I’m excited to reveal that I am heading to Madagascar this
June to make a short film about a very special lemur…
Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since I moved to Bristol in September to chase my dream. I still pinch myself every day that I was lucky enough to earn a place on the MA in Wildlife Filmmaking at UWE in conjunction with the BBC.
In the past few months, I have learnt so much, not just from the course itself, but also from the wonderful group of people completing the MA alongside me. There are 16 of us in total, hailing from 9 different countries across 5 continents!
Not only has this course given me a chance to hone my camera skills – it has been fascinating adapting from photography to filmmaking – but it has also given me a valuable insight into the industry, with weekly talks from inspirational figures from the BBC NHU and visits to a number of other natural history production companies based in the ‘Green Hollywood’ that is Bristol.
What is so fantastic about this course, is that it gives us a real breadth of skills, from camera operation and sound recording to pitching, producing and editing, all the while being encouraged to focus on the importance of strong storytelling, as we fulfil multiple roles when making our final films.
When I was in Madagascar in 2022, I met a beautiful Greater Bamboo Lemur in Ranomafana National Park. At the time, I was informed that this was a male, and the only one of his species in the forest. I was horrified by this revelation and, upon returning to the UK, proceeded to conduct more research to verify this information. After getting in touch with Dr Patricia Wright, seen by many as the world’s leading lemur expert, I found out that this lemur was indeed alone but was, in fact, female and named Simone (after the Latin name for her species, ‘prolemur simus’).
From that moment, I knew I had to find out more and share
her story with the world. This made deciding on the subject for my MA film an
easy choice. You can find out more about Simone’s story and my upcoming film, including
a short teaser trailer, on my website CTWildlife
- Surviving Alone: The Tale of Simone
I am in the final stages of preparation now for heading off
on my shoot and am delighted to be taking 3 course mates from the MA with me as
my crew, each with vital roles to play in the production of this film: Alaina,
Daria and Pauline, each of whom are also making their own fascinating films
which you can find out about on their Instagram pages.
Stay tuned to find out how we get on!
