The Attenborough Standard: Shooting Blind in a Monsoon.
Project: Asia (Landmark Wildlife Series) | Client: BBC Natural History Unit | Role: Field Producer
There is "pressure," and then there is "BBC Natural History Unit pressure." When you are shooting for a Sir David Attenborough series, "good enough" does not exist. Every frame must be perfect.
The Mission: We had two complex sequences to shoot: one in the remote Himalayas (Uttarakhand) and one in Gujarat. The Twist: The BBC Producers were stuck in the UK. They weren't coming. I had to be their eyes, their ears, and their quality control on the ground.
The War Story: We were shooting in Uttarakhand at the height of the monsoon. The rain was torrential. The schedule was dissolving. Usually, a Director is there to make the call: "Do we hold or do we wrap?" In this case, I was that call. I had to manage a highly specialized wildlife crew, protect sensitive cinema-grade glass from the elements, and make hourly judgment calls on behalf of a client 4,500 miles away. We didn't just send them footage; we sent them peace of mind.
The Result: We delivered two landmark sequences for the world's most prestigious wildlife channel, proving that you don't need to be in the country to control the quality—if you trust the Producer on the ground.
"Not one of the shoots we sent your way were at all simple or straightforward but somehow we pulled them off, despite the challenges." — Emma Hatherley, Series Producer, BBC.
View full cast and crew for Asia on IMDb