NOVOSIBIRSK, June 25. /TASS/. Specialists of the Novosibirsk State University (NSU) went to the Arctic together with the University’s expedition to make films about how scientists work there. The authors told TASS how they made films in the severe northern conditions, about the atmosphere there, and about importance of such documentaries.
Unpredictable Arctic plot
Authors of the University’s video channel have released in 2018 two documentaries about the Arctic expeditions. The first film tells about how geologists work in the Lena River’s delta in Yakutia, and the second - about an expedition to Franz-Joseph Land. Every film’s duration is 30 minutes, and it took authors several months to make them.
According to NSU LIFE’s editor Liliya Styazhina, the team worked on the first film for one year. "In documentary, we, surely, have a plot before the shooting, but Arctic expeditions are so unpredictable, and thus we changed and adjusted quite a lot there," she told TASS. "The post-shooting production featured editors, colorists, designers, sound editors - the production took almost one year."
Anastasiya Korableva’s first film - Arctic. The land’s edge - is devoted to an expedition of Novosibirsk geologists and students of the University’s Geology-Physics Department to the Samoilovsky Island station. In order to get to the station, they took a flight to Tiksi via Yakutsk, then took a 10-hour voyage along the Lena. On the island they made hours-long trips crossing the tundra.
In the film, students share impressions from work in the stormy Arctic winds: without clouds and under the clear sky it would have been less impressive. "I, as a geologist, all those hardships are no big deal - worn out, freezing, the pouring rain wouldn’t stop - and here you are by the fire, happy as never before," a post-graduate Denis Avdeyev said.
The film’s characters, for example, study how soil on the island is magnetized - it keeps minerals, which "still remember" the Earth’s natural magnet field. That data is helpful in understanding how the continents were moving. Geologists call those minerals "compasses, frozen for millions of years." The practical use of this information is to give reasons for Russia’s positions in the Arctic, this information gives additional reasons in arguments with other countries about to who the rich Arctic shelf may belong, the University’s representative Nikolai Matushkin said.
Besides the absorbed geologists, the film shows many images of the nature - pictures of the islands in the Lena’s delta. "Arctic is a special place, with special climate and nature," Anastasiya Korableva told TASS. "What a severe area and what a diversity of animals and plants."
Atmosphere of magic dormancy
Nikita Kolesov’s second film - Arctic. Space on Earth - is about an expedition of the Floating University to Franz-Joseph Land in 2017. The film shows scientists and students from Russia, and from another six countries - Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Cuba. On board The Professor Molchanov were biologists, geologists, experts in oceans, soils, and other aspects.
"Nikita Kolesov was both shooting and interviewing," Liliya Styazhkina said. "As it is extremely noisy on board, and during stops the work is very tense, making big interviews was out of question, and with the expedition’s participants, who come from Novosibirsk, we finished the interviews in-house."
"A big team worked on the film," she added. "The production took about eight months."
According to Kolesov, he did not intend including own impressions from the Arctic, but the film still has many of them. "Clearly, the film was made in a certain mood - I was making it with love to that special place."
"That place has a special magnetic dormancy, and all guests get overwhelmed with it," he told TASS.
Arctic is an attraction, and it attracts again and again. "The joy, the excitement from what you see here is beyond any words, as if you see something, about what you have been dreaming for long," the University’s Professor Dmitry Metyolkin said. "It is like in childhood: you dream of a bike, you do not get it today, nor tomorrow, not even on birthday, but then, all of a sudden - here it is for some reason."
Education and impetus
The first film about the Arctic was shown in a cinema in Novosibirsk, the second - only at the University, but the audience was big. According to Matushkin, films like those are most important to attract people into the profession of geologist.
"The cooperation between the Geology-Physical Department and the NSU LIFE team continues for a few years," he continued. "Cameramen, directors and other members of the crew attended all the field practices which our students have during Bachelor and Master Courses."
"These films are very useful for the scientific-promotional programs, for attracting talented students," he added.
According to Korableva, such films give to students an impetus for scientific research. "Films show the energy of work, science, research," she said. "They show the severe Arctic areas and how geologists work there, how they cope with the climate challenges."
"The film tells in detail about scientific research, and, thus, educates," the author said. "Such films tune the youth to activities, I should call it so, and this is one of their main tasks.".