Jeff Orlowski
Jeff Orlowski makes his feature length directorial debut this week with the release of his new documentary Chasing Ice - which sees him team up with renowned photographer James Balog.
We caught up with Jeff to chat about the movie, the challenge that he and the team faced whilst shooting the film and what lies ahead.
- Chasing Ice is your new documentary so can you tell me a little bit about the film?
It is the story of James Balog, this incredible photographer, and he came up with an idea to do time lapses of glaciers.
I had the good fortune to travel with him on his first trip to Iceland and since then I have been travelling with him and have got to have these incredible adventures as I have gone round the world to capture what James was doing.
- So where did this project start for you? And how did you meet photographer James Balog?
I met him through a mutual friend, my friend Michael introduced me to him, and I wanted to work with him just because he was an incredible photographer - that really was the main goal from my perspective.
The intention was not to make a movie the intention was just to shoot video for him so he had footage for promotional material and stuff like that and so that is how I really got my foot in the door.
- So how far a long in the process did you decide that the footage that you had been shooting could be turned into a movie?
I remember that very first summer when we went on a trip to Alaska and I pitched the idea of making a movie about ice to James. We didn’t have the time, the resources, the funding or the skill set and we just pushed that to the side but I kept travelling with him and I kept filming everything.
By about mid to late 2008 where we had all this compelling footage, we had over a hundred hours of footage, and the images from the time life cameras was really telling a story and we realised that we had everything that we would need to make a feature length film.
So that is when I started to convince James ‘let me go ahead and start working on a movie. You don’t have to do anything I will take care of it myself’ and I finally got his approval to go ahead and do that.
So it wasn’t really until we had the footage and the materials that we thought would be necessary that we thought about making the film itself.
- The movie looks at the idea of the ice caps disappearing and the environmental impact we are having on this planet so where did you interest in this issue start? And what was it about what he was doing that you thought would make a great movie?
I have always been interested and knowledge about these issues and the environment - I wouldn’t say that I was really a pro-activist about it.
When I first started working with James I was twenty three years old and I think that most people of my generation recognise the reality of what is going on on a perspective - that perception is different in the States that the rest of the world as there is a lot more scepticism about climate change in the United States.
When I first met James and he had this idea I think that the whole team realised and knew how compelling this idea of making imagery and evidence of climate change.
This had never been done before and there is nothing that is really visible that can demonstrate what climate change looks like prior to James’ photographs.
Climate change is inherently an invisible subject - it is about how temperature and carbon dioxide in the air is changing and you can’t see any of that.
All of the debate, certainly in the American press, is about whether it is happening, whether or not it is real and if it man made. They are arguing charts and facts and figures and this is the first thing that would make it visual and potentially emotional.
So I think that James figured out something powerful in his artistic process and I was just in the right thing at the right time.
- What was your view on climate change before you started this movie and how have you seen that opinion change as you have worked on the film?
I would say that I was always aware that it was happening but the process of making the film made me realise how significant it is - this is the biggest issue that humanity will ever have to deal with.
It is being impressed upon us at such a tight time frame right now and it is becoming more and more clear that we need to take action on this immediately. That is really what I have learnt in the process of making this film.
The deniers in America like to call the environmental movement fear-mongers and they describe them as using this horrific projections and scary future situations to try and instil fear in the American public.
This is so completely the wrong mindset as this is not about trying to scare people but presenting what is going to come and what is going to happen unless we do something about it - it is a very stark reality.
Scientists have been telling us for decades that more and more events like Hurricane Sandy are going to happen because of climate change.
When you look at the financial and social implications of Sandy and the impact it had on the west coast of American we can’t afford to let that happen every few years.
Being here in Europe right now it is interesting as Holland have these dykes that are designed for ten thousand year floods and they are retro-fitting them to be designed for one hundred thousand year events.
Nobody in America would have the foresight to be thinking a hundred thousand years ahead - our media can’t seem to look beyond one election cycle. To be talking about events that sort of foresight is completely non-existent in America.
- Can you talk a little bit about shooting in those extreme conditions and the types of challenges that you faced?
It was difficult to shoot in those places but it was also part of the job as shooting in those places was the only way that this could even remotely happen. It wasn’t really something that we complained about or get upset about because that was the reality of these circumstances.
And to be honest all of us on the team were adventurers and we all loved being out in the field and that was something that brought us a lot of joy and satisfaction.
- Obviously you took a lot of camera equipment with you so how did that hold up against the harsh conditions - did you have to do anything specific to protect the equipment?
I was really really surprised at how well the video equipment worked in the cold conditions. There were some cameras that were better than others and over the course of time we learnt what was the most reliable equipment and how best to function in those cold conditions.
But you learn those things fast and ultimately it is just about trying to capture the story the best that you can and by whatever means that you can. It was definitely difficult but we learnt to adapt quickly.
- I was reading that Iceland was your favourite country to shoot in so I was wondering why that was?
It is a really beautiful place and it also very accessible. It is not as harsh or as cold as Greenland in the winter time.
You still feel like you are connected to civilisation and so if something terrible went wrong you know that you are just a couple of hours away from a good hospital - so I think that comfort in the back of you mind was encouraging. Greenland was a really beautiful place to work as well but it was just incredibly remote and incredibly isolated.
- Not only is this about global issues but it is also a look at James Balog himself as we hear from his family and people that he works with so why did you decide to incorporate that aspect into the movie?
I think one of the objectives of us was to not make it a very sciencey film - most films about climate change are science film and they are filled with a lot of talking heads and a lot of lectures; that is not to discredit them but it is just how we wanted to be unique in our storytelling about this issue.
And we had this protagonist who has an incredibly personal story and has real significant struggles with his family and the time that he is away from them and the work/life balance as well as having this dedication and passion.
And we wanted to show… it is interesting as we have had sceptics who have come up to us after screenings and they have said because they saw how dedicated James was and the level of commitment and passion that he put into it it made them question their own stance and their own beliefs.
Some of the deniers who are on TV in the States they are not out there risking their live in Greenland to just to reveal the truth about this issue.
The fact that James was willing to push himself so hard that alone has convinced some people that this is a real scenario and this is really happening.
- How inspired were you by James’ steadfast dedication to this?
It definitely had a huge impact on the entire team. When you are working with someone out in the field and you see their willingness and dedication to work so hard and put in 110% it just makes everyone on the team just work that much harder. So he has definitely has been a huge artistic influence on me without a doubt.
- The movie has been doing really well on the festival circuit this year but how have you personally found the response to the film as you have taken it around the world?
We have been really humbled by the response. We were a team of American filmmakers and we were making it, for a large degree, for an American audience because America is still so sceptical about the issue - a lot of other places around the world are much more aware and privy to what it going on.
But the response has been very humbling wherever we have taken the film. There is a clip on Youtube right now that is titled Chasing Ice Changing Lives and one of our volunteers who was working at a festival in LA and filmed a woman coming out of a screening, she was a sceptic, and she came out in tears.
That is one of the more powerful responses to the film that we have had but we have been hearing sceptics telling us left and right that they thought it was a hoax and now they get it and they recognise what is going on.
- What do you hope people will take away from this movie when they have watched it?
My hope for an American audience is different to elsewhere. Because there is still so much scepticism in American my hope would be that people recognise the reality of what is going on and that they would continue to spread James’ story and his images as his story can shift perceptions.
That is what we thing, as a team, is really holding up progress on this issue as so many American are sceptical about the issue.
For international audiences or from a community that might already recognise the realities of climate change I would say that we want the film to be a tool that people can use to spread the realities and the truth of what is happening. If the film has the potential to make a difference we are just really humbled by that.
- Chasing Ice also marks you feature length directorial debut so how did you find the transition from shorts to features?
It is an interesting question and no one has really framed it that way. I had done a bunch of short films and had felt comfortable and it was because of the confidence that I had with those short films that gave me the confidence to go ahead and convince James that I could go ahead and make a feature.
I had no idea how much time, effort or work it was going to be to make these film and the film wouldn’t have happened had I had a full recognition of how difficult it would be.
It was also a very daunting project that took a very long time to make and a part of me feels that any future project has to be easier just because this one was so painful and difficult to make happen.
I am very thrilled by this being a feature film that has the ability to get out there and get seen in a way that shorts typically don’t - that wasn’t the goal of course - it has the potential to be seen very very widely and that is very exciting.
- Finally what is next for you? Do you intend to stick with documentaries or will you move into narrative films?
Our team is working on both documentaries and narratives and we have a couple of both lined up. We haven’t had the time to put into it just because we are so focused in getting Chasing Ice out there and wanting to support it as much as possible.
The next film that we do we hope it is going to be a narrative and then we will have some addition documentaries come out after that.
Chasing Ice is released 14th December. For more information on the film visit www.chasingice.co.uk
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw