In Botswana, viewers follow bee-eaters riding on the backs of ostriches, inventively catching the insects the big birds stir up in their wake. The swashbuckling males leap for the females’ attention, black plumes rippling in the breeze. The episode “Grasslands,” for instance, delves into the intricate courtship of the Jackson’s Widowbird in Kenya. “If you tell people a really compelling, engaging story about what they do, I don’t think you can fail to fascinate.” “Birds offer some of the best stories,” Aitchison says. The new episodes feature species such as Sword-billed Hummingbirds, Buller’s Albatrosses, sandgrouse, and Golden Eagles. This intense preparation paid off with footage of undiscovered interactions between wildlife, like the Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise dance from “Jungles,” or one thrilling “Islands” clip of a baby iguana escaping a minefield of racer snakes.Īitchison, who filmed several of the avian segments, notes that birds get more limelight in Planet Earth II than the previous series. “Before I even get, there’s already been months of work to give me the very best chance of getting a certain type of behavior,” MacEwen says. To plan out the show’s most intricate shots, cinematographers had to work hand in hand with biologists. "We never had that clarity and definition before. It allows us to be less observational through long lenses, and take viewers on a journey with the animals instead.”
#Bbc iguana escaping lots of snakes skin
“You can really see the colors in the jungle: the detail on the skin of a monkey’s face," he says.
MacEwen says the advent of new technologies-like drones, quality camera traps, and 4K cameras-allowed the show’s crew to capture scenes in more intense detail, producing Hollywood-worthy action shots. What resulted was “an awkward, sweaty ballet,” he says. Broken up by habitat, the show takes us swimming with a sloth in “Islands,” building exquisite nests with bowerbirds in “Cities,” and swinging through the trees with Madagascar’s Indri lemurs in “Jungles”-a scene that saw filmmaker Mark MacEwan vaulting alongside the animals while toting a seven-kilogram camera. “What are the challenges they’re facing? And how can we reveal that and make the audience care?”Ī decade after the original Planet Earth, this new six-part series-filmed with ultra high-definition cameras, voiced by David Attenborough, and scored by Oscar-nominated composer Hans Zimmer-invites viewers to not just observe wildlife, but also experience the stunning landscapes through their eyes. “It’s about thinking from the animal’s point of view,” Aitchison explains, describing the overarching philosophy of Planet Earth II. These are the kinds of scenes viewers are rewarded with when filmmakers get into the minds of the birds and other creatures. The flashing emerald feathers reflect rays of light that filter through to the forest ground, transfixing the female and coaxing her into mating (hopefully). “When it’s at exactly the right spot, produces this iridescent bib around his throat-an amazing mirror, really-of vivid metallic green,” Aitchison says.
As the bird shimmied up the trunk, they’d be able to see it from the female’s perspective. So, Aitchison and his colleagues rigged a remote camera to a tree overlooking the male’s small territory. So far, the bird’s mating dance had only been filmed from the side, and ornithologists were keen to check out the entire display.
Not only did Aitchison and his two team members have to film a rare bird exhibiting a rare behavior, they also had to shoot it from the perfect angle.
His mission was straightforward: Meet a Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise, and catch it romancing a lady.īut like most Planet Earth II footage, there was nothing simple about getting the shot. The British cinematographer was there on a three-week assignment for Planet Earth II (which premieres on BBC America on February 18 at 9 p.m. Two summers ago John Aitchison was crouched down on a jungle floor in western New Guinea, camouflaged by a sweaty brown tarpaulin.
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