A beluga whale cavorts in the frigid surf. (Discovery Channel/© BBC 2011)
A very angry polar bear surprised the crew. (Discovery Channel/BBC)
While filming in the Arctic Circle, crew members working on “Frozen Planet,” the seven-part look at Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions, found themselves just three feet away from the largest land predator on the planet: a raging polar bear, who caught them off guard in their 12-by-12-foot cabin.
“My blood runs cold [thinking about it.] Thank God they had an amazing polar bear guide,” says series producer Vanessa Berlowitz, a veteran of a similarly expansive nature series, the landmark “Planet Earth.”
“She had firecrackers in her pockets, and the hungry polar bear stood between her and her gun. She was incredible. She threw firecrackers in this polar bear’s face, and it turned tail. Otherwise, there would have been a horrific incident.”
In its first four episodes, “Frozen Planet” documents the changing seasons in the coldest parts of the world. The majestic cinematography captures the regions’ eerie, isolated beauty, as well as the dangers inherent in its resident predators, including Northern gray wolves, killer orca whales, and the aforementioned flesh-feasting bears.
While Berlowitz is a self-described “adrenaline junkie,” she also feels that her work has a larger mission. As we’ll see in the show’s sixth episode, airing April 15 and hosted by naturalist David Attenborough, the Arctic has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, with the Arctic Ocean losing 30 percent of its summer ice cover over the past 30 years.
“There was a sense of a moral imperative,” she says. “[The region has] changed so dramatically, and you get the sense that we’re in this critical turning point of change. So we felt it was really imperative to show global audiences these amazing wildernesses before they change forever.”
In gathering footage from locations where temperatures can hover around 60 degrees below zero (let’s not forget those hurricane force winds), the crew took great precautions.
Berlowitz took the crew, many of whom she had worked with on “Planet Earth,” to the Norwegian wilderness for a two-week training period before leaving for the Arctic. With 24-hour darkness and temperatures hovering at minus 13 degrees, they engaged in such activities as “advanced snowmobile driving at night, in blizzards,” and simulating snowmobile crashes, since outside help wouldn’t arrive for days if they experienced any actual emergencies during filming.
The crew also took up rifle training — “in the dark, with a blizzard” — to protect themselves from polar bear attacks, as well as crevice and avalanche rescue procedures.
They also had to “cold-proof” the cameras that had originally been developed for “Planet Earth,” modifying them with specially designed heaters, and making them even sturdier and more adaptable to treacherous conditions.
“We had a motion- control unit we used on ‘Planet Earth’ to show seasons changing in one shot,” she says. “We went back to the inventors of that and said, ‘Make this small and rugged, make it work at 40 below zero, and make it so it can go onto the back of a snowmobile and be dragged across sea ice.’ They looked at us like we were mad.”
The bitter climate required wearing up to 10 layers at once, so wardrobe included everything from fine, thin silk thermals, to wools and fleeces of varying thicknesses, to the heaviest possible, industrial strength goose down.
Even with all these precautions, the polar bear incident was not the crew’s only close call.
Flying low over the Greenland ice sheet to get a dramatic shot of waterfalls and glaciers, Berlowitz sensed her helicopter being pulled downward, then starting to spin.
“There was a massive downdraft sucking us down,” she says. “It was like looking into hell’s mouth, because all I could see was this abyss — this kind of vertical black hole with water plummeting down — and I felt like that was my moment of reckoning. It was a strange feeling, because I thought, very simply, ‘This is it. The end.’ There was no panic. Just a feeling that we’d overstepped it.”
Berlowitz was as many as five months pregnant during filming. While she took extensive precautions, she does have some mild apprehension, now that she’s a mom, about taking on similar projects going forward.
“This is my big struggle at the moment,” she says. “I don’t want my child being motherless, so I have to think about that more. But for me, filming in the polar regions is like going into the office. My office day is a bit different.”
As if the gorgeous scenery and unprecedented look at nature weren’t enough enticement, the series Berlowitz risked her life producing is narrated by “30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin, which thrills Berlowitz for several reasons.
“Alec was an inspired choice,” she says. “He’s interested in the environment, and he has a very epic voice. He’s probably not known so much for that, given his comic roles, but he can do both.”
With all that “Frozen Planet” has going for it, Berlowitz hopes that viewers get the same thrill from seeing this wilderness that she does from traversing it.
“I feel very privileged that I can do this. It’s addictive,” she says. “You get to see the natural wonders of the world in a way that very few people get the chance to do. I’m very grateful for that.”
FROZEN PLANET
Tonight, 8 to 10 p.m., Discovery