Human Footprint

Human Footprint (2023) is a broadcast series produced by Day’s Edge Productions for National PBS.

My roles: Cinematographer • Writer • Sound Recordist

Earth has never experienced anything like us: a single species dominating and transforming the planet. Biologist Shane Campbell-Staton travels the globe to explore our Human Footprint and to discover how the things we do reveal who we truly are.

This series was the first project I worked on after joining Day’s Edge in April, 2020. During those initial weeks on the job, as the first wave of the pandemic shut down LA, I wrote treatments for four episodes ranging from the ecological impacts of fashion to the spread of zoonotic diseases.

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01. Shane walks through Princeton with his great dane, Tatanka.
02. The crew films a conversation about coyotes with urban ecologist Chris Schell.
03. Composer Adrian Younge lays down a beat for his entrance in episode six.

By the time we received the green light and funding from PBS eighteen months later, my bosses had assigned me to lead another series for Day’s Edge, but I was still able to work on Human Footprint in several roles: I contributed to development, production, and post-production by writing treatments, obtaining access to characters, coordinating shoots, and editing rough cuts, and I spent roughly 40 days in the field as a camera operator and sound recordist. As a souvenir for the crew, I also designed a 130-page behind-the-scenes coffee table book. 

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04. A specialized chopper herds wild horses toward a trap during a roundup.
05. Celebratory wrap photo.
06. Yours truly putting in work with a telephoto lens.

As our first broadcast series, Human Footprint was a huge lift for Day’s Edge: we had to make six hours of television in eighteen months. This required scaling our full-time staff from four to twelve, renting commercial office space, and developing both the infrastructure and protocols necessary to keep things organized and running smoothly. Many gifted people contributed their talents to make this possible — in the field, in the edit suite, and (perhaps most importantly) in the office. The credits below are incomplete, but they convey the roles of our core team.

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  • Shane Campbell-Staton

    Host

  • Nate Dappen

    Director • Producer

  • Neil Losin

    Director • Producer

  • Adrian Younge

    Original Score

  • Rick Smith

    Director of Photography

  • Georgia Krause

    Camera Op • Sound Recordist

  • David Hutchinson

    Camera Op • Sound Recordist

  • Kori Price

    Production Manager

  • Page Buono

    Associate Producer

  • Elliott Kennerson

    Post-production Supervisor

  • Andy Laub

    Editor

  • Angel Morris

    Editor

  • Adam Moffat

    Editor

  • Sami Van Praet

    Assistant Editor

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