For 45 years I have travelled the world studying tarantula spiders and over the last 25 made natural history documentaries about them. Ten years ago with my business partner, Guy Tansley - who is my DOP and Editor we set up the download platform lovetarantulas.com where it is possible to download our feature length docs or purchase them on our DVD/USB collectors box sets. We finance them with crowdfunding and monies raised from our platform. We make one documentary a year, filmed on location, which is usually 2x90 minute docs. Format: we usually begin in a museum in London/Paris/Berlin with the type specimen and then go abroad in search of the spider, telling you along the way the history behind it - which is usually that of a Victorian collector. We then update - with who is working on this spider today.
In the past I have worked with the African film director Faith Iziakpere and wrote the narcotics film, starring John Savage - Algiers Murders.
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Andrew Smith Andrew Smith What an incredible journey. Spending 45 years studying tarantulas and turning that experience into natural history documentaries shows the power of passion-driven storytelling. I love how you combine history, exploration, and science to bring these stories to audiences. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
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Welcome, Andrew! 45 years studying tarantulas and turning that knowledge into documentaries is quite a journey. Your combination of natural history, filmmaking and self-distribution is fascinating. Great to have you here!
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Welcome Andrew Smith ! I hope you'll join us at our upcoming webcasts in the Writers' Room. Sign up for a Free Month of the Writers’ Room: https://www.stage32.com/writers-room/plans-vip
Here’s a great post that will help you navigate Stage 32: https://www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-successfully-navigate-the-stage-32-p...
Here’s a walkthrough Video: https://www.stage32.com/help?category=how-to-navigate-stage&parent=341676
Be sure to stop by the screenwriting lounge and get to know some of your fellow scribes: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting
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It’s great to meet you, Andrew Smith, welcome to Stage 32! My name is Ashley Smith, and I’m the Head of Community here at Stage 32. So glad you jumped into the Introduce Yourself Lounge!
Forty-five years studying tarantulas and twenty-five making documentaries about them is a genuinely remarkable body of work. And the structure you’ve built is fascinating on its own terms: opening on the type specimen in a London or Paris or Berlin museum, tracing the Victorian collector’s history, then going into the field to find the living spider and meeting whoever is studying it now. That’s a real format, and it does something most natural history documentaries don’t, which is treat the science as a story with a lineage rather than a subject.
The financing model is worth talking about here too. A direct-to-audience platform funded by crowdfunding and box set sales, producing consistently for a decade, is exactly the kind of independent distribution a lot of our members are trying to figure out right now.
Since the Writers’ Room and Screenwriting Lounge are covered, a few other rooms worth your time:
The Filmmaking Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/directing) and the Distribution Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/distribution) are where your experience would land hardest. There’s an ongoing conversation in Distribution about how films find and keep their audiences, and you’ve built something most people are still theorizing about. The Financing Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/fundraising) has active crowdfunding discussions where your track record would be genuinely valuable. Browse all of them here: https://www.stage32.com/lounge
Jump into our Creative Army Drive this week. We just launched a month-long member event, and Week 1’s mission is simple: share Stage 32 with one of your creative communities, then comment on the post in the Producing Lounge telling us where you shared it. Every member who does it gets a FREE Stage 32 webinar of their choice. Open through Sunday: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/producing/Were-Building-a-Creative-Army-T...
Register for our next FREE Community Open House on Wednesday, September 23rd at 12pm PT. It’s a live event I host quarterly, and a great chance to meet other members and ask me questions directly: https://www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32s-september-2026-comm...
Welcome again, Andrew!
Thank you guys - I will pop into your lounges, when I am back from my hols.