American Cinematographer - August 1990 - 64

them the insights, plans and
patience that made "Herons" a
gave

success.

Male and Feith's back¬

ground in film has almost always
been slanted towards wildlife,
with an emphasis on ornithology.

Male, who studied biology and
film, met NYU film grad Feith
when the two were employed by
the same New York production

Their first tandem
project, "Return of the Osprey,"
company.

bears a similiar theme to "Her¬
ons." DDT wiped osprey out in
eastern

Long Island in the 50's

and 60's. Male and Feith's 1978
film chronicles their return. The

project, shot

on 16mm with bor¬
rowed gear and sold to Nova,
won the BBC Newcomers award.
Before embarking on subsequent
films about Delaware shorebirds
and Atlantic puffins, Male and
Feith had won recognition of
their talent, earning themselves a
niche in the bird shooters hall of
fame.

Why the emphasis on
birds? "We get more excited
about birds than we do about
straight wildlife," Feith explains.
"Birds are interesting to shoot;
they're very active. Most wildlife
filmmakers go for big macho
animals like grizzly bears. We

Herons Return
to New York Harbor
by Brooke Sheffield Comer
"Harbor Herons," a National

Geographic "Explorer" docu¬
mentary, reveals the return of life
to a New York harbor once de¬

clared abiotic. Cinematographers
Michael Male and Judy Feith of
Blue Earth Films, initated the

project for Explorer when they

62

homecoming an important mile¬
stone in the history of ecology,
the return of the birds also posed
an
intriguing cinematic challenge
for Male and Feith. Documentary
filmmaking is always subject to
the limitations of weather, terrain
and subject matter. In this case,

learned that herons and egrets
were returning to an area where,
10 years ago, they could not sur¬
vive. Not only was the heron

shooting the feathered subjects

American

August 1990

Cinematographer

required

a special talent. These
filmmakers reveal how their

experience in the bird kingdom

like to concentrate on animals
know a lot about."
"You

can never

we

control

animals, predict what they'll do,
or ask them to do it over," Male

explains. "Shooting a wildlife
documentary is dependent on
you doing the right thing. Birds
aren't going to wait up for you so
their eggs can hatch." Because
birds move so quickly, it takes a
special cinematographer to have
a
feeling for what a bird is about
to

do,

where it will go.
The evolution of the

or

heron

volved

project is almost as in¬
as the
project itself. Three

years ago, while working on
"Delaware Bay Banquet," a docu¬

mentary about the horseshoe
crabs who crowd Delaware
beaches to lay the eggs that be¬
come a feast for shorebirds enroute to the Arctic, Male and



American Cinematographer - August 1990

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