aerial view of Western's campus at night, with golden lights surrounded by dark trees

Students showcase talent, expertise in Animal Behavior Film Festival

Short student-produced films feature animals from across the globe as part of a quarter-long project

by Mikayla King

WWU Communications

WWU students Esmé Krause (left) and Abi Weber pose with their Oscar the Octopus Best Screenwriting award from the recent Animal Behavior Film Festival.

A red carpet (actually made from red craft paper) leads into SMATE 110 where a crowd of students, faculty and staff munch on popcorn and candy. A buzz of equally nervous and excited conversation fills the room as they wait for the lights to dim.  

“I’m really excited. I worked so hard on this,” Esmé Krause whispers to their peers as they take a seat.  

The chatter rises until WWU Assistant Professor of Biology Chris Templeton interrupts to welcome everyone to Western’s Second Annual Animal Behavior Film Festival. Then the room goes dark and the first film begins. 

The film festival is the culmination of a quarter’s worth of work for the students enrolled in BIOL 410: Animal Behavior. The class produced 15 four-minute films, ranging from Bill Nye-inspired educational comedies to documentaries akin to Planet Earth. The students worked independently or in groups of up to three people to create films focused on an animal of their choosing. The shorts followed the anti-predator behavior of sea slugs, pigeon gambling habits (who knew?), mound-building ants and more.  

Templeton said he created the film festival as a way for students to visualize and communicate the concepts they learned in class. 

“Animal behavior is sometimes difficult to fully understand just by talking about it. Multimedia is key to comprehending class concepts, so I spend a lot of time showing and discussing animal films in the classroom,” he said. “The film festival project gives students an opportunity to apply their learning and create something that has meaning beyond the classroom — their films can have a positive impact on the broader Western community through the film festival and across the world through the class YouTube channel.” 

The course is popular across disciplines, with enrolled students from behavioral neuroscience, biology, environmental studies and environmental sciences, he said. 

Student films are evaluated on their technical quality, scientific accuracy and the students’ ability to explain key course concepts.  

Three films were awarded trophies hand-painted by Templeton’s daughters: Oscar the Octopus for Best Screenwriting, Cannes the Crab for Most Original Film and Emmy the Elephant for Best Picture.  

Krause and their partner Abi Weber, both biology seniors, were awarded the Oscar the Octopus for their film “CRAZY Gecko 🔥🔥FIRES UP🔥🔥.” 

The film explored the camouflage behaviors of geckos and other lizards, a trait most people think only chameleons have, Weber said.  

The topic came easily to Weber who owns two geckos of her own and used to work at Kementari’s Creatures, where the film was shot. She didn’t have a hard time getting into the role of expert narrator, either.  

“It came naturally because that’s what I’m like in real life — just spouting reptile facts all the time — so I felt like I fit the character,” she said. 

Though each had a hand in every part of the film, Weber focused on the research while Krause was lead cinematographer. 

“Abi went in with the information, and I went in with the camera,” Krause said.  

Being behind the camera instead of it always came naturally to Krause, they said, and their enthusiasm for the project reached outside the classroom. 

“I was so excited I texted my mom a picture of me while filming, saying, ‘Look, I’m making a film about geckos!’” they said. “I downloaded the film to my phone and showed all my friends.” 

The other two winners of the night were “How Do Bats Pollinate Durians?” by Daniel Monson and Ari Backlund, which won the Cannes the Crab trophy; and Cameron Brown’s “Mountain Movers: Thatching Ants” for Best Picture. See all the entries here on YouTube. 

“We’re a quarter of the way to an EGOT,” Krause joked after receiving their award. The film festival will return for its third year in fall 2025. Students interested in enrolling in the course can learn more here. 

Mikayla King (‘17) covers the College of Science and Engineering and Woodring College of Education for the Office of University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at kingm24@wwu.edu.