New Technologies: Making Wildlife Cinematography More Accessible | National Geographic

[Music]

I always wanted to go and explore far away in empty places. From very early on, I just wanted to travel and discover places that weren't impacted by humans. We have got on 1.6 inside the heart. After several years as an Antarctic ecologist, I had the immense chance to be part of the first planet's documentary for an entire winter. So that was my debut and kind of a door opening for me. Oh, that's what I wanted to do!

If I could say I have a purpose in life, it would be to make people care about the planet. All the technological improvements that we've had access to as camera people help the audience being more aware of what's happening in the natural world and bringing them closer to it. It's worthwhile waiting for these shots for hours, freezing in the cold, to actually make the world shine in all its beauty. And that's how you really get people into the story of those animals, making them want to care.

The tools are there to enable me in the field, and it's all supported by very small compact devices: camera technologies, satellite phones, and satellite email. This is now enabling us to go further, like in more remote places, because it's more compact. It actually has given us the opportunity to create films that weren't possible 20 years ago.

In a couple of days, I will go up to Baffin Island, and we'll set up base camp at the Great Walls, which is an area right in the middle north of Baffin Island. It has some of the most amazing landscapes on the planet with walls about 1500 m high. I'm proud of the skills that I've developed to be able to operate in extreme environments. For example, I've learned from diving in like no visibility to actually operating in a full white-out blizzard.

The technology here, like lighter cameras, more compact, makes it possible for a smaller person to operate. Admittedly, I mean being a camera woman can be a physical job, you know? If you spend 10 hours with the camera on your shoulder, it's certainly demanding. But it doesn't mean that it's not impossible for women to do it.

I think the climate emergencies that we are facing now are a turning moment, and they are changing the way we tell stories about our planet. We've got incredible equipment these days to render the beauty of the natural world, and they've gone smaller, more compact, and more efficient as time goes on, with better codecs and better image and color rendition, with incredible frame rates to slow down behaviors that the human eye would not perceive.

[Music]

So all of those technological improvements actually help the audience be more aware of what's happening in the world and make them care more about the natural environment.

My name is Frederi Olivier. I'm a wildlife cinematographer, and this is Purpose on Arm.

[Music]