Jungle Run has just been chosen to support WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) with the production of a nine-month webcast series. The GFTN promotes legal and sustainable forest  practices with market-based incentives, including certification.

Jungle Run’s relationship with WWF and GFTN began back in 2003. We traveled three days deep into the “Heart of Borneo” to document WWF and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) joining forces with timber giant Sumalindo Lestari Jaya. A ground-breaking project tracking wood from stump to shelf helped the company achieve FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification and revealed to this crew some of the healthiest forest we’ve seen anywhere in Borneo – including the national parks! Indeed, there’s a lot to be said for forest management with vested long-term interests.

In 2006 we returned to Borneo to work on TIMBER FUTURES. This film, produced by Television Trust for the Environment and broadcast on BBC World’s Earth Report, asked the question, “Can the market save Indonesia’s forests?”

Cut to 2011, the UN’s International Year of Forests, and the jury’s still out. Embarking on our latest forest film series in Indonesia, we find destructive logging and wholesale forest conversion still very much the norm. But thanks to organizations like WWF, the push towards sustainable forest management remains strong. Coming years bring special hope in the run-up to the 2012 climate talks. That’s when the global community can deem trees worth more alive than dead. Here at Jungle Run, we hope that Indonesia’s vast stores of forest carbon will be valued in the fight against global warming, while conserving precious habitats and sustainable resources for humans and animals alike.

Indonesia forest photo by Djuna Ivereigh

Jungle Run founder Joe Yaggi and GM Stephen DeMeulenaere are just back from East Timor, where we presented our final film series chronicling the grueling 2010 Tour de Timor mountain cycling race.

The 5-day race was an intensive production, powered by 8 jam-synced HD cameras and 4 Avid editors. In all, we headed up a 15-person crew hailing from East Timor, Indonesia, the US, Canada and France. After a run of all-night editing sessions, the post team turned out an adrenalin-pumped product.

The trailer:

The buzz:

“Thank you very much, excellent work!”
His Excellency Jose Ramos-Horta, President of Timor Leste

“Wow, that was amazing. Was your editing team wired on Red Bull or what?”
Toby Gibson – Participant TdT 2010

“I can’t wait to sign up for the next race!”
anonymous participant

“I’d love to work with you again.”
Clementino Maia – Timorese freelance cameraman

“Excellent guys, well done. You’ve made our jobs much easier.”
Sean Borrell – PR Manager, Office of the President

From the race on through editing and animation back home, the final outputs for Tour de Timor 2010 include:

• 6 x 7 minute films on each district the race passed through
• 10 minutes of race footage uploaded nightly for international broadcast
• 5 x 6 min short stage report films
• 1 x 30 minute final race film following the entire tour
• Heaps of HD stock footage

Timor Leste scenic photography by Djuna Iveriegh
Jungle Run staff photography by Shinta Okta

UPDATE! Catch the series premier of MAN VS MONSTER, led by “bear man” Richard Terry, on Nat Geo Wild this Monday, May 30th, and on rotation throughout the week. Then catch the Komodo ep premier on Monday, June 6!

Sneak previews:

MAN VS MONSTER Giant Lizard Hunt – starring Joe as the “Missing European Tourist”! Don’t blink

MAN VS MONSTER Flores Whip Fight

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FRESH FROM THE FIELD, Jungle Run has just returned from the villages, caves and dragon-dwelling beaches of Flores and Komodo islands. There Optomen USA shot Ep 2 of a new series for Nat Geo Wild. We can’t spill the beans on the series name just yet. You’ll just have to watch this space for air dates later this year.

Jungle Run provided research, story development, permit services, production support and location management for this exciting natural history program. Leveraging our close contacts and experience, we put together a shoot covering 10 locations over 14 days. The crew was thrilled with the support they got:

“You were the glue that held this shoot together.“

Richard Terry, Presenter

“It was excellent to work with you, I’m looking forward to more.“

Kyle McCabe, Director

“Thank you so much, you guys are a great team.“

Amanda Abel, Producer

J R P    P R O D U C T I O N    T E A M

Joe Yaggi – JRP Production Manager

Shinta Oktania – JRP Production Coordinator

Elizabeth “Sasa” Andries – Researcher

Stephen DeMeulenare – General Management & Finance

Kadek Nuastini – Accounting

Komodo dragon photo by Djuna Ivereigh

Production photography by Shinta Okta.

After a pleasant weekend in Bristol we followed the festival with a series of meetings in London with potential broadcast and distribution partners, FFC partners, TVE and the Guild of Television Cameramen. The week ended with a visit to the set of the BAFTA nominated cooking program “Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets” which boosted another JRP project-in-development here at home.

Recommendations:

1. Qatar Airways

2. Avonside Guest House

3. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons

4. The Water Shed Bristol

Hi Folks!

We’re off to the WILDSCREEN Film Festival in Bristol again! This year’s festival promises to be productive and exciting. I’ll be hosting the FFC Conservation Filmmaker of the Year award and we have numerous projects in the works.

Hope to see you all there!

Joe

Jungle Run identified, researched and secured access to three locations in Kalimantan and Sulawesi for Blood, Sweat and Takeaways, a popular BBC3 offering in 2009. A particular challenge was gaining and maintaining the confidence of shrimp plant managers and tuna boat skippers featured in the shows.

From Production Wizard:

‘Blood, Sweat and Takeaways’ Scoops Prize at Digital Awards

…The BBC3 show picked up the award for Best Popular Factual Programme (the award sponsored by Production Wizard for the second year running), beating Electric Dreams, Made In Britain, My Big Fat Cycle Challenge, Ross Kemp: Return to Afghanistan and What Katie Did Next. The four-part series – made by Ricochet – gained almost 1 million viewers on its initial airing, making it BBC3’s most successful documentary ever, and won a transfer to the 10.30pm slot on BBC1, when the same installment was watched by 2 million. The show was a clear winner for the judges in what they described as “a wide-open field”.

Series Synopsis From BBC3…

When it comes to food, we are spoilt for choice. From top class restaurants to low cost supermarkets, we take it for granted that we can buy whatever food we want, whenever we want it. But would we feel the same if we knew the human cost of food production?

Six typical young British food consumers go to live and work alongside the millions of people in south east Asia’s food production industries. They must catch, harvest and process food products that we eat every day, seeing behind the scenes of the tuna, prawns, rice and chicken industries for the very first time.

They eat, sleep and live with food workers in the poorest regions of Indonesia and Thailand, surviving on the same wages. The average wage for food workers here is around three pounds a day.

The Brits arrive in Kalimantan, Indonesia to live and work alongside the workers in the prawn industry. Their home is a shack in the jungle with no beds, no TV and no running water and dinner is what you can catch. Instead of fishing for prawns in the ocean, the Brits are surprised to find themselves waist deep in mud working on a prawn farm.

For these six young consumers, biting into a prawn mayo sandwich will never be the same again, but the group is given a glimmer of hope with the arrival of a British farmer to join their team.