He might be nearing the end of his career, but Mark Thorp doesn’t intend to go quietly.
The Sault Ste. Marie native is part of a Toronto-based post production team that worked on the Love Nature series Evolution Earth, which has been nominated for Outstanding Nature Documentary in the News and Documentary Emmys.
The five-episode television series documents the diverse challenges animals face while adapting to our changing planet.
Director of Post Production at Love Nature, Thorp has worked at parent company Blue Ant Media's Toronto headquarters since 2016 and is largely credited for helping the company boost its technical standards.
He’s been in the Post Production arena in all sorts of capacities for the past 45 years, but he now works exclusively on documentaries.
Evolution Earth's nomination for Outstanding Nature Documentary is the first time a Love Nature series has ever received a nod from the Emmy Awards, which will announce the winner in New York City next month.
“We’re pretty jazzed about it,” Thorp told SooToday. “We have won other awards, but this is the first time we’ve been recognized outside the wildlife and natural history community and to the larger community. This is a big deal for us.”
The standalone series is separated into five episodes based on their environments: Earth, Islands, Heat, Ice, and Grasslands.
Produced by UK-based production company, Passion Planet, Love Nature, a global wildlife and nature channel, PBS in the US and Arte in France, Evolution Earth took more than two years to shoot and featured wildlife scenes from every continent.
As Director of Post Production, Thorp approved the 4K HDR (High Dynamic Range) colour correction and colour transform to 4K SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), used for PBS and Arte, in addition to approving the final technical Quality Check process.
He was also involved in camera choices, shooting plans, and liaising with the cinematographer on screening camera tests.
Those standards are just the latest in a long line of outstanding technological advances the director has had to adapt to in a constantly evolving workspace — and he wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Because there’s been so much change, I think that’s what’s kept me in it beyond 65,” he said. “I really enjoy the problem solving and coming up with ideas that would satisfy what it was that the filmmakers needed to do. It’s storytelling using film — that hasn’t changed. But a lot of the technology has.”
Of the countless projects Thorp has worked on, Evolution Earth is memorable — not because it’s one of the final major series he’ll be part of, or that it’s received Emmy consideration.
The documentary covers a world issue the Sault native has a personal appreciation for: tackling climate change.
“It’s very much showing the real impact of climate change and how it’s affecting animals around the world,” he explained. “It’s startling to see, and we have a certain responsibility as filmmakers to highlight that.”
“It’s sort of happy in one sense because it shows animals that are overcoming climate change, but it’s also showing others that are struggling,” he added.
Thorp mentioned that a notable example of climate change was experienced by the show’s camera crews when they went to film jaguars in the Pantanal — a large tropical wetland in Brazil.
“They couldn’t find a single jaguar,” he said. “The weather patterns had shifted, and it affected where they were going to be. Knowing where animals are going to be at a certain time of year has gotten much trickier with climate change.”
“And then you see what polar bears are going through right now,” he added. “They’re adapting, but they’re actually getting smaller. They just can’t find the food anymore. We’re seeing huge change on a larger scale.”
Nearing retirement, Thorp admits he’s never given the comradery of awards season too much thought.
But this year, he feels his team has earned it.
“Now that it’s actually here, the recognition is nice,” he said. “There are some very fine quality TV series and documentaries that are in there, so we’re by no means a slam dunk to get this thing. But I sure hope we win. It’s a really great series.”
Readers can watch Evolution Earth in Canada on specialty cable channel, Love Nature.