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Opportunity: "Environmental Visual Communication"

Posted by Neil Losin at 7:05 am on January 30, 2012

Jan 302012

Our friend Neil Ever Osborne, a Canadian conservation photographer and a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), has created a new graduate certificate program in “Environmental Visual Communication.” It’s a 6-month-long program, which includes a full-time summer “Applied Project,” for which students are placed with environmental organizations or other clients to create a visual outreach product. Osborne has previously taught visual communication and multimedia courses at Stanford University and elsewhere, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone has created an immersive, fully integrated program in environmental visual communication.

The list of courses is impressive: everything from “methods” courses, to help students learn the technical skills to make the most of their cameras and editing software, to more theoretical courses on visual and verbal communication strategies, to courses on business practices and professional skills for budding environmental media professionals. Take a look for yourself! I can’t wait to see who the instructors are — Osborne is well connected in the field (through iLCP and other channels), so I know he’ll pull together an all-star team to teach these courses.

Finally, one of the coolest aspects of the whole program is that it’s based at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, one of the top science and cultural museums in Canada. The resources of the museum, their expertise in bringing science to the public, and the connections with scientists who work at the museum really set this program apart. If you’re interested in communicating visually about science and the environment (and if you’re reading our blog, it’s a good bet that you are), take a serious look at this program! They are accepting applications now.

Day's Edge Year in Review: 2011

Posted by Neil Losin at 8:32 pm on December 31, 2011

Dec 312011

Is it really almost 2012? Between research, teaching, photography, and films, the last year has really flown by at Day’s Edge Productions. Let’s take a quick look back at some of the things that made 2011 a great year at Day’s Edge:

JANUARY: After winning a travel grant from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), Neil attends the Science Online 2011 meeting in North Carolina. He meets lots of new science communicators and starts using Twitter. Around the same time, Neil’s cover feature on burrowing owls is published in Birder’s World magazine.

FEBRUARY: Along with colleagues Molly Mehling, Kari Post, and Melissa Evanson, Nate and Neil launch SustainableFocus.org, a web magazine and online community for scientists, photographers, educators, and anyone interested in using visual media to communicate about science, nature, and sustainability.

MARCH: The Day’s Edge Productions website goes live! Nate receives the 2011 NANPA College Scholarship, and Neil returns to the NANPA college program as a mentor. In McAllen, Texas, they photograph some of the unique wildlife of South Texas. Nate and the other college students produce a short multimedia film in English and Spanish for Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

APRIL: Nate and Neil head to “the field” — Formentera for Nate, and Miami for Neil. Nate makes some short videos about his experiments, which you can see here and here. Meanwhile, Neil appears alongside cast members of One Tree Hill in a TV pilot called Wild Life: A New Generation of Wild, produced by award-winning photographer Ian Shive.

MAY: Nate continues his fieldwork in Spain, and is visited by Joris van Alphen. Joris, one of the world’s best young nature photographers, helps with fieldwork and co-produces a short film about lizard cannibalism: “Cold-blooded Cannibals.” Meanwhile, Neil’s article on territorial behavior in birds is published in Living Bird magazine.

JUNE: Nate finishes his field season in Formentera, while Neil returns to Miami to continue the work he started in April. “Cold-blooded Cannibals” wins the NESCent Evolution Film Festival!

JULY: Neil continues his field season, and Nate and Neil produce “Field Vision 6 – Anolemageddon!” a short film about Neil’s experiments in Miami, which is featured on the National Geographic website. Three of our films are screened at the Animal Behavior Film Festival, and “Battle of the Sexes” wins the top prize in the non-commercial division.

AUGUST: Neil and Nate travel to Austin, Texas to teach a Photography for Ecologists workshop at the Annual Ecology Society Association (ESA) meeting. Neil then heads for Puerto Rico to finish up his field season. Nate meets him there to help with research and filming. Together they create “Field Vision 7: Bite Force” – a short film about Neil’s work in Puerto Rico, which is featured on the National Geographic website. Still in Puerto Rico, Nate and Neil visit a remote cave to film “Snakes in a Cave.”

SEPTEMBER: Neil and Liz Losin launch their video “Neuroplasticity”, which was created for the Society of Neuroscience’s film competition.

OCTOBER: Neil and Nate head to the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and met some amazing filmmakers from around the globe. Later that month, Neil (a National Geographic Young Explorer) gives a public talk about his research at National Geographic Headquarters in a NG Young Explorers Salon. At the end of the month, Nate and Neil launch “Snakes in a Cave”, which is featured on the National Geographic website.

NOVEMBER: Nate and Neil finish “The Runner,” a short film created for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Film Festival. Later in the month, Neil’s nature photography exhibit opens at the G2 Gallery in Venice, CA.

DECEMBER: “The Runner”wins the jury prize in the WWF film festival. Unfortunately, Nate and Neil can’t travel to India to accept the award in person, but will still be creating a film for WWF in 2012. “Snakes in a Cave” is selected as the 2nd most astounding animal video of 2011 by Scientific American.

It was awesome year and plans are already afoot for an epic 2012! Thanks for all your support in 2011, and Happy New Year to all!

Days Edge wins First Prize in the WWF Video Competition!

Posted by Nate Dappen at 2:52 pm on December 8, 2011

Dec 082011

A few months ago, Neil and I created a 2-minute film for the World WildLife Fund (WWF) Video Competition. This competition, launched as part of WWF’s 50th anniversary celebrations, asked filmmakers to produce original short films on the theme of: “Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection”. There were over 260 submissions to the competition, but in the end there could only be 2 winners, one by popular vote and one by jury vote. Surprisingly, WE WON! Check out our award winning film below:

We are thrilled to announce that our film, the Runner, was one of the two Winners! Our film won the Jury prize and Myles Thompson won the popular vote with his film “Life, nature, you.” Check out Myles’ video below.

On top of a $10,000 film commission, another part of the prize was an all-expenses covered trip to New Delhi, India to attend the actual film festival. Neil and I couldn’t make it due to our responsibilities at our Universities, but we did produce a little award-acceptance video that they played at the festival. Check the video below.

We’re really grateful to the WWF for running the competition and can’t wait to work on our next film project with them.

Our New Film for the WWF Film Competition: The Runner!

Posted by Nate Dappen at 6:03 am on November 1, 2011

Nov 012011

When Neil and I heard that the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) was hosting a short film competition, we jumped at the opportunity. The theme of the competition was: “Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection”. Our two-minute (the max time limit) film was supposed to inspire people to love, value and protect the natural world – and to reconnect with nature. That’s not an easy message to convey in two minutes. Especially since Neil and I are used to making science films. We were forced to think outside the box to make this piece and I think you’ll see that its quite different from anything we’ve produced before.

We chose to make the film about a runner (played by me in the film) who connects with nature through running. It’s easy for people to forget that humans are also a part of nature. If we could remember this, perhaps we’d think about the natural world differently. This film is about breaking down the distinction between the man-made world and the natural one. By running, my character bridges these worlds and begins to see himself as part of nature. Connecting with nature in this way can change our perspective, and might just inspire us to appreciate and take care of our amazing world. Check out the film and let me know what you think!

Also, there are some other great films in the festival; you can check them all out here:

New video on Days Edge: Snakes in a Cave!

Posted by Nate Dappen at 9:24 am on October 27, 2011

Oct 272011

In August I posted a short photo-illustrated description of our expedition to Puerto Rico (here). Neil was already in Puerto Rico conducting research, but had heard stories about a remote cave in northwest Puerto Rico that was home to a healthy bat population – about 300,000 strong. As the story goes, these bats would emerge from the cave in extraordinary numbers every night in search of food. But this emergence isn’t without its risks. At the mouth of the cave, Puerto Rican Boas (Epicrates inornatus) would regularly wait, dangling off the of the cave walls to capturing bats in midair. We had to check out whether these stories were true! So Neil called me, and together we went to find this cave. As promised, we’ve produced a video about this experience. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Produced and Directed by: Nate Dappen & Neil Losin
Music by: Dano (Danosongs.com) & Dan Warren (danwarren.net)

You win some, you win some

Posted by Neil Losin at 9:00 am on October 24, 2011

Oct 242011

First off, thanks to everyone who voted for our “Neuroplasticity” video in the Society for Neuroscience People’s Choice video contest last week. Unfortunately, we learned over the weekend that we didn’t win, but we truly appreciate all the support! And our efforts to publicize our video weren’t without their own rewards. Last week, my wife Liz (who helped me write the script and also starred in the video) got this wonderful e-mail from a psychiatrist who had seen our video and used it to start a difficult conversation with one of his patients (e-mail reproduced with permission):

Dear Liz,

I thought your video was terrific. It’s hard to tell a story like that as efficiently as you did.

I attend BEC [UCLA's Behavior, Evolution and Culture seminar series] as often as I can, and have also had to find new routes, so I really appreciated that example.

I thought you might be interested to know that this afternoon, I showed it to a former US Marine suffering from what we think is TBI [traumatic brain injury] from a blast in Iraq, but now complicated by some features of PTSD and some of OCD. I told him about the possibility that the blast wave disrupted some important pathways (like your old route from Brain Mapping to Haines), but he was still able to get a degree in economics from UCLA. But his problems gradually increased, perhaps because of problems associated with the new pathways his neurons were growing, and these might be responsible for the symptoms that now keep him from getting a high enough score on the graduate school entrance exam.

He found it quite useful and told me about several other experiences that have given me a better picture of him than I would have had without your video.

This is a victory of a different kind… And while I wouldn’t have minded receiving the $500 People’s Choice prize, in the end, the fact that our video helped this doctor talk with one of his patients in a new way means a lot more. When we were filming and editing the video, we never imagined that it might be useful in a clinical setting, but I’m really glad that it was. And this doctor’s testimony just goes to show how effective visual media can be at engaging people with science!

New video: Neuroplasticity

Posted by Neil Losin at 11:53 pm on September 27, 2011

Sep 272011

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Or can you? For much of the 20^th century, scientists thought that the human brain didn’t change much after adolescence. But now, thanks in part to sophisticated brain imaging techniques, we’re starting to realize that the adult brain is actually quite dynamic! Many of our everyday activities can influence not only our brain’s capabilities, but its structure as well.

A few months ago, my wife Liz informed me that the Society for Neuroscience was organizing a video contest for their 2011 meeting. We’d been meaning to create a video together for a while, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. After some initial brainstorming and writing, a few days of shooting, and many hours of editing, we submitted this short film (below) to the contest.

We knew there would be plenty of competition – the annual SfN meeting is attended by tens of thousands of scientists, making it one of the biggest scientific conferences in the world. As expected, the video competition received lots of submissions, and unfortunately ours wasn’t selected as one of the winners.

You can see the winners here – I think the first place film, The Treasure Hunt, is really well done, and a very deserving winner.

But it’s not over yet! We have another chance to win when the voting public chooses the People’s Choice Award. Voting will start later this week, and when the online voting begins we’ll let you know how you can help us take home the prize!

Days Edge on National Geographic Website

Posted by Nate Dappen at 4:26 pm on September 19, 2011

Sep 192011

Last week, we released a new video about Neil’s anole research. Today, our video was posted on National Geographic’s website! Click here to check out the link!

Good stuff of the week 9/16/11

Posted by Neil Losin at 6:53 pm on September 16, 2011

Sep 162011

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve done a “Good Stuff” post. I’ve undoubtedly missed quite a lot of Good Stuff since the last one, but that’s OK. There’s always more where that came from.

I stumbled across this series of videos the other day, exploring evolution through hip-hop. It’s definitely not a general, textbook interpretation of evolution, but instead an interesting collection of more topical vignettes, some more tangential than others. Only 3 videos have been produced so far, but the production quality is consistently high (not unexpected, given that the project has been funded by the Wellcome Trust). Definitely worth a look!

This Nature Conservancy video features a really compelling character from Tennessee, speaking in favor of preserving green space in his (and everyone’s community). You’ll just have to watch to see what I mean. It’s a really refreshing perspective — I think we’re all used to hearing conservation messages coming from affluent, intellectual liberals. This message comes from a very different place, and because it defies convention, becomes even more powerful. Incidentally, this video was shot by my good friend Ian Shive.

My friend Molly Mehling recently pointed me towards Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, a nonprofit aimed at pairing adventurers (climbers, alpinists, etc.) with scientists to collect unique data from inhospitable places. By creating such partnerships, they aim to help scientists, of course, but also to empower adventurers to do more to protect the places they love. It’s a really cool idea, and they’ve already been getting some great press. I look forward to seeing more from this group.

Finally, our friend Neil Ever Osborne, a conservation photographer and Associate of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), has a new project: “Return of the Black Turtle.” This project is a great example of a scientist (Wallace J. Nichols) pairing with a photographer (Osborne) to tell an important conservation story. Osborne is funding the project through Emphas.is, a new crowd-funding platform devoted entirely to photojournalism projects. The project won’t get funded unless Osborne reaches his funding goal! Learn more about the project and contribute here.

Conservation biologist Wallace J. Nichols. Photo by Neil Ever Osborne

New Video: Bite Force!

Posted by Neil Losin at 11:45 pm on September 15, 2011

Sep 152011

Field Vision 7: Bite Force from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo.

An occupational hazard

When I’m working in the field in Florida, I get bitten by dozens of anoles every day. I can’t blame them – if I were suddenly captured by an enormous creature wielding a noose on a fishing pole, I’d probably bite my captor too! Luckily, the bites aren’t too painful; anoles are generally small (a few inches long and about one-quarter of an ounce in weight), and their tiny teeth rarely break the skin. Still, until recently I never imagined that I’d actually be encouraging my research subjects to bite.

Why measure bite force?

That changed after my 2010 field season, when I discovered that crested anoles (Anolis cristatellus) had a subtly different head shape in Florida – where they are an invasive species – than in their native range of Puerto Rico. In lizards, head shape is related to “bite force,” the amount of force an animal can exert between its jaws. I found that Florida’s crested anoles had more robust heads than Puerto Rico’s crested anoles, suggesting that they might also be capable of biting harder.

This year, one of my goals was to measure the bite force of crested anoles directly. If bite force is, in fact, greater in Florida than in Puerto Rico, what would that mean? Well, it would suggest that something about Florida’s environment favors individuals that can bite harder. Maybe crested anoles encounter insects with particularly hard exoskeletons in Florida. Or perhaps a powerful bite helps male crested anoles defend territories against rival species in Florida that do not occur in Puerto Rico. Either way, the first step is testing whether native and invasive crested anoles differ in bite force.

Measuring bite force in Florida and Puerto Rico meant, of course, traveling to Puerto Rico (oh, the injustice!). While I was there, my friend Nate Dappen and I filmed this short video to show how – and why – one measures a lizard’s bite.

To see a previous episode of Field Vision featuring my work in Florida, click here.

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