FILMING THE WHITE BEASTS OF THE ARCTIC - A LESSON IN KEEPING WARM
Jason Roberts, Polar Logistics Expert
"The camera we used in the field for the polar bear shoot was an HDVaricam camera with a 800 mm zoom lens. As HD is a fairly new technology, this was the first time we had taken it to temperatures below -30 C. So our crew was experimenting to some degree.
The camera needed to be kept warm and constantly on standby. Nature filming is reactive and in the freezing cold the camera took too long to warm up from being turned off.
Letting it get too cold affected the availability of the colour channels, especially blue. By the time we were up and running, the moment could be lost. Keeping the camera on meant lots of battery power - and to complicate matters further , batteries die faster in low temperatures. So, we used exploration lithium long life batteries and we had to keep them warm along with the camera.
To keep the kit warm, we developed a special jacket we call a 'polar bear jacket'. It's made of quilted down with a heating circuit in it. We would also bury the kit in the snow as it's the wind that drives the temperature down in the Arctic. Another measure we took was to 'winterise' the tripods. That means changing the grease we use to lubricate it. Ordinary lubricant would freeze and the tripod freezes and locks Solid.
However , keeping the crew warm was just as important. The biggest problem they face is frostbite. You have to keep moving to keep warm but camera people are very focused and when they are filming they will keep still with their eye glued to the eyepiece. Their eye socket can get stuck to the eye-piece and can also lead to frost bite around the eye - something very dangerous.
And to prepare our crew? Doug Allan and Jason Roberts spend most of the year at either one of the poles and seem to be as perfectly acclimatised as the local fauna!"

A RAPID DESCENT AMONGST MIGHTY PEAKS - FILMING IN THE HIMALAYAS
Vanessa Berlowitz, Field Director
"4 am in a Nepalese Air Force Base in Kathmandu. Cameraman Michael Kelem and I found ourselves watching soldiers emptying bombs from an ex British spy plane. In just one hour we would be taking off in this same plane to film high altitude aerials of Mount Everest, and to get shots form the Demoiselle Crane migration scene. It was an unconventional start to a shoot, to say the least.
It was a perfect morning for filming. The massive barrier of the Himalayas appeared to stretch into infinity before us. Within minutes we were heading towards China to position ourselves on the eastern side of Everest, ready for sunrise. We were cruising at an altitude of 28,000 feet, within a couple of miles of the summit. As the first rays of sun hit the peak I gave the instruction for filming to commence. At that moment, Michael pointed at the monitor - the image was cloudy, the front lens had frosted over .With the sun about to rise we didn't have long to sort this out.
Without hesitating Michael crawled forward and quickly unscrewed and cleaned the front of the camera. This was quite a feat, working next to an open door at -20 C whilst breathing through an oxygen mask is not to be underestimated.
He signaled that we were now ready to go. With one shot in the can, we decided to push our luck and try for another . I wanted to fly even closer to the summit. Just as I called 'Action', I caught sight of the engineer's fingers which were twitching erratically. This is a classic symptom of hypoxia, or altitude sickness. I looked up at his eyes and saw that they were rolling backwards in his head. I shouted to the co-pilot who immediately jumped out of the cockpit and began to share his oxygen. But nothing was happening - it appeared that the co-pilot's oxygen mask was also jammed.There was only one thing to do, and the pilot made the split decision to descend to a safe altitude, dropping 3,000 metres in 15 seconds. The engineer came around almost immediately and was soon joking with the pilots as if nothing had happened. Michael had been in blissful ignorance, focusing throughout on his filming. In fact, he came up to the cockpit to find out why we'd dive-bombed halfway through, ruining his shot!
The instant we landed, the soldiers arrived to reload the bombs as our pilots had been redeployed for a bombing mission. I was still in a state of shock after our recent crisis but the air crew seemed un-phased. It was quite sobering to think that for these men, such danger is a grim reality if their daily lives. We all take risks filming wildlife, but I am grateful that such near death experiences are thankfully a rare occurrence."

FILMING THE DESERT ELEPHANTS - THE JOY OF THE SPRING RAINS
Chadden Hunter , Field Assistant
"We had gone to the Skeleton Coast to film the desert lions when we came upon a family of elephants. We were not expecting to find them at all. We didn't realise they came that far west. It was an incredible juxtaposition - the world's largest land mammal in such an austere landscape. No one has filmed these elephants where we filmed them. So we followed them in our vehicles.And trying to keep up with them presented a great challenge. Desert animals move considerable distances in search of food.
Thirty one miles for an elephant in a day and a night is typical. The only way to make progress is along the dried up river beds, and they are difficult to navigate. You can't travel outside those parts. There are too many rocks and the desert soils are fragile.
Tire tracks can last 50 years. None of us would want to destroy the look of the desert We avoided the Cineflex and only brought it in for a couple of days at the end of the shoot to do the aerials, where we could film from a long way off. These elephants hate the sound of helicopters and can pick up the infrasound - the low frequency sound - from some distance. In the Eighties, they were heavily poached from the air . Filming from the ground was fine. The elephants allowed us to get quite close to them and we treasured the experience of such a beautiful landscape. The sandstorms were the only drawback. The desert is always very windy. Sometimes the wind was so strong it bounced the vehicles around. I came home with my lenses full of sand! The highlight of the shoot was when the river flooded. Nobody expected it. It was a fantastic opportunity. The Hoanib hadn't flooded in October in living memory. The flip-side was that we were stuck there for a week. The flood lasts for a day but the soil is like blotting paper and soaks up the water . It was too boggy even for a 4 x4. This was a very special shoot. We lived with the elephants for nearly two months observing them as they traveled across near barren desert, surviving on such a meager diet. They are remarkably tough animals and incongruous in such an extraordinary setting!"

GETTING CLOSE TO THE GIANTS OF THE OCEAN - THE ART OF FILMING HUMPBACK WHALES--Doug Allen, Cinematographer
"We filmed the humpbacks in the seas around Tonga. Humpbacks don't live in pods and the individuals are quite scattered. There's 7,000 sq miles of sea around the archipelago and the whales can be quite hard to find. You need to wait for the right conditions to spot them - clear , calm weather .You look out for their blows when they come up to the surface to breath. In rougher conditions, the chop conceals them and their blow is whipped away by the wind. What you also want are good sea conditions - clear water and plenty of sunshine. What it takes to film these whales is patience and good preparation. Good conditions don't last very long; so we were ever at the ready.
When we found them, they were not always very cooperative. We came across one group of males in hot pursuit of a female. There were four or five 36 ton whales doing 10 - 15 knots; we certainly didn't want to get in their way. They are very powerful animals. But all the time you're out there you learn about the animals and learn how to interact with them. This was so important for filming the mother and calf Naturally, the mother was very protective of the newborn but she got more confident over time. Her calf was very boisterous and loved bashing its tale on the surface. It wasn't aggression, just playfulness, but we had to be careful not to excite it. It could do a lot of damage.
Before getting into the water with them, we got to know their character , to learn how we should behave in their company. The right behaviour starts with sensitive handling of the boat - not approaching too fast, keeping the revs down and steady.
Once in the water , I had to let them get accustomed to me. That also involved sensitive behavior - keeping splashing down to a minimum, being gentle. There's a knack to behaving around animals. That's what will let you close to the animal while it carries on doing its natural behavior .
Filming underwater means getting up close, which is why it's so special. When you are on the land, you quite often rely on being a long way away and you'll be hidden in a blind or in a vehicle. In the water , you have to work much closer to the subject. It will be aware of you, so its confidence is essential. It's a very satisfying challenge when you overcome it. My goal is always for the animal to accept me. I filmed within a couple of metres of the humpback mother .That was when it was intensely exciting but also deeply satisfying. To be that close and have the animal accept me and watch me. I could see her eyeball and I could see her looking at me. I felt privileged. I had managed to gain her trust. That was what was so enjoyable working with humpbacks, because they think - they're sentient with feelings and intelligence.
When I got close and she was still relaxed, I felt that I had created a relationship between us. It's the same satisfaction you get when you bond with a child. It's trust. But that relationship won't last for very long because you inhabit different worlds, so it's very precious. The whale is 36 ton and 45ft long but it's weightless and so are you. Filming her , I could work in 3D, moving the way she does. On land, I'd need a crane to do the same kind of shots. It was a totally encompassing experience.
I'm not surprised when people say having a whale encounter changes their lives and I had a far more intimate, personal experience with a whale than most people. There is no equivalent experience with a live animal. You can make friends with an elephant but whales are so much bigger and in the weightless medium of water , they have this intangible mystery about them."

CAPTURING PREDATION IN SLOW MOTION - THE JOY OF DIGITAL
Simon King, Cinematographer
"The camera we use for our super slow motion shots is a digital camera that records straight on to a hard drive. There's no film or tape. It creates digital files that are stored straight onto a laptop computer. It can film at 2,000 frames per second, at full 1024 x1024 pixel resolution. This means that we can slow an event down by up to 40 times but maintain the clarity and detail of the image.
Since the camera is digital, it can fire its shutter at extremely high speeds. On a typical film camera, this process is mechanical. A second important feature is that the camera operates on a continuous 4 second loop. This means that it is recording constantly over 4 seconds, then recording again over the top of the previous 4 seconds. This enables us to trigger at any point during a specific action and you can be certain of getting the whole event.
On a normal camera, you have to begin recording before an event happens, but with this camera you can trigger half way through an event and know that the camera has already recorded the previous 2 seconds, and will record the next 2 seconds as well. You can even set it to record on an end trigger , meaning when you hit the trigger , the camera will have already recorded the previous 4 seconds. This ensures that you will capture a split second action from start to finish.
The camera was originally developed for crash testing on cars, which is a very controlled environment. We needed it to work in the adverse conditions of wildlife filming, so we had it specially adapted. The camera needs to stay hooked up to a processor and computer , from which it is controlled, and a regular power source. Out in the field there isn't any, so a series of 12 volt car batteries were rigged in the back of the land rover to provide power . It takes 10 minutes to warm up and after that it's never turned off. Originally the camera had no view finder , so the team had to adapt it so that the cameraman could see what he was doing.
We use this camera to give a unique perspective on wildlife events that happen in a very short period of time. It enables an audience to see in detail what is happening in a spectacular event like a Nile crocodile shooting out of the water - an event that is over in one second of real time. A human eye and brain cannot process this quickly enough, so we miss out the detail of what is actually happening. Only by filming this way can we truly appreciate the beauty and mastery of such magnificent creatures as the cheetah or evoke the poignancy of the life and death struggle between prey and predator . Shooting at its highest speed, this camera would take an event that occurs over 4 seconds and make it into a shot that takes over 5 minutes to lay out!
Of course, technology is not what makes a fantastic shot. It just enhances what has been filmed.  The skill is the cameraman's - in being at the right place at the right time and knowing what the animal is going to do. It takes a real expert to second guess a hungry cheetah. This technique was also used to film the Great White Shark!"

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