"Red Squirrel" by Andrew O'Donnell
SHORTLISTED - 2014
Andrew O'Donnell's aim was to capture the hustle and bustle of Autumn with his film "Red Squirrel", as it is such a busy period for all the animals of the forest and their preparations for winter.
Andrew built several purpose built hides for his shoot, with the close-ups taking around 3 weeks to collect. Overall it involved a great deal of patience and some gentle persuasion in the form of nuts!
The story was nearly abandoned at one stage when the red squirrel Andrew was filming was pursued by a pine marten and fell around 10 metres and wasnt seen for 3 days.? Andrew was worried, not only for his subject's well-being but also because he only had around 75% of the footage required.
Thankfully, one morning, to Andrew's surprise, the red squirrel descended from the canopy as if nothing had happened and seemed ready to run the gauntlet of pine martens and foxes once more.
Andrew collected all his footage in the forest at Aberfoyle, Scotland.?
