The Listening Planet

A Life in Sound - Environmental Film

My name is Nick Lyon. I'm a film director. I spent the first 7 years of my career as a grassroots activist, fighting for human rights and animal justice, working undercover to bring the story of palm oil to the world. My work with nomadic forests tribes was instrumental in major European investors pulling $1bn from destructive forestry practices. I then moved into television and won prestigious awards for David Attenborough’s Dynasties: Painted Wolf, Jon Favreau’s Prehistoric Planet, and Wonders of the Monsoon: The Drought. November 2024 sees the release of Our Oceans with Barack Obama - with some hard-hitting environmental subtext. But now I want to go further.

The world I have dedicated my career and passion to filming is diminishing. Many of the locations that we have gathered iconic imagery and sounds from have simply disappeared within recent years. The truth of what is happening is filtered so heavily by our normal routes to our audience that we share the concern that our films, with all their beauty, give a false impression that there are still untouched wildernesses and safe havens for wildlife. And this is simply no longer the case.

In a bold move, driven by passion, dedication, and a sense of duty to the wild places and rich biodiversity, I have stepped away from paid work, convinced that I have a story that needs to be told. A story that is deeply beautiful, emotionally engaging, but challenges the audience to think in a way that mainstream natural history doesn’t allow for. We have a growing number of collaborators and supporters, who are giving their time, their expertise, and their personal money too - but we need more help to get this project across the line.

“PRESS RELEASE Washington, DC (October 9, 2024) - There has been a catastrophic 73% decline in the average size of monitored wildlife populations* in just 50 years (1970-2020), according to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Living Planet Report 2024.”

A Life in Sound is a lens through which one man’s life work - 60 years - bears witness to both the remarkable beauty, but also incredible fragility of the natural world. Martyn Stewart, regarded as the David Attenborough of Sound (BBC/National Geographic), is our guide into the world of sound - a true record of what exists, and what has disappeared. His activist spirit has driven him to all corners of the planet to give a voice to the voiceless and it is now time to tell this story.

Our Creative Team:

Producer: Amanda Hill: Founder of BBC Earth and first Global CMO for BBC Worldwide/Studios. Not only an experienced brand strategist and Exec Producer of Planet Earth the Movie, One Life, Enchanted Kingdom 3D. Amanda left the corporate world to found The Listening Planet Foundation - to create a legacy of positive impact using her uncle’s 60 years of nature recordings from over 60 countries, covering every continent.

Director of Photography: Matt Aeberhard. Matt was the protégé of the famous Nat Geo photographer and cinematographer Hugo van Lawick. Matt’s fast rise to prominence saw him create the most nominated film of all time with his stunning masterpiece The Crimson Wing for Disney Nature. He is a mainstay of the biggest landmarks, but he is particularly proud of his work on Our Planet for Netflix and Perfect Planet for the BBC; he was a key DoP on the acclaimed Dancing with the Birds special and The Secret Lives of Orangutans - both for Netflix.

Here's a heartfelt statement from our incredible director of photography: https://youtu.be/x1mM50YpZa4

MORE DETAIL ON THE FILM:

The natural world has a voice - one that speaks through the buzz of bees, the howl of wolves, the rustle of rainforests, and the distant cry of whales. Yet, with each passing day, the voices of countless species are falling silent. "A Life in Sound" is not just a documentary; it’s a profound and poetic exploration of the rich biodiversity of our planet, told through the vast collection of nature’s sounds meticulously captured by Martyn Stewart, the founder of The Listening Planet. His tireless mission to give a voice to the voiceless is supported by expert witnesses, musicians, policy makers - all people who have been profoundly moved by Martyn’s work.

Over the last 60 years, Martyn has journeyed across every continent, recording the sounds of life from the Amazonian rainforests to the Arctic tundra, from the songs of the temperate forest to the roar of the African savannah. He has built the world’s largest library of nature’s sounds, capturing the beauty and complexity of biodiversity in its purest form. Through his microphone, we hear the voice of the Earth - one that is vibrant, layered, and teeming with life. But in a single lifetime the world has changed, the once abundant sounds are becoming more and more sparse.

Martyn’s recordings are a living archive - not only of the present but of what once was. The dawn chorus of a forest alive with birds and beasts now echoes in places that are eerily quiet, the hum of pollinators reduced to whispers. His work captures both the magnificence and the fragility of life, as species once thriving face extinction. In the last 50 years, the planet has lost over 73% of its wildlife, and Martyn has been recording all this time - recordings that tell the story of this decline, one sound at a time.

Each biome he’s recorded—from the coral reefs in Australia to the highlands of Scotland—offers a different chapter in the story of biodiversity, an auditory glimpse into ecosystems that are disappearing before our eyes. Through Martyn’s vast array of sounds, viewers will be transported into the heart of nature, hearing the chatter of primates in the Congo, the splash of a sea turtle in the Pacific, and the elusive call of the Arctic fox in the frozen north. These sounds are not just background—they are the very essence of life, intertwined with the survival of every species, including our own.

Yet, "A Life in Sound" is more than a reflection of loss - it is a call to action. Martyn’s work as an activist - fighting for dolphins in Japan, exposing the cruelty of the fur trade, and documenting illegal poaching in Africa - underscores the urgency of the biodiversity crisis. His recordings are a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of protecting what remains before it’s too late.

Why This Film Matters: Backing "A Life in Sound" means supporting a project that gives nature a voice at a time when it is most in danger of being silenced. This film will make viewers not only see but hear the beauty we still have, and inspire them to fight for it. Martyn’s collection is a sonic treasure trove, a testament to the richness of biodiversity, and an urgent plea for its preservation. Biodiversity is the music of the Earth, and we must act now to ensure the song continues.

Let’s listen to the planet - before it goes silent.

Why We Need to Make It: We, the team behind the film, are high-end natural history filmmakers - with many decades of experience bringing some of the most majestic wildlife films to your screens. In a bold move we have decided to step away from the landmark “blockbuster” productions to make this passion project - because, like Martyn, we too have seen the natural world fragment and diminish in our lifetimes. We stand united with a shared and deep love for the wild places and the animals we have worked so hard to capture on film. But it is time for us to welcome you into our world - to peel back the curtain and let you see, hear and feel what it is really like to experience the wild as it was and as it is now.

Most conservationists and activists are known for particularly championing a single species, or a handful of species, but in Martyn’s journey across the planet is perhaps unique - as a collector of sounds he has always given equal investment of time and effort into the everything from the very smallest to the very biggest animals, he’s recorded the pulse of vascular plants, and the creaking of shifting glaciers.

The film is a love letter to the natural world, full of exquisite beauty and incredible encounters, but it also reveals the very real trauma of working in this beauty whilst seeing it being torn down around us, a trauma we have all experienced. We will make the case that saving biodiversity is not some privileged romantic view, but that we need nature, because we are part of nature.

Everything that sustains us requires that we don’t break the deep interconnectedness of all existence that has taken hundreds of millions of years to balance into the life-support system that it is now. Never forget that without life on this planet all there would be is a big wet rock...we simply can’t survive without the other animals that make up the rich tapestry of life.

Our Approach: Our challenge is that whilst Martyn has recorded for 60 years and we have an absolute wealth of recordings to rifle through - there is very little visual record of this journey. But Martyn is a storyteller, and in the time I have known him he has conjured incredibly rich imagery in my head as he describes in detail the most fascinating life. But I love a challenge - and we plan to bring the most sumptuous natural history imagery to this story, full of textures, steeped in meaning and metaphor - from the finest cinematography to exquisitely hand-drawn animation.

It is often the greatest challenges that inspire the greatest creativity - and this film will have it all. No challenge is too great when there is a story that has to be told. Every member of the team will be bringing their absolute A-game - because there has never been a more meaningful and important story to tell.

Freedom of Expression: This is a rare opportunity to create something truly cinematic, with the highest aesthetic values, made by a uniquely talented and dedicated group of passionate creatives with activist hearts. Outside of the censorship and oversight of the usual television commissions we work on, we will be able to tell the honest truth about the state of biodiversity, whilst ensuring a message of hope and possibility.

WHAT IS THE MONEY TO BE USED FOR:

Phase 1 $45K - We are aiming to fund 2 filming shoots - one in Florida and Louisiana in November 2024 and the second in Scotland January 2025. Each shoot will cost c. $20-25k for expenses only (flights, car hire, accom, food, etc). No one in the team is being paid, they’re doing it out of passion for the project and the goodness of their hearts. We bring our own specialist, cinema-standard equipment, with a few pieces begged or kindly borrowed. Anything remaining will go towards pick ups and edit.

Phase 2 Budget TBC - Editing and Promotion - cut the film ready to hit the film festival circuit hard - and get the story out into the world.

A NOT-FOR-PROFIT FILM:

There is no commercial incentive in making this film.