Behind the Scenes of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age on Apple TV

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Real survival, real stakes, and seriously impressive puppets. Step behind the curtain to see how Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age brings ancient worlds to life with cutting-edge artistry and creature craft. Now streaming on Apple TV.

Transcript

00:00Life has to persevere and adapt.

00:08It's not just the survival of individuals, but the survival of family groups.

00:14This season, we've got to explore a whole different side of animal behavior.

00:19The emotional connections between these creatures.

00:25Ready, guys?

00:26Three, two, one.

00:30We were constantly asking ourselves, how do you create that illusion?

00:35I think one of the most important breakthroughs for this series was the use of puppets.

00:41So they're freestyling now, which I works, which is good, actually.

00:44People are very familiar with mammalian behavior as far as how realistic it comes across.

00:51We used puppets that were not very complicated, but gave the camera operator enough to follow.

00:56We're now doing animals that are much more similar to things that exist, so the stakes

01:02of getting it realistic are even higher.

01:05We shoot everything on a puppet path.

01:09We also then shoot all of those things clean without the puppets.

01:13Creature work's one of the most complex things you can do in visual effects.

01:15It's a process, but the most important thing is that we use the puppets to find something

01:20that feels really, really authentic.

01:23Puppets give that life that natural history has because you're watching something actually

01:27happen.

01:29I can look around.

01:31I can give it all kinds of life.

01:33Has it just come in from a run?

01:35How does that feel?

01:39As we're performing, we're getting emotional and running around, feeling out of breath and

01:46feeling panicked.

01:48You can see what would have happened and what it would feel like being that creature.

01:51Those magical moments of authenticity come from the puppets.

02:03Filming on very long lens, we're able to follow that and sort of react and then come back.

02:08It takes a lovely quality, and then VFX can pick that up and take that performance to the

02:14next level.

02:14So much of the way that mammals act is similar to how humans act.

02:24They have families.

02:25They feel grief.

02:26They celebrate birth.

02:31We can really lean into how these animals might have felt.

02:37This season of Prehistoric Planet, our animators were able to find and bring life to these creatures

02:44in a way that we haven't had the opportunity to do in the past.

02:49It's an insight into a whole new era of the ancient world.

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