{"id":306,"date":"2018-05-03T14:49:34","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T13:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/?p=306"},"modified":"2018-05-03T14:49:34","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T13:49:34","slug":"the-rise-of-the-muddy-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2018\/05\/03\/the-rise-of-the-muddy-duck\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of the Muddy Duck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors –\u00a0Billy Heaney, Robbie Phillips, Hattie Lavender, Russell Barnett<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About us:\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Centre for Ecology and Conservation<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is the Biosciences Department at the University of Exeter\u2019s Penryn Campus. It \u00a0is an incredible place to study, not only does it have a world class department, with friendly and inspirational lecturers, but it\u2019s a stone\u2019s throw away from the beach and Cornwall\u2019s abundant marine life. Staff encourage students to make the most of the wonderful natural environment and to gain as much experience as we can in the fields that we wish to pursue upon graduation. During our time in Cornwall, we all got stuck in with a variety of student societies and events including; EcoSoc<\/a><\/strong>, WildDocSoc<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>and WildFilmFest<\/a><\/strong>, and together, the four of us worked on the student led online natural history series \u2018NatureWatch<\/strong><\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"During our time working on \u2018NatureWatch\u2019 we all learned a great deal about wildlife filmmaking and discovered that we\u2019re quite fond of each other and make a good team. We decided that our filmmaking adventures couldn\u2019t end there and we booked a trip to Scotland to film bottlenose dolphins, red squirrels and generally just have a bit of a laugh. It was there in the Scottish Highlands that Muddy Duck was born!<\/p>\n

Muddy Duck\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Muddy Duck<\/strong><\/a> is our student start-up natural history film production company. Our aim is to combine the scientific knowledge gained from our Zoology degrees with the filmmaking experience developed through NatureWatch to produce high quality videos that educate and inspire. With the current state of the world\u2019s ecosystems, communicating science to the general public has never been more important and, in collaboration with the University of Exeter, we hope to showcase the latest biological research to a wider audience through social media. Video is vital in communicating the outputs of research and assists academics increase the impact of their work. Combining our scientific knowledge and film-making capabilities we will be the bridge between academics and the general public, acting as scientific translators. For full details of the team scroll down.<\/p>\n

In the past few months, the University of Exeter has developed a new online presence to showcase the fantastic marine research currently taking place on the Streatham, Truro and Penryn campuses. Having all previously worked with many of the academics currently undertaking marine research at the University, we saw an opportunity to support and work alongside the #ExeterMarine<\/a>\u00a0initiative using film to highlight the work of our diverse marine research community. \u00a0We put together a short film which introduces the ExeterMarine blog and what people can expect to see appearing on social media in the near future.<\/p>\n