Planet Insect - the testing circumstances of Natural History production during the COVID-19 pandemic

After two years working alongside Steve Nicholl's fantastic production team, we are all justly proud of the 3-part natural history series that was the end result. Especially when considering the testing circumstances of such a production during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There are insects everywhere right around the globe - all manner of exciting and exotic locations to visit, but just as the production kicked off, so did a global pandemic. Time for a change of plan. We'd always planned some sequences in our dedicated macro studio, but now to keep the production schedule on track we need it to scale up big-time. If we can't go to the rainforest, the rainforest will just have to come to us…"

Steve Nicholls, Producer Planet Insect

The team built some ingenious sets on which insect wranglers gathered their six-legged talent to perform in front of state-of-the-art camera technology, capturing some unique and innovative scenarios never seen before in a natural history programme. At Olaus Roe we enjoyed helping make many of these scenes come to life through our CGI modelling and shot compositing. The finished series is available to view on Curiosity Stream and has been rather appropriately narrated by Star Trek's Kate Mulgrew, revealing some jaw-dropping facts about the Earth being inhabited by alien worlds right under our nose - insects.

"A busy schedule of studio shoots planned and executed with feature film precision kept the show on the road.
Between ingenious studio setups and intrepid scientists, we managed to stick to our production schedule despite the very worst that the pandemic could throw at us."

Steve Nicholls, Producer Planet Insect

View the trailer for Planet Insect here