Pandrillus
The Drills of Afi Mountain
Video Posted on Updated on
On Tuesday I finished my Masters in Wildlife Filmmaking, and so from here I take the plunge into the big wild world of trying to get a job. Although that’s actually not really the case, as I’ll be travelling to America on Thursday to volunteer at Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, but after THAT I’ll be trying to get a job…
Anyway, while I’ll be doing that I’ll also be submitting my film to film festivals, so wish me luck! Here’s the final film, and I’ll be posting more details on festivals as I hear back from them.
The Drills of Afi Mountain trailer
Video Posted on Updated on
So after nearly nine months of work, I’ve very nearly finished off my Masters film, which is now called The Drills of Afi Mountain. The film will be ready in the next few days (so watch this space!), but in the meantime here is my trailer. Remember to watch in HD, and enjoy!
Afi Film in the Can!
Well, I’m back in Lagos after a 15 day shoot at Pandrillus Drill Ranch up at Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Cross River state, Nigeria, and I’m proud to say I think I’ve got the rushes to potentially make a pretty good film! After changing my story a bit from being more about the importance of engaging local communities in conservation (it turns out that’s quite a difficult subject to really do justice in 10 minutes) to being more about the attempted release of 200 endangered drill monkeys back into the wild, we managed to get some great footage that I hope shows what an incredible experience it was being at Drill Ranch for such an important event. We also had the pleasure of sharing our location with the guys from Red Rock Films – watch out for what I’m sure will be an awesome film on Animal Planet around September/October time – so even if my film doesn’t turn out that well we’ve made some great contacts and friends in the industry and had a great time. If you haven’t been doing so already, follow my Twitter feed for tweets and photos showing what an amazing time we had (on the right hand side) or equally on Instagram at tomrichardswildlife. Thanks very much Jason Mulvaney and Aditi Rajagopal for helping me film – I’m very grateful!
I’ll be posting more as I start to edit the film and go through all the stills I have, but in the mean time here’s a photo of a handsome young drill…
Final Film Excitement
It’s been a couple of weeks since we all had to present our ideas for our final films, and things are getting exciting (and stressful)! I’ll be filming my final film at Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Cross River State, Nigeria, and it will be about the great work that the guys there do and why it’s necessary for the future of Nigeria to protect it’s natural resources. The rest of the story is a secret, but below is a trailer I showed at the BBC for my pitch. The archive at the beginning is for context, but the second half is all footage from Afi and reflects the observational documentary style I hope to have – enjoy!
