WWF, RSPB & National Trust | Ancient Oaks with Cel & Kedar — Catherine Rose

WWF, RSPB & National Trust | Ancient Oaks with Cel & Kedar

Director, producer & photographer

Part of the Save our Wild Isles campaign

“Catherine's film on ancient oaks is just amazing and achieved all our set targets at WWF-UK & RSPB.

Catherine was able to tap into WWF Ambassadors Cel Spellman and Kedar Williams-Stirling's passion and crafted an incredibly engaging piece balancing education and fun. Catherine was extremely professional yet friendly while working with the talent, allowing Cel and Kedar to feel comfortable and let their personalities shine. From expert interviews to forest bathing, the activities let the ambassadors' energy radiate. Catherine and her team crafted a truly unique and impactful piece for WWF-UK & RSPB that highlights the wonder of our Wild Isles as well as compelling viewers to create a deeper connection to nature.

A must-see for nature lovers and filmmaking fans alike, and I would highly recommend Catherine and hope to work with her in the future.”

Siobhan Bailey Turner - Celebrity Relations Lead, WWF-UK

The challenge

To create a film featuring Cel Spellman and Kedar Williams-Stirling in order to bring to life the wonder of Ancient Oak trees; why they are so precious, how they are incredible species and habitats supporting so much and how we can enjoy and feel their benefits by spending time connecting with their magical surroundings.

Cel and Kedar were both already passionate and ‘sold’ on trees and woodlands, and so I wanted to take their infectious passion and energy and use it to drive an engaging and fun presenter-led piece to connect with UK audiences on the importance of these amazing trees.

The creative

Initially it felt a bit daunting to make an engaging film on a ‘static’ species! I was aware we could be in danger of making something quite dry and so I put efforts into considering options for how to best capitalise on the personalities of Cel and Kedar and their friendship, along with thinking about ways in which Cel and Kedar could experience, interact with and bring to life the amazing impact of Ancient Oak trees.

After a recce to Sherwood Forest and meeting a few locals passionate about the species, I storyboarded and set up a trip where they got to meet an expert working on the preservation of the species, and then have a forest bathing experience and a session learning about fungi and how to forage.

The mix of activities was perfect and enabled them to have a bit of fun, connect with the forest and species, learn more and geek out about the trees and all of this provided ample material for our end piece which proved incredibly successful with audiences online with the longer films, and on social media for the shorts we created.

Outputs

We created two films for YouTube and two cuts for social media initially, and left material for a further focus on fungi and foraging down the line.

In addition I was tasked with grabbing some stills alongside producing and directing. Always a challenge splitting oneself this much but a fun one in this instance none the less!