New tech and fearless crews
The series took 1,904 days to film in 43 countries across six continents.
Cutting-edge technology, such as lightweight drones, high-speed cameras and remotely operated deep-sea submersibles were used to create the show.
Filming during the pandemic also forced Planet Earth’s team to come up with new ways of working.
Almost a third of the shoots were managed remotely and filmmakers from 27 countries were hired to help capture the magic.
And it took more than a year of consultation with scientists to develop a camera that could be attached to southern right whales in Argentina to achieve the show’s stunning footage.
Producer Nick Easton reveals: “We used food-grade silicone suckers, essentially, but they had a little tube running off them clumped with cornstarch that dissolves in salt water after 20 minutes.”
Viewers can also hear sounds normally undetectable to humans thanks to special contact microphones, which reproduce the sound of treehoppers summoning bees to defend them from “assassin bugs”.
But it isn’t just technology which produces the show’s iconic moments – the crew themselves take on intense challenges.
Assistant producer Georgie Ward waded through crocodileinfested lagoons to capture flamingos in Mexico, and lived in a Vietnamese cave for three weeks to document how life can exist without light.
“It was a huge undertaking,” she says. “My sense of time was completely gone.
“Coming out and hearing birds in the jungle and seeing colours… it felt like everything was in 3D.”
and its chick in Mexico