Vikings, remote islands, baby otters and hunting orca…

It’s been the busiest year ever for the team at Maramedia !

With 4 exciting projects completed this year we have spanned blue chip, specialist factual and children’s – its certainly been a year for everyone on the team!

Our blue chip 4K specials, Wild Shetland and Wild Way of the Vikings are being delivered as we speak. They have been a huge project for us over the past 2 years and we are thrilled with the finished films which will TX internationally next year. 

Shetland is such a special place to film and with dramatic scenes of orca hunts and otter families, tiny tern chicks and wild landscapes it promises to showcase these truly special wild islands.

Wild Way of the Vikings with its dramatic blue chip sequences of reindeer, Orca, whales and otters, blends blue chip wildlife with history in a fresh new take on the natural world.

These projects have brought us in contact with a whole world of amazing scientists, zooarchaeologists, historians and enthusiasts and we have discovered so much about the natural world through the eyes of the Vikings - these enduringly popular, ancient people and are so grateful to everyone for their interest and passion in creating these shows.

In fact we have become a bit of a specialist in the Vikings which originally spawned our Gudrun the Viking princess series of which we completed the second series of this year working with a range of talented young actors and animals! Encouraging young people to be inspired, interested in and care for the natural world is key to the team at Maramedia and we were thrilled to have the series acknowledged with an RTS Scotland award in May.

This year also saw us enter a whole new genre creating and complete a brand new series – Born to Be Wild for BBC Scotland. The 10 hour series follows the amazing and heart warming stories of injured or orphaned wild animals, who, through the care and dedication of the Scottish SPCA wildlife staff, are nursed back to health and then released into the stunning landscape of Scotland. We look forward to sharing this with you in 2019.

Our projects wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing collaboration between such a range of international broadcasters from BBC Scotland, CBeebies, ORF Austria, PBS in the USA and France 5 and ITVG – not to mention the support of the EU media fund. We are also pleased to have worked with such a range of brilliant craft team from post houses in Glasgow and Bristol, amazing composers and musicians, camera team, editors, all the esteemed narrators from Ewan McGregor to Siobhan Redmond, Denis Lawson, and of course our own brilliant Maramedia team and freelancers.

Innovation, collaboration and respect for the natural world are key to driving our quest for the highest quality production values, which we aim to inspire, educate and entertain all about our natural world. 

We are looking forward to 2019 and working with old friends and a suite of new teams to deliver more exciting projects!

To keep up to date on our projects filming and plans follow us on social channels below.

#Wildwayofthevikings

#Borntobewild

#Wildshetland

#Vikingprincess

And if you want to catch some of our work in your Christmas viewing – many series are currently available on BBC iplayer; Gudrun the Viking Princess, Highlands and Hotel Armadillo.

Thank you for all your support over 2018 and we wish everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas holiday and a very Happy New Year for 2019 ! 

The team at Maramedia

PRESS RELEASE

Born to be Wild…..  

A brand new ten-part series by Maramedia for BBC Scotland

Life at the Scottish SPCA – the biggest and most advanced wildlife rehab centre in Britain where thousands of wild animals from otters and seals to robins, to Pine martens and eagles make the journey from centre admission back to the wild and stunning landscapes of Scotland.

Maramedia has secured an exciting new ten-part series from BBC Scotland. 

The Scottish SPCA National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Alloa, Fife is the biggest and most advanced wildlife rehab centre in the UK. Last year more than 9,600 wild animals passed through its doors and the number continues to rise with each year. But what happens when the patients are discharged? 

In this landmark series, cameras will go behind the scenes for the first time as injured and sick animals make their heart warming journey to recovery and eventually back to the wild landscape in which they were born.

Scotland’s landscapes are some of the most stunning and diverse in Britain – home to our most iconic and most loved animals. This exciting new series will feature a host of loveable characters from otters to orphaned baby fox cubs, badgers to eagles, white baby seals to hundreds of hungry hedgehogs. It’s a race against time to asses, treat and cure each unique case before ensuring they are fit to face the rigours of the wild.

Beautifully filmed in stunning Scottish surroundings, it’s a heart warming watch as Britain’s best loved animals make a tear jerking journey back to their wild home..
A staggering five thousand animals were returned to the wild successfully last year, after bespoke and careful treatment and a re-wilding programme.

Many are still babies and without a wild family it’s the centre staff who must use their warmth, expertise and dedication to bring up these young wild orphans before ensuring that they forget all about their human surrogate parents and return to their true wild behavior. 

Produced by Maramedia, Scotland’s leading producers of natural history documentaries, the series showcases the stunning scenery and wildlife of Scotland and uses top-end natural history filming techniques. The series is a BBC Scotland commission with ITVG as international distributor. 

The series is currently in production and will be delivered to the BBC towards the end of 2018.

 To follow behind the scenes stories of the production, follow Maramedia and Scottish SPCA social channels ..

#borntobewild
@scottishSPCA
@mara_media

Quotes

 “It’s shaping up to be a thrilling series – the access to animals you’d only ever see from the end of a telescope, is incredible and the resilience and brilliance of the skilled Scottish SPCA staff really shines through as doe their passion for giving ever single animal they receive absolutely the best care possible.” -  Tom Cara, Series Producer Maramedia.

 “We are thrilled with this new commission from BBC Scotland and to be working with the dedicated wildlife team at the Scottish SPCA. Seeing these wild animals at close quarters is a real privilege offering viewers a chance to learn much more about Scotland’s amazing wildlife.” - Nigel Pope, Creative Director Maramedia.

‘This is an exciting new project which will offer the viewer a real insight into the work done to release animals back into the wild in the Scottish countryside and also provide many emotional and moving moments.  I am sure it will resonate with audiences in Scotland.’- David Harron Commissioning Executive, Factual, BBC Scotland

Scottish SPCA Chief Executive Kirsteen Campbell said, “We are delighted to be part of this exciting new programme with Maramedia which will showcase the incredible work done by the team at our National Wildlife Rescue Centre at Fishcross.“Our wildlife centre is rarely seen so this is a great opportunity for the public to view first-hand the wild animals we rescue, rehabilitate and release, while fully respecting the needs of all the animals in our care.” - Kirsteen Campbell, CEO Scottish SPCA

2018 at Maramedia

So far...

Spring 2018 at Maramedia was shaped and dominated by Scotland’s weather. At least most of us can relate to the fact that Ned Stark was indeed correct when he said, ‘Winter is coming.’ It came…and it stayed. Then it left but then it came again…and again…right up until mid-April, giving us a snowy Easter. And a snowy start to the filming of Viking Princess series 2!

Snow aside, it was a very busy Spring at Maramedia, and we anticipated an ongoing busy summer too!

Viking Princess series 2   

Viking Princess series 2 was filmed and edited quicker than you can say Viking princess Series 2! We had a fabulous time filming up at Duncarron Medieval Fort throughout the Easter holidays and even though the snow fell from the sky more often than the sun shone, we made the most of the beautiful snowfall and had many a snowball fight of course!

Shetland   

A successful edit has allowed us time to work very closely, with composer, Fraser Purdie and we anticipate some incredible music scoring for the programme. We can’t wait to share it with you all towards the end of the year!

Wild way of the Vikings  

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the filming for ‘Wild way of the Vikings’ allowing us to partake in some incredible shoots in, Iceland, Norway and our very own Bass Rock. Couple spectacular wildlife with incredible Viking re-enactment and you end up with ‘Wild way of the Vikings’!

Festivals

We are also thrilled to add that Gudrun the Viking Princess won the Childrens award at the Scottish RTS Awards 2018, in May. We are so happy to receive the award and the team had a fantastic night celebrating at the event!

Roll on summer!

Now the tables have turned and Scotland seems to be having its best summer ever weather wise. It’s hard to imagine we were knee or even waist deep in snow just a few short months ago! But alas, lets not dwell in the snowy past and lets be thankful of the summer sunshine…even if Glasgow seems to be melting before our eyes!

We have a thrilling new commission currently under wraps to be revealed very soon, and of course ‘Gudrun the Viking Princess’, series two, delivered to the world for summer into Autumn viewing.

Cheers from us all at Maramedia!

PRESS RELEASE

David Tennant narrates Gudrun the Viking Princess

Broadcast on CBeebies from 15th January 2018

A thousand years ago in the wild lands of the North lived a special little girl. The trees and animals of the forest were her friends and playmates.  Now travel back in time to join her games.  Explore the wild with Gudrun the Viking Princess, a new innovative format combining live-action drama and factual entertainment for young children.

This enchanting new series for youngsters is fairytale-like and inspirational.  Beautifully filmed in stunning Scottish surroundings, Gudrun the Viking Princess delivers a magical narrative that provides starting points for young children to connect with the wild environment. They learn with Gudrun in a simple, charming and totally captivating way, how to share the land and sea with exciting creatures.

Actor David Tennant provides both narration and an ‘inner voice’ guiding and supporting Gudrun. The specially composed music is a key component with catchy refrains underlying and guiding the story arc.

Gudrun the Viking Princess is a new innovative format combining drama and factual entertainment for young children.  The first ten episodes of this enchanting series will be available as a Box Set on BBC iPlayer from Christmas Day 25th December 2017.  The series will launch primetime on CBeebies on Monday, 15th January 2018 and the second series of ten episodes are due to air in summer 2018. The series will also be versioned in Gaelic for BBC Alba with transmission to be announced in 2018.

Produced by MaraKids, the children’s division of Maramedia, Scotland’s leading producers of natural history documentaries, the series showcases the stunning scenery and wildlife of Scotland and uses top-end natural history filming techniques with live-action and outstanding wildlife footage.

Gudrun the Viking Princess

Series 1 of 10 x 5mins episodes to launch primetime on CBeebies from 15th January 2018

Series 1 available as a Box Set on BBC iPlayer Christmas Day 25th December 2017

Plus a Gaelic version for BBC Alba launch to be announced 2018

http://www.maramedia.co.uk/

                                                                                                                                 Jan 2018