Frozen Planet 2

BBC 1

David Attenborough returns to explore the coldest parts of our planet

BBC Studios / NHU

Director of Photography

Specialist sequences (macro and timelapse)

BBC

Camera: RED, Mavo LF, Nikon D810
Specialist kit employed: Time Ghost Motion Control, Macro Gantry, eMotimo, High Speed fibre optics, Nikon Microscope and microscopy lenses, cold stages
AC & Set Build: Alec Davy

Robert worked in the UK within controlled studio environments filming specialist scenes for the series. Based often in cold environments working on sets down to -35 degrees centigrade we filmed in timelapse and live action cutting into wider scenes.

hauntingly captured by the Time Ghost

Frozen Planet 2 was the first time Time Ghost had been used out of the studio. We used it to remotely monitor and change timelapse parameters of the cameras outside of the shoot hours.

Robert designed and engineered this new motion control system during the COVID pandemic so that cameras could be controlled remotely making the process of capturing timelapses more efficient while maintaining the social distancing rules of the time.

The photo here was taken at approx -35 degrees inside the Frozen set.

example proxy video captured & complied by Time Ghost and graded during the shoot

Time Ghost

Time Bandit

Focus Stack Sorter

app-y snappy

Apps, commissioned by Robert, allow for rapid capturing and processing of massive timelapse files on location from time lapse sequencing to immediate playback of a timelapse while it is being captured with export to ProRes or Avid.

Focus stacking the time lapse? No problem with the automated sorting and sequencing that is built in to this post-production workflow.