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Any advice for researchers who are approached by a wildlife filmmaker to help/consult with their film? At what point would you as a producer consider paying someone for their time vs. expecting free consulting? Have you ever had disagreements with a researcher over how disruptive the filming could be, script, etc? I super enjoy wildlife/nature shows, but having helped with a few on the biology side, there's always been something that soured the experience for me. First one I was in grad school, and a pushy camera guy caused a nest failure. As far as I could tell the project got cancelled in post production and never aired, and maybe a year later I got a vhs tape with a little bit of the raw footage. Another one I spent a decent amount of time emailing/talking with a producer, and sent them some audio they requested. I wasn't credited, and the producer wouldn't return my emails asking whether they had used my sound or not. Another one we had to raise a bit of a fuss with the network to get permission for a public viewing of a show at a venue near our field site (that we actually appeared in)- we had gotten a copy of the film but didn't know to ask for rights to show publicly in outreach events. I've definitely gotten the feeling that producers put out the vibe that "how cool is it we are filming YOUR animals, you should help us make this happen", but then once it's over they are onto the next project and are reluctant to spend much effort to e.g. provide media that the researchers could use in presentations. As I've gotten more experienced with this I've gotten better at making my expectations clear at the outset but I've found some producers a little put off by a list of conditions.
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Mar 28, 2015 05:39
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 13:14 |
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Don't be afraid to impose conditions or draft work agreements (even if you're not being paid). Some producers will be annoyed by that, but it's their job to get what they need as quickly and cheaply as they can and once they get their footage, you'll probably just be an afterthought unless they have some kind of binding obligation to provide you with footage or screening rights. There are a lot of people working in the natural history documentary field because they care about the subject matter and are motivated by the need for public education and wildlife conservation, but you can never count on those being the people you end up working with, especially if they're being flown in by a big production company.
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Apr 11, 2015 20:20
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