What are the opportunities to apprentice with an established wildlife filmmaker in India?
Unfortunately, very limited. There are only a handful of genuine, experienced wildlife filmmakers in the country, and most of them work with an extremely small, hand picked crew. It is difficult for them to find room for an apprentice. You have to keep on pounding on their doors until they let you in! One way to make yourself attractive to them is by developing as many field skills as you can – being a good naturalist helps. So does being able to drive, climb trees, scuba dive, take good photographs, type or cook! In fact, the more skills you have, the better. It is also important to have a cheerful disposition, and be an alert and reliable helper. Basically all filmmakers will want to know what skills you can add to their existing team. Many young people land up at a filmmaker’s door and say “I know nothing about wildlife and nothing about film making, but I love watching Nat Geo and Discovery and I want to make wildlife films, so please give me a chance!”. This approach usually doesn
