Filming The Greater One Horned Rhino
Greater One Horned Rhino
An Earth Touch Film by Stewart Whitfield and Gustavo Martinez Schmidt
In May 2014 Earth Touch commissioned me to travel to Chitwan National Park in Nepal’s lowlands near the Indian border. This amazing wildlife reserve
has the world’s largest population of Greater One Horned Rhino as well as Asiatic Tigers, Elephants, Bears, and all kinds of other wild animals that could eat you in a heart beat. With my dear friend and amazing film maker Gustavo Martinez Schmidt we spent a week within the Chitwan National Park and got away with some beautiful footage. The results of which can be seen in the film here.
Our guide in Chitwan was ZSL’s Nepali director Hem Baral whose knowledge of the park and animals found there was seemingly endless. The greater one-horned rhino is identified by a single black horn about 8-25 inches long and a grey-brown hide with skin folds, which give it an armor-plated appearance. Greater one-horned rhinos are solitary creatures, except when sub-adults or adult males gather at wallows or to graze. Males have loosely defined home ranges that are not well defended and often overlap. They are primarily grazers, with a diet consisting almost entirely of grasses as well as leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruit and aquatic plants.
The greater one-horned rhino is the largest of the rhino species. Once found across the entire northern part of the Indian sub-continent, rhino populations were severely depleted as they were hunted for sport and killed as agricultural pests. This pushed the species very close to extinction in the early 20th century and by 1975 there were only 600 individuals surviving in the wild. The conservation efforts in Chitwan National Park have been a success story and today rhino poaching is virtually done with the Nepali army having a shoot on site policy towards poachers…….
For more information about the Greater One Horned Rhino look at some of these links……….
www.worldwildlife.org/species/greater-one-horned-rhino
www.rhinos.org/rhinos/greater-one-horned-rhino
Vanishing World of The Sea Gypsy
Vanishing World of The Sea Gypsy
The Story of Thailand’s Moken People
Vanishing World of The Sea Gypsy – last November Phuket Web Media was commissioned by Icelandic production house Profilm along with NUBLA Producciones to capture the story of the Thai Andaman Sea Gypsies. We traveled up and down the Andaman coast meeting different Moken people (as they are known). We heard their stories, recorded their music and dance, went fishing and hunting with them, spoke to people who had been affected by their plight, learnt of their incredible skills both underwater and in the jungles of the Andaman Islands. We interviewed anthropologists, authors, reporters, national park rangers and Moken people. What we realised is theirs is a story worth telling. Primarily I was hired to do the underwater filming and this documentary is complimented wonderfully by some beautiful underwater scenes of the Moken doing what they do best – diving.
Today the culture of the Moken people is on the brink of being lost forever. They have been pushed out of their hunting grounds by commercial fishing vessels and national park rangers. Borders that do not exist in Moken have been imposed upon them making it difficult to sail their traditional hunting grounds (such as between Myanmar and Thailand) many staple foods are now listed as protected, and many of the reefs that were once their supermarkets are now protected from all fishing.
The Moken people first came to the attention of the world in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Not one single Moken perished in the tsunami and indeed they were responsible for saving the many lives of people that would listen to their warnings. When the Tsunami arrived destroying everything in its path, the Moken had already grabbed their children and run to higher ground, along with anyone who would listen. Since then the Moken people of the Surin Islands have resettled on one of the small sandy bays within the Surin Islands National Park. Their children are being educated via a Thai curriculum and although that may seem a good thing, many of their ancient beliefs and culture are slowly being forgotten.
Vanishing World of The Sea Gypsy will be screened on Thai PBS this year.
The Cabin Chiang Mai
The Cabin Chiang Mai
“The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help, they have no hope.”
― Russell Brand
The Cabin Chiang Mai is South East Asia’s leading drug and alcohol addiction treatment centre. Located on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, people from all over the world travel here to seek treatment and rehabilitation. In 2014 The Cabin Chiang Mai approached us to make a video presentation about their services and treatment methods. Filmed over 6 days at the Cabin we tried to make this film a gentle story about the successful treatment and recovery of Tania and Russell. One a drug addicted party girl from LA and the other a high functioning expat alcoholic from Australia.
The film was shoot on Cannon 5DMKII plus we used some aerial footage provided by NOXimage of Chiangmai.
Special thanks to Tania and Russell for being brave enough to share the story for others to see. Hopefully this film will inspire and encourage others facing addiction to seek help……
For more information about The Cabin Chiang Mai – visit their website.
Sara Sieppi Photo Shoot
Sara Sieppi
Former Miss Finland 2011 Sara Sieppi was in Phuket this year on holiday and we caught up with here for a day at the request of one of Finland’s biggest magazines – Aller
Sara checked out the Phuket Old Town, then covered up for a trip to the Big Buddha. Lastly we headed to Surf House over in Kata Beach for a cocktail and surf lesson……..
