National Geographic’s Hamlin ’82 holds workshop, shows latest film
A herd of zebra storm across the landscape, a bird jumps out of the water into flight in slow motion, thousands of monarch butterflies lift off into the air. If you have watched a National Geographic production, these scenes are likely to sound familiar. David Hamlin ’82 is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker and producer of these National Geographic films.
On the afternoon of Oct. 21, Hamlin held a wildlife filmmaking workshop in the Digital Lab of the Black Family Visual Arts Center. With 15 students in attendance, Hamlin shared his background, his career path and some advice with wildlife enthusiasts and aspiring filmmakers.
Although Hamlin majored in sociology and education while at Dartmouth, this campus is where he first developed a passion for filmmaking. Unfortunately, the film and media studies department was very small at this time, so his career in film and production commenced off-campus. His first big experience in the entertainment world was his term off during which he wrote scripts for the popular kid’s television show “Sesame Street.”
After his time at Dartmouth, Hamlin went to film school at the University of Southern California, which he believed was a good choice for him, although Hamlin mentioned that film school is not for everyone and is a large financial investment. Soon after film school, National Geographic contacted Hamlin looking for someone to work on adventure films.
Over the next nine or ten years, Hamlin was out in the wilderness making these films. However, for the last eight years he has been working primarily with wildlife filmmaking, spurred by the desire to look at an issue broader than simply adventuring. In his time specializing in wildlife films, Hamlin developed and directed “Great Migrations” (2010), the largest programming event National Geographic has produced and the winner of the Primetime Emmy for Best Documentary Film.
After showing some footage from “Great Migrations,” Hamlin held a question and answer with the students in attendance. One topic discusses was the line between fiction and nonfiction with documentary films. Wildlife films tend to use slow motion and regular footage along with swelling music and intense narration to heighten the emotions of a scene.
“Slowed-down footage allows you to create more of a moment, more of a musical swell, more of the drama,” Hamlin said. “We’re always trying to push a dramatic story, sometimes properly and sometimes with more artifice.”
Hamlin also pushed the concept of storytelling through a wildlife film.
Before filming, you have to find out the behavior of the animal, if they have a unique behavior, what makes the animal compelling or charismatic, obstacles to the animal’s success and what ultimately makes this animal succeed, Hamlin said.
One aspect of wildlife filmmaking in which Hamlin called for improvement is reinforcing connections with the local communities where films are shot.
Typically, films get footage in these areas, many in Africa and remote regions of the world, and then the films are shared with the developed world, but the local communities are not able to benefit or learn anything from the films, Hamlin said. We need to find ways to give this to the local communities, he said.
Hamlin also had important advice for aspiring wildlife filmmakers and all college students. He mentioned the importance of finding one’s own voice in film style multiple times, but also encouraged not being too stuck in one’s vision of a film that the storyline becomes forced.
“You have to be assured in your vision, but you also have to let the film go the way it wants to go,” Hamlin said. “The movie starts telling you what it wants to be, what it’s willing to be. You have to roll with that, you have to respect what the footage is telling you.”
Hamlin’s latest production, “War Elephants” (2012), was screened later on Oct. 21 in Filene Auditorium in an event sponsored by the Dickey Center for International Understanding. This film follows the brother-sister team of Bob Poole and Dr. Joyce Poole on their mission to help heal elephants in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, an area that was destroyed during the 16-year-long civil war that began in 1977.
Over the years of the war, almost 95 percent of the elephant population was slaughtered, and the current population has deep, traumatic scars from these events. The Poole siblings combine their love of wildlife and elephants to teach these elephants how to trust humans again. Following the screening of “War Elephants,” Hamlin was joined by environmental studies professors Ross Virginia and Jack Shepard for a panel discussion.