, and maybe even get inspired to make a wildlife movie of your own, if you fancy it.
- M.B.