A Bristol natural history production company, set up in 2012 by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, behind Our Planet, Wild Isles and Ocean with David Attenborough.
Silverback Films is a natural history and documentary production company in Bristol. It describes Bristol as the global heart of natural history production. Its programmes include Our Planet for Netflix, Wild Isles, Life on Our Planet, Our Planet II and Ocean with David Attenborough, and the company has also made films with Sir David Attenborough for the Whitley Awards and for The Earthshot Prize. It has a sister brand, Studio Silverback, which handles non-broadcast and commissioned work, and its website lists a UNEP film on plastic pollution.
Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey founded Silverback in 2012. Both are long-time wildlife film-makers; Mr Fothergill produced Planet Earth and Frozen Planet for the BBC. An RTS interview says the company began with five people in a small office and grew to about 200 at its peak. Jane Hamlin, a former BBC Natural History Unit staffer, is chief operating officer and director of production. She says the company's strength is that "we do a few things well". Mr Scholey has said the field needs new film-makers in their 20s and 30s. Silverback's focus is natural history and environmental storytelling that reaches global audiences, including work on climate and nature.
Silverback is in Bristol, in the Cotham area, according to a Bristol 24/7 article from 2017. The city has a long record in natural history film-making because the BBC Natural History Unit has been there for over 60 years. The company was bought by All3Media in 2020. Its programmes involve filming across the world, but the editing, research and production work is done from Bristol.
The company says its people are its main asset and describes wellbeing activities such as yoga, walks and creative sessions, and events such as all-staff screenings. It supports International Women's Day, and its site says it works with the charity Babbasa and the Grierson DocLab programme on mentoring and work-experience pathways. People named on its site include Elly Salisbury (deputy director of production), Helen Healy (head of production at Studio Silverback), producer-director Claire Sharrock, director Barny Revill, underwater researcher Mae Dorricott and logger Tawana Gandiyah. These are the company's own descriptions.
Natural history film-making employs many specialists. Researchers look for stories and animals, producers and directors lead each series, and camera operators and edit teams capture and shape the footage. Production managers and coordinators plan complicated shoots, loggers keep track of footage, and underwater researchers and science advisers help get the facts right. If you love wildlife, biology, geography, photography or film, those are the interests that connect to this work.
Website: silverbackfilms.tv
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE