The Hindu : New Delhi News : A bonanza for wildlife lovers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

A bonanza for wildlife lovers

THRIVING IN WILDERNESS: A still from one of the films to be screened during the Wildscreen Festival.

Celebrating life that thrives in the wilderness, the world's largest and most prestigious wildlife and environment film festival, Wildscreen Festival, is coming to India for the first time. The festival will offer wildlife enthusiasts a chance to catch the best from the genre and also interact with experts.

Being organised by the British Council and the British High Commission, the festival aims at encouraging and applauding excellence in producing films based on the natural world that also drive home the message of wildlife conservation.

Now in its 25th year, the festival gives filmmakers a platform to venture outside their areas of expertise to try their hand at other projects. After a quarter century in Bristol, the film festival will be running a touring programme of master classes and film screenings in New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Chennai. In the Capital, the festival will be held from January 19 to 24.

An added bonanza for wildlife lovers will be the master classes by experts. Dr. Jane Goodall, an authority on chimpanzees and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute of Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, will do a special presentation called "Reason for Hope" on January 21 for workshop participants.

Renowned wildlife filmmaker Mike Salisbury will conduct a workshop on sequence building and telling a good story using past film treatments, storyboards and scripts to talk about some of the processes that can help during the planning stages of a film.

The Chief Executive Officer of Wildscreen, Harriet Nimmo, will be conducting an illustrated review of the trends in wildlife filmmaking. Award-winning BAFTA and EMMY nominated film editor Martin Elsbury will conduct a workshop on editing, considered one of the least understood of the craft skills in filmmaking.

Laura Marshall, joint founder of the Icon Films and a trustee of the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, will focus on managing the production of factual and documentary programmes shot on tape. Pam Beddard, who specialises in devising and delivering publicity and marketing campaigns for the arts, films and media organisations, will talk about marketing without a budget.

The role of films in environmental conservation will be discussed by Jeremy Bristow, a specialist in environmental documentaries, while Chris Vile, a freelance cinematographer, will deal with the nuances of cinematography. Harry Marshall, who spent his childhood years in South India and has won the Best Director Emmy Award for his film "Tibet and the End of Time", will provide practical advice for scriptwriting and developing storylines for wildlife films.

-- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

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