Our 3 part wildlife drama, Stormborn took place over the course of 2019/2020 across the wild lands of the North. We ventured to some incredible places like Shetland, Iceland and Norway with various teams working across the board to showcase the wildlife who survive and strive through epic conditions.
Cameraman, Fergus Gill and assistant producer, Fiona Donaldson began in late winter on the windswept and wild shores of Shetland, home to the highest density of otters in Europe. Back working with friends and otter experts Richard Shucksmith and Brydon Thomason. The days were short, but packed full of encounters. The weather was typical for the time of year, the very first day spent at Stenness and Eshaness in west mainland filming waves crashing against the volcanic cliffs in high winds. Over the next week, the days were spent following and filming a mum and her two cubs. Spending so much time up close with them was incredible, the bond between the family is so strong, the air filled with the cubs whistle as they constantly try to find and keep up with their mother.
From Shetland Fergus headed further north, into the frozen mountains of Norway joined by cameraman, Asgeir Helgestad, to film reindeer on their journey from the mountains to the calving grounds. High above the deep wooded valleys it’s a vast open, snow covered and windswept landscape. The first sighting of the herd is so memorable, a great swathe of dots covering the snowy hillside on the horizon, thousands of them. Amazing to think of what they have to endure to survive, such extreme cold weather during the winter months, but they are wonderfully adapted to be here, much like Scotland born Fergus, who’s endurance for the cold astounded most of the Norwegian locals!
The footage filmed was enchanting, the wind whipped up the snow and it drifted in blizzards across the mountainside, amazing to watch the entire herd stand and face the gale head on. But a Scot and a Norwegian can only take so much weathering (unlike the reindeer!) and built a wall of snow to shelter behind and escape the worst of the weather. Enjoying a well-earned cup of tea!
Continuing north again, into Dovrefjell- Sunndalsfjella National Park the crew spent a few days finding and filming musk ox, an impressive mammal that looks like it’s come straight from the last ice age. Whilst getting close to your subject is usually a good thing, with the musk ox they often had to keep moving away from them so that they didn’t come too close. They’re powerful but unpredictable animals that can charge over ice much faster than our crew would have been able to run.
At the same time Cameramen Neil Anderson and Sam Oakes and Director, Iain Mitchell, were setting off on their own adventure into the wildest corner of Iceland, Hornstrandir. They were joined by Dr Ester Rut Unnsteinsdóttir and Rúnar Karlsson from Borea Adventures and had just a week to find and film arctic foxes as they re-established their pair bond and claimed their territories for the summer ahead, no easy task in the deep snow and blizzard conditions. The crew were pushed to the limit to film these scenes in such wild conditions, but as a result they look spectacular.
Fiona and Fergus returned to Shetland in April, catching up with our otter family. One particularly memorable day was spent with Brydon on a dramatic stretch of coastline. They were tracking the mum and her cub as they were fishing in deeper water when Brydon spotted a dog otter in pursuit of the family. The otters all came ashore right in front of the crew and a tussle ensued before the old male gave up and left the scene. A heart racing moment for the team.
And all too soon they set sail South to Fair Isle, just in time to catch the puffins as they returned from a winter at sea. They spent a few more days with the puffins than planned as the swell became too big and rough for the boat to sail, not that they minded in the slightest! Filming puffins as storms blew in from the sea was amazing, them running for cover as hail stones thundered down around them. After departing Shetland they headed for the Cairngorms, just in time for the first of the reindeer calves being born. A fantastic opportunity to be there to see the calves take their first (very wobbly) steps, often followed by a tumble, but they soon got the hang of it!
June was an amazing month as they crew travelled back to Iceland, this time with Fergus joining the team with Sam and Iain. The journey from Reykjavík to Ísafjörður saw them driving North, straight into the midnight sun. Most of them never having experienced 24 hour daylight before, it was spectacular and a little bewildering all at the same time. For hours the sun just hugged the horizon, making driving into it very bright and challenging. They sailed with Rúnar from Ísafjörður to their campsite in Hornstrandir. There Ester joined them and they spent the next month following the trials and tribulations of two very different arctic fox families. Whilst the days were long, the temperatures remained bitterly cold, hovering around freezing much of the time, an environment not easy to film in and cameraman Fergus, received a parting gift of dozens of blisters from chilblains - an all worthwhile experience in this eyes!
At the turn of the month Fiona headed off with camerman and drone pilot, Pete Barden to film guillemots and the incredible start to life their chicks face, when at just a few days old they leap off of the cliffs and follow their fathers out to sea to start their lives. It was a run of very early mornings and late nights for them!
Fergus joined them as a cheerleader on their final evening, when Pete nailed the killer shot of a jumpling leaping off the cliffs!
From that high Pete and Fergus headed straight to Shetland to join Richard for our most challenging shoot yet. To try to find and film a pod of orca as they hunt around the archipelagos thousand miles of coastline. Long story short, in July there was a lot of incredibly long days out looking for orca and seeing nothing. This went on for weeks and they thought they were going to come away empty handed, then at the last minute it all kicked off for a few frantic days producing some incredible footage.
Meanwhile Cameraman Sam Oakes, Fiona and series producer Jackie Savery were filming on the Isle of May, up at all hours of the night to film pufflings journeying under the cover of darkness from their underground burrows to the sea. A confusing and challenging journey for some but with eventual success as they reached the sea just before sunrise.
August saw Fergus and Iain back in Iceland with Ester, this time they were also joined by cameraman Andrew O’Donnell. It was amazing how much things had changed in just over a month since they’d last been with the foxes. The days were rapidly shortening and the weather was brutal, the flowers that carpeted the ground were well past and the vegetation was red and dying back, autumn had well and truly arrived in Hornstrandir. For 10 days it poured and poured and poured with rain. These were the most challenging days for moral and the kit! Everything and everyone was soaked though. On the day they were due to sail back to Ísafjörður the weather cleared and they had the most gentle boat ride back…typical!
In September researcher, Bertie Allison and cameraman, Fergus Gill, headed back to Norway in search of reindeer. At this time of year the deer were starting to rut, and that’s what they were aiming to film. They were working with local reindeer experts and tried to track the herd, which were covering vast distances across the plateau. Finding them every day required a LOT of walking and searching. Carrying upwards of 30kg of kit up mountain slopes and walking over 30km a day was incredibly hard work, but they were deep in the wild and it was wonderful. On one day the mountains were covered in thick fog and the visibility was around 10 metres and as they arrived on the plateau they found some tell-tale signs the reindeer had been there, tracks in the mud and fresh droppings. They followed these signs through the mist for a few km and then they heard them, bulls grunting in the mist, they were so close, but still unseen. Soon the crew spotted silhouettes of antlers piercing the fog and set up their kit to film. It was an incredible experience, so immersed in the sounds and able to see just glimpses of the hundreds of reindeer all around.
By late October crews were headed off on the final big shoots of the series. Pete, Bertie and Fergus were heading to the Monach Isles, home to one of the world’s largest grey seal pupping colony. These low lying islands sit to the west of the Uist’s and can only be accessed on the right tides and with the right knowledge. The isles are uninhabited and so they had to take everything they’d need with them such as food, drinking water, firewood and generators to charge the camera batteries. It took most of a day just to take their supplies up from the beach. But it was such a privilege to be there, home to a truly wild spectacle on a scale you have to see to believe. They’d hoped to spend two weeks on the islands but with the weather turning they were forced to leave after just seven days, or risk being stranded for another three weeks. It was gutting to have to cut the trip short but thankfully on the last filming day they managed to film the behaviour we were hoping for.
Around the same time, cameraman Justin Purefoy and Fiona were on a whirlwind trip much further…all the way to 70 degrees north, well inside the Arctic Circle to complete the reindeer story. Stepping off the tiny 10 or so passenger plane into an airport no bigger than their office in Glasgow they were amazed by the isolation, how far it felt from home. They set upon finding their way to one of the islands they were to be staying on for filming and could not have done so without the friendly and welcoming locals help. They worked alongside drone pilot, Jan Helmer Olsen, and filmed the reindeer on the first day coming down from the hills. The first crossing of the reindeer they witnessed was like nothing they’d ever seen before and it was then they knew this age old tradition was something special.
Series producer, Jackie Savery then came to join the crew and with this the first snowfall arrived the swimming reindeer crossing the fjords became more magical by the day. And to top it all off they were treated to a light show by the Aurora Borealis- the Northern Lights, a sight like no other and a fitting ending to a great year of filming.
Stormborn will be broadcast Monday 30th November on BBC1 Scotland
#Stormborn #Maramedia
#Scotland #IsleofMay #Shetland #FairIsle #Norway #Iceland
#ArcticFox #Reindeer #GreySeals #Muskox #Puffins
