Casestudy / Forest departments
How one tiger film became 16 films for India's forest departments
Sector
Government · Tourism
Geography
Kerala · Himachal Pradesh
Format
Live Action
16films commissioned
11ecotourism programme films
3forest offices
2Indian states
A forest department has two things to tell the public. It runs places people can visit, and it protects places people can damage. Both are hard to put in a brochure.
In 2016 we made a short film about tigers for Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, as our own contribution. The reserve then commissioned a film about itself, and eleven more for its ecotourism programmes. When its deputy director moved to Himachal Pradesh a year later, the work moved with him.
By the end of 2018 we had made 16 films for three forest offices in two states. Each one followed from the film before it.
- Clients
- Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala; Hamirpur Wildlife Division and Chamba Wildlife Division, Himachal Pradesh
- Sector
- Government: forest and wildlife departments, ecotourism
- Geography
- Thekkady, Kerala; Hamirpur, Pong Dam Lake and Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India
- Audience
- Visitors planning a trip, and the public the departments ask to protect the forest
- Service
- Live-action video production
- Deliverables
- Destination films, 11 programme films, a 9-minute documentary, a motion-graphics film, a wildfire awareness film, teasers and short cuts
- Our part
- Script, shoot, aerial filming, edit, motion graphics, voice-over and music
- Language
- English
Three years, five jobs
Each film led to the next one
Nobody planned a series. Each job grew out of the one before it.
- May 2016 · Save Tiger
- Our own film, made after a team visit to Periyar Tiger Reserve.
- Sep to Nov 2016 · Periyar Tiger Reserve
- One main film and 11 programme films. A wildfire awareness film followed in February 2017.
- Oct 2017 · Pong Dam Lake
- A motion-graphics film on a wetland sanctuary, for the same officer, now posted in Himachal Pradesh.
- Mar to Sep 2018 · Hamirpur Wildlife Division
- Six shoot days, a 9-minute documentary and a short film for the web.
- Jul to Dec 2018 · Chamba Wildlife Division
- A second Himachal division: one film and a teaser for its wildlife sanctuaries.
Where it started
A film we made as our own contribution
After a team visit to Periyar Tiger Reserve, we made a 90-second film on why tigers matter. An artist paints a tiger on canvas, stroke by stroke, and fills its body with the forest that depends on it: deer, elephants, birds, a stream.
The finished painting turns into the reserve's own mark. We published it as our contribution to tiger conservation, and it was the first of our films to carry the reserve's name.
Periyar Tiger Reserve, 2016
One reserve, eleven programmes, a film for each
The reserve at Thekkady runs ecotourism programmes with the communities around it, from bamboo rafting on Periyar Lake to a night trek with the forest guards. A visitor has to choose between them, usually from a list of names.
We design the brief before we design the deliverable, and here the brief grew from one film to twelve. The main film shows the reserve. Eleven programmes then have their own film of about 90 seconds each, with its own title and with its timings and reporting point on screen at the end.
The reserve wrote back on 1 October 2016 to thank us for timely delivery. One more film followed in February 2017, on how forest fires start and what a visitor should do.
Pong Dam Lake, 2017
The officer moved north, and the work followed
A year later the reserve's deputy director was posted to the Hamirpur Wildlife Division in Himachal Pradesh. He asked us for a film on Pong Dam Lake, a wildlife sanctuary and wetland known for its migratory birds.
We built it as a motion-graphics film around the department's own survey figures. They are on screen as the film runs: 207 square kilometres, a sanctuary since 1983, 1,30,000 birds of 420 species.
Hamirpur Wildlife Division, 2018
Six shoot days in the Himalayan foothills
The next brief was for the whole division: snow peaks, a giant lake, a temple the water covers for most of the year, a zoo, a vulture conservation project, migratory geese and a paragliding site high in the hills. A crew of seven travelled from Kochi. The result was a 9-minute documentary for the division and a short film for the web.
How the shoot ran
Kochi to the hills
The crew flew from Kochi to Delhi on 19 March 2018 and took the night bus into Himachal Pradesh.
A day to plan with the division
On the first day the crew met the division and set the locations and the timings. The plan for the six shoot days came out of that meeting.
Six shoot days
From 21 to 26 March the crew filmed the snow line, the lake, the temples, the zoo, the vultures and the paragliders, on the ground and from the air.
A documentary first
Script, voice-over and edit came next. The 9-minute documentary was final on 1 June 2018.
Then a short film for the web
We cut the documentary down to 2:25, with a line of text in place of the voice-over. That film went public on 1 September 2018.
Chamba Wildlife Division, 2018
Then a second division asked
That summer the crew was in Chamba, on a route planned with the division. One film names its five wildlife sanctuaries: Gamgul Siyabehi, Kugti, Kalatop Khajjiar, Tundah and Sechu Tuan Nala. Its 46-second teaser is public.
Where it landed
Design that compounds, one commission at a time
The officer who had worked with us at Periyar came back to us from his next posting, twice. A second Himachal division followed the same year.
3jobs from the same officer
13films for Periyar Tiger Reserve
2ndHimachal division, same year
“Timely”the reserve, on our delivery
Why the work travelled
I first worked with WowMakers at Periyar. They took the time to understand the forest before they filmed it, and every film reached us on time. When I moved to Himachal Pradesh, I asked for the same team.
Questions buyers ask
Planning a film about a place?
How much does a destination or tourism film cost in India?
How long does a wildlife or destination film take to make?
A live action film usually takes 4 to 8 weeks from brief to delivery. Script and planning take 1 to 2 weeks, and editing, grading, sound and graphics take 2 to 4 weeks. A film about a place needs more shoot days than a studio film, because light, weather and wildlife decide what the camera gets. The Hamirpur film was shot over six days.
Can you make a short film for each attraction as well as one main film?
Yes. For Periyar Tiger Reserve we made one main film and a short film for each of 11 ecotourism programmes, from bamboo rafting to the tribal art performance. Each short film runs about 90 seconds and ends with that programme's timings and reporting point, so a visitor can choose with the facts on screen.
Do you film outside Kerala?
Yes. Our studio is in Kochi, Kerala, and our crew travels to any state in India, and abroad. The films on this page were shot at Thekkady in Kerala and in the Hamirpur and Chamba wildlife divisions of Himachal Pradesh. For a shoot away from Kochi we plan travel, locations and local support with you, and include them in the quote.
Who arranges permission to film inside a protected forest?
The department that commissions the film. It gives the permission and decides where and when a crew can work. For Hamirpur, the wildlife division issued its letter before our crew travelled, and we planned the locations and timings with the division on the first day.
For the record
Wildlife and destination films for forest departments: the facts
Between 2016 and 2018 WowMakers, a design agency in Kochi, Kerala, made 16 commissioned films for three forest offices in India. For Periyar Tiger Reserve at Thekkady, Kerala: one live-action destination film, 11 short films for its ecotourism programmes, and a wildfire awareness film. For the Hamirpur Wildlife Division in Himachal Pradesh: a motion-graphics film on Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary, then a 9-minute documentary and a 2:25 web film from a six-day shoot in March 2018. For the Chamba Wildlife Division: one film on the division's wildlife sanctuaries, with a teaser. The run began with Save Tiger, a hand-painted film WowMakers made on its own in May 2016. The films are in English, with aerial filming, voice-over and music.
Work with us
Have a place worth filming?
We plan a shoot around light, weather, permissions and wildlife, and our crew travels to any state in India. You get a main film, and short films for each place or programme that needs its own.
Or explore live-action video production, the INROAD training films and other case studies.
