Natural high

The BBC’s Natural History Unit has been producing world-leading programming for years. Groundbreaking series, such as David Attenborough’s Life on Earth, set the benchmark for what nature television could be and, as technology has moved forward, so has the unit, producing previously unimaginable glimpses into the natural world.

As the unit celebrates 50 years in existence, we spoke to Neil Nightingale, the unit’s head, to find out what’s next.

How central has technology been in the development of the types of programme that you make?

Technology has driven nearly all our innovation in natural history one way or another. David Attenborough has said that the reason that Life on Earth could only be done 30 years ago and not before was because of the computerisation of airline schedules. It meant that you could make a landmark series where you went from continent to continent to continent. Before that, you couldn’t do that because you couldn’t join all the flights up.

Then, we went on to do a series like The Private Life of Plants with David where we wanted to enter the plant’s world. What happened then (in the early/mid nineties) was that for the first time that you had really small computers so you could drive a whole series of time-lapse cameras and lights in a field situation. You could take this to the jungles of Borneo or a woodland in The Cotswolds. Before, this had to be done manually.

David’s recent series, Life In The Undergrowth, was possible because of lens technology. Cameras now have small lenses and probes with great depth of view so you don’t get a macro feel. If you film an ant you get the same depth of field as filming a wildebeest, so you feel as if you’re entering their world rather than looking down a microscope.

The other series where technology has been incredibly useful has been Springwatch and Autumnwatch. These are live outside broadcasts based from a farm in Devon. There we have 50 or 60 cameras feeding into the control room. A lot of those are miniature cameras in nest boxes and badgers’ sets. A lot of that technology has come from the security and surveillance sectors. They’re very cheap, so you can afford to have 50 or 60 cameras in the tiniest of places all feeding into one place. The other important development is the internet, which has allowed us to bring pictures from all over the UK in a control room….from eagles in Scotland to the lost gardens of Heligan.

Springwatch - Image courtesy of the BBC

As technology gets better and cheaper, it’s increasingly possible for ‘amateurs’ to get involved. Do you approve?

Absolutely. We’re following that up in a number of ways. On Springwatch we’re soliciting video material. Because capture technology is very cheap, people can take very good video and capture unusual animal behaviour.

We also did a trial on the BBC creative archive by making available simple editing tools and running a competition called Postcards From Earth. People could take top class natural history imagery, re-edit it and then send it back as a wildlife video. The plan is to make this more and more available.

The third way is by using a lot of audience participation in doing scientific surveys. For example, in Springwatch people can go out and note the first time they see frogspawn or certain ladybird species. They can send that in via the internet or mobile phone (if they’ve got GPS, as it logs their position). That has turned into the biggest survey of seasonal change in the world because we have hundreds of data points. That provides content into the programme. We using peoples’ eyes and ears all over the country and that’s providing stories for us, as well as providing all that information to The Woodland Trust who have these studies going back over a decade.

We did another project – through distributed computing – where peoples’ downtime on their computers was used to run climate change models. Over 100,000 people across the world took part and it gave the equivalent power of seven Met office super-computers. We now have a much greater level of certainty over climate change models because of these experiments.

Are you planning anything in particular to celebrate fifty years of the unit? 

We’ve got a season of programmes starting in June called Saving Planet Earth tied into the anniversary.

This is a big global wildlife conservation initiative.

Do you plan to do much in the way of full length features, as opposed to series?

Our first feature film was Deep Blue, which was a film version of our series Blue Planet, and that was very successful internationally.

"My first interest was in animals and nature, so I did a degree in Zoology."

We’re doing another one off Planet Earth which is called Earth, which is due for global release in October this year. Those are all in association with BBC worldwide.

The first feature film which has been commissioned from the start and not associated with a television series is The Meerkats, which is being made with BBC Films and The Weinstein Company.

Has the international success of March of Penguins helped with establishing the natural history full length feature film?

Absolutely. We were already making feature films, but when March of The Penguins was so successful, there was a lot more willingness on the part of distributors and so on to look at wildlife as a genre for making feature films.

How did you start working at the BBC?

My first interest was in animals and nature, so I did a degree in Zoology. I started off in the Natural History Unit as a researcher on a five-day contract and then went on to work in other areas, but knowing that I always wanted to come back to wildlife.

What is the best thing about your job?

Being able to share my passion with the natural world with millions and millions of people in the UK and around the world.

Where do you think natural history television will be in 10 years time?

Predictions are very often wrong, and 10 years is a long time. But undoubtedly the internet will be the biggest change. I’d imagine in 10 years time that bandwidth won’t be an issue so people will be able to download things instantly. They’ll be able to watch unbelievable quality in whatever form and on whatever device. That’s probably the biggest challenge. There will also be new forms of audience participation and audience content generation.

So, it’s a good time to be a film-maker?

It’s a very interesting time.

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