"An Osprey Homecoming", the nature documentary that my partner
Christi Vedejs and I produced after three years of blood, sweat and
tears has been nominated for TWO EMMY Awards in Best Photography
and Best Script. Needless to say we are thrilled!!!

How hard was it to get the birds to follow the script?

Well done Jacques, but don't just stand there, give us a look, even at a trailer, please .. I like to be gobsmacked by the beauty of wildlife

Scripts on nature documentaries are often invasive or patronising and I look forward to yours.

Go to http://www.anospreyhomecoming.com and you can watch
the trailer.

The script was written after the birds gave us the best story we
could have possibly asked for including the first osprey
chick hatched in southern Michigan in 60 years and a bald eagle
that swooped in and attacked the nest one morning.

congratulations. that is so awesome. what a dream come true.

plus, i love ospreys. what cool birds.

FANTASTIC. Congradulations. Bob

Congrats, that's a wonderful accomplishment.

Looking forward to the video.

Jaques- I was sort of teasing about the birds and the script. But I know what you guys experienced. We were living temporarily in an apartment for a year, and it was right on the river. About 75 feet from our 3rd story apartment was an Osprey nest. Over that year, we watched them build the nest, and have a small clutch of offspring. Then, we watched them lose their nest in another hurricane.

Jacques,

I viewed the trailer. Nice work. I love the use of multiple POV (underwater, aerial etc).

Congrats on the nominations and good luck!

Thanks everyone! I very much appreciate your support.

Keith, I would have had a hard time dealing with that.
The eagle that attacked 'our nest' was driven to a
crash landing in the trees by the poppa bird, C-09.
C-09 proved his courage that day by whomping a marauder
four times his size.

Jaques, I also had a hard time, listening to the babies on the ground. It was an old dead Pine they had built in, and the branch gave in the high winds. Eventually, the little ones made it back to the top. And here I had been torn between calling somebody, and taking in a new bird or two. I always did like raptors, and want a hawk.

If anyone ever finds a bird who is injured or in trouble,
especially a migratory species (which are protected under federal law),
it is always best to call the experts. In almost every town there
are dedicated avian rehabbers who have the expertise and will
come to the rescue. They will take baby birds that fall out of nests too.
Of course in the middle of a HURRICANE (gulp!)
it might take much longer than one would want it to.

There are a few places here, but even after the storm, it's hard to get anyone to do anything. In the end, it all worked out. And you are also right about raptors being protected. I get in much less trouble since I stopped listening to most of the voices... ;)

I'm still looking to get my own raptor, but finding a licensed falconer to mentor you here is nigh on impossible.

With this recognition, it shouldn't be long before your production is showing on PBS, right? Ospreys are very interesting and spectacular birds. Since they are so widespread and growing in numbers, the show should catch the attention of many viewers. The best of luck to you.

In my town, we have Ospreys everywhere. They soar high and serenade us with their chirps and dive for fish in every body of water. We've put up hundreds of nest platforms and some people have erected them in their yards. One pair likes the high-rent district on top of a ridge and nests in a fir that's 3 miles from water. They apparently feel that the exclusive neighborhood makes the commuting distance worthwhile. We've had a couple of birds stay here the whole Winter in recent years, which is unprecedented.

Despite their ferocity in defending their nests, they can't hold off Canada Geese, when they take over their platforms. However, since the geese are nesting earlier now, they are often finished with them before the Osprey arrive and they function on a time-sharing basis.

Jacques:

Congratulations....amazing footage. I note that the full meal deal is 71 minutes my God my man the number of hours spent to capture that volume of footage must have been out of this world.

Good luck I have my fingers crossed that the awards come rolling in.

Brian

We shot over one hundred and eighty hours of footage.
Someone was at Wildwing Lake at dawn every nice morning with our XL1
from late March to the middle of October.
Then it took my partner, Christi Vedejs, a year to research and
write the script and another nine months to edit it together.
The sound track took more months including several
field trips to collect audio and still many other narration and musical
recording sessions. Then we had the graphics, still photo pans & scans
and other animations. We worked from before dawn to after midnight
many, many days.

If you don't love it, . . . get out! Get out now!!! :)

If you don't love it, . . . get out! Get out now!!! :)

is that your acceptance speech? it's perfect as it is, don't change a thing!

honestly, it's an inspiring story of what persistence and obsession can accomplish. not just for you, but for those birds and for the planet.

Enjoyed "Osprey" very much, Jacques & Christi & all concerned. Great ad for wildlife conservation, wildlife videography and Kensington Metropark, Michigan.

Thinking Irish Wildbird Conservancy and Santa Claus I'm ordering a few more copies.

NEWS FLASH!

The Nature Documentary, "AN OSPREY HOMECOMING", has been awarded
the EMMY for Program Photography (best photography long form).

Christi and I are very proud and excited that the Academey has
honored us with our very first Emmy.

Bravo, Bravo.

One more Oscar homecoming! I want more.

Way to go! Congratulations!

You need to get some really nice salmons, and thank those birds properly!

really inspiring! congratulations!

Congratulations from me too! I have to get a copy of this video to my library. Very inspiring that a film about ospreys could get this award

NEWS FLASH!

The Nature Documentary, "AN OSPREY HOMECOMING", has been awarded
the EMMY for Program Photography (best photography long form).

Christi and I are very proud and excited that the Academey has
honored us with our very first Emmy.

Wow! I have been off the boards for about 7 months and have just spent the last two weeks catching up. I found this thread today (in my favorite DVInfo forum) and was blown away.

Congratulations, Jacques and Christi!

From a close neighbor in South Bend, Indiana.

good news, jeff sayre is back!

i was on the verge of sending hugh dimauro out to look for you! good thing you re-emerged in time to spare yourself that fate!

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=66469&highlight=rick+bravo

now, how about some footage? you must have been doing something interesting for the past 7 months, yes?

Meryem:

Thanks for the welcome back! I think I saw Hugh Dimauro lurking in my neighborhood last week.

So I don't hijack Jacques' thread, I'll try to be short--at least my post will be, but I'm 6 feet. Much of my absence had to do with a little (read big) medical scare last year. I'm doing fine now.

But, my wife and I have been on some adventures and are up to no good as always. We spent time in the Cayman Islands working on a sea turtle nesting project. Watching (videoing) baby sea turtles emerging from the sand is an amazing and fulfilling experience. We spent more time in the rainforests of Panama shooting hawk migration last fall. I spent the first 5 months of 2006 learning about producing and encoding good quality video podcasts. Finally, I'm advancing my 3d modeling and animation skills.

Why all this? We are working on creating an Internet-only wildlife television station and community. A place were people can post their own wildlife shows and series and share their experiences. I'll post somewhere else on this later when the time is right.

By the way, I continue to explore my non-nature focused creative, movie making side. Next week, our team that produced the two Thomas Brin movie shorts for DVC2 & 3 are continuing the Brin story. It will be posted within 8 weeks. I do look forward to another DVC attempt or two.

Now, back to Jacques and his wonderful news. I apologize for not being short after all.

you were pretty much living my dream, to watch baby sea turtles hatch...very cool, the things you've been doing, minus the health issue.

and now back to our regularly scheduled program of being in awe of what jacques has achieved....thanks for letting us borrow your thread temporarily.