yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Filming Cliff-Jumping Geese: On Location | Hostile Planet


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

The animals who are filmed for "Hostile Planet" have to survive in incredibly tough conditions. But they're adapted to it. The crew, on the other hand, that's a whole different ball game.

RENEE GODFREY: Making a series like "Hostile Planet" wasn't simple. We filmed on every continent on Earth with over 270 people on our cruise. And it took us over three years to make.

OK, might be worth turning your cameras on, gentlemen.

[animals screech]

TOM HUGH-JONES: Inevitably, if you're going to follow the animals that are having to survive in the most extreme corners of the planet, you have to go there too. And you get a slight taste of what their lives are like, and it's brutal.

MATEO WILLIS: Mountains are a unique environment. There are other places which are hotter, like deserts. And there are places which are colder, like the Arctic. Surprisingly, the greatest challenge in mountains is gravity. Because everything is an effort against gravity. Everything is trying to push you down.

All right, let's do this before any rocks fall.

Probably the thing that shocked and surprised me most were these little barnacle geese chicks in Greenland. They would walk to the edge of a cliff, and then they would throw themselves off, plummeting to the bottom. And then they would hit the bottom and stand up and walk away. And you just think, how does life survive something so extreme as falling hundreds of feet? I would be just shattered into pieces. And yet this tiny little gosling, you know, no bigger than a couple of inches, doesn't.

[birds chirping]

Another day in the office.

MATEO WILLIS: Filming the barnacle geese on those cliffs was probably the single trickiest thing to accomplish. We needed to get a shot where I wanted the camera over the top of that nest. We needed to see what those chicks were seeing. We needed to know what it felt to look over that edge for the first time. And the only way to do that was to get an 8 meter crane with a camera on the end swung out over that nest.

But of course, there was no area to put the crane. You were on this tiny ledge that was, say, no bigger than a couple of doormats. And so you had to balance the entire crane and all the weights on top of it, so you probably had 250 pounds of weights and an $80,000 camera on the other end of the crane.

And then you had to somehow swing it over and get it out there without everything giving way and collapsing around you. More speed and pan to the left. And that was probably the only time I've ever stopped and thought, is this really worth it for the shot? If it all goes wrong, is it worth it for one shot? And it was.

[birds whooping]

[music playing]

More Articles

View All
Food Snatchers | Life Below Zero
Well, another beautiful morning. I’m always fat in the morning times. It’s time to get a lot of things done, and dogs and things I got to do every morning. Those get woke up by these damn squirrels, and they’re out there stealing my dog food. I see a squi…
My Tenant Horror Story.
What’s up you guys, it’s Graham here. So chances are, if you ask any real estate investor about their experience as a landlord, it’s pretty much inevitable that a large percentage of them will open up and tell you about at least one of their tenant horro…
Constructing a Cruise Ship | Making the Disney Wish | Mini Episode 1
We are building the most technologically advanced, the most beautiful cruise ships ever. What the Disney Wish is the first of its kind, never been done before. So how do you build a Disney Wish? It’s a first-in-class ship, so you start with a white piece…
The Solar System -- our home in space
The solar system, our home in space. We live in a peaceful part of the Milky Way. Our home is the solar system, a four and a half billion year old formation that races around the galactic center at 200,000 kilometers per hour and circles it once every 250…
Navy SEAL Astronauts - Smarter Every Day 243
Hey, it’s me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day! Today on Smarter Every Day, we are going to learn about the top, like, top, top, top people that exist. Um, you’ve heard of astronauts and how big of a deal it is to become an astronaut. You’ve hear…
Do You Know Yourself? - Mind Field (Ep 8)
[soft dramatic music] - Hi, I’m Michael Stevens, but who are you? Do you even know who you are? Are you your memories? - I don’t remember that. - I don’t remember that at all. - Are you the choices you make? The focus tester is actually a magician. - That…