BBC_Wild Cameramen at Work_1of4_Ice
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00:00Scotland, a paradise for wildlife, and a cameraman's dream.
00:14This country, with its rugged mountains and endless coastline, has produced a generation
00:20of the best wildlife cameramen in the world.
00:26For decades, five filmmakers, all rooted in Scotland, have travelled the globe to bring
00:32home incredible images, shaping our understanding of the natural world.
00:39How did these men learn the incredible skills needed for catching the natural world in action?
00:48What is it that prepared them for travelling the globe and enduring the toughest of environments?
00:56In this series, these five cameramen will share their extraordinary stories and the
01:01secrets of their trade.
01:04Secrets often learned from filming wildlife in the wildest parts of Scotland.
01:11But this time, the camera is on them.
01:31The polar regions are amongst the most hostile environments on earth.
01:37Catching wildlife in these frozen wastes is a challenge unlike any other.
01:43If you think you were good, then go to the Antarctic and the Arctic and try it there.
01:53Because there's just so much else to think about, mostly it's trying to stay alive.
01:59Cameramen working in the polar regions have to contend with potentially lethal conditions.
02:04So we've got to now venture out and go up about a mile up this valley, which looks
02:11like it's got about 80 mile an hour winds blowing down it.
02:15A bit frightening though, really.
02:17And for filmmakers, it's not just the weather that can be hazardous, it's the wildlife too.
02:23She is enormous.
02:26She's...
02:27There are people that have been that close to a polar bear before, but they're not around
02:32anymore.
02:33And it was, yeah, prolonged fear.
02:40Capturing animal behavior in this extreme and sometimes hostile place takes a very special
02:45kind of wildlife cameraman.
02:49And for me, they don't come much more special than Doug Allen.
02:53That must be bad.
02:58I've had the extraordinary luck of working with Doug over many years.
03:05There's just no one else who knows these frozen worlds and their unique wildlife as he does.
03:10Every time I think, this is it, never again.
03:15Next shoot gotta be in.
03:17But there is something special about this, it always keeps pulling you back.
03:23Over his long career in the polar regions, Doug has captured some of the most memorable
03:27wildlife images to have ever appeared on television.
03:32And this is one of his personal highlights and one of my favorites too.
03:36A polar bear filmed swimming from underwater.
03:41We had a small camera on the end of a pole and eventually, after a lot of persistence,
03:47we managed to find the bear which we could go alongside with the boat and then slowly
03:52move in on it and just take that little mini camera and literally put it right between
03:58his legs.
04:17This polar bear was so handsome.
04:20I mean, look at that lovely shape of head and he was so laid back.
04:24And I love the way his bum just came up in the air as he slides down underneath.
04:29And the magic of this sequence was, look at the reflection of the polar bear above the
04:35polar bear swimming.
04:36It was so calm and he was so laid back that we could go right in close.
04:48That combination of calm weather and that accepting bear, you could try a hundred days
04:56and not get a bear in those conditions again.
05:04Working in the polar seas is the ultimate underwater challenge.
05:08Water temperatures here can reach minus two degrees Celsius and there's the ever-present
05:13danger of getting trapped beneath the ice.
05:18But for underwater cameramen like Doug Allen and fellow Scott Doug Anderson, this is also
05:23a place of extraordinary beauty and strange fascination.
05:28It's just breathtaking.
05:31You can see 2,000 feet in one direction and 2,000 feet in the other direction.
05:38It's like air.
05:40It's ethereal and beautiful and magical and so cold you wouldn't believe it.
05:47But although it's hard, you know, it's like a drug.
05:50The first thing you want to do when you get home is organize your way back there.
05:55Diving underneath the ice is very special, very special.
06:04It's completely calm, there's no swell.
06:06It's often very, very clear.
06:07You can see the seals just swimming lazily across, just illuminated against the little
06:13shafts of sunlight coming down there.
06:25It's like a second home really, it's where I feel comfortable, slipping underwater, that's
06:31back where I belong, so to speak.
06:40For Doug Allen, the journey to the Earth's most extreme places began on the east coast
06:46of Scotland.
06:47It was here that he learned to dive.
06:51Back from his latest polar expedition, Doug is catching up with his old instructor and
06:56diving buddy, Gordon Downie.
06:58It's been a while since I've seen you.
07:01Remember this photograph, Doug?
07:03Look, it's me with hair.
07:05That was a long time ago.
07:07How old was I?
07:08You were probably 16.
07:09Yeah, you were 16.
07:1016.
07:11Because you said, I'm 16.
07:12You were crazy about Cousteau.
07:13You used to talk about Cousteau all the time.
07:16What, even back then?
07:17Yes, even back then.
07:18You were always very interested in the sea life.
07:20You were always trying to educate me as to what was what.
07:23The diving was pretty tough back then.
07:27Yeah, I think it probably gave you a good grounding for your Antarctic diving.
07:32Well, certainly, I mean, the water around Scotland never gets very warm.
07:35And we dived all year round.
07:37I had a pretty rubbish, thin wetsuit.
07:39It was like wearing tissue paper.
07:42And then we took on these.
07:44This was a big breakthrough, wasn't it?
07:45Yeah, it was.
07:46In the dry season.
07:47Somebody used to steal them for us from the dockyard.
07:51And then sell them on to us.
07:54That's right.
07:55It's like going to a museum to see it.
08:02Doug's pastime soon developed into a professional career.
08:06But his first ever paying job as a diver was a rather unusual one.
08:14Today, Doug is back in the dark waters of a highland river.
08:19He's searching for the elusive creature that once provided him with a livelihood.
08:25Freshwater mussels.
08:27These bivalves are now a rare and protected species.
08:31But 40 years ago, they were far more numerous
08:34and prized for the treasure they sometimes contained.
08:38Pearls.
08:39I knew those were nice pearls.
08:41They're the true pride of my collection.
08:44I kept them back since it became illegal.
08:47Any of the pearls I'm showing you were all fished before it became illegal, you know.
08:51They're really bony.
08:53They're a perfect match, you know.
08:59Bill Abernethy was Scotland's last traditional pearl fisherman.
09:05He used centuries-old methods to hunt for mussels in river shallows.
09:10To search deeper and more dangerous waters, however,
09:13he needed an experienced diver willing to take risks.
09:18Someone like Doug Allen.
09:21It was hard. It gave you a big, sort of high level of fitness.
09:25It was hard work, working around these rivers and the currents and things.
09:29I remember that morning, I went to the...
09:32I said to you that morning, I says,
09:34I says, there's a bit there we could get a pearl or two.
09:37So I went down and you got in at the bottom of the dam.
09:41And now I said to you, Doug, there's sluice gates just up there.
09:45I says, keep clear of them.
09:47Because if you go right in, you'll get pulled underneath.
09:50That's right, I remember that.
09:52I remember, actually, I was underneath the sluice gates
09:55and the water was rushing over my head.
09:57And you said to me, I said, you know,
10:00I said, I was underneath the sluice gates
10:02and the water was rushing over my head.
10:04And the net got taken kind of over my head and locked in.
10:08And I was down below trying to pull it out and yank it like this.
10:11I couldn't get rid of it at all.
10:13I had no idea you were so worried.
10:15Aye, it was worse.
10:16And when you come up, you told me, you says, I'll go down and try again.
10:20I says, none of you bother going down and trying again.
10:22Well, I tell you, the pearl fishing was a great springboard.
10:25Oh, well, I used to say to myself, well,
10:27he's never looked back since he gave up the pearl fishing.
10:30You know, he's definitely made a name for himself.
10:35Long dives in the cold, fast-flowing rivers of Scotland
10:39were ideal training for Doug's future career.
10:44In the mid-'70s, Doug joined the British Antarctic Survey as a diver,
10:50helping scientists with their underwater research
10:53at the remote Sygney Base.
10:55And it was here that our paths first crossed.
10:59There are only two flowering plants
11:02that can manage to survive in this bleak, icy country.
11:06One is a kind of thrift...
11:08While filming for the Living Planet series,
11:11I visited Sygney Research Station
11:13and Doug volunteered himself as a guide,
11:16invaluable help for us and a turning point for him.
11:20By the end of that four days, I thought, this is some job.
11:24These boys are having a great time, obviously,
11:26and look what they're doing, all these things that I enjoy.
11:29They're diving, they're travelling, they're working with animals,
11:32they're doing something which I think is clearly worthwhile,
11:35making these high-end programmes.
11:38I began to think, right, I've done a good lot of stuff
11:41with the British Antarctic Survey,
11:43now I can maybe just head off in a different direction.
11:51On Doug's next visit to the Antarctic,
11:53he captured remarkable footage
11:55of one of the region's most charismatic animals,
11:58emperor penguins.
12:01I've made maybe seven or eight trips to the emperor penguins
12:05over their eight-month breeding cycle.
12:07That was just so amazing and lovely.
12:12It's actually the male who does the whole 60-day looking after the eggs,
12:16and that's through the winter darkness,
12:19when the temperatures can go down to minus 50, 55,
12:22and they huddle together for warmth.
12:25But you go back down in August,
12:27and for the first time you hear the little chicks.
12:29It's still so cold that they're staying on their parents' feet,
12:33tucked underneath the feathers,
12:35but then occasionally you just see the little face coming out and peeking out,
12:38and that, that was the magic moment for me,
12:40was watching the chicks.
12:45Emperor penguins are the largest of all the penguin species,
12:49but you wouldn't think they would present much of a hazard to filmmakers.
12:54However, when Scotland-based cameraman John Aitchison
12:57attempted to film super slow-motion footage of the birds,
13:01he got rather more than he bargained for.
13:06I think we've been run over by penguins.
13:09I was there, right by the hole,
13:11with the slow-motion camera and all the cables and all that stuff,
13:14and there'd be just an explosion of these big, slippery penguins all over the place.
13:20They'd go through my legs,
13:22they'd knock the camera over sometimes,
13:24they'd pull on the wires.
13:30Being hit by one of those is no joke.
13:32They're very heavy.
13:33It's just complete chaos.
13:34I think I'm in the way.
13:36And the camera works so fast,
13:38it shoots so many frames a second,
13:40that you really don't know if it's worked until afterwards.
13:43You know there's been penguins in the shot,
13:45but you can't tell if they're in focus even then.
13:47They're through the picture so quickly.
13:49It was only when we started playing them back,
13:51which you can do in the field, so you can actually see it there,
13:54and know that you're getting these extraordinary images, really.
13:57I mean, beyond anything I'd ever hoped was possible.
14:01It was such a treat, visually,
14:04and in terms of the whole experience, going there and doing that.
14:07I loved it. It was one of my favourite things ever.
14:18One of the most obvious challenges of filming in the polar regions
14:22is the extreme cold.
14:25Wildlife filmmakers working in the Arctic and the Antarctic
14:28have to contend with conditions unlike anywhere else on Earth.
14:34There is a sliding scale of temperatures
14:37that each bring their challenges.
14:39Minus 20, it's beginning to get a little bit chilly,
14:42especially if you've got wind thrown in on top.
14:45Then you could lose your nose to a bit of frost nip,
14:48or your fingers, or things like that.
14:50Below minus 20, you probably want to look at your lenses.
14:53They may need to be stripped down,
14:55and the normal lubricating oils replaced with something thinner,
14:59which won't freeze solid.
15:01Cables can be a bit of an issue.
15:03Once you get below minus 30, they can be a bit like spaghetti twigs.
15:07They'll start to break.
15:09As far as the clothes are concerned,
15:12experience teaches you what you will need.
15:15But eventually it does come down to gritting your teeth and bearing it.
15:20Scotland-based cameraman Mark Smith
15:23was to discover just how uncomfortable conditions can get at the poles
15:27when he travelled to the Antarctic to film a daily penguins.
15:31Within a week of arriving on location,
15:33winds of over 130 mph were rocking the tiny hut the crew called home.
15:39The wind's so strong, it's constantly blowing the pilot light out
15:43on the paraffin stove, so the temperature's dropping.
15:46The wind's rising.
15:49It's like that bloody rift's coming.
15:53But it was only when the storm died down
15:56and Mark started working in the huge penguin colony
15:59that mental strain began to tell.
16:02It became quite wearing.
16:05After a while you just get totally brutalised
16:08by the death and dirt that's around you.
16:14There's tens of thousands of birds there
16:17and there's all this stuff going on all over the place,
16:20the skewers ripping the heads off chicks, there's blood and guts everywhere.
16:24And it wasn't just the penguins that had to beware of the rapacious skewers.
16:29It's probably not very good for your sense of wellbeing
16:32to go through that process.
16:34And in the end, I couldn't stand being there
16:37for more than two hours in the morning because of the noise.
16:40I just could not hear myself think.
16:43I couldn't think straight at all.
16:48Halfway into his four-month stay
16:50and after 1,000 hours spent amongst the screaming penguins,
16:54Mark's grip on reality was beginning to loosen.
16:59Here we are on the penguin superhighway
17:02where the penguins go down to the sea.
17:05It seems that they follow the American system,
17:10driving on the right, going down to the sea on the right,
17:15going back from the sea on the left as you're facing the sea.
17:21I'm fairly sure that yesterday they were doing the British system.
17:26You know, I kind of really went off penguins in the end.
17:28They don't really want you to be there.
17:30As you walk past, they'll actually run out to try and peck your ankles.
17:34You're in a place where it's quite hostile,
17:37which sounds ridiculous because they're just penguins.
17:40They're only that big.
17:42But, yeah, it does get to you in the end.
17:50Filming wildlife, especially in the challenging conditions,
17:54can take a psychological toll.
17:57Nesting penguins might stay in one spot,
18:00but many other species are unpredictable,
18:03and camera crews can go for days or weeks
18:06without catching sight of their quarry.
18:08To cope with these pressures takes a very tough mental attitude.
18:15I think that there's only two things you need to do,
18:18or two things you need to remember to stay,
18:20to keep level-headed as well as you can.
18:23Keep level-headed as a wildlife camera person.
18:25The first thing to remember is that you can only be in one place at one time.
18:29So you make the decision on where to go every day,
18:32what to try for, based on the best of your experience.
18:35But you are going to be wrong.
18:37You will come back to camp some days,
18:39and there's polar bear footprints all around about your cabin
18:43where you've been looking all day and not seen any.
18:4711 hours. I feel as though these things have been glued on my eyeballs.
18:53One bear could just much too wary of us.
18:57Have I got anywhere close?
18:59Long day for not very much.
19:04But you've also got to remember that if you're not there, you'll never get it.
19:08So it's no use, if you want to film a polar bear,
19:10sitting inside your cabin looking at the weather and thinking,
19:13that's a bit iffy, I won't bother today.
19:15You've got to get out there looking.
19:19Sometimes, as even Doug would admit,
19:21sitting inside your cabin is exactly the place to be
19:24when a polar bear comes calling.
19:27I thought I heard something.
19:31For wildlife cameramen like Doug,
19:33polar bears are the ultimate Arctic animal.
19:36Long experience has taught him to treat the world's largest land carnivore
19:40with great respect.
19:42This is just a bit of a problem when we get bears as close as this to the cabin.
19:47Polar bears are great because they're big, sexy, charismatic animals
19:52that will eat you if they get the chance.
19:55You are in their domain, their kingdom.
20:00I can think of few people who have more experience
20:03filming polar bears than Doug.
20:05His knowledge of these superb predators
20:07can mean the difference between life and death.
20:12For the Planet Earth series,
20:14Doug travelled to the Norwegian Arctic
20:16looking for female polar bears emerging from their dens.
20:20He and his field assistants were the first human beings
20:23to visit this fragile wilderness in 25 years.
20:26Because motorised vehicles are prohibited,
20:29they had to travel through bear country alone and on foot.
20:34When the polar explorers used to haul their gear like this,
20:38they used to have names on their sledges.
20:41Names on their sledges.
20:43Things like intrepid and braveheart.
20:48I'm going to call mine...
20:50..you...
20:52..awkward, heavy object.
21:00Despite putting on a brave face,
21:02Doug knew this was a very risky way of tracking bears.
21:07But it was testament to the Norwegian authorities' confidence
21:10in his skills.
21:13If you don't have a snow machine
21:15and you have a bear that comes at you with more than just interest,
21:19you better know what you're doing.
21:21Because if you don't know what you're doing,
21:23it's going to end up either eating you or you're going to have to kill it.
21:27And for me, the biggest tragedy would be
21:30to have to shoot a bear and injure a bear
21:33simply to protect myself.
21:36To be given that level of trust by the Norwegians
21:39and then to come up trumps with the sequence that we got,
21:43that sticks in my mind as being special.
21:59This is fantastic. She's out on the slopes for four weeks.
22:03We've been waiting to get this one opportunity.
22:05To know that it's happening is just fantastic.
22:10The challenge of filming polar bear behaviour
22:13is something which many wildlife cameramen relish.
22:19Scottish filmmaker Gordon Buchanan and his team
22:22devised a novel perspex hide, nicknamed the Ice Cube,
22:26to allow him to get dramatic close-up footage.
22:29You have to admire the bravery when capturing these remarkable shots.
22:34She's coming closer and closer. Oh, my God.
22:38She is enormous.
22:40She's...
22:42This animal wanted to eat me.
22:46And she spent 40 minutes just looking for any weakness in the Ice Cube.
22:52Yeah, the door's not here.
22:54OK, I'll just check in the back.
22:58And I just thought, this is a ridiculous thing to do.
23:01But, you know, it did give us these incredible shots.
23:07She's feeling aggression. She can actually feel that perspex is flexing.
23:11She's trying to see if she can crawl through it.
23:14She's trying to see if she can bite through it.
23:17It's getting a little bit hairy in here.
23:19It was at that moment that I realised really what a polar bear is.
23:23It is one of the biggest, most intimidating animals on the planet.
23:27Look, it's just towering above me.
23:29If I was to be standing side by side with this animal,
23:34it would be about seven feet tall.
23:38Fortunately, Gordon's gamble paid off.
23:41The bear lost interest and wandered off.
23:44But it's a reminder that filming wildlife at the poles
23:47takes exceptional courage and dedication.
23:53The challenges fade into nothing, however,
23:56when compared with the prize of filming rare animal events.
24:00One of the most elusive and extraordinary hunting techniques in the natural world
24:05was thought to be used by a certain pod of killer whales to catch seeds.
24:10Doug Allen spent his entire career trying to capture this rumoured behaviour on film.
24:17That was the 32-year Holy Grail, back in 1977, when I was in the Antarctic.
24:24There was vague rumours came out about killer whales taking seals off the ice floors,
24:30but it was all second, third hand.
24:33After several fruitless expeditions, Doug returned south for one last attempt,
24:38accompanied by fellow Scottish cameraman Doug Anderson.
24:43This time, the team met with almost instant success.
24:47There's a killer whale at 11 o'clock, about 200 metres,
24:50heading towards those two seals on the floor.
24:53This could be really good.
24:55We found a pod, we followed them, the ice conditions were perfect,
24:59and they began to do this wave washing.
25:08And, boy, they did it a lot.
25:12For three and a half weeks, we ran with the pack.
25:15It felt like they were on a mission the whole time.
25:20That behaviour had been seen six times in 100 years, and we saw 16 kills.
25:27A remote, stabilised camera was operated by Doug Allen from the wheelhouse.
25:32Meanwhile, Doug Anderson followed the hunt from on deck.
25:36We saw the first kill.
25:40Then we saw another one, and another one.
25:43It's all pretty intense.
25:45Oh, another wave.
25:46And then we got in the Zodiac, and, you know, the animals kept on killing.
25:50We were worried that they would be put off.
25:52And then we got right next to the ice floe and got the polar camera in the water
25:55and got those seals being washed in.
26:05Far from being put off by Doug's presence,
26:08a group of juveniles actually seemed to show a worrying interest in him,
26:12lining up for a run on the inflatable.
26:16Oh!
26:20The crew got an uncomfortably close-up view of the whales' remarkable hunting technique.
26:33Fortunately, it seemed to have been only a kind of practice run.
26:38And the film crew were able to continue recording some of the most astonishing behaviour
26:43any of them had ever witnessed.
26:47You know, there are moments of that trip that are just burnt on my memory.
26:51I know that when I'm 80 years old and sitting reminiscing about my life,
26:55I'll relive that.
26:59Over the past few decades, a generation of wildlife cameramen
27:04have shared some unforgettable experiences with us.
27:08They have opened up worlds unreachable for most,
27:11and captured moments unimaginable to many.
27:16But to do so, they've had to endure tough conditions that few of us would happily tolerate.
27:21Cup of tea, stage one.
27:23This is the life of the wildlife filmmaker.
27:26Wildlife filming is glamorous in the eyes of some,
27:30but it involves a whole lot more than simply being in some nice location.
27:35It takes a degree of tenacity and putting up with a lot of tough things.
27:43Working underneath this sea ice, it's a grind.
27:46But if something that you're waiting for or something unexpected happens,
27:50then for sure the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
27:56The focus that we have, the ability to spend time doing nothing
27:59but watching for that thing happening,
28:01means that sometimes we film things that nobody's ever seen before.
28:05Those moments of magic, that's what makes it all worthwhile.
28:14Next time, our cameramen are on dry land,
28:18filming a snow leopard hunt for the first time,
28:21using infrared cameras,
28:24and getting up close.
28:27Explore the stunning natural world of the Hebrides,
28:29combined with the area's unique musical heritage
28:32in the company of singer Julie Fowlis,
28:34over on BBC Alba tomorrow evening at half past eight.
28:56.