As dinosaur fans, we’re large followers of Apple TV+’s Prehistoric Planet (each seasons).
We don’t know if or when there can be a Prehistoric Planet 3 (we hope there can be)! Within the meantime, we will re-watch the primary two seasons.
We additionally have been capable of get early entry to Prehistoric Planet 2 earlier than it got here out, and have been so excited to listen to the within scoop and interview numerous individuals who labored on the present. So if you’d like your repair of Prehistoric Planet (whereas we watch for information of Prehistoric Planet 3), right here’s a breakdown of every little thing Prehistoric Planet 2.
We kicked it off with an interview with Anže Rozman and Kara Talve, who together with Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer created the soundscape for Prehistoric Planet.
They even made customized devices for the collection, out of fossilized rock, duplicate fossils, and extra. They usually gave their devices becoming names, such because the Fats Rex they used for his or her Velociraptor theme.
After watching the second season, we did a deep dive of every episode, beginning with “Islands.”
Why have been there islands within the Mesozoic in the midst of what at the moment are continents? On the time, sea ranges have been very excessive, and the oceans stuffed in low mendacity areas, so a number of hills and plateaus have been islands.
There are various causes for why sea ranges rise. This may embrace hotter temperatures, sediment slowly operating off continents into the ocean (over hundreds of thousands of years), and ocean flooring volcanism, the place large mountain ranges fill the center of oceans and displace ocean water. This in all probability had the most important impression within the Cretaceous, based on a paper in Geological Society, London, Particular Publications.
That is the world of the dinosaurs within the episode “Islands.” The main target right here is on Hateg, Madagascar, and Antarctica and options dinosaurs together with the highest predator Majungasaurus and the Antarctic theropod Imperobator.
Filming areas for this episode have been everywhere in the world: England, Australia, Zambia, Canada, and extra. These areas generally got here with their very own units of challenges.
For instance, the Decrease Zambesi Nationwide Park is dwelling to lions and plenty of elephants. Whereas the crew was filming there, it was exhausting to not embrace the animals within the shot (and naturally, there have been no lions or elephants round when the dinosaurs roamed the planet).
In line with assistant producer Rebecca Bangay:
“Probably the most memorable of those visits was from an elephant mom and calf. Just some ft from our vans the mom dug a deep gap within the dry riverbed to achieve the water under, tenderly offering her calf with a much-needed drink. It was behaviour Paul Stewart, a extremely skilled wildlife cameraman, as soon as spent weeks trying to find to movie, and but right here he may solely watch, beguiled however pissed off. (Fortunately, I may no less than seize it with my iPhone!) Paul was gutted that his digital camera was out of attain, prepared for the subsequent plate shot. It will be the right backdrop for our Madagascan prehistoric animals, however essentially away from the fantastic wildlife that surrounded us on location.”
The second episode is all concerning the Deccan Traps and Nemegt Formation. And we acquired to interview Mike Gunton, Govt Producer and Director of the BBC’s Pure Historical past Unit, and Tim Walker, the showrunner and producer of Prehistoric Planet.
The Deccan Traps have been shaped by volcanic eruptions that lasted for a whole bunch of hundreds of years. On this case, a “entice” refers to a darkish volcanic rock formation. And it’s an enormouse one. The Deccan Traps are over a mile thick, and present estimates are that the eruptions in all probability began simply earlier than the dinosaurs went extinct and ended someplace between 65 and 66 million years in the past.
(There’s nonetheless some debate concerning the position the Deccan Traps performed within the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Nevertheless, dinosaurs survived many different giant volcanic eruptions.)
The Nemegt Formation is positioned in what’s now the Gobi Desert, and plenty of, many dinosaurs have been discovered there.
Filming areas for this episode included Iceland, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.
Within the scene the place the sauropod Isisaurus infants are hatching, the crew dug a trench underneath the nest. Then one individual laid within the trench and pushed a 3D mannequin of the hatchling via the volcanic sand, to simulate them hatching.
The third episode is all about swamps, and consists of pachycephalosaurs head butting, Austroraptor fishing, and T. rex looking at night time.
The animals within the episode are from 5 completely different areas; Songliao Basin, Allen Formation, Maevarano Formation, Scollard Formation, and Hell Creek Formation.
What’s a swamp? A helpful definition is it’s a “wetland that’s forested.”
Swamps could be at any transition between land and water, and that water could be freshwater or saltwater. For dinosaurs that enjoyed fishing, swamps have been an ideal place to be.
Filming areas for this episode included the U.S., Australia, and Zambia. To movie the dinosaurs gathering within the swamp lands, assistant producer Leah Arnold mentioned:
“Every day we loaded two flat bottomed fishing boats and a number of other kayaks and crossed a small lake. The transition between water and land was not very outlined so we constructed a brief platform on the bathroom as a base to tie up boats and preserve tools dry. However out on the bathroom there have been extra challenges. If the crew stayed put too lengthy, we discovered we’d slowly sink. So, by carrying snowshoes we have been capable of unfold our weight and forestall “getting sucked in”. Whereas the digital camera was rolling the entire crew needed to maintain very nonetheless or the bottom would jiggle like an enormous waterbed making the shot unstable. At instances what seemed like a secure route was a skinny layer of bathroom vegetation hiding waist deep water. Director Tom Brainard fell in no less than as soon as, however being nicely over six ft tall it was not too deep for him!”
The fourth episode had extra dinosaur-era animals than dinosaurs in it, although there are scenes with Hesperornis and Pyroraptor. We acquired to interview Darren Naish, paleontologist and scientific advisor and advisor for Prehistoric Planet.
5 areas are featured in “Oceans”: La Boucharde locality in what’s now France, Western Inside Seaway within the U.S., Lopez de Bertodano Formation, Hakobuchi Formation, and Tethys Sea.
Loads of the filming was performed underwater. And based on the press notes, this episode was “voted the unluckiest episode to shoot.”
That’s as a result of underwater shoots are affected by floor climate, underwater currents, and sea swell. Filming areas included Grand Cayman, The Underwater Studio in England, Australia, Portugal, and Spain.
Whereas filming, the crew needed to cope with Hurricane Ida. In line with producer Amber Eames:
“It left us all hiding out on the bottom flooring of our lodging with out meals or operating water for a number of days. Happily, all of us rode out the lethal hurricane safely, however your complete crew will always remember this shoot!”
Within the fifth and ultimate episode of Prehistoric Planet 2, we journey to North America, the place we get to see a number of actually large dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Alamosaurus (and different large animals like Quetzalcoatlus).
Places featured on this episode embrace Javelina Formation, Western Inside Seaway, Hell Creek Formation, Denver Formation (perhaps), Lance Formation, and Prince Creek Formation.
One of many greatest scenes is when Tyrannosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus go face to face (and the consequence could also be a bit shocking).
Filming areas for this episode included the U.S. and the UK. Apparently, flies have been a giant drawback have been one of many sequences depicting the prehistoric chook ’Styginetta’ (which hasn’t but been formally named. There have been billions of flies within the space, and they might generally clog up the tools, together with the digital camera.
We’re wanting ahead to a different season of Prehistoric Planet (fingers crossed there’s one) and may’t wait to see which dinosaurs are featured subsequent. What would you hope to see? Share within the feedback!
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