Missoula, Montana: The international market for natural history films has undergone dramatic growth in recent years and is now reaching maturity. While many countries are doing business with Canadian wildlife filmmakers, there are still many things Canadians may not know about this market.

Ten Canadians, of 116 people in attendance, were present at last month’s International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. The presence of Canadians at this festival was a welcome sight, particularly since attendance by Canadians has been noticeably sparse at other festivals. For example, only 16 Canadians attended the Wildscreen 98 Festival in Bristol, Eng., even though, according to festival producer Jane Krish, ‘commissioning editors were so busy they were like hunted animals hiding in their hotels.’

The increased demand is due to the proliferation of television channels globally. This event was overrun by 1,000 delegates and 200 people were turned away. Only 200 people attended the first event 16 years ago.

According to Wildscreen organizers, the festival ‘applauds excellence in wildlife filmmaking in order to educate the public about the natural world.’ It is the world’s biggest festival of moving images about the natural world. Delegates came from 47 countries, including for the first time China, Egypt, Kuwait, Mexico, Mozambique and Venezuela.

Chief Secretary Gao Keming attended on behalf of the 600-member China T.V. Documentary Academic Association. Of 56 channels in China, 24 air films he has acquired from France, England and Australia. He is buying 52 hours of wildlife films for Friends of Humans and 52 hours on social issues for Window to the World. He offers coproductions in China where foreigners have not been. ‘China,’ he says, ‘may have over 100 channels within a year.’

An unprecedented 387 films were entered and juried by an international panel. Panda awards were given to reward creative and technical excellence in film, television and interactive productions involving the natural world.

The jury chairman was Canadian Pat Ferns, president of the Banff Television festival and trustee of the Wildlife Preservation Trust of Canada.

Ferns produced The Stationary Ark for cbc. He believes ‘the challenge is to go beyond relying on high-end production values and a captive audience, we must use films as a platform to raise consciousness about the natural world.’

Ferns conveyed a serious message to the audience of the Panda Awards.

He emphasized ‘extending the art and craft of wildlife films with money and technology is not enough, the superpower natural history companies need to make more conservation films in Third World countries.’

The jury was so disappointed in the entries, it created a new TVE Award to inspire films about the Third World. To make a point, it did not give a Children’s Award.

Canadians at IWFF

Explore International hosted Europe Day at Wildscreen. Though attended by dozens of broadcasters, only a handful of Americans and Canadians showed up. Discovery International and National Geographic Channels Worldwide unveiled their global strategies that involve growth into dozens of countries.

It was clear broadcasters around the world are undertaking unprecedented coproductions that do not necessarily need the involvement of u.s. broadcasters.

Canadian Ian Herring of Parallax Film Productions coproduced Champions of the Wild with Omni Films and Walking With Grizzlies with Cicada Films and u.k., Japanese and German television. He thinks few Canadians attend festivals such as Wildscreen ‘because they are too timid, it is expensive and Canada does not have the market share to support good wildlife film budgets.’

Gary Gladman of Maxima Film says they ‘will not produce any films that do not sell around the world.’ Maxima is preselling the series The Ocean Mosaic. Their last series, Danger in the Sea, is airing in 30 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland and Latin America.

Gladman believes ‘every country loves Canada. They have a positive opinion of us and there does not seem to be much racism against Canadians. Yet on the other side, no other country looks and thinks of us as necessarily being important. For success we must be nice, yet aggressive – just not as aggressive as others.’

In his opinion, ‘definitely, a low percentage of the Canadian funding available is going to natural history. Too low and it should be higher. Does this mean the amount for drama should be lower? The answer is yes.’

David Springbett of Asterisk Productions has recently moved toward making natural history programs after 20 years making socially conscious films. He realized more funds are available for wildlife films than other documentaries. He produced Monarch, A Butterfly Beyond Borders, nominated for a Gemini and sold by Great North to Discovery and National Geographic. Also, his film Good Wood aired on cbc’s The Nature of Things.

Michael Allder is executive producer of The Nature of Things. He believes Canadians are strongly interested in environmental stories that are told well. He was at Wildscreen ‘to get a sense of interesting topics from outside Canada, get involved in more coproductions and acquire stunning films if affordable.’

It is the 39th season of The Nature of Things, the longest-running documentary series in North America.

Writer Sandra Tober attended for ‘personal development and career.’

She feels caught in the middle between National Geographic and bbc type programs, they are the powerhouses most people without a choice probably have to watch first.’ She wrote the Karvonen Films series Wild Encounters and is working on Treasures of the Wild with Discovery Canada.

Tober says ‘story, story, story’ is most important. She says ‘wildlife people are friendly and it is nice to gather with people who view the world similar to how you do.’

Top docs

Comparatively, Wildscreen in England has evolved into a large marketplace, whereas the iwff is small, intimate and down to earth.

This is the 22nd year of this festival. It is the oldest juried competition of wildlife films in the world. Their mission is to foster knowledge and understanding of wildlife and habitat with excellent and honest wildlife films. iwff’s focus on conservation and education has set it apart from other festivals.

This year a record 244 films were entered by well-known companies, independent producers, conservation agencies, newcomers and young people. Entries have grown tenfold since 1977 and have doubled in the last four years.

The highlight of the festival was an amateur film called Endangered Species. This film caused such an emotional reaction from the attendees that a survival fund was started for its struggling 23-year-old filmmaker. It also prompted a petition about wildlife to be circulated for presentation to President Clinton.

Endangered Species tied with Varmits and Redfish Bluefish for a Special Jury Prize. Varmits also won an award for best conservation message and Redfish Bluefish won best narration and best use of music. Best of Festival was Tale of the Tides and best photography went to Serval Secrets.

Tale of the Tides won best original score and tied for best underwater photography with Cutthroats of Yellowstone. Best script went to The X Creatures, best editing to Hutan, Wildlife of the Malaysian Rainforest. Best scientific content was Careerplanning of the Oystercatcher. The best educational value award was tied between cbc’s The Nature of Things and bbc’s The Life of Birds.

iwff executive director Amy Hetzler-Sperry also coordinates screenings of the best films for 10,000 local filmgoers in Montana. This year, schoolchildren get education packets designed by professors form the University of Montana. The packets will go out with post-festival tours of films in 14 u.s. states and Canada.

According to festival founder Charles Jonkel, ‘wildlife film is science and a new tradition of learning following the oral, literary and scientific traditions. It is a new format for teaching that replaces parents, teachers and textbooks. Television has replaced the town hall, the social club, the library and schools.’

Prices dropping

Topics for this year’s seminars included testimonies from people’s production experiences, practical sessions on different formats, blind and set building, indigenous filmmaking, and music development.

In a panel entitled The Art of Storytelling in Motion, alternatives to formula-styled programs were discussed.

Though unable to attend the festival in Montana, Paul Black has attended most major documentary festivals and has just returned from mip-tv and mip doc.

He is currently the managing director of the television distribution arm of Minds Eye International based in Regina. He estimates total revenue projections for a one-hour wildlife film for the global market range from a minimum of us$150,000 to a maximum of us$850,000. The countries now seen to be paying the fairest rates are the u.s. (approximately us$200,000), France ($50,000), Germany ($45,000), the u.k. ($40,000), Japan ($20,000) and Australia ($15,000).

His current opinion is that prices for natural history films are dropping, especially due to the saturation of the genre by the big production companies.

Discovery and bbc are doing huge output deals. Animal Planet and National Geographic are major players, but they are producing less with independent filmmakers and are producing more in-house or commissioning productions. They are also repackaging and spicing up stock footage with hi-tech editing.

There is so much competition now that Turner Network has stopped making these films. Industry leader bbc is having trouble selling its large-budget programs because more small countries are producing programs in their own way. The u.s. is losing its domination of the market. It is difficult to air a conservation film in the u.s. whereas Europeans will air issue-oriented films.

Future watch

A ‘blue chip’ film is still the premium product. However, many other forms of the genre are emerging and range from reality to paparazzi type programs. The digital age is bringing on a 500-channel universe.

While audiences are growing, viewing hours are decreasing and there are many alternatives to television including software, cd-rom and the Internet. It is now key to design versions of a film to cater to various global television and video/dvd markets.

On another note, the chairman of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, director of Mandalay Media Arts and pioneer of hdtv is Canadian Barry Clark. He explained how since 1991, hd came slower than he thought. That was until 1996 when the fcc mandated 26 hd stations in America.

‘Since then, the roll-out has been faster than predicted and almost double the number of stations will air. Now, the world is on a migratory path to use the u.s. or European hd standard. Producers are realizing they need about $500,000 for a one hour high-end film that appeals to viewers by being story-driven using Hollywood cinema styles.’

Per Clark: ‘Canada is in a good position to pass countries asleep at the switch.’

This October at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming, Clark has arranged for a giant hd projector, with Dolby, that projects 95 feet on a 20-foot screen. He advises the Jackson Hole Festival will have unlimited registration next year, though anybody who books late will pay a premium and have to stay in town.

Upcoming events

As well, other events Canadians may attend are the RealScreen Summit in February in Washington, dc; and the next Wildscreen being held in 2000.

Wildscreen 2000 will be a huge event. The British Government has used lottery funds to finance a Millennium Fund of which £45 million pounds is invested in Bristol. They are building a new environmental centre and an imax theatre.’ In 2000, Wildscreen is adding a Panda award category for imax filmmakers.

At Wildscreen 98, Sir Robert May held a ‘take no prisoners’ lecture entitled ‘Wildlife in a Crowded World.’ He summarized why we must preserve our planet.

‘Since the world’s population has swelled from 1 billion in 1850 to six billion now, we have consumed between one-quarter to half of the world’s food chain. In the last century, 1% of all species have gone extinct.

‘To ensure our survival we require genetic diversity and ethical stewardship in the third world. We are now confronting the breaking edge of the sixth great extinction on earth.’

journalist and natural history filmmaker Matthew Todd Paproski of Venturetainment Capital Corporation has offices in Vancouver and Calgary. He is marketing television special Fire Attack, producing Cougar Crossing, and developing Grizzly Crossing of the family series Wildlife Crossings.