Documentary First Podcast Episode 202: Human Footprint - Part 2

In part 2 of “Human Footprint” Christian and Jason continue their chat with the creators and directors of Human Footprint, Neil Losin & Nate Dappen.

Listen to how Neil & Nate filmed the series on a budget, with a small crew of a maximum of 5 people. Hear some of their favorite experiences while grinding and pushing their team to the limit. Seeing elephants from a helicopter and people on dog sleds hunting Polar Bears are just two of the experiences that have marked their lives while making Human Footprint.

Music is key to setting the tone and emotion to visuals. We learn about their connection with PBS helping out with some of the licensing of the music used as well as how their “Hip-Hop” composer Andy Young came to be a part of the project.

To close, Neil & Nate gave their pearls of wisdom and pieces of advice to filmmakers. Along with Christian’s best reminder of not getting discouraged, don’t give up – DO NOT QUIT!!!

PBS Link: https://www.pbs.org/show/human-footprint/

Intro to Documentary First. 0:00
- Welcome back to Documentary First, continuing the conversation with Nate & Neil from Human Footprint.
- What was the budget and how was it used, travel and music?
Traveling for the show. 1:20
- A lot of travel for 120 days of filming.
- Shooting in 44 different cities, 80 beds, sets, states, Arctic Sea Ice.
- Shooting 4 different acts for 4 different episodes
- Allot of pre-production and research in preparation for all the travel.
- Starbucks budget larger than the actual food budget……
- Team of 5 people max. Pushing everyone to their limits.
- Shooting dogs, rats, starlings, cities and cities.
How they economized their travel costs. 5:47
- Listen to people and give them what they need.
- Learned to economize in various ways.
- Neil’s unique experience and favorite place
- The evolution of tusklessness and elephants.
- Flying over the park in a helicopter.
Nate’s most unique experience. 10:05
- Episode about how dogs have shaped culture.
- Unique experience in the Arctic with a young Inuit sled dog hunter.
- Arctic adventure. The sun doesn’t set in the summer – losing track of time, skeleton crew, a wild experience even trying to get there.
Hunting polar bears on the sea ice. 12:44
- Polar bear hunting on the sea ice.
- The cinematography of the first episode.
- Three highly trained, highly skilled shooters on the project.
- A lot of collaboration and sponsorship from Canon with lenses to help bring cinema-level quality. Taking the visuals very seriously.
Intuitive filmmaking and music budget. 17:32
- Biology and natural history as a fact factor.
- Having veteran natural history shooters on the project.
- Music budget and getting the rights.
- Wanting a 90’s HipHop aesthetic – fresh and vibrant
- Using popular tracks and licensing them where possible.
- PBS has a special arrangement for music – “A compulsory license” – Nate & Neil explain.
- Distribution from PBS to elsewhere changes everything
- How much of the music is composed?
- How Adrian Young got involved in the project.
- How the music came together.
Creating a modern look and style. 24:41
- Creating a modern, modern feel for the series.
- Allowed each editor to show what they think it should look like.
- How Andy Laub became lead editor. Has an extensive back ground including music editing.
- How the editing style was developed for the show. A group brainstorming session to help guide this.
- A combination of the action sports, the traditional Natural History science world, mixed with modern social media type style
- Biggest challenge for Neil.
Knowing what’s enough in the episodes. 29:04
- Hardest thing for a series like this.
- Physical and emotional grind of filming.
- Striking a balance between documentary and information and not be “preachy’.
- DocuView Déjà Vu recommendations.
- 4 Recommendations one of which was “My Octopus Teacher” – recommended previously (See the other 3 recommendations listed below).
Advice for filmmakers. 34:12
- Neil & Nate’s best piece of advice for new filmmakers.