April 2007 Archives

Greetings. I first want to thank everyone for taking the time to write into the blog. I am very excited about the show on Monday night, and have spent the week in the US talking about it. 20/20 ran a great preview friday night - I hope you were able to see it - and of course the full documentary premieres Monday night at 9 on NGC.

There have been so many great comments and questions, I wish I could reply to each of you. But, there is one thing I want to address - and that has to do with my kids. I think it is important for people to know that while living with the wolves involved great sacrifice on my part and my family's part, my children continue to be and will always be an important part of my life. As I am sure any parent can relate too, you never stop loving your kids - even when you are not able to spend time with them. I do see them frequently, and they along with my fiancée Helen are very supportive of the work I do. Frankly, I couldn't do it without them. For me, the wolves are also my family, and I do love them too. I am so committed to the work that I do so that wolves will still be around in my children's future.

Thanks again for all of the great comments!

Best,

Shaun

NGC: When did you become interested in studying wolves?
Shaun Ellis: It began growing up in a farming community where we always had dogs. Preferring to spend time with them versus other little kids was probably the first indication. Because we were surrounded by forest where I was living, animals such as foxes always deeply interested me. My perception of wolves was much the same as any other kid. I was brought up to fear them. But it was through the fox that I got interested in wolves at an early age.

NGC: Why did you decide to join a wolf pack?
Shaun Ellis: It was really evident that what we were learning from a scientific point of view from wolves wasn't very much. The Native Americans I lived with knew far more about wolves than we ever did. I believe it was because they had the time to live alongside these creatures, to share their world.

NGC: What do think can be learned from your research?
Shaun Ellis: I think the research into wolf interaction with rival packs has tremendous possibilities. The work we've done at Wolf Pack Management is a mere start to what can be achieved. I think a lot more researchers could benefit from understanding the workings of a pack. Maybe it's for people like myself who are actually living with these guys to help the scientists and maybe bridge the gap between the wolves and mankind.

Josh Gershenson - Producer

Much like the program itself, producing The Final Report: Watergate was a process of answering questions.

How could we make this program as authentic and accurate as possible?
During filming, authenticity was critical. Watergate is one of the most covered stories in American history, and we knew viewers would recognize inaccurate props or scenes. With that in mind, we contacted The Watergate Hotel to film on location. The hotel gladly gave us the go-ahead. A few weeks later, I showed up with my Director of Photography and Audio Engineer. I had a laundry list of shots we needed for the program, one of them being the famous shot of the stairwell that the Watergate burglars taped open during the break-in.

That Saturday, the three of us set up lights outside the stairwell and started to map out our first couple of shots. We were so engrossed in our filming that we failed to notice a hotel security guard walking through the parking garage toward us. He must have thought that we were breaking into the hotel because he shined his flashlight in our faces and yelled, "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Within minutes, I explained the situation and he walked away. I turned to my crew and said, "Okay, I want this show to be authentic, but that was ridiculous!"

Jeff Darnell - Viewer Correspondence

One of my fondest memories growing up was watching the general manager of my local television station in Michigan respond to viewer letters. Sad, but true. He would sit behind his desk, read a letter from a viewer, look at the camera dramatically and give his answer, sometimes at the risk of alienating the viewer. I respected his honesty and interest in reaching out to viewers directly.

Thankfully, we don't need to go on camera here, but we can and should take the time to respond to viewer comments in a bigger forum than one-to-one email. We get a lot of questions through our email - comments@natgeochannel.com - and I encourage you to write questions, compliments, complaints, concerns either via the email or this blog. We will, on as regular a basis as possible, take up some emails and concerns here in the blog and answer them so other folks who have the same question can respond.

Without further ado, let's take a few emails we've had recently here at NGC headquarters in Washington, DC.

Stacy writes: Why stir up controversy about Jesus during the week before Easter with a show like "Secret Lives of Jesus"? All you are going to do is confuse some people and cause others to doubt. You could find something more factual that could instead bring some people to Christ. I am so sick of this. Many stations do this every year. I find it very disrespectful. Let's see a show that talks about all of the historical evidence for the existence of Christ and his diety.

NGC: Religion is a topic that National Geographic has covered and will continue to cover over the years. Its an important topic in world culture, but one that clearly brings out very strong emotions on all sides. Our intent is not to be disrespectful in any way, we seek to bring out theories and discussions on all forms of religion and allow viewers to make their own opinions. We often air themed programs surrounding religious holidays simply because that's when viewer's interest is at the highest for these topics. Our goal is not confusion, but discussion and sometimes that does mean covering controversial topics. We believe we broach them in a way that allows people to make their own decisions about the topics we are covering.