On December 4th, legendary director Tim Haines came to Bangor zoological society and Bangor biological society to talk about his experiences in film making.

In 1978 Haines began to study Zoology and Applied Zoology at Bangor University.

For some time after he was drawing cartoons for a local newspaper, until he found a way into the BBC.

Back 30 years ago it was especially hard to have your voice heard

Nowadays you can easily project your voice but there are may voices competing against yours.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Walking with Dinosaurs was a marvel when it was released, due to the use of puppets as opposed to the computer animations often used.

Even now it stands the test of time, not saying that these puppets  are better than computer animation, but it is still one of the first documentaries of its kind to do so and so remains iconic.

“Airing in over 200 countries”

When working in the science department of the BBC, Haines became aware that Mike Mill was looking for a large project.

The discovery signed a contract with the BBC allowing Haines and Mill to have 2 million pounds for the production of Walking with Dinosaurs.

Filmed in Redwood Forest of California, the crew used remote control puppets to film the scenes.

No computer generated images were used for the whole documentary.

Upon its release in 1999, it was one of the biggest hits on the discovery channel, airing in over 200 countries.

Due to its success Haines left the BBC and went independent.

Primeval

When the Doctor Who slot on Saturday night TV opened up, the BBC were looking for a new Sci-Fi show to fill the slot.

Tim’s new show “Primeval” fitted the bill and 3 scripts were commissioned.

However Russel T Davis revived Doctor Who and the Saturday night slot was lost.

ITV however were interested in the potential of Primeval, and backed this by commissioning it.

Not only a drama, the show told zoological stories, predicting the future using facts from the past and present.

It was incredibly successful and ran for a total of 6 series.

Currently

Now Tim Haines has established his own television production company known as loud minds.

The name originates from a quote by Stephen Hawkings: “The quietest people have the loudest minds”.

Influences on me

Having attended this talk on curiosity of what is out there after university, I was pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of Tim’s career. I would never have thought that doing Zoology would lead to the opportunities that it has led Tim to do. Although I do not think that film-making is for me, it has made me think more widely of the jobs available after university.