The Publisher
04-04-2010, 05:10 PM
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00100/00DOUGALLEN_516x400_100484a.jpg
WILDLIFE movie-maker Doug Allan has won a string of awards and contributed dramatic footage to ground-breaking BBC nature documentaries such as The Blue Planet and last year's Life. The 58-year-old adventurer, from Dunfermline, has also been honoured with the Polar Medal for his work with the British Antarctic Survey. He now runs his own Tartan Dragon production company and is currently filming in Greenland.
Life has been massively successful both on TV - it currently has viewers in America glued to their screens - and on DVD. It's a real treat to see such incredible things on film. How does it feel to watch it happening for real in front of your eyes?
Exciting, rewarding, privileged... and of course you feel a huge sense of relief if - as often happens - success comes at the end of a lot of hard effort when there may be days you wonder if you'll see anything at all!
How long does it take, overall, to assemble an episode for a series like Life?
Each individual 50-minute programme takes eight weeks to put together in the cutting room, so a three-minute sequence would be two and a half days' work for an editor.
And how much time did you have to spend in the wild to get the shots you contributed?
I spent six weeks on a boat to get the footage of the killer whales hunting the seal in Antarctica and the leopard seal taking chinstrap penguins - both in the first programme of the series. It took a fortnight to get the shots of the polar bears scavenging whale bones you see in episode three and around 75 dives during a nine-week trip to get the footage of the Weddell seals under the ice, also in the third episode, and the time- lapse photography of the worms and starfish in episode eight. It's a fair rule of thumb that a week in the field will bring in one minute on the screen in the finished programme.
Was there a particular sequence in the show that you were especially pleased with?
Doing the worms and starfish sequences was very satisfying. You can think of time lapse as a way of speeding up time so that in ten seconds you can see all a starfish does in an afternoon. That lets us see behaviour that in real-time is just too slow for us to be aware of. But of course it also means you have to do very long shots under water that you then speed up. It's tough diving - takes maybe an hour to set up the gear underwater in the freezing water, and you're doing well if you manage two shots a day. So that sequence took 60 dives to bring in all the angles we needed. We used equipment that had been specially built, allowing the camera to move while the shots were being taken. That sort of filming had never been done before.
Your association with Sir David Attenborough goes back to 1980 when he visited the British Antarctic Survey base at Signy in the South Orkneys. You were a marine biologist and base diver then but that was the moment you decided to pursue photography wasn't it?
I'd just done my third winter in the Antarctic when I met David. He and a film crew had come on to our station for a week to do some sequences for The Living Planet. Since the dive locker had spare space they used that as their place on base. I helped out carrying gear and dived with the cameraman to assist with some underwater filming. In that week, I realised that wildlife film-making involved much of what I was passionate about - photography, animals, diving, travel, adventure and the satisfaction at the end of a show that might just make a difference in terms of conservation of nature.
What's he like to work with?
David is always right in there to offer help with carrying gear, setting up camp, anything at all. But he does have a wicked sense of fun and an amazing memory so there's never any shortage of stories from him.
You also worked with him on Blue Planet. Your contribution, filming the polar seas, took 420 days over two-and-a-half years. That's a lot of waiting around for animals to appear. What goes through your mind?
Quite often something like: "Please God, don't let me f*** up when it all starts happening!"
What's the secret of success?
Some sequences are sheer tenacity, you get a little bit one day, something else the next and it slowly comes together. Other shoots it's one big bang, one chance and that's all you'll get - like the killer whales around that seal in the Antarctic from Life. That's when you feel the adrenaline surge, you're thinking on your feet, making sure you get all the different shots. All that plus keep it in focus and properly exposed.
That sounds nigh-on impossible...
It can be mentally exhausting, but supremely satisfying to know you've nailed it.
Patience has got to be an asset hasn't it?
My wife Sue Flood - herself a great wildlife photographer - often says how can I be so patient with the animals but so p***ed off after 15 minutes shopping for clothes.
You proposed to her in odd circumstances...
She and I were filming out on the sea ice in Arctic Canada for Blue Planet. We'd been out shooting until after midnight and woke the next morning at 5am to find the ice had broken up all round our camp. Through the fog we realised we were drifting on the open sea on an ice floe about 30m across. Not good. The floe could have broken up any time. I used our radio to contact an airstrip and luckily, after about eight hours a chopper was able to rescue us. While I was on the radio, I asked Sue if she would marry me - and the rest is history. The co-ordinates of the point where we were picked up is engraved inside our wedding rings. Sue's only regret is that she hadn't drifted off with George Clooney.
In your line of work, it's probably important to know when a polar bear is in a bad mood. What are the danger signs?
Be aware when it begins to show increased interest in you, look for its head going lower with some swinging from side to side, huffing from its nostrils, and ears well flattened back.
Despite their size, they're pretty nippy...
They can reach 35mph for a short burst.
So how did it feel when, on a visit to the Arctic in 2006, one charged you?
We'd heard him scuffling around outside the cabin but thought he'd gone away, so foolishly we went outside without the usual flare pistol. He was 30 metres away but as soon as he saw us, he charged back up the hill. We had to run back inside the cabin but the door wouldn't close properly because there was snow in the hinges. I held it closed with the bear's nose poking round the edge while my colleague grabbed the gun and let off a flare that frightened it off.
You've slept with Ewan McGregor. Does his wife know?
Ha ha. Yes. In 2000 I did a film with Ewan when he went to Churchill in Arctic Canada to spend some time with polar bears. We had to spend a night at a cabin away from town and there was only one spare bed...
You once introduced him to a polar bear. How close did you get?
Ewan and I used to go out filming in a little vehicle (he referred to it as "my wee ice cream van") and with that we could park up only a few metres from the bears and they didn't bother. On one occasion a bear came over, raised up on his tiptoes, and virtually stuck his head inside the window. That's as close as you'd want to be to them.
What's the most dangerous thing that's happened to you during a day's work?
I was once grabbed by a walrus while I was snorkelling off the ice edge in the Canadian Arctic. He came up from right below me without warning, hugged my thighs with his flippers just as they do when catching seals in the same way. I looked down, hit his head with my fist, he let go and I swam back to the solid ice. Took less time than it has done for you to read this. Now if he'd held on and taken me down... well no more Doug I guess.
SEE Doug's work in Life, available on DVD now, or visit his website at www. dougallan.com
source New of the World
WILDLIFE movie-maker Doug Allan has won a string of awards and contributed dramatic footage to ground-breaking BBC nature documentaries such as The Blue Planet and last year's Life. The 58-year-old adventurer, from Dunfermline, has also been honoured with the Polar Medal for his work with the British Antarctic Survey. He now runs his own Tartan Dragon production company and is currently filming in Greenland.
Life has been massively successful both on TV - it currently has viewers in America glued to their screens - and on DVD. It's a real treat to see such incredible things on film. How does it feel to watch it happening for real in front of your eyes?
Exciting, rewarding, privileged... and of course you feel a huge sense of relief if - as often happens - success comes at the end of a lot of hard effort when there may be days you wonder if you'll see anything at all!
How long does it take, overall, to assemble an episode for a series like Life?
Each individual 50-minute programme takes eight weeks to put together in the cutting room, so a three-minute sequence would be two and a half days' work for an editor.
And how much time did you have to spend in the wild to get the shots you contributed?
I spent six weeks on a boat to get the footage of the killer whales hunting the seal in Antarctica and the leopard seal taking chinstrap penguins - both in the first programme of the series. It took a fortnight to get the shots of the polar bears scavenging whale bones you see in episode three and around 75 dives during a nine-week trip to get the footage of the Weddell seals under the ice, also in the third episode, and the time- lapse photography of the worms and starfish in episode eight. It's a fair rule of thumb that a week in the field will bring in one minute on the screen in the finished programme.
Was there a particular sequence in the show that you were especially pleased with?
Doing the worms and starfish sequences was very satisfying. You can think of time lapse as a way of speeding up time so that in ten seconds you can see all a starfish does in an afternoon. That lets us see behaviour that in real-time is just too slow for us to be aware of. But of course it also means you have to do very long shots under water that you then speed up. It's tough diving - takes maybe an hour to set up the gear underwater in the freezing water, and you're doing well if you manage two shots a day. So that sequence took 60 dives to bring in all the angles we needed. We used equipment that had been specially built, allowing the camera to move while the shots were being taken. That sort of filming had never been done before.
Your association with Sir David Attenborough goes back to 1980 when he visited the British Antarctic Survey base at Signy in the South Orkneys. You were a marine biologist and base diver then but that was the moment you decided to pursue photography wasn't it?
I'd just done my third winter in the Antarctic when I met David. He and a film crew had come on to our station for a week to do some sequences for The Living Planet. Since the dive locker had spare space they used that as their place on base. I helped out carrying gear and dived with the cameraman to assist with some underwater filming. In that week, I realised that wildlife film-making involved much of what I was passionate about - photography, animals, diving, travel, adventure and the satisfaction at the end of a show that might just make a difference in terms of conservation of nature.
What's he like to work with?
David is always right in there to offer help with carrying gear, setting up camp, anything at all. But he does have a wicked sense of fun and an amazing memory so there's never any shortage of stories from him.
You also worked with him on Blue Planet. Your contribution, filming the polar seas, took 420 days over two-and-a-half years. That's a lot of waiting around for animals to appear. What goes through your mind?
Quite often something like: "Please God, don't let me f*** up when it all starts happening!"
What's the secret of success?
Some sequences are sheer tenacity, you get a little bit one day, something else the next and it slowly comes together. Other shoots it's one big bang, one chance and that's all you'll get - like the killer whales around that seal in the Antarctic from Life. That's when you feel the adrenaline surge, you're thinking on your feet, making sure you get all the different shots. All that plus keep it in focus and properly exposed.
That sounds nigh-on impossible...
It can be mentally exhausting, but supremely satisfying to know you've nailed it.
Patience has got to be an asset hasn't it?
My wife Sue Flood - herself a great wildlife photographer - often says how can I be so patient with the animals but so p***ed off after 15 minutes shopping for clothes.
You proposed to her in odd circumstances...
She and I were filming out on the sea ice in Arctic Canada for Blue Planet. We'd been out shooting until after midnight and woke the next morning at 5am to find the ice had broken up all round our camp. Through the fog we realised we were drifting on the open sea on an ice floe about 30m across. Not good. The floe could have broken up any time. I used our radio to contact an airstrip and luckily, after about eight hours a chopper was able to rescue us. While I was on the radio, I asked Sue if she would marry me - and the rest is history. The co-ordinates of the point where we were picked up is engraved inside our wedding rings. Sue's only regret is that she hadn't drifted off with George Clooney.
In your line of work, it's probably important to know when a polar bear is in a bad mood. What are the danger signs?
Be aware when it begins to show increased interest in you, look for its head going lower with some swinging from side to side, huffing from its nostrils, and ears well flattened back.
Despite their size, they're pretty nippy...
They can reach 35mph for a short burst.
So how did it feel when, on a visit to the Arctic in 2006, one charged you?
We'd heard him scuffling around outside the cabin but thought he'd gone away, so foolishly we went outside without the usual flare pistol. He was 30 metres away but as soon as he saw us, he charged back up the hill. We had to run back inside the cabin but the door wouldn't close properly because there was snow in the hinges. I held it closed with the bear's nose poking round the edge while my colleague grabbed the gun and let off a flare that frightened it off.
You've slept with Ewan McGregor. Does his wife know?
Ha ha. Yes. In 2000 I did a film with Ewan when he went to Churchill in Arctic Canada to spend some time with polar bears. We had to spend a night at a cabin away from town and there was only one spare bed...
You once introduced him to a polar bear. How close did you get?
Ewan and I used to go out filming in a little vehicle (he referred to it as "my wee ice cream van") and with that we could park up only a few metres from the bears and they didn't bother. On one occasion a bear came over, raised up on his tiptoes, and virtually stuck his head inside the window. That's as close as you'd want to be to them.
What's the most dangerous thing that's happened to you during a day's work?
I was once grabbed by a walrus while I was snorkelling off the ice edge in the Canadian Arctic. He came up from right below me without warning, hugged my thighs with his flippers just as they do when catching seals in the same way. I looked down, hit his head with my fist, he let go and I swam back to the solid ice. Took less time than it has done for you to read this. Now if he'd held on and taken me down... well no more Doug I guess.
SEE Doug's work in Life, available on DVD now, or visit his website at www. dougallan.com
source New of the World