Making of..Leopards: The Last Stand
There is a significant amount of wildlife living outside our protected areas in our revenue lands. The lesser carnivores like mongoose are often ignored by people, however, when a large carnivore like a leopard stays in the scrub forest of the hills surrounding a village or an urban area they often come in contact with humans. Most of the times people fear these carnivores and due to this fear they undertake retaliatory killings and trappings.
331 Leopards died in 2012.
4052 Leopards poached and killed from 1994 till 2012. Four Thousand and Fifty Two. It seems we Indians are at war with our leopards, as well as with other wildlife. We need to bring focus on the plight of this charismatic species.
Leopards due to its small size and frugal diet can survive in scarce vegetation and close to human habitations having lesser amount of prey.
In India Today, Save the Tiger has been the buzz word garnering mind share as well as funds allocation, it is another matter that the tiger is fast hurtling into oblivion. In such a tiger-centric scenario, the charismatic leopard, is ignored and is fighting a grave battle for survival.
My film ‘Leopards: The Last Stand’, which is in production is an effort to document and highlight the plight of the leopard. I am pleased to release a short ‘Making of..’ film to give a sneak peek into my film ‘Leopards: The Last Stand’.
The leopard footage is is from Canon Cinema EOS C300 camera and has been marked as C300 footage. The other behind the scenes footage has been shot with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV DSLR.
Major parts of the film has already been canned. “Leopards: The Last Stand” is being filmed in various places in North, East and the Western parts of India. I also need to cover the North East soon.
The final film is being shot with a Canon Cinema EOS C300 camera at Full HD (1080p) at insane ISOs (ISO 20000) in low light and no light situations to document nocturnal behaviour. Please try to watch the film in HD (720p) and see the details. The Full HD version, which is not shared online due to the large size has amazing amount of details and should be seen in the big screen. Keep watching this space for more. And before I end, please raise your voice to save the leopard.
Sabyasachi is available for Hire as a DP for shoots any where in India.
- Original Vande Mataram India’s National Song - 15 August,2024
- Secretive Mud Lobster - 11 August,2024
- Endangered Wild Buffalo of Kaziranga - 4 July,2024
Gorgeous animal……….
I absolutely agree. Leopard is such a beautiful animal. I love their eyes. I do find different leopards with different roseate patterns, however love them all.
Absolutely fabulous, Sabyasachi. Well done… hope to see many more on other species too…
nice… good video… will attack human? good background music (you own this?)
Thanks. The leopards try to avoid humans, despite living in close proximity. They are known to attack when provoked repeatedly. At times they have also attacked humans by mistake and have left the person after realising the mistake.
Background music has been specially scored and I own the rights.
I hope that your film gets seen by lot of people to raise their awareness
Thanks Sunil!
It is true that we need to reach out to the masses to raise awareness and change their perception. Else, saving our wildlife and wilderness areas is impossible.
It’s quite adventurous. The way you have shot them, they look gorgeous and pretty harmless.
Thanks Saru!
Unlike humans, our wildlife have no intention of causing wanton violence. They are beautiful creations of God. Hope we can protect them and their habitat.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
I thought leopards were tough enough to survive. But it looks like we can endanger anything.
Sovon,
You and your witty responses! 🙂 If there is one species that can wipe out the majority of other species, than it is we humans.
We are like the typical Bhasmasura from our Hindu mythology. The demon Bhasmasura after a lot of penace got a boon from Lord Shiva that if he places his hand on anybody’s head then the person will immediately turn into ashes. After Lord Shiva granted him the boon he chased Lord Shiva to test it upon him. However, he was tricked to test it on himself and the moment he placed his hand on his head, he was immediately turned into ashes.
We human beings are destroying every other species on earth and through our actions we are making the planet unlivable and pushing our own existence into question.
Hats off to you Sabyasachi! I was blown away by the ‘insane’ ISO 20,000. Both C 300 and its operator have put up sterling performance and have guts of steel. Amazing sound quality. Sad to learn about the slaughter of leopards.
Umashankar,
Thanks. I am happy that you liked my work. The footage of C300 is terrific. Great camera. It is indeed sad that leopards are facing their biggest challenge. I hope we can save this magnificent animal.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Wow…nice shots..dont you get scared to go near them..??
Hi Nandini,
I fear people rather than animals. The biggest danger that we face are from humans. Unlike people, no animal will attack us unprovoked. Animals behave according to a set of principles. If you understand their behaviour, then you will be safe. You can know how close you can approach without disturbing them.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
This is very unfortunate that we do not love our animala.
Just saw the video..its awesome sir.You have done some great documentation. Never seen before such footage of the elusive leopard. Eagerly waiting for the complete documentary. My best wishes to you. And was this part of filming done at Bera, Rajasthan??Just asking out of curiosity.
This footage is beautiful and I respect your ambition to capture the Leopards in this type of terrain. I watched this piece several times. Can you please offer any advice on? some of your c300 settings for low light? Did you enable the in-camera noise reduction at 20,000? if so, which level setting? Did you shoot in canon log gamma to retain detail in your shadows? When I shoot at 20,000 my footage doesn’t come out this clean. When I apply noise reduction in post, I lose detail. post grading???
You’re clearly a master of your craft.
I want my low light footage to look as good as yours 🙂
Take a look at my sneak peek behind the walls of Chernobyl also shot with the c300 in relatively low light: https://vimeo.com/65220635
Hi Christian,
I am happy that you liked the footage. I use the canon log gamma all the time in the C300. You have to experiment with the exposure as the exposure in c-log is not straight forward.
I checked your Chernobyl footage. I think in a couple of places like the slider movement from left to right and the one where you are moving into the frame, there is more noise. I feel that scene needed more exposure. You can always crush the shadows in post, but ensure that the shadow areas are get the required light during exposing.
I have done the editing in FCP X using the in built colour board. I do a fair amount of pushing and pulling the exposure sliders in post.
When I bought neat video, it was not working with FCP X. When I do my final edit and grading, I may use it in a few scenes. However, I always prefer details over noise. Infact, I am waiting to try the ISO 80,000 as well. 🙂
I will wait eagerly to see your complete Chernobyl film.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Dear sir,
i like your short documentary on you tube.when you realise full documentary?I am from rajasthan and my village have lot of leopard and every time when i go to my village i take lot of photo of them.I request you to please visit my village near Jawai Dam Rajasthan at Pali Dist.I have large home there to accommodate you.
thanks
Suresh dave
Sir, I’m Manoj Sirivaram.
Upto my knowledge… Research, ecological statistics, anti-poaching measures, securing our isolated forest line out there is one side of the CONSERVATION. Creating awareness and gaining support from people that fuels the conservation is another side of ” THE CONSERVATION ”.
Documentaries like these are key for this whole thing. I hope that these kind of effort that you (sir) put in will bring ”THE CHANGE”. Thanks for the film.