Hi all.
We're about to start work on a doc here in the UK about the plight of the Red Squirrel. For many years the native red has been under threat from the imported grey, and is now on the edge of extinction.

We are experienced film-makers, and are competant with camera, light and sound etc, but are looking for idea's. It will contain interviews with some of the UKs top naturalists and conservationists.

The film needs to be extremely hard hitting, shocking, and controversial to grab attention and create awareness to the problem.

Here's my question:
What are the key ingredients for a top-quality,hard-hitting documentary that grabs people by the throat and holds their attention for 60 minutes?
Regards, Dave

Born to fish-forced to work!

Relevance.

Why should anyone care about the Red Squirrel?

Love.

Watch March of the Penguins and you will see the Emperor Penguin as a loveable and talented creature. What's so great about the Red Squirrel? Know the answer to that question before you start shooting or the audience won't get that answer from your movie.

Why should anyone care about the Red Squirrel?


People in the documentary's demographic (the UK) care greatly about the red squirrel. Some b@st@rd introduced the North American grey squirrel into the UK and, since then, the red has been on the decline (though there are some strong holds remaining, notably the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England (wot is near where I grew up).

Hard-hitting? I know - the reds joining forces and go after the greys. Lots of blood and carnage - a rewrite of the loss that the other red-coated creatures suffered against a North American foe 230 years ago.

People in the documentary's demographic (the UK) care greatly about the red squirrel. Some b@st@rd introduced the North American grey squirrel into the UK and, since then, the red has been on the decline (though there are some strong holds remaining, notably the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England (wot is near where I grew up).

Hard-hitting? I know - the reds joining forces and go after the greys. Lots of blood and carnage - a rewrite of the loss that the other red-coated creatures suffered against a North American foe 230 years ago.

The thing is, the documentary should lead people who DON'T care about the Red Squirrel to give it some thought, otherwise it's just preaching to the choir. Hence communicating a good answer to the question "Why should we give a damn about the pesky little things?" is absolutely vital to the success of the film.

I really like your idea of the parallel betweens the "greys" from the Colonies against the Redcoats of Britain as a hook for the film!

Do red squirrel's eat through trash cans like my brown ones?

I think the answer is Bob, don't use brown trash-cans
Dave

Action! - Try to explain or better yet show WHY this is happening. Are the squirrels fighting and killing each other? If you can get the audience to see and understand the exact reason this is happening, you may have more success.

I agree that making people care is what is important. Hard-hitting is best left to news, to be honest.

heath

Lots of good suggestions here already. Also you should consider the benefits to society, or the negative impact if the Red squirrel is removed (especially if the Grey squirrel does the opposite). How does the red squirrel affect the echo system?

Squirrels here plant trees by burying the seeds and then forgeting to dig them back up again, (I'm always pulling up oak saplings from the flower beds). If the squirrels prefer a different tree, then what would the impact be in future?

Failure to act. Give examples of other extinctions, their impacts and how we failed to do something about that, but can make up for it here.

Thanks
Lots of good ideas worthy of further thought.
Cheers

This is a good thread as it goes to the heart of what makes a compelling documentary.

There's also the intrigue factor you could leverage -if you think of Supersize Me it keeps you guessing as to whether the human body really can keep going as your liver turns to pate... Hehe.

You could tell the story from the future -have the narration from an old bloke in a 2050 winter heatwave...cut back to today when he is a young boy..."Back when I was young the reds where already in danger", etc.

Does he tell a sorry tale that has the red squirrel die off at the end? -watch this space!


Nick.

That's a great idea Nick, going back to the future. Like it a lot!
Many thanks, Dave

You want to talk about hard hitting squirrel drama? I've heard about Black squirrels in Russia that ganged up and killed and ate a dog. Other than that, squirrels are cute, but hard to get excited over... unless you're a dog. Good luck with your project though.

Tie the "red" squirrel in with "the Reds"...Liverpool

You'll double or tripple your audience right there and get tons of folks who wouldn't normally watch something about a squirrel :)

Paul

Hi Mate,

I've just come off writing/producing/directing/shooting/editing a doc about threats to marine species around the world and to be honest, it's been pretty hard to explain to people in the west why they shouldn't eat farmed shrimp, or people in the east why the demand for Shark Fin Soup is causing untold devastation to our oceans.

You however, have a chance to tell quite an interesting story and you genuinely DO have a built-in demographic. Who doesn't love a squirrel, and feel sorry for one that's being bullied on his home turf. I don't know... Those American Greys coming over here and wooing all their women squirrels with cheap nylon etc...

Anyway, if you're thinking of narrative-led doc as opposed to stat-led (ie make it keeping in mind what you want people to feel, as opposed to what you want to tell people) I would go with...

Colonisation by a hostile and invasive species (if you need examples of ecosystem disruption due to invasive species let me know)

Inter-racial violence

'Ethnic' Squirrel Cleansing

Frankly any one of those is a better hook than 'T3'.

Most people have seen the famous cute meerkat doc from ages ago by now but did you ever see the follow-up from about 2000?

It showed the other side of them and using good narrative voiceover, pretty much anthropomorphed these little mammals into a tough street gang, raiding other gang's burrows and generally being gits.

If not Gangs of New York, what about the Gangs of the New Forest?

BTW Did you see Gordon Ramsay a few weeks ago sending the critic fella off to kill and eat grey squirrels to help keep the numbers down? Might be worth trying to nick some footage or at least getting a tape and meeting up with the guys that kill them and sell them for grub.

Cheers,

Ben

Cheers Ben, Great comments.
Thanks a lot
Dave

No worries mate... Hope it was of some help.

Ben

There's a guy who owns a forest near to me who is desperately trying to kill off the greys in there so that he can reintroduce the reds that used to be so prominant there years gone by.

There's a guy who owns a forest near to me who is desperately trying to kill off the greys in there so that he can reintroduce the reds that used to be so prominant there years gone by.

Setting aside for the moment the vital importance of biodiversity in general, I have to wonder why the red squirrel is so much preferred to the grey? A squirrel is a squirrel and over the course of time new varieties of critter are constantly displacing other varieties of critter in a given environmental niche. I'm not sure I fully understand the view that grey squirrel replaces red squirrel = bad but elephant replaces mastadon = so what? And BTW, I hold a BS degree in biology and chemistry so it's not like the subject of evolution and environment is alien,

Because the grey squirrel is not native to the UK. It was brought into the country for some reason, and then started to wipe out our own native squirrels (which as implied by their name look a lot nicer than those American imports).

Because the grey squirrel is not native to the UK. It was brought into the country for some reason, and then started to wipe out our own native squirrels (which as implied by their name look a lot nicer than those American imports).
That may be, but our squirrels are bigger, and have more horsepower ;)

. . ., and then started to wipe out our own native squirrels (which as implied by their name look a lot nicer than those American imports).

I guess it's just a matter of eye-of-the-beholder. Or maybe the German reds are just nastier-looking than the British variety.

I don't suppose capturing the greys, dying them red, and releasing them would be an option?

Aren't there enough bottle redheads?

Steve,

You hold a degree in biology and you don't think it's an issue if the subgenus of a species becomes extinct?

Wow...

Blame it all on the Daylight Robbery series and how the plight of the Red Squirrel is ignored because DR made the greys so cute. Insert clips to show why. ;)

It is hard to get folks involved. It is really hard when groups cheapen any real issues with their own reactionary fronts for animals. The Hawai'ian islands are doing fairly well with their invasive species messages to get the rest of HI involved. Maybe a web search on the Hawai'ian program might help get some ideas?

Steve,

You hold a degree in biology and you don't think it's an issue if the subgenus of a species becomes extinct?

Wow...

No I didn't say that and I definitely understand the importance of preserving biodiversity, as I thought I said - I'm just curious why it becomes an emotional/political issue for some people. The fact is, species do go extinct from purely natural causes all the time to be replaced with other species and have done so for the entire history of the planet and that process will continue with or without human intervention. Frankly, I am kinda glad Homo neaderthalis has been replaced by Homo sapiens - nudie pitchers on the Net are much more appealing when they're not furry chested and beetle-browed <grin>. Whether or not greys replacing reds in a certain area is an ecologically signfigant event remains to be determined.

Re Hawaii comment above - Can I recommend http://www.oasisofthepacific.com/

I was going to interview the team that made it for my doc. They're very friendly and helpful and made a great doc about invasive species and the knock-on effects.

Ben

No I didn't say that - I'm just curious why it becomes an emotional issue for some people. But the fact is, groups of species go extinct all the time to be replaced with other groups, often from purely natural causes. Whether greys replacing reds in a given area is a signfigant event or not remains to be determined.

Ha ha, fair enough.

All campaigning groups, especially wildlife ones, pull on heartstrings whatever the cause, as it's the only way to get people to part with cash when they don't have to. Having worked for one for a year, I found the 'audience manipulation' aspects of the business almost as bad as major commercial marketing campaigns. They even had a word for the animals that would help them bring in more money because of the cuteness factor - They called them the 'charismatics'.

I'm toying with the idea of a doc exposing these more cynical aspects and vast finanacial incentives for environmental charities. But it might hurt the actual causes and I believe in many of them very strongly. A tricky one...

I know we're getting off-topic, but I'd be very interested in hearing of examples of species extinction purely due to natural causes.

Granted, we don't know if the UK will collapse and implode if the red squirrel is made extinct.

Now, should we wait until they're extinct to discover the effects? As it stands, it most certainly IS significant to the red squirrel. We cannot purely judge our actions and how they relate to the rest of the planet in terms of how they are of value to us.

We introduced the grey to these shores and now the reds are all gonna get it. Surely we should do something to redress that before it's too late, no?

Why the heck are Tigers and Pandas more worth saving than squirrels aside from the 'carismatic' status?

Ben

Steve, I think we would all agree if it was a natural course of nature... but they were artificially introduced... so it's not. The reason for making it "emotional" is because he is making a documentary for the masses... you have to make it emotional to make average everyday morons understand the importance... if you didn't then this thread wouldn't exist because everyone would just agree and understand. ;)

We have a major problem with introduced species taking over down here in Florida. Fireants, Brazillian Pepper trees, and the worst- Snowbirds! They are out of control, and destroying the wilderness. Please help, by sending $19.95 to Re-Relocate-A-Yankee
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:)

Well, another problem with the greys is that they also brought new diseases with them that also affect other species of the native wildlife over here.

Not only that, but they are a pest.

Well, another problem with the greys is that they also brought new diseases with them that also affect other species of the native wildlife over here.

Not only that, but they are a pest.

That's just what I'm talking about so I gotta ask, why is a Grey squirrel a pest and a Red squirrel not? They both occupy the same environmental niche and AFAIK do pretty much the same squirrely things - so what is the difference besides cosmetics and regional pride?

Also, from what I've read, they didn't bring "new" diseases with them. It's just that the normal squirrel diseases don't kill them as easily as they kill the red ones, so rather than decently dying, they are spreading the pox around and the reds are taking it on the chin.

Well, I like squirrels to have a bit of colour in them. British weather is grey enough as it is without the wildlife taking on the same tones!

That's just what I'm talking about so I gotta ask, why is a Grey squirrel a pest and a Red squirrel not? They both occupy the same environmental niche and AFAIK do pretty much the same squirrely things - so what is the difference besides cosmetics and regional pride?

Again, that's like judging their right to survive by determining their value to us. I think that's kinda the wrong way to look at it.

Because of our actions in introducing the grey to these shores, an indiginous species will become extinct. We really shouldn't let that happen.

Wow. I never in my life thought I'd have an argument about squirrels. lol


Ben
PS. Greys smoke crack and mug old ladies in parks.

Again, that's like judging their right to survive by determining their value to us. I think that's kinda the wrong way to look at it.

...

Actually thats what I think I think the "anti-greys" are doing, saying "We prefer Reds so we'll combat the greys" rather than saying "reds, greys - let nature take its course"

But it isn't nature taking its course. Its someone artificially introducing the greys.

The grey isn't supposed to be here. We've got enough American culture over here as it is. At least let us keep our damn squirrels!

Yeah, that is the end all to this... it's artificial... as a scientist you should understand that and be against it. If it was natures way then I would be on your side 100% but this isn't nature this is man screwing nature up.

Actually thats what I think I think the "anti-greys" are doing, saying "We prefer Reds so we'll combat the greys" rather than saying "reds, greys - let nature take its course"

But the fact the greys are there at all is nothing to do with nature.

Unless the greys learned to swim the atlantic on their own....

Where do you think Thor Hiedahl got the idea for the Kon Tiki? It was the great Grey Squirrel migration, using tiny rafts made of reeds...

The greys escaped from the London Zoo. Oops.

On the other hand, some idiot brought starlings to the 'States on purpose.

The greys escaped from the London Zoo. Oops.

On the other hand, some idiot brought starlings to the 'States on purpose.
And English Sparrows.

Edit - Hey, that means we still owe them one more... ;)

Gila Monsters

And, who knows, maybe they'd take care of the squirrel problem. :^)

What are the English sparrows doing?

They don't really do anything at all over here. Maybe they're emboldened by living it up in the land of the free.