About

I’ve just returned from to Delhi to pick up an award for a film I made that won a video contest organised by the WWF to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

The prize included an all-expenses-paid-trip to Delhi to pick up the award, and a wildlife filmmaker’s dream: a commission to make a film for the WWF in one of their remote outposts in 2012.

I have created this blog so you can follow me through all the challenges and triumphs involved in planning and producing the film. From the initial research, to the choice of a location, to the preparations for the trip, the shoot, and the final production.

Since this prize has really blown me away, I’m also taking the opportunity to reconsider my lifestyle, so I’m planning a few changes to try to become more green. This will be a challenge in itself: how can I change my life so that I can be more kind to the environment? How can I be an example to my children to guide them through their lives?

Right now I don’t have any answers, but I’m excited to see what happens.

I’m really interested to hear your thoughts; hopefully we can find inspiration together.

You can watch my film here.

Yours,

Myles Thompson

Young Research Assistant

 

Great news: I’ve found a very talented young assistant to help me research the theme of the film.

Details to follow…

Delhi & the CMS Vatavaran Environmental Film Festival

December 12, 2011

Here are some some shots of Agra and Delhi I took with my GH2.

As you’ll see in the description of the film on Vimeo, I absolutely loved India.

The film festival was great. I met many inspiring filmmakers and environmentalists, and attended master classes on Storytelling (Adam Schmedes, Loke films), Research (Theo Webb  BBC Natural History Unit), How to Start an International Co-production (Evert van den Bos), Parallel Cinema (Shyam Benegal), Insuring Your Production (Bhupesh Kumar), and Making Money on YouTube (David Macdonald). There were a few technical issues during the master classes, but aside from that, being in the company of so many accomplished creatives was fantastic.

A couple of guys from Arri were there to present the Alexa – which is quite awesome, if rather expensive (I think around 60 000 USD).

Sitting beside the filmmakers during the screenings of their films  - and being able to pop a few questions was excellent.

It was great to see quite a few young Indian filmmakers screen their films at the festival.

The food was also fantastic, and the spontaneous dance session on the night of the awards ceremony was hilarious.