Documentary

[CATALOGUEKID]

Hi,

Off on a little trip at the end of the month and would like to make a nice little wildlife documantary whilst I'm there......

I'm a complete novice to this kind of thing does anyone have any good advice or links to any free websites that can teach me a thing or two?

Your help would be greatly appreciated

Tom

 

[jacob12_1993]

For wildlife documentary you need big lenses, lots of patience, brilliant field craft etc and that's just a start. Unless you are going for the sole purpose of shooting a doc, I don't think you will have enough time to produce something really worthwhile.

Hope this doesn't sound insulting to you. It's just there is a lot of time and work to b invested in something like this.

Jake

 

[Dr_O]

Hi,

Off on a little trip at the end of the month and would like to make a nice little wildlife documantary whilst I'm there......

I'm a complete novice to this kind of thing does anyone have any good advice or links to any free websites that can teach me a thing or two?

Your help would be greatly appreciated

Tom

If you could narrow it down a bit that may also be useful- wildlife is pretty vague to be honest.
As Jake says, wildlife documentaries are very difficult as opposed to people documentaries which are much easier to film.
The key to any filming though is to have a story- know what you are trying to achieve and then work out what you need to do to execute that.

You may want to film the cycle of life for example. Whatever you do you need to shoot loads of footage with a variety of shots- close up, mid length, wide- capturing the environment in which the subject lives as well.
Keep yourself legal as well e.g. bird restrictions etc.

Any David Attenborough documentary or Big Cat Diary will give you a feel for the techniques ,shots and story telling involved.

 

[CATALOGUEKID]

Sorry was a bit vague, posted off my phone whilst at work...

I'm doing a 10 day charity trek through the Costa Rican Rainforest...will be with a group and just wanna film and photograph my way through and was just wandering if there were any websites that would give me some pointers on a beginning middle and end type structure..... have heard rumours about a company that you can send all your footage and pics off to and they put them in to a little film? is this true?

 

[Dr_O]

Sorry was a bit vague, posted off my phone whilst at work...

I'm doing a 10 day charity trek through the Costa Rican Rainforest...will be with a group and just wanna film and photograph my way through and was just wandering if there were any websites that would give me some pointers on a beginning middle and end type structure..... have heard rumours about a company that you can send all your footage and pics off to and they put them in to a little film? is this true?

I'm sure there are a few but it's not something I've needed so not sure of any I'm afraid. Likewise I know there are editing companies out there for relatively sizeable productions but not sure of any that cater for this type of thing though no doubt they exist.

Why not just research where you are going and decide what you want to film and how the story should unfold in your eyes. Find out as much about the environment you'll be in as you can. You will need to do this anyway so you may as well get started on your storyboard.This site may be a little basic on costa rica but plenty of info out there.

The other thing to do is practice- make a documentary of going to the park or something- work out what you want to show/ need to film. It will give you an idea of things to look out for/ what worked/ didn't work. For this type of trip you're never going to be in total control so although you will have a plan you will probably have to readjust quite often. Unless you can re-shoot scenes and be the 'annoying' director- always fun