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Our contact in Swaziland, Elaine Franklin just sent me this breaking news. On June 4th the first rhino was poached in Swaziland in almost 20 years. Devastating and sad, to say the least. It has been in the local Swaziland papers ever since the incident. Apparently this didn't make international news and so she sent the news to us.

Science and wildlife documentary filmmakers have a great deal of public responsibility. Much of what the public knows about the natural world comes from the films we make. If we explain the aerial acrobats of the Great White Shark, the mating behavior of Paradise birds, or the burrowing habits of the pygmy Armadillo, people should trust that what we're telling them is true. After all, this knowledge gets passed through the general public.

You’re almost ready to begin shooting your production. If you’re a self-made millionaire, you are ready. However, if financial fate hasn’t smiled kindly on you in the easy funding of your film, we’ll offer some creative ideas. The key word here is creative. Just like overcoming other challenges in producing your film, think creatively about funding.

Up until this point, your production plan is working out smoothly. All the details, lists, and talent pool have all fallen into place nicely. You can almost smell the sweet success of your film being reviewed by gushing critics. But wait. What’s that foreboding haze coming over the horizon? It’s the netherworld of production logistics.

What roles?

It’s good to have confidence that we’re talented enough to perform all the roles in making a film - planning, scripting, directing, shooting, hosting, editing, and special effects in post-production. Even if you were exceptionally talented in all the different roles, it’s a big job for a lone person. That’s why it’s a good idea to spread the filmmaking workload across the ranks of your recruited talent. First, let’s make a list of some of the key roles in making a film.

• Producer

• Scriptwriter

Any professional editor in the buisness has a few graphics and animation tools in their toolkit. Animations can be as simple as adding movement to the lower-third title slates for the experts in your film and they can be as complex as 3D animated pieces. While animations might sound too advanced for an editor, we're here to tell you that you need to learn some basic animation and graphics packages to be an editor that can pull his own weight. 

Color correction or color grading is the art of manipulating the hue, satuation, luminance, gamma and brightness of the colors in your video. It's just as much of an art as is the entire process of editing. Changing the colors slightly can do wonders to the mood of a film. While most shows on television have had professional color graders working on their pieces, you can do a decent job on it yourself.