BSkyB - Kingdom of Plants (2012) Part 4 Making

Kingdom of Plants

Kingdom of Plants is an astonishing 4-part series coming to Sky - and is written and presented by natural history broadcaster and Kew neighbour David Attenborough. Entering the strangely slow world of plant time, Attenborough explores how plants cleverly adapt to the changing seasons, including the explosive drama of seed dispersal and the bursts of colour as they bloom. 'One of the most wonderful things about filming plants is that you can reveal hidden aspects of their lives,' said David Attenborough. 'You can capture the moment as one plant strangles another, and as they burst into flower. But whilst time-lapse photography allows you to see things that no human being has ever seen before.’ Filmed over the course of a year at the Royal Botanic Gardens in West London, each of the three 50 minute episodes will cover a different area of plant life, from plant survival in wet and humid zones, scent and communication, and the continual adaptation of plants. This immersive and compelling series reveals a fascinating new look at plant life.

Part 4: Making

In this series we set out to capture the true splendour of plants, in their own timescale, as they interact with animals, fungi and each other. And what is more, we wanted to film all of this at a microscopic level. Kingdom of plants 3D was to be a series with plants as the heroes, and we needed to do them justice. Our production team at Atlantic embarked upon an exciting technological adventure, developing our own specialist camera kit to shoot 3D in extreme close-up. At Kew the loading bay of the tropical nursery was transformed into a bespoke macro studio, we developed new ways of filming 3D time-lapse, and we built whole new rigs to capture the tiniest details of plant and animal structures. All of this took meticulous planning and a herculean effort in logistics alone, but the hard work has been rewarded.

Kingdom of Plants