Go behind the scenes of the natural history series Life to discover how some of the spectacular images were captured. Four years in the making and filmed over 3,000 days, across every continent and in every habitat on Earth. Using state-of-the-art filming techniques, the crew was able to capture some of the extraordinary survival strategies employed across the animal and plant kingdoms.
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01. Ice Alliance |
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Of all of Life's filming locations, working in Antarctica was the most challenging and only through collaboration could the team hope to achieve their goals. One team was diving under the ice of the Ross Sea; another camped out in a chinstrap penguin colony; and a third ventured down to the Antarctic Peninsula in search of the two top predators.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
02. Chasing the Dragon |
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No one has ever followed or filmed a Komodo dragon hunting a water buffalo - this was the challenge for cameraman Kevin Flay. At one waterhole, and after a long wait, he managed to film a dragon biting a buffalo. He followed the buffalo constantly over the next three weeks as it was trailed by up to seven dragons.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
03. The Heat Run |
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For the first time Life has succeeded in filming a complete sequence of the colossal humpback whale's courtship battle - known as the 'heat run'. It was filmed from the air, surface and underwater to give the full picture. Getting near fighting whales was a dangerous assignment for underwater cameraman Roger Munns.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
04. Fish Out of Water |
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Sailfish are cameraman Rick Rosenthal's life passion, so he jumped at the opportunity to film them off the coast of Mexico. Meanwhile, in Tobago, another crew led by Doug Anderson were after flying fish. When flying fish start spawning, anything and everything becomes a target for their eggs - including cameramen and assistants!
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
05. Hide & Seek |
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The very last filming trip for the Birds episode for Life was perhaps the most challenging for cameraman Barrie Britton and assistant producer Stephen Lyle. Their aim was not only to film the male Vogelkop bowerbird weaving and decorating his extraordinary bower, but to also capture his courtship behavior and the mating ritual itself - an event which has never been filmed before.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
06. Flying With Butterflies |
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The team wanted to 'fly' a camera through the thousands of monarch butterflies during their mass hibernation in the Mexican forests. First, they worked at a special place where thousands of butterflies come to the ground each day to drink from a small stream. Climbers Tim Fogg and Jim Spickler then took three days to rig a very complicated spider's web of cables among the trees.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
07. Rock Pooling |
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Cameraman Mike Pitts and producer Adam Chapman travelled to the Falkland Islands to discover a pod of orca has learned how to hunt naïve elephant seal pups when they first venture into the water. Despite over-inquisitive seal pups, bad visibility underwater and South Atlantic storms, the crew managed to film a unique hunting strategy.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
08. Sink or Swim |
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The Life team travelled to the freezing waters of the Antarctic to film the slow-motion world of the creatures living under the ice. The team also discovered that creating their very own shipwreck in the Bahamas was much more difficult than they imagined. They returned several times during the next two years to watch nature take a hold on the rusting hulk.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
09. Timewarp |
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The team was trying to achieve a shot that had never been attempted before - the entire growing season in a woodland, filmed in one shot. It would bring together elements of time-lapse photography in both the field and the studio, computer graphics, and a lot of hard work and patience.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |
10. Ninety-nine Percent |
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As the majority of primates live in tropical forest and spend a lot of time up in the trees, or concealed behind leaves, filming them is a tough challenge. The Life team had to use all its intelligence on primates, forward-thinking, field craft, and hand-eye co-ordination to succeed.
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10 min | 12/26/2011 | 80 | Buy | |