If you enjoy spotting wildlife on a hiking trail, while camping, on vacation, walking through your backyard or from the comfort of your vehicle on a road trip then you must watch America’s Wild Border: Northern Exposure. When I was 14, my friends and I rode our bikes to the dump, which was 5 miles out of town. At 6 o’clock, the bears came out to eat. We would find a safe place to observe and watch approx. 10 black bears having supper together. My friend decided to get a little closer… within 5 feet closer. Nothing happened, the bears kept rummaging. One by one, the rest of us approached the bears within our invisible 5-foot impenetrable barrier. Still nothing happened and we decided that was a good thing. Nobody was willing to ‘poke the bear’ and we lived to tell the story. We were one with nature but naive about the dangers – which is why it’s best to watch the predators from a distance or on your television.
MBM TV INC latest series America’s Wild Border: Northern Exposure is on the Love Nature network. The series, filmed along the world’s longest border between Canada and the USA, follows the wildlife that live with one foot in two worlds. Animals walk a tightrope of barriers and conflicting regulations, where one step over the line can mean the difference between life and death. The series follows the challenges of these animals and the politics they face over twelve months.
The Vancouver-based production studio, MBM TV, produced America’s Wild Border: Northern Exposure in partnership with Tamarin Productions Inc. for Blue Ant Television. The series features the extraordinary work of Emmy-nominated cinematographers including Director and DP Jeff Morales.
Their latest hit, Takaya: Lone Wolf recently won 4 Leo Awards for the CBC’s The Nature of Things, BBC and ARTE co-produced it with Talesmith and Cineflix. The project recounts the inspirational story of one animal’s resilience and adaptation, and reveals that humans can coexist with apex predators that are often perceived as a lethal threat. Takaya: Lone Wolf was released internationally and has garnered global acclaim.
America’s Wild Border: Northern Exposure is available for free on the Love Nature Channel until January 1st., the Smithsonian Channel in the US, as well as Prime and Apple TV. If you love wildlife in its natural form/environment with stunning cinematography captured in 4K, you will appreciate this entire series while it lasts.
I spoke with MBM TV president and producer Bruce Whitty about the unsurmountable work that wildlife documentaries demand and who is up for the task.
HNM “This film looks spectacular. The cinematography is top shelf with Director and DP Jeff Morales at the helm. How did you attach him to the project?”
BRUCE “We’ve known each other from working together on various projects in the past. Lynn Booth is a producer for Make Believe Media, which is a sister company to MBM TV. She was working on a series on Love Nature, called America’s Wild Seasons, in thanks to Jeff because he practically knows every cinematographer in North America. With him at the helm, we were able to manage costs. This was a companion piece called, About the Borders. We started with the northern border and we’re working on getting the southern border off the ground. This episode was, in my opinion – really good. I believe that they will go for the South episode once the vaccine is available, so we’ll be able to travel down there safely.”
HNM “What are some of the biggest obstacles in filming along the US-Canada borderline?”
BRUCE “Jeff has dual citizenship, so filming along the border wasn’t a problem. In many of the areas we shot, there is an invisible border – you could travel freely across. However, I do know that they were checked out by immigration officials a couple times, but there really wasn’t any trouble, other than being questioned. The Mexican border will be a little trickier to shoot.”
HNM “How much pre-production goes into a project this size?”
BRUCE “Oh my, it took a long time to get this one off the ground with numerous iterations to make the broadcaster happy with it. These series are quite expensive to make in comparison to other docs. It’s also a blue-chip variety, meaning there are no humans speaking on camera/screen. We actually treated the humans on here as we would animals – they appear but they don’t speak on camera. Our broadcasters Blue Ant and Smithsonian look for a lot of detail in pitches. This one took about a year to get greenlit.”
HNM “When you say blue-chip variety – was that a requirement in getting the project approved?”
BRUCE “Yes! They keep going back and forth between blue-chip (no on camera talking) and humans speaking to the camera. That’s Jeff’s specialty actually, he worked for NAT-GEO for 15 years or more and his specialty was blue-chip. Jeff and his contacts, whom some are Emmy winners, brought Emmy quality camera work to the production. It’s the hiding behind the bush and the length of time waiting for that shot, where much of the expense comes into play. I couldn’t do it (laughing).”
HNM “I really think those camera operators don’t get enough credit for the footage they’re able to capture, due to long hours of isolation and weathering the conditions, do they?”
BRUCE “You know, they don’t for everything they go through. A lot of the time, they’re lugging all that gear and that stuff’s heavy. Then there’s all the travel and the actual getting out there – I was blown away by what they were able to capture.”
HNM “How much has working with drones opened the door to capturing amazing footage that would be otherwise inaccessible?”
BRUCE “I have mixed feelings about that. The demand from studios for drone footage is huge. We’re in a time where some of the older cinematographers might not be able to fly their own drones, so we’ll have to hire a drone specialist… but eventually, it will become part of their day-to-day filming activities. The drones have gotten much less expensive, but in my opinion, I think they’re being overused and there’s now an expectation to use them. Wide shots are always spectacular and in 4K you’re getting so much more detail. We were able to capture the climbing goby’s in Hawaii, where the SD wouldn’t have.”
HNM “This film is available for free preview on the Love Nature channel in Canada and the Smithsonian network in the US until the New Year but where can it be seen after that?”
BRUCE “It will keep appearing; Love Nature has a cable network and they also have a streaming network that streams all around the world. It will remain on Love Nature and the Smithsonian – Blue Ant also has distribution worldwide.”
HNM “What is something you discovered about these border animals that may have surprised you?”
BRUCE “I was watching it the other day and there are so many sequences in the 50 minutes, so many different species within that. Blue-chip nature documentaries can get a little dry after awhile but this film really holds its own because of the variety of species.”
Bruce went onto discuss the education he learned about each animal from this project, from an interesting lobster sequence, puffins able to carry up to 60 fish in their beaks and rattlesnakes giving live birth to their young.
HNM “You’re the president of MBM TV, are you also the founder?”
BRUCE “No, the founder is Lynn Booth. I did business affairs for her for many years and worked my way up from associate producer to co-producer and then producer. MBM has splintered off as an original and service production company and we’re currently looking for co-production possibilities. I did one with Talesmith (Toronto) and Cineflix (UK) and we swept the Leo’s (Takaya, Lone Wolf win 4 Awards) this year. That film has been received globally and can be seen on BBC 4 and ARTE. Cheryl Alexander is a cinematographer, nature photographer and a naturalist – that started documenting a wolf on an island not far from her. By combining archival footage with new footage, it tells the entire story and it really resonated with people globally – to the extent that an art exhibition was spawned from the film.”
HNM “Does MBM TV have plans for scripted TV or narrative film in the future?”
BRUCE “We’ve proven to be a good natural history unit based out of Vancouver and I’ve associate produced an animation series called Wishfart. The thing about making documentaries, the budgets are much more controllable, so it’s a bit easier to approach a broadcaster with.”
HNM “What is the process like in determining what projects to go after?”
BRUCE “It’s a bit of a crapshoot – you have several projects on your slate and you never know which ones going to catch and when. In this day and age, you often have to get more than one broadcaster onboard, find some presales or a distributor that can see where it can go internationally. You really need a slate of 10-12 shows, even as a small producer. They don’t have to be complete treatments; they can be 2-pagers. When you’re talking to someone, you never know where that conversations going to go.”
Switching Gears;
HNM “Would you rather race the quarter mile in a muscle car or go wide open in a speed boat?”
BRUCE “Hmm, I’d rather do the quarter mile… and then jump the muscle car into the boat (laughing). Maybe a muscle truck would be more fun.”
HNM “What’s your favourite sport?”
BRUCE “I kind of dropped out of sports… but I’ve gotta say, to relax – it’s baseball. Going out in the middle of the summer to watch a game is great. Basketball is up there too. I usually watch the playoffs but when the Raptors won the championship, the level of playing in that series was off the hook and it was some of the best basketball I’ve seen.”
HNM “If you could be any North American animal, what would it be?”
BRUCE “Maybe a puffin, they seem to have a pretty good go of it. They live on the rocks, so they don’t have predators and they have plenty of food. The female puffins are pretty cute (laughing), those orange beaks get me every time.”
Bruce was such a humble guy and a lot of fun to chat with. I’m hoping we’ll talk to him again once the Southern border is documented. Until then, watch this free wildlife documentary before you go riding your bike to the dump!
