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Mirounga leonina, southern elephant seal. Although seals spend a lot of time in the water, they evolved from a land-dwelling ancestor over 25 million years ago and still have to come back on land to breed.

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Antarctic conservation blog archive

Big Brother, Antarctica

George, Thursday 5 August 2010

Temperature: -30.8°C
Wind Speed: 23 knots
Temp with wind chill: approximately -60°C
Sunrise: none
Sunset: none

Character: a grumpy diesel mechanic
Line of dialogue: has anybody seen my chicken?
Sound effect: siren
Prop: mop
Prop: bottle of mouthwash

Every year the international bases of Antarctica are invited to take part in the 48 hour film festival; a continent-wide effort at movie-making!

Last weekend we received the list of elements above, and everyone on base discussed story-lines to incorporate them. We wrangled for hours on whether we wanted something cute and quirky, or a zombie-killing horror! Finally, we hit upon the idea of doing a spoof of Big Brother, the reality TV show in which contestants are locked together in a house and vote against each other for eviction. Jane and I pulled together a loose script and the rest was ad-libbed by the base members-cum-actors!

Lex, our mechanic, being interviewed by a trashy TV presenter - me! © ANTNZ, S Lillicrap

Lex, our mechanic, being interviewed by a trashy TV presenter - me! © ANTNZ, S Lillicrap

Now all the films from the other Antarctic bases, such as Poland, Germany, Japan and India have been shared and voting has begun! Efforts varied widely from the brave to the baffling to the utterly brilliant! The Norwegian station, Troll, filmed theirs outside in a tent with explosively high winds; the UK’s base at Rothera involved a funny James Bond-style plot with an evil megalomaniac called ‘Dr Meltdown’; and the French contribution from Dumont D’Urville centered around a time-machine and a lost chicken.

The end of our film - Lex's grand exit through the icy fog © ANTNZ, S Lillicrap

The end of our film - Lex’s grand exit through the icy fog. He needed a warm cup of tea afterwards. © ANTNZ, S Lillicrap

All agree that Scott Base has done a grand job - but - will we win? Either way, we’re just pleased to have cut a dash on the Antarctic movie-making circuit and to bask in our 5 minutes of filmic fame!

Posted in Antarctica, Scott Base, Social life

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