In this post-screening Q&A, Bristol-based Natural History Producer Nigel Ashcroft discusses working with Terrence Malick and the outstanding 20-minute universe sequence that Nigel and his team created for The Tree of Life. The Q&A is chaired by Paul Appleby.

In Palme d'Or winning The Tree of Life Terrence Malick has managed to create both an intimate drama with a 1950s family at its core and, incredibly, an epic examination of the evolution of the universe itself. It goes without saying, therefore, that Tree of Life is nothing if not hugely ambitious: this is audacious, brave filmmaking on a visionary scale. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn head up the fine cast in an odyssey through time featuring dinosaurs, the big bang, meteors and galaxies, tackling some of life's hardest, most profound questions. Mad and magnificent, frustrating and fascinating, baffling and bizarre, The Tree of LIfe has polarised audiences and critics alike.

Nigel Ashcroft's brief was to create a sense of the scale of humanity and nature, starting with the evolution of the universe, to the creation of the our planet, and the start of life and beyond – as a counterpoint to the micro detail of life portrayed in the film. Coupled with this was the challenge of working to Terrence Malick's camera dogma, his own rules of cinematography, which in most cases are the antithesis of the traditional conventions of natural history filmmaking.

Nigel Ashcroft has been making award-winning films and television programmes for thirty years. He has worked in Drama, Commercials and Animation, but has specialised in Natural History and Science.

Nigel is a regular judge at international film festivals and frequently runs courses and workshops to share his wide knowledge and experience of the film and television business with the next generation.

Paul Appleby is a BAFTA-winning producer who worked at BBC Bristol for 30 years, including 20 as a series producer of TV and multiplatform projects in the Natural History Unit (NHU). Paul is Chair of Bristol Media and Director of media consultancy company VID.

Related Links:www.foxsearchlight.com/thetreeoflife

Posted on Sun 24 July 2011.

---