Tigress Productions came to TX with another challenge following the success of the specialist systems we devised for Everest: Beyond the Limit and Alone in the Wild. This time the challenge to design and provide a kit which would film 24/7 in HD in the extreme conditions of an African summer capturing what happens when an elephant dies in the wild and the life cycle that it feeds, from vultures and leopards to flies and beetles.
Design and development started months in advance of the shoot. Fibre optic links connected the remote cameras, sound and controlled IR lighting at the elephant site to the camp where the crew worked and lived. There were a number of factors to consider we had to ensure the reliability of the cameras, dealing with the cold of the night without getting condensation in the early mornings and then the extreme heat with silent cooling units so as not to disturb the animals or upset the sound department! Once they had started filming going out to the site to fix any technical problems would be a huge risk due to the predators that would be roaming.
Capturing anything and everything that moved continuously for three weeks, from amazing sunlit shots, changing to long shadows and the IR images at night. A fascinating insight into life cycles.
“It isn’t very often you get a fresh angle on a subject as comprehensively filmed as African wildlife.” – Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent
One thing we had not anticipated for in our months of planning and development was smell of the equipment when it arrived back at TX!