Taking the Flak - Animals
Continuing our series of exclusive red button content from Taking the Flak - here's journalist Harry Chambers talking about the perils of reporting when scary animals are looking at you.
The producer from Taking the Flak - Tira Shubart - gives us an account of what it's like on set having to deal with cobras, tortoises and a camera-shy goat.
If you want a snake-eye view of people, all you have to do is get into the snake enclosure. First remove the two rather large black spitting cobras to make room for the cameraman. Simple. Just take a very long snake-lifting prong thing and pick up the cobras very carefully. Remember to put on your sunglasses to protect your eyes from the cobras' venomous spitting. They spit to blind their prey and then go for a much nastier and usually lethal bite. Then deposit the six-foot long cobras in a secure container--a fancy description of a large bucket with a lid. With the enclosure snake-free, your cameraman -Pete Rowe in this case--can manoeuvre into the empty cage to film a "snake eye's view" of actors Bruce Mackinnon (Harry) and Lydia Gitachu (Grace).Ìý Simple!
Actually the cobras were more compliant animal actors than the twenty leopard tortoises we used in one scene. The gentle leopard tortoises simply wanted to crawl off and look for lovely grass to eat. Our camera crew quickly learned the art of "tortoise wrangling" to hold the tortoises stationary and leap out of shot at the last moment before the cameras started to roll. Ìý
But our goat, an animal actor featured in another episode, tried a serious escape during a night shoot. Goats are quite speedy, especially when running away from a television crew.Ìý Thanks to an impressive flying tackle we didn't give up the goat... Did David Attenborough ever have this kind of trouble?
Africa has the most spectacular wildlife on the planets and Taking the Flak wanted to feature some of the classic animals that people love to see on safari.Ìý But we had a tough time trying to get a zebra to graze near our microphone as the script required. Happily our zebras lived in a private reserve and could be bribed by their favourite kind of hay...so they had their moment of media fame too.
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The producer from Taking the Flak - Tira Shubart - gives us an account of what it's like on set having to deal with cobras, tortoises and a camera-shy goat.
If you want a snake-eye view of people, all you have to do is get into the snake enclosure. First remove the two rather large black spitting cobras to make room for the cameraman. Simple. Just take a very long snake-lifting prong thing and pick up the cobras very carefully. Remember to put on your sunglasses to protect your eyes from the cobras' venomous spitting. They spit to blind their prey and then go for a much nastier and usually lethal bite. Then deposit the six-foot long cobras in a secure container--a fancy description of a large bucket with a lid. With the enclosure snake-free, your cameraman -Pete Rowe in this case--can manoeuvre into the empty cage to film a "snake eye's view" of actors Bruce Mackinnon (Harry) and Lydia Gitachu (Grace).Ìý Simple!Actually the cobras were more compliant animal actors than the twenty leopard tortoises we used in one scene. The gentle leopard tortoises simply wanted to crawl off and look for lovely grass to eat. Our camera crew quickly learned the art of "tortoise wrangling" to hold the tortoises stationary and leap out of shot at the last moment before the cameras started to roll. Ìý
But our goat, an animal actor featured in another episode, tried a serious escape during a night shoot. Goats are quite speedy, especially when running away from a television crew.Ìý Thanks to an impressive flying tackle we didn't give up the goat... Did David Attenborough ever have this kind of trouble?
Africa has the most spectacular wildlife on the planets and Taking the Flak wanted to feature some of the classic animals that people love to see on safari.Ìý But we had a tough time trying to get a zebra to graze near our microphone as the script required. Happily our zebras lived in a private reserve and could be bribed by their favourite kind of hay...so they had their moment of media fame too.
Comment number 1.
At 13th Aug 2009, uncannyspower wrote:Yes well I am a huge fan the show and love the red button content- and a big fan of Harry Chambers, I think he should be full time ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news
...and does he need a camera man...?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)