Kingdom of Plants 3D with David Attenborough
Robert was nominated by BAFTA for his work on the series, along with Tim Shepherd and Tim Cragg.
You can order the DVD, Blu-Ray and 3D version of the programme from Amazon now:
Kingdom of Plants in 3D (Blu-ray 3D)
Kingdom of Plants [DVD]
Kingdom of Plants: A Journey Through Their Evolution
Each of the three 50 minute episodes will cover a different area of plant life. Life in the Wet Zone looks at the adaptation of plants to wet and humid environments, with episode two, Solving the Secrets, exploring the behind-the-scenes lives of plant movement, scent and communication. Survival, the concluding episode, focuses on the continual adaptation of plants as well as a look at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which houses almost two billion seeds of more than 30,000 species of wild plants to ensure their future for generations to come.
For around 12 months I ran timelaspe studio on location at Kew Gardens. I had three stereo rigs running around the clock filming everything from relatively common cacti, to the almost extinct Rwandan Waterlilly. Additionally, I had two rigs (mirror and side-by-side) shooting exterior sequences and seasonal changes.
You will also be able to buy a book about the series, written by the incredible and devilishly charming Will Benson. It's available to order on Amazon.
Series Synopsis:
3D technology reveals a whole new dimension in the lives of plants, from the most bizarre to the most beautiful. In this sensational series, David Attenborough explores their fascinating world, which was shot over the course of a year on location at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and in other controlled environments using a variety of 3D filming techniques and computer enhanced imagery. Using 3D time-lapse and pioneering techniques in 3D macro photography, he traces them from their beginnings on land to their vital place in nature today, exposing new revelations along the way. He moves from our time scale to theirs, revealing the true nature of plants as creatures that are every bit as dynamic and aggressive as animals. David discovers a microscopic world that’s invisible to the naked eye, where insects feed and breed, where flowers fluoresce and where plants communicate with each other and with animals using scent and sound. He meets the extraordinary animals and fungi that have unbreakable ties with the plant world, from hawk moths and bats to tiny poison dart frogs, a giant tortoise and a fungus that can control the mind. And he does all this in one unique place, a microcosm of the whole plant world where, some 90% of all known plant species are represented: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This spectacular adventure through the Kingdom of Plants is so immersive and compelling it has the capacity to amaze even the least green-fingered.
Episode 1:
Life in the Wet Zone. (26th May)David begins his journey inside the magnificent Palm House, a unique global rainforest in London. Here, he explores the extraordinary plants that are so well adapted to wet and humid environments and unravels the intimate relationships between wet zone plants and the animals that depend on them. It was in the wet zones of the world that plants first moved on to land and in the Waterlily House David reveals how flowers first evolved some 140 million years ago. Watching a kaleidoscope of breath-taking time-lapses of these most primitive of flowers swelling and blooming in 3D, he is able to piece together the very first evolutionary steps that plants took to employ a wealth of insects to carry their precious pollen for the first time. David discovers clues to answer a question that even had Charles Darwin stumped: how did flowering plants evolve so fast to go on to colonise the entire planet so successfully? He marvels with signature enthusiasm at orchids, the largest family of flowering plants. Many of these captivating flowers evolved to be pollinated by a single insect species and in doing so developed such complicated contraptions of pollination it’s hard to imagine anything more beautiful. One orchid even looks like a bee.
Episode 2:
Solving the Secrets. (2nd June) David uses the latest 3D technology to explore a world beyond the confines of our human senses. He begins with the secret world of plant movement and uses sinister carnivorous plants to show just how active plants can be. Bladderwort utricularia is a pond-dweller that is among the fastest known, its traps snapping shut in less than a millisecond. As the seasons change, David demonstrates how plants operate on a different time scale to us; how they modify their lives according to the time of year. We discover insects’ hidden links with plants, both as pests and pollinators. UV-sensitive 3D cameras reveal the invisible alter-ego of plants and their flowers’ mesmerizing patterns; a parallel-dimension of strange colours and stunning patterns through which plants communicate with them. With the aid of visual effects, David steps among the swirling vortices of plant scent; communication signals with which plants are inextricably plugged in to the natural world. And using a tuning fork, he demonstrates how plants and insects can even communicate with music. As autumn envelopes the Gardens, fungi reveal themselves not as the enemies of plants but their vital allies. In Kew’s atmospheric Fungarium, David discovers a specimen that has the power of mind control and another that lives underground where it has grown to be so big it can be counted as the largest single organism on the planet. It is 6 times bigger than Kew Gardens itself. David concludes the film in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, where he meets an old friend, the great Titan arum. At 8ft tall, it is the largest flower in the world and a plant he remembers from a previous filming trip to Sumatra. Using heat sensitive cameras, David reveals the Titan arum’s secrets, how it uses a combination of heat and powerful scent to punch a hole in the stratified layers of air in the rainforest, enabling it to broadcast its presence across vast distances.
Episode 3:
Survival. (9th June) David discovers the plants that have evolved to shed their dependency on water enabling them to survive in the driest environments. The story begins at midnight in midsummer as David steps into the Princess of Wales Conservatory to witness the extraordinary nocturnal blooming of a cactus. The queen of the night, with its giant flowers, is the centre piece of a stunning symphony of cacti blooms that burst open in the desert (and at Kew) at night. In a mesmerizing 3D slow motion sequence, we discover the extraordinary connections between cacti and their natural pollinators: bats. The scene typifies the unique splendour of the 3D experience as bats seem to fly out of the screen and into the viewers’ living room. As the sun rises, David meets other amazing plants. Species like the century plant, the Agave franzosini, which grows steadily for over 50 years, only to then flower itself to death with one mighty telegraph pole sized bloom which literally bursts out of the roof of Kew’s green house. Cracking the code to plants’ survival strategies is the key to protecting their future and Kew have built a high tech long-term solution fifty miles south of the Gardens. Described as mankind’s ultimate insurance policy, and with 10% already safely stored deep frozen, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank has the capacity to store seeds from the vast majority of remaining species of plant on the planet, thus saving plants from extinction in the future.
For more information, visit:
Sky Atlantic HD
Sky Guide
Kew Gardens
IMBD Kingdom of Plants 3D
3D Focus
Thanks to Georgina Craig-Harvey and Max Harvey for the BTS stills.
Pioneering 3D timelaspe filming shows the plant kingdom off like never before at Kew Gardens
Over a year in the making on location at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Kingdom of Plants in a major new natural history series written and presented by David Attenborough for Sky 3D and Sky Atlantic first aired at 6pm on 26th May 2012.Robert was nominated by BAFTA for his work on the series, along with Tim Shepherd and Tim Cragg.
You can order the DVD, Blu-Ray and 3D version of the programme from Amazon now:
Kingdom of Plants in 3D (Blu-ray 3D)
Kingdom of Plants [DVD]
Kingdom of Plants: A Journey Through Their Evolution
Each of the three 50 minute episodes will cover a different area of plant life. Life in the Wet Zone looks at the adaptation of plants to wet and humid environments, with episode two, Solving the Secrets, exploring the behind-the-scenes lives of plant movement, scent and communication. Survival, the concluding episode, focuses on the continual adaptation of plants as well as a look at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which houses almost two billion seeds of more than 30,000 species of wild plants to ensure their future for generations to come.
For around 12 months I ran timelaspe studio on location at Kew Gardens. I had three stereo rigs running around the clock filming everything from relatively common cacti, to the almost extinct Rwandan Waterlilly. Additionally, I had two rigs (mirror and side-by-side) shooting exterior sequences and seasonal changes.
You will also be able to buy a book about the series, written by the incredible and devilishly charming Will Benson. It's available to order on Amazon.
Series Synopsis:
3D technology reveals a whole new dimension in the lives of plants, from the most bizarre to the most beautiful. In this sensational series, David Attenborough explores their fascinating world, which was shot over the course of a year on location at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and in other controlled environments using a variety of 3D filming techniques and computer enhanced imagery. Using 3D time-lapse and pioneering techniques in 3D macro photography, he traces them from their beginnings on land to their vital place in nature today, exposing new revelations along the way. He moves from our time scale to theirs, revealing the true nature of plants as creatures that are every bit as dynamic and aggressive as animals. David discovers a microscopic world that’s invisible to the naked eye, where insects feed and breed, where flowers fluoresce and where plants communicate with each other and with animals using scent and sound. He meets the extraordinary animals and fungi that have unbreakable ties with the plant world, from hawk moths and bats to tiny poison dart frogs, a giant tortoise and a fungus that can control the mind. And he does all this in one unique place, a microcosm of the whole plant world where, some 90% of all known plant species are represented: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This spectacular adventure through the Kingdom of Plants is so immersive and compelling it has the capacity to amaze even the least green-fingered.
Episode 1:
Life in the Wet Zone. (26th May)David begins his journey inside the magnificent Palm House, a unique global rainforest in London. Here, he explores the extraordinary plants that are so well adapted to wet and humid environments and unravels the intimate relationships between wet zone plants and the animals that depend on them. It was in the wet zones of the world that plants first moved on to land and in the Waterlily House David reveals how flowers first evolved some 140 million years ago. Watching a kaleidoscope of breath-taking time-lapses of these most primitive of flowers swelling and blooming in 3D, he is able to piece together the very first evolutionary steps that plants took to employ a wealth of insects to carry their precious pollen for the first time. David discovers clues to answer a question that even had Charles Darwin stumped: how did flowering plants evolve so fast to go on to colonise the entire planet so successfully? He marvels with signature enthusiasm at orchids, the largest family of flowering plants. Many of these captivating flowers evolved to be pollinated by a single insect species and in doing so developed such complicated contraptions of pollination it’s hard to imagine anything more beautiful. One orchid even looks like a bee.
Episode 2:
Solving the Secrets. (2nd June) David uses the latest 3D technology to explore a world beyond the confines of our human senses. He begins with the secret world of plant movement and uses sinister carnivorous plants to show just how active plants can be. Bladderwort utricularia is a pond-dweller that is among the fastest known, its traps snapping shut in less than a millisecond. As the seasons change, David demonstrates how plants operate on a different time scale to us; how they modify their lives according to the time of year. We discover insects’ hidden links with plants, both as pests and pollinators. UV-sensitive 3D cameras reveal the invisible alter-ego of plants and their flowers’ mesmerizing patterns; a parallel-dimension of strange colours and stunning patterns through which plants communicate with them. With the aid of visual effects, David steps among the swirling vortices of plant scent; communication signals with which plants are inextricably plugged in to the natural world. And using a tuning fork, he demonstrates how plants and insects can even communicate with music. As autumn envelopes the Gardens, fungi reveal themselves not as the enemies of plants but their vital allies. In Kew’s atmospheric Fungarium, David discovers a specimen that has the power of mind control and another that lives underground where it has grown to be so big it can be counted as the largest single organism on the planet. It is 6 times bigger than Kew Gardens itself. David concludes the film in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, where he meets an old friend, the great Titan arum. At 8ft tall, it is the largest flower in the world and a plant he remembers from a previous filming trip to Sumatra. Using heat sensitive cameras, David reveals the Titan arum’s secrets, how it uses a combination of heat and powerful scent to punch a hole in the stratified layers of air in the rainforest, enabling it to broadcast its presence across vast distances.
Episode 3:
Survival. (9th June) David discovers the plants that have evolved to shed their dependency on water enabling them to survive in the driest environments. The story begins at midnight in midsummer as David steps into the Princess of Wales Conservatory to witness the extraordinary nocturnal blooming of a cactus. The queen of the night, with its giant flowers, is the centre piece of a stunning symphony of cacti blooms that burst open in the desert (and at Kew) at night. In a mesmerizing 3D slow motion sequence, we discover the extraordinary connections between cacti and their natural pollinators: bats. The scene typifies the unique splendour of the 3D experience as bats seem to fly out of the screen and into the viewers’ living room. As the sun rises, David meets other amazing plants. Species like the century plant, the Agave franzosini, which grows steadily for over 50 years, only to then flower itself to death with one mighty telegraph pole sized bloom which literally bursts out of the roof of Kew’s green house. Cracking the code to plants’ survival strategies is the key to protecting their future and Kew have built a high tech long-term solution fifty miles south of the Gardens. Described as mankind’s ultimate insurance policy, and with 10% already safely stored deep frozen, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank has the capacity to store seeds from the vast majority of remaining species of plant on the planet, thus saving plants from extinction in the future.
For more information, visit:
Sky Atlantic HD
Sky Guide
Kew Gardens
IMBD Kingdom of Plants 3D
3D Focus
Thanks to Georgina Craig-Harvey and Max Harvey for the BTS stills.
"
"
"
"
"
