{"id":167,"date":"2022-01-13T16:45:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T15:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=51703"},"modified":"2022-01-13T17:49:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T16:49:12","slug":"the-green-planet-behind-the-scenes-of-episode-1-tropical-worlds","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/the-green-planet-behind-the-scenes-of-episode-1-tropical-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Green Planet: behind the scenes of Episode 1: Tropical Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Sarah McPherson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 13 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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On Sunday 9th January 2022, The Green Planet<\/em><\/a> episode 1 aired, bringing Tropical Worlds to our screens using incredible new filming technology. We meet the episode producer and director Paul Williams to find out how his team handled the challenges of bringing the world of plants to life in never-seen-before detail.<\/p>\n

What are the bigger themes of the Tropical Worlds episode?<\/h3>\n

Relationships. The tropical world is a dense, tangled environment, containing more than half of the plant and animal species on Earth. This phenomenal abundance of life is\u00a0all down to\u00a0the plants and the relationships that they have developed with animals, and with each other, over millions of years. The other theme is fragmentation, and how we need to piece our forests back together to preserve this rich life.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a standout sequence for you?<\/h3>\n

The dipterocarp sequence is very moving. These are the tallest tropical trees in the world \u2013 some over 90 metres high \u2013 and are very abundant on Borneo. They have a remarkable, cooperative survival strategy: they go years without producing any seeds at all, then produce and drop their seeds all at once \u2013 billions across the entire forest. Seed predators, such as bearded pigs, can then eat their fill, but enough seeds survive to ensure survival of the next generation. We follow the seeds in slow motion as they spiral en masse down to the enemy waiting below. It reminds me of the scene in Saving Private Ryan<\/em> when the soldiers go into battle together.<\/p>\n

\""Close\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
The winged seeds of the Dipterocarp tree <\/em>Dipterocarpaceae, Danum Valley, Borneo. These are the tallest tropical rainforest trees, some tower 90 metres high. \u00a9 BBC Studios\/Screen Grab<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

What interesting tech did you use?<\/h3>\n

The last series on plants was the Private Life of Plants<\/em>, 25 years ago. Back then, you\u2019d point a camera at a plant and try to predict what it was going to do. Usually, it would grow out of shot, and you\u2019d have to start again. But we have specially developed new robotic cameras that we can programme to follow the action. These are giant systems that \u2018fly\u2019 around a plant as it slowly grows in a studio. They allow us to film plants like we film animals \u2013 the plants do their thing; we follow and capture the action. We see the plants growing, and fighting, but on their timescale \u2013 it takes us into a parallel world. We also wanted to break new ground and take this studio technology on location, so we worked with ex-military engineer Chris Field to shrink it all down into a field robot, named the Triffid. It\u2019s a really exciting piece of technology that enables us to explore plants on every scale, all around the world.<\/p>\n

\""Triffid\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Camera operator Oliver Mueller uses a specially built robotic camera system, known as the Triffid, to film the corpse flower (<\/em>Rafflesia keithii), Borneo. \u00a9 BBC Studios\/Paul Williams<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

So what does the Triffid do?<\/h3>\n

It can capture the fine detail of a leaf so that it feels like a landscape, but also \u2018fly\u2019 you along a root, as if you\u2019re on the back of a fly. What I find really cutting-edge is that it also allows us to create long, continuous shots, so we can tell a story without constantly cutting from wide to close. We have a three-minute shot following leafcutter ants and it is mind-blowing. The triffid also creates magic. For instance, it \u2018flies\u2019 you into the buttress of the tree, closer and closer until all the cracks of the bark start to feel like enormous canyons, drawing you into a magnificent world of miniature.<\/p>\n

Did you use drones?<\/h3>\n

Yes. We worked with Andrew Lawrence, a top drone racer. He flies a first-person-view (FPV) drone the size of a matchbox using video goggles, so he sees what the drone sees. We took him to Costa Rica and unleashed him. He was able to navigate his drone among the branches and leaves \u2013 it\u2019s the first time an FPV drone has been used in a series like this.<\/p>\n

\""WARNING:\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Drone pilot Andrew Lawrence used video goggles to fly a tiny \u2018first person view\u2019 drone through the dense branches of the Costa Rica rainforest canopy. \u00a9 BBC Studios\/Louis Rummer-Downing<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Usually, a drone would crash in this kind of environment, but because this drone is so small and his skill-level so high, he can perform these dynamic moves, giving a hummingbird\u2019s view of the rainforest.<\/p>\n

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