Coming to a theater near you – Movies made by chimpanzees

Could chimpanzees be the next Tarantino or Spielberg? Well, they may not be able to compete with the best movie directors, but soon we will be able to see movies made by chimpanzees.

How is this possible? It may be hard to believe, but according to a BBC report, the BBC broadcast the world’s first film shot entirely by chimpanzees on January 27, 2009 as part of a natural history documentary. Called “Chimpcam,” the film was created using chimpanzee-proof cameras designed by primatologists conducting a scientific study of how chimpanzees view the world and each other.

The project began when Betsy Herrelko, a primatologist studying for a PhD in primate behavior at the University of Stirling in the UK, introduced video technology to 11 chimpanzees at Edinburgh Zoo. The compound in which they lived was ideal for such a study, as it consists of three large interconnected outdoor areas and several smaller rooms.

Herrelko began the project by teaching the chimpanzees to use a touch screen to choose which videos they wanted to watch, and was thus able to learn what types of images the chimpanzees preferred to see. For example, would they rather look in one of the outside areas or would they rather see zoo staff in the food preparation area preparing their food?

Herrelko then showed the chimpanzees how to use a “Chimpcam,” which is a video camera in a safe that the chimpanzees cannot destroy. At first, some chimpanzees simply carried the camera with them, but after a while, the chimpanzees became interested in seeing what was on the screen as they moved the camera, which recorded what they saw. And that film is what was shown as “Chimpcam,” which I saw myself: about five minutes of long, medium, and close-up shots of chimpanzees moving around the enclosure.

Although the researchers concluded that the chimpanzees did not actively attempt to film any particular subject or understand that they were making a movie while moving with the Chimpcam, perhaps some of the chimpanzees could have done so with a little extra training. After all, not everyone who picks up a video camera becomes a good filmmaker or even wants to be. But someone with a keen interest in filming can do it, and some people are much more eager to learn than others.

So why couldn’t that be true of chimpanzees, or other primates, or even other animals for that matter? After all, researchers have put video cameras on all kinds of animals to get their view of the world, including dolphins, whales, seals, walruses, dogs and cats. So maybe with a little more training and showing the animals the results of their footage, they might realize that they’re actually making a movie they can watch. Then, just as apes have learned to use sign language to communicate with humans and in some cases among themselves, chimpanzees and other apes can also learn to make movies.

Then consider the possibilities. We could have a reality series about chimpanzees in the wild or in zoos, shot by the chimpanzees themselves, and they could take the camera where no human could go. We could unleash the chimpanzees on a film set to provide a new perspective, while filming the actors or whatever they’re interested in on set from a different angle. And how about recruiting chimpanzees and other apes to help with documentaries, allowing them to take their cameras out into the field to record life in the wild? And then, as these ape filmmakers gain worldwide renown, we might even have them cover movie premieres and news.

In fact, as the apes become proficient, they could find jobs in the industry behind the camera as cameramen and cinematographers, since, after all, they could probably be hired at a much lower rate than other filmmakers, And just think of the huge publicity for the first companies to have apes on their crews. People would love to see his movies, like the next big thing. Apes would not only be on camera or portrayed in movies like PLANET OF THE APES. No, they would also be behind the camera, and perhaps a good title for their first feature film could be PLANET OF THE APES.