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Hi, Benjamin here.
Welcome to episode 12 of Nature Hits the Books.
Now, we've got something a bit different for you this time round.
Normally on this show, I interview folks about their new books.
But on this podcast, we're actually migrating into the world of television.
And I'm joined by award-winning wildlife camera operator and filmmaker, Vianney Desjardins-Gay, who is one of the presenters of The Wild Ones, a new documentary series that sees a team help researchers capture footage of some of the rarest animals on the planet, including the Javan rhino, the North Atlantic right whale and the Western lowland gorilla.
I had the chance to watch some of the episodes and talk to VA about the show, his slightly unusual career path and what it was like working to help save these animals.
Vianney, thank you so much for joining me today.
It's a pleasure, Ben.
So, The Wild Ones, then.
You're part of a team of three with very different skills who travel to some far-flung destinations, way off the beaten track in some situations.
Maybe you can give us a sense of what the show is all about.
Basically, we're looking for some critically endangered animals, working with scientists to researchers that were already trying to save those animals.
So we came to support them with our skill sets me, for example, with my long lens camera scale, and deck with his camera trap scale and, of course, aldo with how would you call it?
An adventurous leader.
Let's put it that way.
And before we get into the show proper, I'd like to talk about you and your career VA, if I may, because there'll be folk listening who are very interested in knowing what it takes to become a wildlife cinematographer, a wildlife filmmaker.
And you were born in Republic of Congo in Central Africa.
You then lived in France, and you're currently based in the UK.
But I have to say, doing my research, I see that your first filming job was on the TV show Casualty.
Now for folk not in the UK.
This is a primetime drama series set in a hospital like ER, for example.
Yes.
There's definitely a gap between casualty and disappearing into the jungle to film a rare animal.
I mean, how did the middle bit happen?
Well, I just came out of university and I was looking for work and I was lucky.
I met a chap who introduced me to a producer called at Beauty Casualty.
And then yeah, he said, this man, just you know he wants to be a camera assistant, so if you can help, it was my very, very first job in television.
I loved it to bits, but when the opportunity of filming animals in Africa came about back then it was the big landmark series called Africa a producer came in and asked me to do some research on a project and, And then there was the potential of sending me there to do some recce.
I thought, oh, wow, going back to Africa would be amazing.
And having my name on it would be fantastic.
So, yes, I've asked BBC Casualty if they can release me.
They said, yeah, that's fine.
And it was it.
That was it.
From that point onward, I just stuck with it. natural history type of documentaries.
So my career sort of started from a long lens cameraman.
And then I became, I think they call it witness cameraman.
It's not like presenter.
So what you're filming?
You're literally just talking about everything you see and describing everything you see to your audience.
That's what I became.
And you've been doing this for many, many years.
What's changed?
Because watching The Wild Ones, there's these very expansive shots that would have cost an absolute fortune with a helicopter and been very difficult to do.
But of course, now drones are available.
What shift have you seen in how people go about making nature documentaries?
The technology has changed the perspective of wildlife filming so massively.
For example, with this very series, The Wild Ones.
If we didn't have those camera traps, I think it would have been a nightmare to see any of those animals.
Because when you arrive at the scene where you need to film those animals, those animals are very, very elusive and very shy.
They have an incredible sense of smell and hearing.
So you get there, they already know you're there.
And then they vanish.
So without those camera traps, you literally don't have a chance.
So then what happens is you pepper them across and you leave and then the environment is safe again.
So they come back and you get the shot.
So just those changes, you know, we didn't have them before when I started in the industry.
Well, let's talk about The Wild Ones then.
It's a nature documentary.
But what's interesting is if you think about wildlife, regular nature documentaries i guess the end of the show has that kind of five or ten minutes of this is how we got the shot, that behind the scenes sort of thing.
But your show has flipped that on its head and that is the main show.
You've expanded that part out and, as you say, put these camera traps around looking for these rare animals.
And one thing i noticed is that in some cases these animals are so rare that you almost don't get to see sight of them until the very end of the show.
And I think that got me in the episode about the Gobi bear living in these remote mountainous areas of the Gobi desert where there's only a handful of them left.
But despite this, you can still tell a lot of stories about these animals and the challenges they face without needing to see them, which is an unusual way to go about making a nature documentary.
Yes, absolutely.
But yeah, this just goes to show how sensitive those animals have become the fact of being persecuted for so long.
With the Gobi bear, it was a major sort of logistic going on there.
So we have to pepper the cameras across and just leave the place.
And then between our first shoot and the second shoot, we were able to try to sort of create some scenes and then build it into those last images you get to see on camera traps.
But that said, I don't know if you came across this shot I insisted on with the long lens, where I have to stay put all night for pretty much three weeks just to get that shot.
And essentially that shot meant so much for the researchers and the scientists and in fact the government, because they needed evidence sent to UNESCO.
So UNESCO can protect that very landmark.
And you talked about researchers there and scientists.
Of course, Readers of Nature, listeners to the Nature podcast, are often scientists or science interested.
And in every episode, you do work with local scientists.
Why was this an important part of the show?
Those local researchers and scientists are key to what we're doing because...
They already started the process of trying to save those animals.
It was so important for us to sort of understand that dynamic and come in with humility and ask them what can we do to make it work for you guys?
And anything you do with natural history, when you get on location, you need those guys' direction.
You need those guys' support.
Otherwise, you're not going to know where to track those gorillas.
So only a local guy will tell you this is the footprint of a tiger or this is some stems that the bear has been eating.
And working with scientists, obviously, in some cases, you were helping collecting samples.
I think about the amount of rhino poo you and your team must have picked up over your time in the rainforest.
How did you help the scientists?
What data did they gain from your work?
It's a very important question Ben, because the dynamic of this whole series was about exactly how helping rather than filming behaviors and stuff like that.
So my role was to get as much individual shots just to identify individuals and identify some sort of markings on different species that we're filming, to gather this material as much as we can hand it to the scientists and they'll go through their studies, they'll go through their checks, they'll go through everything they need to just make sure that oh, there are two or three individuals of rhino that lives here, or there are one or two individuals of bear that share this very land with leopards, etc.
Or there are gorillas in this very section of the forest.
So that was purely what we were doing.
And obviously your career has been as a filmmaker.
How was it getting involved in the research process?
For me, it was an honour teaming up with those scientists.
And what I loved about those scientists they all have the same drive, just passionate about saving these very species they are working on.
It made me feel so privileged to just go through what they do, the details involved, the logistics involved.
Yeah, it was just mind-blowing.
And VA.
When I'm watching series like these or reading books by someone who's written about a lot of animals, I try and guess what the person's favourite animal or the one that meant the most to them was.
In your case, that took me about five seconds.
The answer is gorillas, right, who clearly have been a big part of your career.
And in one episode, then, you go to Gabon to get footage of wild gorillas.
Tell me, what do these animals mean to you?
When it comes to gorillas, they hold a very significant thing for me because I come from the Congo and those gorillas have shared the Congo Basin with my ancestors.
The reason also I love gorillas so much because, well, let's just put it simply.
When you're filming a gorilla, he can actually look at you in the face.
He has an expression.
You can tell he's sad.
You can tell he's happy.
And then when you look at the details, when they're moving around, when they're eating, et cetera, you look at the hand dexterity, all these elements.
It just reminds you of ourselves.
And in this episode the team of three is kind of split in half.
As easy as it is to split three in half.
And you go off with some local people and some rangers and some researchers to try and identify and find potentially a new troop of Western guerrillas.
And I mean, it is a spoiler, but you do.
And describe that moment to me VA, what it was like getting eyes on them, because it was a very special moment for you.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
It was above special because I filmed gorillas before.
I filmed the eastern lowland and I filmed the mountain gorillas.
I mean, I filmed the semi-wild western lowlands, but I've never actually filmed the wild one.
Going on that mission I sort of thought there was a slim chance of filming them.
Those wild gorillas can be magical.
They will know when a human is approaching.
They will just go, vanish.
But on that very day, something was quite unique.
Everything was perfectly timed, let's put it that way.
If we missed one second of getting to that very place, we would not have filmed them.
Guess what?
You know, as soon as we filmed those gorillas, you know, They just vanished.
And then my lens went completely misty so I couldn't see anything.
It's almost like Mother Nature wanted that moment to happen.
It was one of the best moments of all of our filmings in Gabon.
Now, the show is out and people will get to see it for themselves.
What are you hoping that they take away from the episodes?
That's a very good question.
A show like this has never been made before.
The reason why I say this is because it is conservation in the front line.
And it's a cocktail of adventure.
You have conservation.
You have fun.
It sort of balances everything.
It's very appealing.
You watch this.
You feel for the people.
You feel for the animals.
And you feel for everyone.
And I want this to inspire the younger generation, because I believe that there are a lot of people out there that were quite happily willing to come and support the causes, support those guys that tried to save those animals.
That's what I'm hoping that people will take out of this series.
Well, let's leave it there.
V&A, thank you so much for joining me today.
Oh, it's been a pleasure, Ben.
And that's it for episode 12 of Nature Hits the Books.
If you have any feedback on the show, why not ping us an email to podcast at naturecom with the subject Nature Hits the Books.
Otherwise, look out for the next episode soon.
The music used in this episode was called Cloud Jumping by SPD via Getty Images and Triple Scoop Music.
I'm Benjamin Thompson.
Thanks for listening.
This moment, Alex's mile swim, it means everything to him and to all of us.
At Evernorth Specialty Services, we help providers make sure patient care doesn't get interrupted, especially for rare, chronic and complex conditions.
Now Alex and his care team have his hemophilia under control with life-saving medication and care management from Evernorth's specialty pharmacy Acredo.
So Alex can be the last one out of the pool.
Evernorth Specialty Services, because every moment counts.
Visit evernorthcom slash specialty to learn more.
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