WHAT IT TOOK TO MAKE THE EPIC MINISERIES

• Three years of production in 20 countries on all seven continents.


• More than 800 shooting days, or more than two years of real filming.


• More than 150 hours shot from helicopters.


• More than 400 hours underwater.


• Nearly 250 hours spent filming at night.


• Crew worked in temperatures ranging from subzero to more than 48 degrees Celsius.

• Specially designed hot-air balloon camera mount for silent aerial approaches in the wild.


• Use of a highly navigable sub for intimate open-water perspectives of great white sharks.


• Specialized “Frankencam” system, a rigged series of motors and controllers that enabled a camera with special lenses to fly over the forest trails and into the thick of the action, catching ants raging across the forest floor.


• “Black Widow” cable dolly system that allowed a remote camera to be pointed in any direction while travelling on a line of any angle – horizontal, vertical, diagonal – through the forest canopy.


• Underwater and polar uses of the ultra-high-definition RED camera system.


• Widespread use of Phantom HD super slow-motion camera system, shooting up to 1,000 frames per second in true HD.


• Specially designed cable-cam systems that allowed for complete control of a cameraperson to ride through a shot.


• Extensive use of Heligimble – a super-stabilized aerial steadicam system mounted under a helicopter.