Last week saw the premier of the latest season of BBC Studios’ ‘Prehistoric Planet’ on Apple TV+, including an episode on oceans, featuring CGI footage of long-extinct underwater creatures, as well as some shots of sites that Cayman scuba divers will recognise.
A BBC team arrived in August 2021 to spend several weeks in Cayman shooting video that was then used as a backdrop for some of the computer-generated images of animals like the world’s largest predator, the Mosasaurus; the glow-in-the-dark Phosphorosaurus lizard; the 5-foot Hesperornis flightless sea bird; and the Xiphactinus predatory bony fish.
Professional divers from West Bay operation Divetech were among the local crew that worked with the BBC filmmakers on the project.
Divetech owner Jo Mikutowicz told the Compass this week, “Working with the BBC team on this shoot was a lot of fun and a completely different side of diving than what we do normally. It was really interesting to meet their team and see how they each had a specialised specific role/job they were there to complete.
“They don’t all work together all the time so some of them had just met that week but all managed to be on the same page for what needs to happen underwater and on the surface when the cameras start rolling.”
She said the portion they filmed in Cayman lasted about two months and was spread between three or four dive sites around Cayman, both deep and shallow.
Those sites included Eagle Ray Pass, Round Rock and Trinity Caves.
Mikutowicz added, “The show is CGI so they filmed underwater footage of specific parts of the reef that they were then going to use as a background, that they would later place the animal on top of.”
This is the second season of Prehistoric Planet, narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Jon Favreau. The Oceans episode first aired on 25 May. Watch the trailer here.
Related Videos
