DOCUMENTARY | SEVEN WORLDS , ONE PLANET
Helicopter propellers replicate the sound that bees make, and elephants are afraid of bees TINY TECHNOLOGY
Drones weren’t the only new technology to dazzle the wonders on Earth’s seven extraordinary continents. The Laowa 24mm Macro Probe lenses, which may just be one of the strangest looking lenses on the market, enabled cameraman John Aitchison to create perspectives that would not have been possible with mainstream lenses. For example, when an albatross chick is rejected and ignored by its father after falling from its nest. Cold on the ground, its only chance of survival is if it can get back on the nest. But, as Attenborough narrates: “Albatross do not recognise their chicks by sight, sound or smell. They identify them by finding them on the nest. These violent storms have created a problem that these albatrosses are not equipped to solve. If it is to survive, the chick will have to get on to the nest itself.” Aitchison used the Laowa lens to give the appearance this was all happening from the chick’s perspective – a harrowing watch – but Devas reveals that actually getting to this point of capture took a lot of patience from the skilled cameraman. “John arrived on Bird Island and walked around the colony to see which birds were tolerant of him. So, if any birds looked anxious or wanted to move away, then he would need to get out of sight immediately. When he found some that didn’t mind him being there, he started filming from a few metres away. Then, slowly, over a matter of weeks,
IMAGES Using drones meant aerial footage of elephants could be captured, as they are usually afraid of the noise from helicopters
able to capture the holy grail of wildlife filmography: an aggregation of great whales. Over 150 humpback whales feasted on krill off the coast of Elephant Island in one of the biggest feeding frenzies ever caught on camera. The footage, which shows the whales blowing bubbles that rise up in a spiral to trap their prey, is now being used to inform a scientific study. Advances in drone technology also mean that drone image quality now matches that of other high-end production cameras. The Inspire 2 uses the DJI Zenmuse X7 Super 35 6K camera, which has a colour profile that is especially close to Arri Alexa LUTs. Becker explains: “We didn’t want to create our own camera with our own look, we wanted to have a camera that complements other footage.” The Arri Alexa was one of the show’s workhorses, alongside the Red Helium and, in low-light situations, the Sony AS7 Mark II.
nice-looking images, but also deliver crucial elements of a story that wouldn’t otherwise be possible with helicopters. Animals are frightened by the sound of helicopters and the frequency of their propellers can be felt from relatively far away.” He adds: “Elephants are very sensitive to helicopters. Even if the helicopter is at a large distance, elephants will run away. The propellers replicate the sound that bees make, and elephants are afraid of bees.” New DJI drones, which introduce low-noise propellers and special ESCs that promise to reduce the sound of the propellers by 60%, were used to augment the scale and powerful impact conveyed by the rest of the footage the teams obtained. In particular, the Inspire 2, which has a rumoured flight time of up to 33 minutes and integrates a heating system that allows it to fly in -20°C, was used in Antarctica. This drone, alongside the Mavic Pro 2, was
24 DEF I N I T ION | FEBRUARY 2020
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