5. Conversion to Irwin

I have at last happened upon an idea for my Natural History documentary that will not require a budget similar to that of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. This is a great relief. I was getting worried.

At the moment, it involves some 25 million year old bones, a trip to the southern coastline of Australia (virgin has some great deals), computer animation of a toothed mysticete and some serious scripting to make it all work.

At the moment there seems little going for it because I only have little bits of the story, and like digging for fossils I will need to scratch around for more bits here and there before I can start to piece them all together, and make it into something that resembles a documentary. At least the seed of an idea is there and I am convinced that it will only get better from here…Surely!

I did also speak with none other than "the" Mike Rubbo and he seemed to think it might be a go’er. For those of you, who like me, are totally film UN-savvy and did not know who Mike Rubbo was until two days ago, he is the director of 'Waiting for Fidel' and many other excellent docos.

Speaking of big names, I recently became acquainted with none other than the guy who launched none other than Steve Irwin...Gasp! Well, that was my reaction.

I have always vowed to sock Mr. Irwin in the gob should I ever meet him, and that went for anyone even vaguely associated with him. Admittedly, I have not seen much of Mr. Irwin’s work due to my personal boycott, but of the little I have seen I felt that it did nothing to promote respect, understanding or reverence for animals and their environment. Rather, I felt his style of sticking his shnoz as close as possible without getting it bitten off encouraged interference and disregard for the personal space of wild animals.

I have to admit however, that I might have been converted…Well, just a little. Not converted so much that I have a new love for Mr. Irwin, that I doubt will ever happen, but I did realise that the bloke who launched him is doing much to further the plight of the world’s animals and doing it in a very innovative way.

Other programs of his, such as 'Up Close and Dangerous', greatly impressed me. Here was really interesting Natural History documentary. It was edgy and fast paced, and despite being far removed from anything his excellence Sir Attenborough might do, they still evoked respect and wonder for the natural world, and that I take my hat off to!

So while I would still like plonk one on Mr. Irwin's shnoz on behalf of all the poor defenseless creatures that have had to suffer the indignity of having his grinning mug dangerously close to their own, I will refrain from including all those involved in his rise to stardom. More to the point though is that my mind has been opened to a whole new Natural History possibility. There is much to be said for that.