Wildlife filmmaker sets his sights on Mull sea eagles
WILDLIFE filmmaker Tom Campbell is packing his bags for Mull this summer to make a movie he hopes will be screened at film festivals, on TV and possibly at his mother’s cathedral in Oban.
The Bristol-based filmmaking student, whose mother Margi Campbell becomes the new provost of St John’s Cathedral in June, will be hiring a campervan to follow where eagles dare with his camera.
The film, about the pros and cons of living alongside whitetailed sea eagles on Mull, is part of his Masters Degree in wildlife filmmaking which has links to the BBC.
He wants to capture how the giant predator birds live on Mull and to tell the stories of the people who share the island with them, coming in direct contact with the UK’s largest bird of prey - but to make the ten-min- ute documentary he needs to crowdfund £3,000.
He is nearing £1,000 but is hoping to trade-off perks from bundles of postcards to photographs and film credits to bring in the rest of the funds.
‘Without people’s help it would be impossible to do this to the high standard needed for it to be broadcast. I’m hoping it might go on to film festivals, possible TV and I’d love it to be shown locally to Mull, maybe at St John’s cathedral as well,’ he said.
It was on family holidays exploring the Highlands that his fascination with film, first with a stills camera, began.
White-tailed sea eagles were declared extinct in the UK in 1918 but were reintroduced to Rum in the 1970s and then spread across different areas of the Highlands including Mull.
The island became home to the first wild-bred chick in the UK for around 70 years and now the eagles are thriving in Britain once again, said Tom who is also working as a freelance camera assistant and camera operator for the BBC and other production companies.
‘I want to explore the lives of the sea eagles on Mull and talk to the people that live alongside them. How have they benefited the island and its community through eco-tourism and how have they caused issues and challenges for the hill farming community? I’d like to hear from anyone who is interested in getting involved,’ he added.
One contributor already signed up to help the project is Dave Sexton, the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird’s Mull officer, who watched over the first sea eagle chick when it made its appearance on the island in 1985.
To find out more about Tom’s Where Eagles Dare project go to indiegogo.com/projects/where-eagles-dare, facebook. com/whereeaglesdare2018 or Instagram atinstagram.com/whereeaglesdare2018