The AJ-HPX3700 runs on relatively small lithium-ion batteries, which lasted a surprisingly long time. However, a lot of tapeless cameras are very power hungry, requiring either enormous batteries or numerous spares, which again reduces portability. Harsh environmental conditions also meant that Martyn needed to shoot on a tapeless format – tape performs notoriously badly in high humidity. What’s more, it never failed once in 350 shooting days.” “The Panasonic camera was substantially lighter than the next camera we would have considered. “Walking 15km a day through hot, humid rainforest with a camera bouncing around on your back is tough,” recalls Martyn. Martyn was looking for something extremely special from the AJ-HPX3700 if it was to meet all his requirements. Generally speaking, the more robust the camera, the heavier it is.
The remoteness of the location also called for it to be as light and portable as possible. The physical demands of filming in the Tai Forest National Park – temperatures approaching 300C, humidity between 85-100% and seasonal torrential rain showers – are wearing, not just on the crew but also on the kit, so it needs to be robust. Central to their achievement was the Panasonic AJ-HPX3700 P2 HD VariCam, which offered the crucial balance of robustness and portability, as well as a raft of other key features, which made it appropriate for the job in hand. What’s more, they managed to do this in the harshest of filming conditions. It’s safe to say we never saw a scene like that again!”ĭespite this, the team still managed to make a beautiful film which highlights just how similar chimpanzees are to us, not just in the dry sense of being genetically close, but in the way they have distinct characteristics and personalities. You could see the film unfolding in front of your eyes and I thought my God, this could be possible, if we could have a few scenes like this we could really make a movie.
“For the first few days it was every bit as difficult as I remember, but then on the last day we had an amazing scene sitting in a clearing with the young chimpanzees playing, the teenagers larking around as they do and the adults grooming each other.
“I’d been there for almost a week with fellow director Alastair Fothergill and had seen nothing that reassured me making a full length feature was a good idea,” says Mark. We both looked at each other and said thank God we never have to come back here.” Less than 10 years later Mark found himself back in the same forest recce’ing for Chimpanzee. “In fact when Martyn and I left that shoot we pretty much whooped for joy. “I’d filmed monkeys in that forest before and it was incredibly challenging,” explains Director/ Producer Mark Linfield. But this remarkable story set in the dense rainforest of the Tai Forest National Park in Ivory Coast very nearly didn’t make it to the big screen. (Stories from around the wildlife film-making world!)īringing Chimpanzees to the Big Screen: Panasonic Broadcast Cameras Present our Closest Living Relatives as Never Beforeīy Panasonic System Communications Company Europeĭisneynature’s Chimpanzee tells the story of Oscar, an orphan chimpanzee, adopted and raised by elder male Freddy – an unusual relationship never caught on film before.