Boreal Broadcast Educates And Entertains
“We really wanted to tell a northern story, but it is amazing the kind of response we’re getting.
Kelly Milner
“It’s a great show!”
The words ring true, despite being uttered by a ground squirrel. Scout is one of the first characters viewers meet when tuning in to “Northern Tails.” They’ll meet the other forest dwellers as Scout’s film crew broadcasts their stories, coming to you from underground, above ground and even in a tree.
The foibles of these funny, furry but still feral folks may seem insignificant; but they are in fact educating an international audience about the northern environment and its global impacts.
The six-part series is an exceptional new venture into on-line broadcasting, created and produced in the Yukon, but already finding an international audience. Kelly Milner, the creator and team leader, says they are hearing from people all over the world.
“We really wanted to tell a northern story, but it is amazing the kind of response we’re getting. I think the puppets themselves are kind of magic. People love them. You have people in New York City saying ‘I love the show!’”
This “mockumentary” web series launched January 3 on YouTube. The puppet actors are all creatures living in the boreal forests of northern Canada. The scripts are funny, but also filled with facts about the forest’s flora and fauna. Technically, it forgoes cutting edge special effects, leaning instead on high production values and craftsmanship.
“We built a crazy, beautiful set. It has a retro look, and a hand-painted backdrop. It took a lot of time and planning. We also had to build the puppets.”
Milner says one of the first challenges was recruiting – no, actually creating – a workforce to put the show together.
“We had about two seconds of experience. None of us knew anything about doing a puppet show. We had about 30 people on set, and it was very important to me to put Yukoners in all parts of the production, so we had to learn about it. We brought professionals up for workshops, we did training. We now have experienced people, experienced puppeteers in the Yukon.”
While the technical end is complicated, the creative work is possibly even more demanding. The show strives to both educate and entertain viewers of all ages and backgrounds. Each 12-minute episode includes a comedy sketch featuring one of the animals, some relevant science and comments from experts and regular folk.
It tackles significant issues, such as the decline of the woodland caribou herds, but always with a sense of humour. Some of which is provided by roving reporter Michael Jay, who also just happens to be a fox.
“I think at the end of the day, it needs to be fun. A lot of people questioned whether there would be an audience for this; it’s amazing to see how much this show resonates in the comments. We’ve put together a quality project that goes beyond the Yukon; people around the world seem to think it’s pretty great.”
The metrics so far support Milner’s assessment, in a big way. Ten days after release, the first episode had reached almost 20,000 views and the channel had more than 6,000 subscribers. Most channels take more than a year to reach even a thousand subscriptions.
Like most overnight sensations, Northern Tails was years in the making.
“I started working on this project about 10 years ago. My dad and I were talking about how to make people understand the boreal forest and how the animals live in it.”
Her father, Bob Hayes, was a Government of Yukon biologist. He poured his heart and soul into the production, but sadly never saw it come to fruition.
“He got quite sick. The last year of his life was spent working to make this project happen. He passed away just before we found out that we had the funding to go ahead.”
Hayes is listed in the credits as the inspiration, as well as the G.O.A.T. His influence is reflected in the show’s attention to accurate scientific information, and respect for the natural world.
“The characters have the actual biology – and behaviours of their species – with a zap of pop culture to keep things fun. What’s important to a wolf? Family. So we based him on Tony Soprano. They’re relatable on a human level, but with the traits of who they are.”
Milner says producing the series was a great experience for everyone involved.
“Puppets are a lot of work. If you put into the script that a puppet is writing something in a book, you have to sew the pen into the puppet’s hand. But it was very fun. It’s still fun; we were in production for four weeks and we laughed all day. Well, there were some tears also.”
The project is innovative and ambitious in ways that are unexpected in an independent, Canadian production. But for all television producers in Canada, money is scarce and Milner is again trying to pull together funding for another season. What will become of our creative creatures chronicling crucial concerns? Hopefully, those with the purse strings will bear in mind that people are raven about it, and if they caribou quality, they won’t throw it to the wolves but will gopher another season; we do not want to see the back end of Northern Tails.
