Natural history documentarian and filmmaker Oliver Hill is one of our talented Sparks Film School alumni.
We sat down with Oliver to find out more about his journey as a young filmmaker and his time with Sparks Film School.
Hi Oliver! How have you been? Tell us about your journey after leaving Sparks?
Hi… [It’s] great to chat! I think I left Sparks Film School when I was around 16. I went to sixth form and did the film club at sixth form whenever I could. Then COVID happened during my time there, before I went onto University for my Bachelors course in Palaeontology.
Now, however, I am currently about three weeks away from graduating from the Directing and Producing Science and Natural History course at the National Film and TV School. Its been a very long and exciting process for the last two years!
Oh amazing! What has the process been like on the course?
Its been fantastic! As my original bachelors was in Palaeontology. I wanted to go into the hard science route as I loved learning about wildlife, evolution, and extinct animals. But I found that there wasn’t enough storytelling in there.
The modules I enjoyed the most were the ones where a bit of narrative was involved. So, when I found out about the course at the National Film and TV School, remembering how much I enjoyed filmmaking with Sparks when I was younger, I thought “Yes”. I applied out of the blue and they liked me, and I then started the course in 2024.
What would you like to do after graduation?
I definitely want to work in natural history television, I don’t really want to do anything else now. The industry is struggling a little at the moment, however I’m committed to making my mark on the industry and showing my work off.
I think I have all the skills I need to be successful, both as a scientist and as a filmmaker. I do think some of the education from older work in natural history films has been removed in favour of entertainment value and set pieces.
However whilst I’ve been at NFTS, the films I have worked on I have tried to focus on a more educational style showing all the sides of a story.
Alumni Oliver in production for one of his recent films
Tell us about some of the films you have worked on as part of your course at NFTS?
I recently travelled down to Mexico for the summer to film my grad project called It Blooms From Within. It’s about the Cenotes, which are these flooded caves in the Yucatan Peninsula located underground and interconnected.
They are extraordinarily beautiful and sacred to the local Mayan people who still live there. Unfortunately the caves are being polluted. So my film was centred on the factors contributing to this pollution, how the Mayans are affected, how the scientists are trying to prevent it, how the wildlife is affected, really trying to bring all this ecosystems together and make the landscape the main character of the piece.
The film should be being screened at the BFI for an audience of industry professionals.
I have also worked on my film Ecosystem Engineers as part of the course which I loved! And an other film Bovine Brothers which I made last year, watch the trailer!
[Editor’s Note: Unfortunately we can’t link to ‘It Blooms From Within’ due to it not being available just yet, but it does sound amazing!]
How would you describe your time with Sparks Film School?
I remember it being great fun and a different activity to do on the weekend. Looking back now after I have learned so much about the commercial filmmaking process, because Sparks really was a condensed version of learning the professional process: pre-production, production, post, editing, sound design etc.
It was also really inspirational as it taught me I have the capacity to be an artist, be able to make things people can enjoy and find emotional. It was a real creative outlet for me at a time where I was mostly focused on being scientific in my studies. I also really enjoyed the screening we had at the cinema when I was there.
What advice might you have for young people interested in filmmaking with Sparks Film School?
I would say don’t try and think about it, try and feel it. This is an emotional medium. Its about channelling your own emotions and those of other people. It’s just as much as concentrating on the technical aspects and the camera, I’d say always focus on the emotional understanding of the medium.
Why do certain films and scenes trigger emotions in you? Every single film is an emotional puzzle box (at least the good ones are!), so I’d say work on figuring out the why great films make you feel certain things and how.
If you can feel it, you can do it. There’s nothing stopping you!
Find out more…
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