VR in the Wild: Meet Filmmaker Elaine Ford

Kyla Ball October 21, 2025

ThingLink has recently made available an inspiring set of three conservation-based 360° videos, designed for learners, educators, and anyone curious about how immersive media can inspire connection with the natural world. Featuring elephants, hippos and wild dogs, they were filmed in Botswana’s Okavango Delta by the highly accomplished interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Elaine Ford.

ThingLink spoke with Elaine to hear more about how and where the films were created, further ideas about how educators could use them as the basis for a wide range of creative and project-based learning, and the journey she has taken so far. We’re sure that her experiences and advice will inspire many young future conservationists, ecologists and immersive content creators!  

An early passion for conservation and creativity

Elaine’s passion for nature and the outdoors began in childhood, where she was happiest playing in mud and climbing trees! Spending time in nature helped her develop a deep connection to the natural world, as well as keen observation skills which fed into an early love of drawing. This led her eventually to art school, where initially she focused on drawing and painting aspects of the natural world as a way to explore and understand it more deeply. 

Evolution into immersive technology 

Elaine’s practice in the more traditional arts expanded to encompass other media like photography, installation, and film, as well as less conventional multidisciplinary approaches like creating salt structures and glass art. Her guiding principal remained “finding ways to co-create with nature’s systems.” In addition to her art studies, she also completed a degree in Biology with Ecology, specialising in tropical biodiversity.

This combination of studies led Elaine to immersive technology, where she saw the potential for VR to help people feel present within the landscape, encounter animals up close and feel part of their world. For Elaine, the power of this medium lies in the way it can help us “see through the eyes of another”. From a wildlife and conservation perspective, this can quite literally mean placing the camera at different heights or in unusual places to replicate as closely as possible the animal’s – or even the plant’s – eye view.

The collaborations behind the creativity 

Elaine explained to us that filming wild animals, particularly in locations like the Okavango Delta, requires significant collaboration with a number of different parties to ensure that the entire project is carried out ethically and sustainably. The filming of the elephants, hippos and wild dogs in Botswana was carried out with a number of different cameras and ancillaries – including a pair of 180° fisheye lens cameras, and cameras carried under drones – with 3D-printed attachments to ensure stable 360° footage. 

The two-week expedition involved close collaboration and included meeting inspiring researchers and conservation scientists dedicated to protecting the Okavango Delta’s remarkable ecosystem and the people and wildlife that call it home. Their knowledge of animal behaviour and movement helped inform the filming approach and deepen understanding of the delicate balance within this unique landscape.

Working in such a remote environment required careful planning, adaptability, and resource management. Elaine used solar power, power banks and in-vehicle charging while travelling between locations, to keep her cameras and equipment running. Every detail from managing batteries and memory cards to timing shoots with shifting light, weather, and wildlife, became part of the creative process.

For students or anyone inspired by the spirit of exploration, the experience offers a glimpse into what it takes to bring stories from the wild to life: patience, creativity, problem-solving, respect for nature, and curiosity.

How can young people start creating immersive experiences?

We asked Elaine for her advice for any young people inspired to enter the world of immersive conservation filmmaking and photography. Here are her top tips – we hope they will inspire your learners!

Think carefully about composition. This includes elements like lighting, and especially for 360° visual media, where do you want your audience to turn to, where to look at first. Where will the “seam” be where the edges of your photosphere are knitted together?

How can you use audio to help you create your immersive experience? What about starting with audio only, creating a soundscape from birdsong or other natural sounds, to set the scene before you let your audience see the visuals?

Above all, stay curious and passionate about the stories you wish to tell, focusing on observation and understanding what captivates you. The natural world can be explored locally, not just in far-flung places! 

Think carefully about the placement of your equipment: During Elaine’s filming, the challenges she faced included animals stepping on or chewing the cameras. Even if you’re not hoping to film anything as heavy as an elephant, make sure your camera housing is robust enough to keep both the camera and any precious memory cards intact. 

Equally importantly – think carefully about where you place yourself! It’s important to always stay aware of what’s behind you, which can be tricky when you are concentrating on the animals you’re filming in front of you. Elaine once turned round to come face to face with a Komodo Dragon which had silently crept up on her whilst she hid behind a rock to film! 

Future Plans

Elaine is currently working on a “Hope Series” as part of Planet Rewild, an initiative bringing together artists, writers, and scientists to create stories connecting people with the world. This series will highlight positive conservation success stories, inspired by Jane Goodall’s messages of hope and action, featuring projects like the reintroduction of Siamese crocodiles in Cambodia, wild horses in Mongolia, and Iberian lynx in Spain and Portugal. 

The series aims to rekindle belief in the planet’s capacity for renewal – celebrating the joy and hope in conservation success stories, and reminding us that recovery is possible when people and nature thrive together.

Make sure you keep up with the project as it develops, via Elaine’s website and social channels.