The curtain raiser

The most critical scene was the curtain-raiser to the first episode: a story that wildlife filmmakers have been trying to capture for years. In the last days before the arrival of the Australian monsoon, little red flying foxes (fruit bats), desperate for a drink, are known to dive into the local river, running the gauntlet of Australian freshwater crocodiles. The crocodiles hurl themselves out of the water to catch passing bats in their jaws. It only happens just before the monsoon rains arrive and then just a few minutes each day, normally in the low light of dusk.

So to capture it we needed the very latest in light sensitive cameras with fast lenses and a team prepared to drift in amongst the crocs as dusk fell.

The director had to spread himself and lie motionless to stabilise a creaky tin boat. The cameraman pushed the technical limits of the camera to capture this life and death struggle. The results provide a wonderful wildlife spectacle, which sets up the film and the series: all life in this region depends upon the rhythms of the monsoon.

The build of clouds and storms as the monsoon approached, not only gave us a satisfying conclusion to the bats’ story but provided some of the most dramatic storm footage that I’ve ever seen on television.

Across the series, the Monsoon team became very skilled at shooting timelapse sequences of weather wherever they were. But in Australia, we had extra special help: ex-commando and photographic artist, Murray Fredericks, and storm chaser, Jacci Ingham.

Aided by their knowledge and deft judgement, we were able to second-guess the developing storms sufficiently to get an awe-inspiring sequence of shots, that set up the sheer power of the force at the centre of the series.