Commissions

Greenlit: Serengeti, BBC1

Serengeti (6 x 60′) – A stunningly innovative series using dynamic and compelling narrative techniques of long-running drama serials, where multiple storylines are woven together, to tell the real life stories of some of the most charismatic animals in Africa. There’s an unspoilt corner of the Serengeti, bordered by two rivers, that is the Africa of your imagination. Unique access to this incredible setting offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a bold new genre of natural history filmmaking and drama storytelling.

The production will use specially created camera devices, including moving spy cameras, to film the animals of the Serengeti on the move and in their world, experiencing their every emotion. It will be sweepingly cinematographic in scale but also intensely intimate. As the animals act out the natural dramas of their lives, the cameras will be just a whisker away – moving with them at their level and in their world.

Multiple specialist cameras will be deployed at any one time ensuring not moment of the incredible action will be missed. New near-silent aerial devices and the latest drone technology will provide a vulture’s viewpoint as the events unfold. Shot in Ultra HD with high dynamic range (HDR) the images will have a clarity that leaps out of the screen. The series will also pioneer the use of VR 360 degree shooting.

Equally innovative approaches to editing, music and narration will deliver their personal stories in a startlingly fresh and exciting way. From warthogs to lions, mongoose to cheetahs, a cast of our favourite African animal characters will be filmed closer and more intimately than ever before.

Through this bold and pioneering dramatised approach, the audience will be closer and more emotionally involved with the wild lives of animals than ever before.

Platform: BBC1

Producer: XIX Entertainment / John Downer Productions

TX: TBC

Source: BBC press release