Earth Protect Blog

Natural history documentaries are now a mainstream genre in television, with worldwide audiences. Yet there remain remarkably few accounts of how these films are crafted. What is involved in gathering information? How can this demonstrate the inherent dynamics of their subjects? Can they contribute to the conservation management that becomes more imperative by the day? And what needs be done to ensure credibility in the permanent archive created? This book confronts such issues. 

‘Messengers of the Gods’ is a documentary about cranes in the long flight of human imagination. Filmed in the birds’ habitat around the world, it subsequently won coveted Awards and has been broadcast by no fewer than 30 national television authorities. 

Dr Hugh Lavery AM is a conservation scientist. Throughout his 50-year professional career, Hugh has served as an author, editor and executive producer of a wide range of international environmental initiatives. He was selected as the inaugural Environmental Practitioner of the Year for Australia and New Zealand in 2007, and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia “for significant service to the environment and conservation” in 2013. 

Ken Taylor was a writer and natural history film-maker. He studied in the mid-sixties as a Harkness Fellow at Yale and Cornell Universities in USA, and on returning to Australia, he founded Australia's Natural History Film Unit (ABC) and began his Award-winning television documentaries. He also published poetry, the most recent collection being awarded the prestigious Kenneth Slessor Prize. 

Between them, they reveal what’s involved in creating an outstanding natural history television documentary. Their account emphasizes that it is the film’s narrative not the film-making mechanics that are central to effective production.

Dr Hugh Lavery AM
_{Senior Executive Adviser, Australian Environment International
Adjunct Professor of Environmental Systems | Institute for Future Environments | Queensland University of Technology This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | www.austenv.com
Inaugural Certified Environmental Practitioner of the Year Australia & New Zealand (2007)}