Serengeti director/producer John Downer and DP Richard Jones on the Discovery Channel series, the challenges and new technologies for shooting wildlife documentaries

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 81: John Downer and Richard
Jones Director John Downer and cinematographer Richard Jones have
always had a love of animals. John went to work for the BBC after
film school and quickly moved into the BBC Natural History
division. Richard grew up in Kenya and started out in the film
industry, then went to work with a wildlife filmmaker in Botswana,
soon picking up a camera and teaching himself. They both agree that
to be a good wildlife documentarian, it's important to spend a
great deal of time around the animals, in order to understand and
anticipate what they are going to do and capture it on camera. For
the Discovery Channel/BBC series Serengeti, John and Richard felt
for the first time that all the camera technology was finally
advanced enough to capture the true nature of the animal's lives.
They were able to use small, high quality hidden remote cameras
that are durable and “lion proof,” as well as a special array of
cameras with long lenses on a stabilization system attached to
their vehicles, so Richard could shoot while the jeep was driving.
While wild animals are definitely not directable, John and Richard
knew what wildlife they wanted to follow as characters with the
script following the changing seasons as an overarching story
plotline. Serengeti follows the interconnected stories of a cast of
savannah animals over one year, capturing the drama of the wildlife
up close. It was important for John and producer Simon Fuller to
show that animals are a lot like us and we are all in this world
together. See Serengeti on Discovery GO:
https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/serengeti/ Find John Downer:
http://jdp.co.uk/ Find Richard Jones: http://rmjfilming.com/ Find
out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and
links: http://camnoir.com/ep81/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras
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