The poster from the 2011 International Wildlife Film Festival. Art by Chris Robitaille

Well folks, with a happy song in my heart and a catchy melody in my spleen, it is my great pleasure to announce that First Snow in the Woods has won Best Original Music at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana!! What an honor, considering our competition was the best-of-the-best programming from the BBC, National Geographic and Animal Planet. I am totally thrilled to be recognized for our musical achievement. We have worked so hard to write music that is not only catchy for children, but that adults will find appealing. The movie starts with a duet between a groundhog (Robert) and a woodpecker (me), which I wrote as a tribute to the brilliant counter melodies from The Music Man, which my family watched while I was growing up.

I never intended to be a music composer, but I believe my first “animal music composition” was in the 3rd grade, when I did a class project about polar bears. Apparently I wrote a song on the piano, in which the left hand slowly and deliberately hit low notes, to mimic a polar bear ambling along an ice flow. Really it probably sounded like a kid smashing her hands on piano bass notes over, and over, and over . . . but I applaud my parents for telling me it sounded great. I would also like to thank my parents for not yelling at me to get off the phone when I was a teenager. What did they do instead? They sang show tunes into the phone receiver when my time limit was up, essentially drowning out my ability to hear my friends, and of course, it was funny. They often chose Sonny and Cher songs, if I remember correctly.

LauraSams holds IWFF Award with Erna Buffie

First Snow in the Woods was also a Finalist for Best Children’s Program, and it won a merit award for Cinematography and Use of Humor. It is so great to be recognized for the hard work that goes into a wildlife film. We spent two years filming the beautiful fall colors in Michigan, and I think the brilliant footage gives the movie a more magical feel. Also, it’s always nice to hear someone say you are funny. I must admit, the movie includes crying scarecrows, which may be one of our stranger ideas – though it makes kids from 3 years old to 83 years old laugh with surprise.

The International Wildlife Film Festival is the oldest-running wildlife film festival in the world, bringing together some of the world’s greatest talent in natural history filmmaking. This year, I was absolutely inspired by all the people who have dedicated their lives to promoting conservation through media, including Carl Safina, Greg & Barbara MacGillivary, Dr. Douglas Iain Hamilton, Chris Palmer, Charlotte Vick and the folks who have so passionately developed the graduate program in Natural History Programming at Montana State University. I have been reflecting on some of the highlights from this year’s festival, which I shall share here.

Group Hiking in Montana During IWFF

1. Hiking in Montana, which I have nicknamed the “This-Is-So-Beautiful-I-Think-My-Mind-Might-Explode-State.” We spent one day hiking with a member of the IWFF Board, who graciously invited us to his ranch for lunch. We were joined by Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the elephant conservationist and researcher from Save The Elephants. We were also joined by Carl Safina, the prestigious and award-winning author of books that explore the “scientific, moral and social dimensions of our relationship with nature.” I personally enjoyed the enthusiasm with which he scoured the landscape for birds with his binoculars.

People Watching First Snow in the Woods at the Wilma Theater

2. Making thousands of children talk like a crow. We were fortunate to screen First Snow four times (which I hear is a record at the film festival), often to crowds of 800 or more children. Since the children liked the crow character so much, Robert shared the crow voice with them, and then had everyone repeat after him, “You don’t want it snow? Then I’m going to stop the snow. For you. Done.”

Laura with Taiwanese Filmmakers

3. Meeting the Taiwanese students who made “Tree #73.” The best youth-made film was a hilarious short film, about Taiwanese students who wanted to save two trees near their school. To save the trees, they wrote a fable in which the trees fell in love, but were kept apart by a witch. It makes sense when you see it.

Pronghorn at the National Bison Range

4. Seeing bison and pronghorn. We enjoyed driving through the National Bison Range, an opportunity to play “I Spy” as adults. I spy a pheasant! I spy a huge pile of elk antlers! I spy the opportunity for conservationists to band together to create wildlife corridors for animal migration routes in the future! Oh wait, that last one was more of a concept that has been successfully implemented in Montana and other places around the world. Instead of protecting patchy islands of land, why not protect land that connects together, essentially creating a “wildlife corridor?” The concept is being used to protect tigers and other species across many countries.

5. Sharing our thoughts on children’s programming during Saturday’s panel. It was nice to see so many folks passionate about education. The panel included Ian Foster, the IWFF Education Coordinator, Andrea Heydlauff, from Panthera, Debra Howell, a teacher, and Chris Siefert from Montana PBS. Can natural history children’s programming provide us with hope for saving the planet? Can children’s nature programming make money for broadcasters? What do kids need and what do they want to watch? It was a great discussion that I dare say, could have inspired even the most cynical of characters.

I have been attending IWFF for about eight years, and it is always a good festival. This year certainly rose to the top of the list. Thanks to all who made it happen, and to the Missoula community for attending the screenings in droves!

It is with great joy that we present The Great White Shark Tribute Song from our new project The Shark Riddle! If you were going to create a song about the great white shark’s role in the ecosystem, about how it is needed for a healthy food chain, who better to sing the song than . . . . a sea lion? Why not have a marine mammal sing about its own role in the food chain? Get ready for a song that I believe is one of our best . . . and I hope you find yourself cheering for the great white shark! The high definition underwater shark footage was filmed by the talented cameramen from the Save Our Seas Foundation. Much of the sea lion footage was filmed by Robert along the Oregon coast. And we used some additional shots from Tom Campbell.

Robert is performing the voice of the lead sea lion, but we worked with Portland musicians to bring the rest of the song to life. To add some unique percussion, we were inspired by “the food chain” and recorded the sound of a link of chain falling into our hands. We also used a slinky to add some fun rhythm . . . which was one of the crowning achievements of our audio engineer, who had secretly always left a slinky near his recording studio just in case, for one glorious moment when the stars aligned, he could finally use a slinky appropriately in a song. To create the whole group of sea lions singing “great white shark” we gathered a group of friends in the recording studio – mostly men, but a few women too, so we could add a bit of harmony to the shark chorus. We also stomped on planks to give an authentic, seaworthy beat.

A lot of people ask us how we write music. Robert and I spent months thinking about this song – what style should it be? Would it be catchy enough that people could sing it after hearing the song? How do you write a good tribute to the great white shark, deviating from the usual soundtrack of suspenseful bass tones? How do we surprise viewers and give them something truly unexpected? Then while Robert was driving across Montana on his way to the International Wildlife Film Festival, he thought of a bass line and a melody. He called me on on the phone and sang it briefly, and I knew . . . that was it! We batted around lots of lyric ideas. I wrote down a few phrases that were fun, like “sharks are blubber lovers.” Rob came up with the line about “living out here where the breeze is breezy, the water is wet and the fishin’ is easy.” We even debated on the line about octopii, checking to make sure that was a correct way to pluralize the word “octopus” (turns out you can use octopuses, octopii or octopodes). We really wanted to have an octopus in the song, because Robert filmed a giant pacific octopus in Hood Canal, Washington, in a very cold, but very rewarding dive.

Later, when we were pilot testing this section from The Shark Riddle, it was fun to watch kids’ reactions. We were trying to convey the food chain without being too gruesome, and the kids who have watched it so far have really loved it. Hopefully the song will be a good springboard for mapping a food web or a food chain, from the plants to the fish to the sea lions to the great white shark. I even developed a worksheet to accompany the song in our educational Shark Packet that will be available soon.

In any case, I truly hope you enjoy this song. — Laura Sams

The juvenile pileated woodpeckers were filmed at Kensington Metro Park in Michigan. My brother felt very lucky to spend a couple hours filming them, since they are often shy and quick to fly from tree to tree. My grandmother loves pileated woodpeckers, and she didn’t see one in Michigan until several years ago, so we consider ourselves fortunate filmmakers!