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In Memory of Farni, Tuca and Jonas

When Filming The Hunger– Death Race, Icon Films was privileged to work alongside the San Bushmen who opened their community to us and shared insights into their dying hunting  tradition.

In September of 2012, five of the San Bushmen who we had spent time and filmed with were caught in a bushfire in Namibia.  Cgunta Khao/Khao and his relatives Tuca, Farni and Jonas were trekking in Bushmanland with an Australian when the fire appeared and to protect the tourist they encircled her taking the brunt of the fire.  Tuca, Farni and Jonas died due to their sustained injuries and Khao himself was in a critical condition with 70% burns. 

Funds were raised by the N/a'an ku sê Foundation and Khao was transferred to the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek where he received multiple skin grafts and on December 2012 he was discharged from the hospital and moved to N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary for more rehabilitation.  He has since made a full recovery and returned to his family. 

GUY GRIEVE WHO WORKED WITH US ON THE FILM SAID 'FARNI, TUCA AND JONAS WERE ALL MEN THAT I DEEPLY ADMIRED, RESPECTED AND LIKED. THEY LIVED AND WORKED FOR THEIRFAMILIES WITHIN A WILDERNESS REGION THAT, AT TIMES, HAS NO MERCY. THEIR WAY OF LIFE WAS ALREADY AT THREAT AS THE MODERN WORLD ENCROACHED AT EVERY ANGLE YET WITH THOSE MEN LIVING THEY STILL HAD A CHANCE. I CANNOT IMAGINE THE IMPACT THAT THEIR LOSS MUST NOW HAVE HAD UPON THAT COMMUNITY. MY ONLY, VERY SMALL,COMFORT IS THAT THEY KNEW THE DANGERS OF THEIR WILDERNESS JUST AS I KNOW THAT THE SEA COULD ERASE MY EXISTENCE WHENEVER IT CHOOSES'.

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Icon Films picks up 2 awards at 2013 Chicago International Film Festival Television Awards

Chicago International Film Festival Television Awards has announced the award winners for this year's competition including two awards for Icon Films: 

Jungle Gremlins of Java for BBC2’s Natural World, Directed by Steve Gooder, has been awarded the Silver Hugo for Science and Nature Documentary Production.

Steve said  ‘I’m amazed but chuffed that the judges were so tickled by our lorises. ‘Hugos’ aren’t given away lightly, so this is a fantastic honour for Team Gremlin’. 

Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist for National Geographic Channels International, Directed by Jeremy Bristow, has been awarded a Certificate of Merit for History and Biography Documentary Production. 

Jeremy said ‘This was a fascinating film to make and would not have been possible without the extraordinary collaboration from NASA and the FBI.  I am delighted that it has been recognised by such a prestigious festival’.  

The ceremony awards night is being held at the Raddison Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago, USA on Tuesday 23rd April 2013 and all winning productions will be published on the festival's website after the event. 

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River Monsters Season 5 Premiere Reels in Big Ratings ...

The network's best-performing series, RIVER MONSTERS, baited viewers with a two-hour, monster-sized season opener, "Face Ripper," in which host, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade took viewers along as he investigated a horrific death in a Bolivian river where a man's face was ripped to shreds. The season premiere, which aired on Sunday, reeled in gigantic viewers with 1.8M P2+, making it the most-watched season debut in Animal Planet history and the second most watched episode of River Monsters ever.

Read more about Season Premiere of RIVER MONSTERS Reels in Big Ratings for Animal Planet - BWWTVWorld by tv.broadwayworld.com

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Why we sponsored a Gromit

By Harry Marshall, Creative Director 

The idea of huge Gromits dotted around Bristol is brilliant.  Everyone loved the Gorillas but Bristol is Gromit's home town.  Like all good ideas, it feels so right. 

The Grand Appeal is raising vital money for the Children's Hospital and the new extension and Icon Films is doing what it can.

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NGCI Announces Bones of The Buddha

(WASHINGTON, DC – March 14, 2013)  National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) today announced the co-production of Bones of The Buddha (1x60) from Icon Films, which will premiere internationally on National Geographic Channel in early summer.    

Retracing the steps of an unexpected find in Northern India in 1898, Bones of The Buddha explores one of the most amazing discoveries in Buddhist history: a huge stone coffer containing five ancient soapstone jars, over 1000 separate jewels – as well as ash and bone. One of the jars has an inscription indicating that these were the remains of the Buddha himself. But, the most extraordinary find in Indian archaeology has been marred in doubt and scandal for over 100 years. For some, the whole thing is an elaborate hoax. For others, it is the final resting place of the messiah of one of the world’s great religions. Renowned historian of India, Charles Allen, sets out to solve this extraordinary mystery once and for all.

“National Geographic Channel has a long-standing history of developing outstanding specials that deliver smart, compelling narrative and keen insight, which makes them appealing to audiences across the globe.  This  new special –  uniquely geared at offering a comprehensive look at one of the ancient world’s most enduring stories – bolsters NGCI’s programming schedule with the exact touchstone programming that fascinates our viewers,” said Hamish Mykura, Executive Vice President and Head of International Content for NGCI.  

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The Great Icon Bake-Off

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It's official - River Monsters Season 5 coming to the US on 7th April 2013

There are monsters still out there ... 'River Monsters' and angler Jeremy Wade Plunge into the most dramtic season yet of Animal Planet's best performing series as he goes in serach for murky man killers ...

There may come a time when the question of what lurks below is answered. But that time isn’t now. For four successful seasons of Animal Planet’s RIVER MONSTERS, host, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade has searched for answers, taking viewers along as he unravels fish tales of giant killers – where sometimes the fact is stranger than the fiction!  

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Icon Films picks up 3 awards at The Royal Television Society Awards West of England

Icon Films picked up three awards from their nine nominations at the prestigious RTS West of England Awards. 

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Icon Films is selected for Nesta's mentoring programme

It’s a new year for Icon Films, and twenty odd years on we still haven’t lost our thirst for innovation and growth.  We are excited to have been selected to be part of the Nesta mentoring programme and are looking forward to working with our mentor Paul Sandler from Objective Productions.  

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Laura Marshall welcomes HM The Queen at Bristol Old Vic

Our MD Laura was honoured to welcome HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip on a tour of the theatre and onto the stage of Bristol Old Vic in her capacity as Chair of the organisation.

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Jeremy Wade's 10 Best Rivers For Catching Monster Fish

By Laura Morrison for CNN 

Landing rows of razor teeth with fish attached is all in a day's work for the host of TV's most extreme fishing show.

As host of TV documentary series “River Monsters,” Wade travels the globe to seek out things that populate fishermen’s tales and non-fishermen's nightmares...

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Q&A with River Monsters Cameraman James Bickersteth

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River Monsters Season 4 starts 1st January 2013 ITV 1

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Treasure Trove Of Gremlins Found In Borneo

By Professor Anna Nekaris

For many years, slow lorises were considered just two distinct species, despite having overlapping ranges with a wide variety of small apes and monkeys, lorises, which cannot even leap or swim, were still lumped together, whereas their day-living cousins were divided into more and more species. We now know that nocturnal species use more subtle clues to differentiate themselves, and face masks, in the case of slow lorises are one of them.

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'West' Works old and new from Elizabeth Hunter

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Icon Films is proud to launch the River Monsters Global Facebook Page

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Shepton Mallet Digital Arts Festival 2012

By Dominic Weston, Director, Icon Films

Early in November 2012 I presented the Short Factual award on behalf of Icon Films at the Shepton DigiFest.  Short, factual films are a format that's very close to my heart - not just because I have made so many in my career, but also because there can be something very magical and jewel-like in the glimpse they provide into alternate, but entirely real, world...

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Grand Designs - the new fundraising film for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal

By Harry Marshall, Creative Director, Icon Films

It was an extraordinary eye-opener for us all at Icon Films to work with Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal and to visit the Children's Hospital in Bristol. 

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A Dive Film in a Day?

By Sophie Morgan, Junior Assistant Producer, The One Show, Icon Films 

There’s one natural element that complicates working with electronic equipment... and that’s water. So what better way to challenge our intrepid One Show wildlife team than go under it in the search for the toothy Atlantic Wolf Fish?

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The Challenges of Filming Nocturnal Wildlife

If a large percentage of wildlife only become active after dark, how do you go about filming them? ...

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Another way to documentary

By Alex Brisland General and Development Research Assistant to the Creative Director

Only 7 days have passed since a long university ‘career’ has ended. If I can, in fact, call it a ‘career.’ It was certainly not comparable to how I would imagine that word now. After all, it was often difficult to think beyond the next essay to a world (the ‘real’ world) where careers and council tax were important. University life, for all its wondrous plusses, was also an enormous bubble. And all bubbles burst...

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Icon Films supports World's Biggest Coffee Morning

After a final 4 o'clock sugar rush on Friday 28th Sept, Icon Films raised a whopping £115.00 for the Macmillan Coffee Morning - congratulations and and big thanks  to Katie Parsons and Jodie Allt for organising.

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Provocation: an occasional series of opinion pieces

Crime Passionelle – Dominic Weston, Director
“I look for people who are passionate about what they do”.
A sentiment that makes my heart wither and sink...  

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A Way To Dcoumentary by Harry Marshall, Creative Director, Icon Films

As one of the major suppliers of the ONE SHOW Icon Films probably makes as many short films as anyone in the UK, somewhere between 60 and 70 a year. Icon Films was very proud to sponsor the Documentary award last week at the Bristol Encounters short film festival where  Finlay Prestell's Cutting Loose was a  worthy and clear winner.  Beautifully shot and edited, intimate access, emotion and a ring side seat on a world that few otherwise would see.   

During the Encounters Festival I sat on a panel The Way to Documentary to talk about how directors get to make films and in particular how to get to make long form documentary films for television...   

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'Cutting Loose' The Documentary Shorts Winning Film at Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival 2012

Owen Gay, Head of Popular Factual at Icon Films was on the  Documentary Jury and had this to say :

“It was a genuine privilege to be able to take part in this year’s Encounters judging process. The overall quality of the films was incredibly high and many were profoundly moving – shedding a light on stories new to me or human stories to which I might previously have thought I could never relate. I sincerely hope they all find the audience they so justly deserve.

And there was so much to commend the winning film, “Cutting Loose” by Finlay Pretsel &  Adrian McDowall … 

Harry and Laura Marshall were proud to present the award to Finlay Pretsell at the Awards Ceremony

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Can you learn to row in just 4 weeks ?

By Laura Coates, Assitant Producer

Icon's Super8 did just that and went on to pick up Silver in the City of Bristol Rowing Club Corporate Row ...

One thing we have learnt from the 2012 Olympics is that the British are good at sports that involve sitting down…cycling, horse riding, canoeing and rowing. So that means that sitting in a boat and rowing must be easy right? 

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Holy Cow, Sacred Udder ...

Bristol is the home to Igfest - The Intersting Games Festival - and this year Icon's very own Chris Stichman created his very own game ...

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Icon Films is proud to sponsor the Encounters Short Film Festival 2012 @esff

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Documentary Highlights at Encounters Short Film Festival 2012, supported by Icon Films

The Encounters experience doesn’t end with its generous offer of screenings: the film programmes are complemented by a full schedule of industry events including panel discussions, masterclasses, workshops and on stage events providing an important platform to hear some of the industry key players sharing their knowledge and insight as well as outlining the opportunities existing for short filmmakers.

Don't miss out on the Documentary Highlights that help make up this year's exciting programme ... 

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A Photo A Day For A Year

Etta and Me from hellobentleg on Vimeo.

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Round The World By Fish

Don't miss  live talk by Jeremy Wade @RiverMonstersUK Saturday July 21st at the Cheese and Grain in Frome. 

Doors open 6.30pm.  Event starts 7pm. 

Buy your tickets on line here  or call the Box Office 01375 455 420

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Wild Scene Investigators at Bristol Festival of Nature

By Dan Huertas

Last Saturday the rain sodden, wildlife hungry, people of Bristol were treated to a live presentation by Dan and Lorne - two thirds of the Wild Scene Investigation team -  at the Bristol Festival of Nature.  

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Don't miss GOOD GREEN FUN

6 to 8pm on Thursday 14^th June at Watershed, Bristol.

Come along to a FREE event organized by Think Future Now, the sustainability networking organization for Bristol’s Creative Industries.  It’s a different take on sustainability and entertainment, including comedy, music, bicycles, TV productions, festivals and commercials...

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Operation Owl - ‘This is not a feature film, this is The One Show!’

By Sophie Morgan, Researcher / Coordinator

Our production manager’s words are still ringing in our ears as we leave the office to embark on our most ambitious 4.5 minutes yet. One presenter, three film crews with infrared cameras and an entire network of Londoners spread across our capital city, but will it be enough? ...

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Behind the Scenes of 'Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist'

... the biggest heist in NASA’s history.

Hi-tech espionage and claims of sex on the moon: this heist story had it all. But we needed both Nasa and the FBI to separate fact from fiction, says Cris Warren researcher/assistant producer

TX National Geographic, 10 May 2012, 9pm

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Icon Films contributes to Earth Day 2012

When Icon was approached to help stalwart Icon freelancer Director/Editor James Reed, to create a one-off video for Skype to promote Earth Day 2012, we jumped at the chance... 

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River Monsters in 3D 'Pack of Teeth' is getting some great reviews ...

By Mel Martin  - First appeared in 3DTV.com  24th April, 2012

I didn’t have super high hopes for River Monsters on 3Net, one of the 3D Channels from DirecTV. It was, I thought, likely to be yet another nature show set in Africa with lots of hype and little content ...  Wrong ... 

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Wild Scene Investigation

By Suzanne Yorke, Presenter

“You’re filming wildlife in downtown Raleigh?? There is no wildlife in downtown Raleigh!”

I stared speechless at the man who just stopped me on the street.  Surely he must be joking, I thought.  No wildlife in Raleigh, North Carolina? Tell that to Gadget Boy, Lorne, and the Hollywood stunt man harnessed to the chimney of a thirteen-story building busily constructing a specialized camera rig to capture the roosting behaviour of chimney swifts.  I smiled politely and walked past him to enter the building.  There was no time for a debate; I had to get up to the roof. Time was running out... 

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SUPERFISH: Bluefin Tuna

A film produced by our friends at Wild Logic, Premieres National Geographic Channel on April 12th, 2012 at 9 pm.

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Again, River Monsters is the Most Watched Season Debut in Animal Planet History

Animal Planet Press Release:  1.8 Million Viewers Were Hooked on Season Premiere Episode with 10.5 Million Viewers Tuning in During the All-day RIVER MONSTERS Marathon

Fish on, indeed! Animal Planet snared its biggest fish yet with the season four premiere of RIVER MONSTERS, which aired Sunday with record highs. The episode, “American Killers,” delivered 1.8M P2+ viewers (1.77M), making it the most-watched season debut in Animal Planet history.RIVERS MONSTERS also saw its biggest audience yet among P25-54 with season-four debut.   

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River Monsters with Jeremy Wade - in 3D - a word from Cinematographer Brendan McGinty

River Monsters 3D is up there with Avatar as one of the 3D films of importance... I know this sounds hyperbolic, but I don't think it is. There are surprisingly few 3D films that have engaged with the uniqueness of the stereoscopic experience.

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Films Can Make A Difference - Jungles Gremlins of Java

By Laura Coates, Assistant Producer 

“Last night I saw one of the best wildlife documentaries that I have seen in a very long time. The Natural World on BBC2 gave us an insight into the mysterious world of the slow loris.  It really was an excellent programme and well worth watching on i-player if you missed the broadcast yesterday.”

Daily Mail – Kevin Heath 26th Jan. 

International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula, 2012,  announced the finalists today, awarding Jungle Gremlins of Java the following:

Best of Category:  Environmental 
Best of Category:  Point of View
Merits for Outstanding Advocacy and Animal Behaviour 

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Sandhurst DVD's coming soon

The series, a warts and all immersion into the elite and sometimes brutal world of the British Army’s legendry officer training course, coming soon on DVD

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Inspiring Women's Enterprise in TV

By Laura Marshall

Laura Marshall is guest speaker at 'Inspiring Women's Enterprise in TV' - a one day workshop aimed at women working as freelancers or employees in the TV production industry; women returning to the industry after a career break; women with relevant transferable skills seeking a career in TV production.

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Working with local crews can take a production to the next level

Harry Marshall talk to Broadcast about filming with local crew ahead of Wild India, airing on Nat Geo Wild UK Feb 13th 2012 at 8pm

This article first appeared in Broadcast (http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/5037983.article) 

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River Monsters Series 2 now on DVD ...

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Jeremy Wade’s Book Launch…

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Dr Anna Nekaris: Saving the world’s cutest animal…

Ahead of the  Jungle Gremlins of Java, ariing on BBC2 Jan 25th at 8pm, Dr Anna Nekaris talks to Wanderlust about her work with the cudly and cute and only poisonous primate in the world

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The Whitley Awards Celebrates 20 years

Icon Films is proud to support the Whitley Awards and make another film that celebrates the extraordinary work of the individuals and the initiatives that the fund has supported over the last 20 years. As  committed conservation film makers it was a delight and privilege.  

Whitley Awards 20th anniversay from Icon Films on Vimeo.

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