For their final-year project, BA (Hons) Wildlife Media graduates Victoria Ward and Ryan McColl created Solway's Key, a 15-minute wildlife documentary exploring habitat restoration efforts at the Castletown Estate in Cumbria.
As part of the project, they documented the relocation of a herd of bison from Kent to their new home near Carlisle, while capturing the people and conservation work helping to transform the landscape. The filming experience would go on to shape both their professional development and the success of their graduate film.
Here, Victoria tells us how Solway's Key came to life and shares more details about the filming process.
Capturing a conservation story
In December 2025, my course mate Ryan and I were offered access to the Castletown Estate to document the amazing projects of the people working there, while also following the progression of the soon-to-be bison and beaver residents.
Solway’s Key, our graduate film, was completed in May 2026; however, it was not without its difficulties. The film was a combination of months of hard work, creative eye, dedication, and persistence.
Wildlife filmmaking can be unreliable, exhausting, and unrewarding (only sometimes!), but it is these factors that prove our love for what we do. If you have a passion, you chase it, and like us, there is a great possibility that it will, in fact, all pay off.
Behind the camera
The core of the work—filming people and animals—was amazing. It was great to put our skills into practice and be rewarded with the spectacular views of the bison and beavers. We spent hours upon hours hoping for a glimpse of the beavers, and so when we finally saw them, it was exhilarating, and to see six… Oh. My. Gosh!
It took months for the bison translocation to take place, through no fault of the parties involved, and so when the move happened, everyone could finally breathe and enjoy the moment for what it was: beautiful, hopeful, and exciting. For Ryan and me, however, this is where our work truly began, and we had to ensure we could capture all the angles and shots, as there was no redo.
Bringing Solway’s Key to life
Overall, the entire production took seven months from concept to completion. This involved meetings, planning, storyboarding, research, being out on the field, filming, adapting to change, editing, and finally exporting our final film.
Shortly after this time, the project was shared with the public, and so news platforms started covering it. To see my imagery across the web was strange but also rather exciting!
Then, we did our YouTube collaboration with The Wildwood Trust, and the views just kept growing and growing. It was so cool to check the numbers every day, and I am still in disbelief that our film has reached 28,000 views (as of August 2026). You can watch Solway’s Key here.
Reflecting on the journey
It is wonderful to know this story has reached so many people, and I hope it will have a positive impact on people’s perspectives of nature. Above all this, finding out that I am getting an Additional Photography credit on an upcoming episode of ‘The Travel Show’ is just crazy. If I were told that this would be the outcome of my degree course when I first started, I’d have thought you were joking.
Looking back at the project, I would tell myself to try not to stress too much. Things are the way they are, and there is only so much we can do to change that. Logistic difficulties and time pressures were the biggest strains of this project, but we did all we could to ensure its completion. I would also work on some technical elements: sound, shot composition, etc.
Other than that, I am happy with the role we played, and Ryan and I did our best, so I am very proud of how we worked together and what we produced.
All photos by Victoria Ward/Ryan McColl
Explore our Wildlife Media course
Projects like Solway’s Key are just one example of the real-world experiences available to Wildlife Media students at the University of Cumbria. Explore our BA (Hons) Wildlife Media course and discover how you could gain practical skills, industry connections and portfolio-building opportunities.
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