Night of the Lion Transmission News

The first transmission of Night of the Lion, Ammonite's high definition film using it's unique cameras will be at 9pm on Nat Geo Wild the 13th September in the UK. For more information see the Night of The Lion website.

Night of the Lion is the first of a series of films featuring nocturnal activity that we are making for National Geographic. Other films currently in production are discovering what leopards, hyenas and crocodiles get up to at night.

Sweating it out in Sri Lanka

It’s 35 degrees with sweltering humidity and we’re deep in the Sri Lankan jungle. Our car is completely blacked out with hardly any visible lights other than the glow of our camera monitors. read more

Starlight Camera News

We have started work on a completely new kind of Starlight Camera, one which will be at least three times more sensitive than the ones we have at present, it will also be able to record real colour in starlight in real time. This camera will be a fundamentally different device, unlike anything we've ever had before. Will it be ready this year - or next - who can say? Fingers crossed.

Ammonite Is A Finalist at Wildscreen

Ammonite is a finalist in two categories at the 2010 Wildscreen International Wildlife Film Festival

Our congratulations to all the other finalists

These are the shortlisted films in the categories where we have nominations

PANASONIC CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD

The Forest - Realm of Shadows
A nautilusfilm GmbH (Germany) production for NDR Naturfilm/Studio Hamburg


Night of the Lion
Ammonite (United Kingdom)
Co-produced with National Geographic Channels International & National Geographic Channel US

Life: Challenges of Life
BBC (United Kingdom) Co-produced with BBC NHU, Discovery, Skai, the Open University in association with RTI Spa


PARTHENON ENTERTAINMENT AWARD FOR INNOVATION

Drain the Ocean
Burning Gold Productions (United Kingdom)

In the Womb: Extreme Animals
Pioneer Productions (United Kingdom)

Night of the Lion
Ammonite (United Kingdom)

Here is the full list of finalists

Night Of The Lion will be aired on television this autumn - watch this space for details

Ant Experiments

Ammonite has been filming the work of Professor Nigel Franks, a world expert on social insect behaviour. read more

John Lynch Voices For Ammonite

John Lynch came to Bristol today to voiceover our latest project - read more here

Ammonite Hire

Ammonite does kit hire:

The kit hire page is now set up.
Howard Bourne is the man who knows, call
+44 117 9421102
for a quote and further details

Nocturnal Activity In The Masai Mara

We are still editing our lion film - here's a still.

Ammonite Wins At Jackson Hole

Smalltalk Diaries: Changelings won the Best Short Film Award at Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival this week. We were up against some stiff competition so we're delighted and honoured.

This latest award has come hot on the heels of the Children's Audience Award at the Green Screen International Wildlife Film Festival in Eckernförde, Germany.

More information about Smalltalk Diaries here and clips on the side bar.

Ammonite Goes Back to The Mara

We're thinking of getting a resident's permit, after the number of films Ammonite has made in Kenya's Masai Mara we still can't get enough of this magical place and we're heading back with our bright, shiny starlight camera to put our newest bit of kit through it's paces.

See the blog for updates

More Ants From Ammonite

Ammonite is filming ants in Arizona, Dr Alex Wild, our resident ant scientist has written about his experience of working with us and posted a photo-essay here












Photo: Dr Alex Wild

Starlight MKVII - Ammonite's New Baby

Checking out the very first images from the new MKVII Starlight camera - stunning footage to follow.

Ammonite Showreel

Ammonite In Botswana

Ammonite is using the full range of its night-filming technology to film lions at night in Botswana. Unusually cold Antarctic weather drove them out of the Kalahari and up near the Okavango delta. An account of this shoot can be followed on our notes from the field page.

Filming Monarchs In Wisconsin

Ammonite's crane is set up for action but the Monarchs are slow getting to Wisconsin. Meanwhile Jonathan Jones and Howard Bourne have set up a makeshift studio to get some close ups of early arrivals while they're waiting.



Photographs by Stephanie Atlas

Ammonite Prepares For Filming

Ammonite has a series of big filming trips booked for the rest of the year. Dr Campbell Mackenzie (shown here with Howard Bourne, Alex Verner and 'Annie') spent the day with us, brushing up our health and safety skills.

Ammonite Filming Monarchs in Mexico

An Ammonite crew has been out in Mexico filming monarch butterflies for National Geographic. Cameras included the wonderful Phantom ultra slow motion camera and with our cable dolly sweeping through the trees we got some unique views of this beautiful phenomenon.

Nature's Great Events BBC1

See Frankencam in action on the telly this Wednesday, Nature's Great Events: The Great Flood (BBC1,Wednesday 9pm), featuring some incredible camerawork filmed by Ammonite's Martin Dohrn last year.

The Nature's Great Event Diary was filmed by Alex Verner who is currently working for Ammonite

Ammonite Gets Some New Toys

Ammonite has been designing a remote-controlled cable dolly.

It arrived today - Jonathan Hendrix-Jones demonstrates how it will be used...

... Actually It Works Like This

... once we'd wrestled the dolly from Jonathan's clutches we set it up in the garden and tried it out. It's going abroad next week where it will glide through the forest canopy, filming butterflies.

Night Filming With The Starlight Camera

Ammonite is passionate about developing technology that helps bring new insights into animal behaviour. This is the latest version of the Starlight Camera, an image-intensified camera that we have been developing for 16 years, an early version of the camera was used to make the award-winning film Mara Nights in 1996. Mara Nights is archived as one of the top 200 ground-breaking films in the 100-year history of wildlife film making.
full story here

Here is our Starlight Camera filming primates in Uganda recently

Smalltalk Diaries at Santa Barbara Film Festival

Smalltalk Diaries will be screened at this year's Santa Barbara Film Festival (SBIFF) . Ammonite is also presenting this year's SBIFF Field Trip To The Movies, a series of presentations and demonstrations aiming to introduce children to the experience of movie-making and stimulate curiosity about nature.
More information and press clippings about Smalltalk Diaries

Ammonite Clip Showreel

A selection of clips from Ammonite all available in HD
Music by Cities of Foam

Smalltalk Diaries Trailer

Ammonite in the News for Innovative Approach

The current issue of The Engineer features Ammonite in an article about the technology used in the Okavango Delta for the upcoming BBC series Nature's Great Events.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

'We call it ground-breaking equipment. That's because, quite often it hits the ground - and breaks
Martin Dohrn

And the Bristol Evening Post ran a piece on Ammonite's success at Wildscreen last month here.

There were so many great natural history shows, but none addressed the younger audience, which is why we came up with Smalltalk Diaries. We thought children were getting a bit short-changed. Ammonite

Ammonite Wins at Wildscreen and Chicago with Smalltalk Diaries

Ammonite scooped two Panda Awards at last night's Wildscreen Film Festival. Not only did Smalltalk Diaries win the prestigious Parthenon Entertainment Award for Innovation, it also took the Best Series Award, heading off David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood and the BBC mega-series Earth: The Power of the Planet.
Smalltalk Diaries also won the Best Live Action television programme Award at the Chicago Children's Film Festival

Slow Motion in HD

Ammonite has recently spent a week in France trying out the very super new Photron SA-1 slow motion camera which films at up to 90000 fps. Here is one of the clips from the filming showing among other things a water-filled balloon being burst with a dart.


The Ammonite team have since been using the Photron as part of it's impressive arsenal of kit to film advertising spots and for wildlife footage.

Ammonite HD footage also to be found at SPL

Ammonite has an extensive library of HD film clips, a resource regularly used by other production companies. Science Photo Library is now preparing a High Definition film archive which will be launched early next year and has approached Ammonite to provide footage for the library. Ammonite has been selling science-related stills through SPL for many years and has agreed to provide footage for license by them.

Frankencam in Digital Arts Magazine

Martin Dohrn is the creator of several motion-control rigs, including the 'Antcam' used on the BBC's In Search of Killer Ants, and the Frankencam used for David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth. His latest rig was developed specifically for use with the Iconix HD-RH1F camera system in order to capture increasingly tiny and complex wildlife, and is the inspiration behind the Smalltalk Diaries translation lens.

This is an extract, read the full article Here

Frankencam's travels

For the last two years Frankencam or 'Frank' has been living in France and used extensively to make the multi-award nominated series 'Smalltalk Diaries'. Frank came back back to the UK to make an appearance on Blue Peter in March and has been on the go ever since.

April Ammonite took Frankencam to Monteverde in Costa Rica for National Geographic. Filming army ants rampaging across the forest floor. Frank’s unique set of motors and controllers enabled us to fly over the trails and into the thick of the action without disturbing the ants - or getting stung.

June Frankencam went to the Okavango Delta in Botswana to document to the annual arrival of flood waters in extraordinary close-up detail, for the BBC Series Nature's Great Events series, gliding millimetres above the slowly advancing waters.

July Frankncam went back to France to film more insects for Ammonite’s Smalltalk Diaries, in particular, the slave-making ants, and lunatic red bugs - in a broom.

Frankencam goes on Blue Peter

Children's TV programme, Blue Peter heard about Smalltalk Diaries and came to Ammonite HQ to meet Frankencam

Ant filming worldwide

Ammonite has been getting a name for filming insects, this year we are considering renaming ourselves 'The Ant Filming Company'. Among several ant-related projects, Ammonite has recently been filming Army ants in Costa Rica for National Geographic and in Tanzania filming Driver ants (see story below).

Ammonite in Tanzania

Ammonite sent a crew to film Driver ants in Tanzania for John Downer productions. On the slopes of Mount Meru the ants form long migration trails about an inch wide, leading to a nest where it is estimated that 20 million ants congregate and form a large ball to hold their young.

A motion control device has been designed and built by the Ammonite team to use with Iconix the worlds smallest HD camera, allowing us to track along side the migration trails and also take a look inside the nest and get a glimpse of the queen.

Uniquely designed optical scopes including the ‘mini scope’ which uses tiny lens with a very large depth of field to get an ‘ants eye view’ were also employed in the filming. This sequence will draw the audience in amongst the ants allowing the viewer a perspective rarely seen on television today.

The driver ant sequence will be part of an hour long feature called Superswarm due to TX 2009 on BBC1 and Discovery.

We have also been filming Leaf Cutter ants for the Granada Wild's Zoo Days