Wildlife Film School

The Shetland Isles

We first visited The Shetland Isles in August 2016 as part of our 3 month wildlife film course with Lucas and Daisy. It was a wonderful time with crystal clear sky’s and an average temperature of 28C …and you can see from the final film they produced on our ‘Student Testimonial Page’ they had a great time.
During our time on the islands we travelled far and wide from Sumburgh Point in the south (filming Puffins) to Hermaness in the north Filming the massive sea bird colonies). One of the highlights of our time there was whilst filming gannets of the famous island of Noss, when a small family of Orca (Mother, Father and one calf) swam less than 3 meters from our boat past the bottom of the cliffs. We were able to film some fantastic footage of them in the crystal clear waters.

Shetland, also called The Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about 50 miles to the northeast of Orkney, 110 miles from mainland Scotland and 140 miles west of Norway. Their total area is 566 square miles, with a coastline 1,700 miles long, and the population totalled approximately 20,000 in 2022. The archipelago has an oceanic climate, complex geology, rugged coastline, and many low, rolling hills. The largest island, known as “the mainland”, has an area of 373 square miles, and is the fifth-largest island in the British Isles.

The local way of life reflects the Norse heritage of the isles, including the ‘Up Helly Aa’ fire festival and a strong musical tradition, especially the traditional fiddle style. Almost all place names in the islands have Norse origin. Many areas on the islands have been set aside to protect the local fauna and flora, including a number of important seabird nesting sites.

Just 16 of about 100 islands are inhabited. The main island of the group is known as Mainland. The next largest are Yell, Unst, and Fetlar, which lie to the north, and Bressay and Whalsay, which lie to the east. Lerwick, the capital and largest settlement, has a population of 7000 and about half of the archipelago’s total population of 20,000 people live within just 10 miles of the town.
In 2010 the Lonely Planet guide named Shetland as the sixth best region in the world for people seeking unspoilt destinations. The islands were described as “beautiful and rewarding” and the Shetlander’s as “fiercely independent and self-reliant”.

Experience Required:
You do not need to have any previous film production experience to attend a course. (However a basic understanding about the principles of ‘how a lens works’ as well as ‘shutter speeds’ and ‘exposure’ will help you)
We will take you through the whole process of producing a wildlife documentary film from start to finish including; script ideas, production ethics, script writing, presenter and voiceover-led productions, filming on location, recording audio on location and editing on location; as well as all the necessary logistics and camp-craft requirements to allow you to be able to successfully work in such a remote environment.
We can guarantee that four weeks of filming / working on location will give you an unprecedented amount of time for you to learn and improve both your camera and production skills in some truly fantastic locations. The west coast of Scotland by far is the best location in the UK to both see and film wildlife.

The entire four week long practical section of this course will be operating out of various basecamps situated in different locations throughout Western Scotland. Each course will have a maximum of 4 students working from a vehicle/s. The vehicle/s will have a course instructor and wildlife guide/driver, with the students occupying the rest of the vehicle. This vehicle/s will carry everything logistical we need for our time in Scotland; as well as selection of 4K cameras, lenses, audio recording equipment and other production equipment; plus various grip, tripod and support equipment.
During the whole of your course we will living / working out of a tented basecamp; which will have electrical power via a petrol generator. For your comfort each student will have your own 2-man mountain tent.

As part of your course fees we will supply you with:
•  All 4K camera equipment
•  All ‘on location’ production equipment
•  All ‘on location’ 4K editing equipment
•  All basecamp tents and equipment
•  All staff and instruction
•  All vehicles and transportation overland required during your course

The Natural History of The Shetland Isles

Shetland has three large national nature reserves at the seabird colonies of ‘Hermaness’ , ‘Noss’, and at ‘Keen of Hamar’ to preserve the serpentine flora. There are a further 80+ Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s) which cover 66% or more of the land surfaces of Fair Isle, Papa Stour, Fetlar, Noss, and Foula. The mainland itself has over 40 separate SSSI sites.

Flora
The landscape in Shetland is overwhelmingly used by sheep for grazing and cooler weather conditions have limited the total number of plant species to about 400. Native trees such as rowan and crab apple are only found in a few isolated places such as cliffs and loch islands.
The flora is dominated by Arctic-alpine plants, wildflowers, moss and lichen. Spring squill, buck’s-horn plantain, Scots lovage, roseroot and sea campion are abundant, especially in sheltered places. Shetland mouse-ear is an endemic flowering plant found only in Shetland; it currently grows only on two serpentine hills on the island of Unst.

Fauna
Shetland has numerous large seabird colonies. Birds commonly found in the islands include Atlantic puffin, storm-petrel, red-throated diver, northern gannet and great skua. Numerous rarities have also been recorded including black-browed albatross and snow goose.
The Shetland wren, Fair Isle wren, and Shetland starling are subspecies endemic to Shetland. There are also populations of various moorland birds such as curlew, lapwing, snipe and golden plover.

The seas around Shetland are also abundant with marine life. Otters are extremely common in all parts of the Islands, as are Common and Grey seals. Orcas are regularly spotted close to the shoreline hunting; and there is a very large network of ‘spotters’ dedicated to the tracking, monitoring and protection of them. Larger species of whale are often seen further off the coastline.