Name: Ella Todd

Where are you based?

London

What is it that you do in the film industry? How would you describe your job/s?

I’m the founder and MD of Environment Films, an independent production company based in central London, that specialises  in producing films, documentaries and commercials for organisations whose work and interests are connected the natural world. We produce media for Television, the Internet and DVD distribution and we offer a non-profit service to conservation, environmental and animal charities.

Who or what inspired you to work in film and why cover nature and conservation issues?

I did a Degree Film and TV and then started my career as a researcher for two years at the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol.

Then I became a freelance Producer/Director, working for the next 6 years, mainly for the BBC and Channel 4 and during this time I spent 6 months living in Scotland to produce/direct a 6x30 minute series I’d written for ITV.

My dog was with me, so we saw a lot of the Scottish countryside and I fell head over heels in love with its areas of remote beauty and also the clarity it gave me… and the ideas. I decided that I wanted to do more for nature than I was doing but I wasn’t sure how. Then when the series was done, my husband and I went camping in Cornwall and visited a seal sanctuary in Gweek. While we were reading about the individual seals stories, I mumbled something about wishing I could do more to help animal charities and then the idea popped up. My husbands idea really, that I should start a company that makes films for charities and that was it, I knew it was exactly what I should be doing and I haven’t looked back since.

I suppose it’s kind of like the injustice of how teachers and nurses don’t get paid enough, but footballers make millions and so through Environment Films we do our best to let charities enjoy the benefits of proper films, even if they only have limited budgets available.

What is your favorite place in nature?

A long walk along the Cornish coastal path and then a celebratory swim with my happy dogs. 

My favorite prose sums it up…“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore. There is society, where none intrudes, by the deep sea and music in its roar. I love not man the less, but nature more.” Lord Byron. 

You’ve been given $10m for a conservation project of your choice. What would you use it for?

If we could split the money Environment Films would make lots of short campaign films for lots of charities. If not, we’d use it to inspire people to switch to a plant based diet or towards putting an end to the fur trade.

Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing our planet. What singular thing would you like to see done to try to solve this?

In my opinion and a growing number of others, switching to a plant-based diet is the most effective way for an individual to reduce their footprint. A ‘typical’ US diet generates the equivalent of nearly 1.5 tones more carbon dioxide per person per year than a vegan diet. The livestock industry is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire transport sector (which produces 13.5%), including aviation! Plant based diets also require one third of the land and water needed to produce a typical Western diet. Farmed animals consume much more protein, water and calories than they produce, so far greater quantities of crops and water are needed to produce animal ‘products’ to feed humans than are needed to feed people direct on a plants. With water and land becoming scarcer globally, world hunger increasing and the planet’s population rising (scary to think it’s currently 6.7billion but by 2050 it’s expected to be 9billion), it’s far more sustainable to eat plant foods directly, than to use up our precious resources feeding farmed animals. Farming animals and growing their feed also hugely contributes to other environmental problems such as deforestation, water pollution and land degradation.

Vegan food is delicious and healthy and kind and its great to see so many vegan restaurants popping up around London – because this is a clear indication that people are starting to realise the overriding benefits. 

What has been your most memorable field experience whilst shooting films?

I’ve been extremely privileged and have had loads of incredible ‘natural world’ experiences through my work; I feel very lucky indeed. I suppose the most memorable would be filming in a jungle with two Thai dogcatchers. They had to catch an injured wild dog and also take in her pups for re-homing.  Watching these two guys at work was amazing – All they had by means of equipment was a long pipe/tube and a needle with sedative in it (blow dart). We had to trek for quite a while and bare foot so as not to alert the pack and frequently hide behind trees, but they did it, the blow dart worked and somehow they knew exactly where the dog would run, exactly when and where she’d fall asleep and where her pups would be. Impressive. I was worried about the dogs but also found the reality of the situation exhilarating – being deep in a Jungle was amazing and I was very impressed with how, despite the heat, the dogcatchers carried the heavy and sedated dogs back to their truck. It’s exciting when you’re filming something like this and planning how it’ll edit into a story. Snakes and the heat and being knackered because you’re not even 1% as fit as the dogcatchers, didn’t come into it. You just get lost in the story and London feels a lifetime away. I’m lucky to say I love my job.

Where do you see the planet in the next 20, 30 and 50 years?

I think things would be a lot better if more people put their taste buds aside and reaslised the monumental oversight in how “we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows”. The term ‘speciesism’ is a good one. People work really hard to end racism, ageism and sexism and yet ‘speciesism’ is forgotten. It baffles me that people would risk their lives for their dogs; grieve when they die and share their homes with them, but quite happily eat other types of animals. We’re very conditioned to define animals into catagories; some are cute, some are food, some are clothes. It’s weird and makes me sad.

Man is again reaching for the stars and plumbing the depths of the oceans. What area would you like to investigate?

I find it disturbing that we’re sort of forced to take ‘oil spills’ as a fact of life. I’d like to investigate this and make an expose film about it (although there are films about this already - I’d like to make a more detailed one).

What’s the best advice you could give to a young filmmaker starting out in wildlife and conservation filmmaking?

Be prepared to spend hours on your computer researching, hours waiting for the subject to appear or do what you need it to do and hours of being hot or cold and dirty on location. It’s good to start with a subject that you ‘really’ care about and are interested in and then the work is pleasurable. Try making a film yourself as it’s a fast way to learn and don’t forget there’s wildlife all around us – even insects in the grass if your nearest green space is a city park.

It doesn’t matter what it’s about, so long as it means everything to you and you don’t try to do it all alone because a team is a creative force. Once you’ve made a film or got some good shots, send it/them to wildlife and conservation filmmakers asking if you can voluntarily work with them to gain experience, listen and watch them closely and ask lots of questions. In your spare time watch as many natural world documentaries as you can, which will help you define your technique, style and objectives.

What would you like to remembered for?