How did you decide on these stories?

Fredi Devas, Director and Producer The brief was to make a film about the importance of biodiversity for planetary health. That’s a huge topic, and we broke that down into three key questions: how do we value nature within our different economic and legal models? How can we feed the world without devouring the planet? And finally, what does nature do for our physical and mental health, and are we fully recognising that in today’s world?

Once we came up with those questions, we needed to follow three key characters that were posing these questions in their lives. And we needed a host to link these threads together.

So, it’s an unusual structure to have Benedict Cumberbatch as the host, Xiye Bastida, Sam Kass and Dan O’Neill asking the three big questions, and then other stories from around the world to ultimately try to convey the importance of biodiversity for planetary health!

Was a variety of environments, subjects and stories important?

FD This was really important to us. This is a film about a global issue. Our planet is facing multiple challenges, and the solutions to so many of these major challenges comes from protecting and restoring nature. So, it was important that we represented stories from all around the world, from as many different walks of life as we could.

How do you interweave environmental messaging and entertainment?

FD It’s a hard thing to achieve. Ultimately, the film has to be entertaining. To achieve that, you need to follow charismatic, eloquent people that have huge integrity, doing extraordinary things, then cover their stories which brings in environmental messaging stays incredibly engaging and entertaining. In this film, we meet some astounding people that are doing incredible things that could make our world a much brighter place to be in the future.

Did you have a different tone for each of the stories?

Stuart Dunn, Director of Photography Every character had a very different role and story to tell within the film. They are all connected, but needed to be treated differently, depending on the energy, and nature of the elements within that story. The most important thing for me as DOP was to represent those stories truthfully but also enhance the sentiment and message as powerfully as possible.

Was there an overall shooting style?

SD Within each scene, there are key motifs visually that we keep coming back to. It could be the composition of the characters and how they are lit. On certain occasions we would use gimbals and sliders to tell the story, following characters through a scene, other times we would revert back to handheld, to give a sense of urgency and authenticity. It’s all about presenting those moments and style choices at the right time.

What did you decide to shoot on?

SD Technically, I knew early on that I wanted to shoot the film with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. I wanted the film to feel epic and cinematic. The plan was always to shoot for cinema release initially. So, for that reason I chose to shoot the film using the RED Raptor VV. It has a huge Vistavision sensor, which allowed us to capture some of the beautiful cinematic images you see within the film. I used Zeiss Prime lenses whenever possible, which gave the imagery a slightly more organic feel, which was important.

However, sometimes we had to turn things around very quickly, and for those moments I used an Angenieux 45-135mm lens, which is an incredibly versatile bit of kit, even if it is slightly on the heavy side.

What other techniques did you employ?

SD Drones played a huge role in giving the film a sense of scale. The scenes of the enormous herds of elephants in Chad could not have been achieved without the use of drones. I can remember one morning in Chad, Fredi (the director) and I were out in our vehicle patrolling looking for elephants. We could hear them, and they felt very close, and very noisy, but the forest was so dense we just couldn’t get close. So, I quickly prepped the drone and took off. It wasn’t until the drone was around 65 metres in the air we could actually see just how many elephants were in the area. Within that one group we estimated there must have been around 150 individuals. Incredible really! To see that many elephants thriving and doing so well, Now, that was a very special day!

What specialists did you bring in?

SD The film incorporates such an incredible variety of imagery ranging from scientific macro to some epic aerial photography. Whilst I oversaw the overall look of the film, sometimes you need to enlist the help of specialists at the very top of their game. For example, for the ‘mycelium network’ growing sequence, we brought in Justin Maguire, who did an incredible job of bringing that story to life. Those sequences take so long to produce, so you really need to make sure you have the right person for the job. We also required specialist camera ops to help with some of the underwater scenes in the Bahamas and the Maldives.

What challenges did the production face?

SD Each location presented a different set of challenges, with so many of the stories shot in incredibly remote locations. Just the logistics of getting all our equipment into Ecuador, then upriver into the rainforest, could be a film within itself. Once you finally arrive at your filming location within the rainforest, you then have the humidity and moisture to deal with, and the fact it is actually a rainforest. It seems ironic, but it tends to be environmental factors that give me the biggest headache on location. Keeping equipment cool, alive, free from saltwater and functioning is always a struggle.

DETAILS

Release
Selected cinema run followed by a YouTube release

Director and Producer
Fredi Devas

Director and Executive Producer
Jonnie Hughes

Executive Director
Colin Butfield

Director of Photography
Stuart Dunn

Editor
Matt Meech

Sound post
Wounded Buffalo

Dubbing mixers
Graham Wild,
Oliver Baldwin

Picture post and vfx
Films at 59

Colourist
Simon Bland

Online editor
Samantha
Caola-Barnish

Lead vfx artist
Martin Ralph

Cast
Benedict Cumberbatch,
Xiye Bastida,
Sam Kass,
Dan O’Neill

Jon Creamer

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