FOR award-winning filmmaker Libby Penman, filming at a skatepark and filming wildlife are very similar. That’s not to say she thinks skateboarders are feral creatures – it’s just that the skills she honed as a teen in her local Fife skatepark are the ones she uses now, with the focus instead on wildlife.
“They are both very fast-moving subjects,” she pointed out. “You can’t ask someone that has performed a risky double backflip to do it again because you messed up. Similarly, you can’t ask animals to repeat their behaviour.”
Patience is also required to film both.
“At the skatepark, I could wait all day for someone to try again and again to land a trick and it is the same with wildlife,” explained Penman. “I will sit and wait for a whole day to see one little bit of behaviour I need for a scene.”
Almost from the moment she picked up a camera after breaking too many bones skateboarding, Penman knew she would pursue the craft as a career. What she didn’t realise then was that maths and science would help to make that possible.
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It is why she will be speaking at this year’s Edinburgh Science Careers Hive as she wants to inspire young people to be open-minded to the subjects they are offered at school.
“My story shows that things can be applicable when you wouldn’t expect it,” said Penman. “For example, I never thought maths was my strong suit at all but now I am using it on a daily basis because camera settings are very linked to maths when you are doing complicated shots.
“Then in my Master’s degree, part of it was filming and part was animal biology, behaviour and ecology. Again, I did not think I would go down a science route but when you understand an animal better, you can film it better. You can anticipate certain behaviours and plan the shoot better because you know what time of year and what time of day are best.”
Penman’s message to young people is not to dismiss a subject because they think it will be of no use.
“I would never have thought maths and science would be involved in my life but they are through an unexpected route,” she said.
“Be open-minded to all subjects as you don’t know what is going to take your interest and how it can be applied.”
Beyond that, pupils should follow their passions, she believes, even if they don’t seem to lead to a typical career.
“Sometimes in Scotland, we are quite hard on ourselves and like to be grounded in reality but we can have amazing careers and experiences and that can be anybody’s reality,” she said.
“There are also amazing things in Scotland that can support you, and I have experienced that first-hand with the scholarship that helped me with my Master’s – there are lots of opportunities out there that can help.”
Penman completed a Master’s degree at Salford University in wildlife filming – “we have amazing wildlife here but the courses are all down south which is a shame” – after being granted a prestigious Dewar Arts scholarship which supports Scotland’s “brightest and best”. That followed a first-class degree in film production at Napier where she won the Edinburgh Napier University Medal.
She then worked her way up from a runner and now regularly directs, shoots and edits for TV. Her 30-minute documentary Shooting Animals featured on national news on World Environmental Day 2022 and won the best documentary prize at the Scottish Short Film Festival.
Penman also self-shot and directed a documentary about mental health and body image with Scottish Love Island star Anton Danyluk and continues to be an in-demand shooting producer/director and a commercial drone operator.
In the digital space, she has amassed millions of views for her work, including a short documentary about dyslexia, which she shot with her twin sister Pip.
As a TV presenter, Penman has fronted two successful episodes of the wildlife conservation show Back From The Brink for BBC Scotland/Tern TV and regularly appears on BBC’s The Adventure Show where she can be seen ice-climbing and cave-kayaking. Her work has been featured on BBC Two’s Winterwatch and she recently made a 30-minute film for the John Muir Trust exploring deer management and climate change.
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She is also a passionate environmentalist and ambassador for NatureScot, creating a series of social media videos for the organisation.
While she has filmed animals all over the world, Penman has a special affection for Scottish wildlife but worries about the declining numbers of many species.
“The reality is that the numbers are very low in terms of what we should have in Scotland,” she said. “You can go for a hike and walk through a wood and not hear any birdsong. It can be totally devoid of life and it just shouldn’t be like that. We have a broken system from an ecological perspective so it is not a case of just looking after it. We have to go one better and improve it and help it bounce back.”
Penman finds the response to her films and videos encouraging as she says it shows people are interested in helping wildlife thrive.
“Young people message me and ask for help on school projects because they have seen my images and I think that is amazing because it shows they have an impact,” she said. “People reach out and want to know more about it and that is just fantastic.”
For more information on Careers Hive and the public open day on Saturday, go to www.sciencefestival.co.uk/careershive
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