Flay’s borescope was also instrumental in filming the ecosystem inside a discarded Brazil-nut pod, part of the series’ look at the web of life tied to the rainforest’s tallest trees. This segment shows the deadly competition between poison-dart frog tadpoles and damsel-fly larvae that occurs inside a water-filled pod, a battle for survival between species that exist nowhere else on the planet.  To light the interior of the coconut-sized set, Flay cut off the pod’s front and replaced it with glass. Once an ecosystem had built up, he lit the interior with a 12-volt Dedolight and filmed through the tiny glass plate. “Nine times out of 10, the action happened in the dark!” Flay recalls. “That was one of the long, frustrating parts of the shoot.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Deep Jungle’s long-lens photography. Thurston, a specialist in this area, was responsible for the remarkable footage of capuchin monkeys engaged in tool use — a behavioral trait that was, until recently, believed to be uniquely human. The cinematographer traveled to Brazil, where the capuchins have a veritable workshop where they break open otherwise impenetrable palm nuts. “It’s almost like some Stone Age archeological site,” says Thurston. “They’ve got tables, each with a tool on it, a river stone that’s come from up to three miles away. They’ve carried these stones over the generations.”

A blind for ecotourists stands about 30' from the closest table, and Thurston used that for his long-lens work. He filmed most of it on his own Arriflex 16HSR-3 running at 150 fps, including dramatic shots of monkeys hoisting rocks overhead to smash their palm-nuts — an image that subtly recalls 2001: A Space Odyssey’s bone-wielding ape. Says Thurston, “I wanted that same feel: the audience realizes it’s a step in culture when the monkey learns how to use a tool.” Mounted on the Arriflex was a Canon 300mm f2.8 lens and a 1.4x converter, effectively a 420mm lens. “I’ve got a 2x converter, which gives me a 600mm lens, and sometimes I’ll work with both or even two 2x converters, which some people might gasp at,” says Thurston. “You do lose a bit of quality: two stops with a 2x converter. But because those lenses and converters are designed for 35mm and we’re shooting Super 16, we’re only using the best, most accurate portion of the lens: its center. So we can use converters without seeing any loss of quality, certainly for television.”

Thurston used his second Arriflex, a 21-year-old 16HSR-2, for remote photography, setting it up on a stone table before the monkeys arrived for their breakfast workout. (“The nice thing about working with monkeys is they don’t get up at the crack of dawn,” he notes.) Although he had to pre-set aperture and focus, sometimes hours in advance, exposure was “spot on.” He adds, “The Kodak stocks are best for that.”

Like the other Deep Jungle cinematographers, Thurston used Kodak EXR 50D 7245 whenever possible. More sensitive stock was often needed. “There’s no question that the light under the canopy was a huge problem,” says Allen. Flay concurs, “Working in the forest, you’re either in very, very low light or very contrasty light. Exposure is always tricky, so knowing your film stock is very important.” Because of the production’s remote locations, no one shooting film had the luxury of seeing dailies; the 40-50 rolls per trip were processed after the cinematographer took them back to London. “We tried sending back rushes,” says Allen, “but by the time we got comments back, we were on a boat home.”

For low-light situations, as well as slow-motion and long-lens work, Thurston often used Kodak Vision 250D 7246. Others, including Flay, preferred Vision 320T 7277. “Before I discovered [7277], I used 7246, which is a lovely stock, but the brights get very harsh and the shadows get very dark,” explains Flay. “7277 is amazing. It handles the contrast better than anything, and it’s almost got a silky quality.” For his macro work with the tungsten-lit Brazil nut, Flay used Vision2 500T 7218, which he describes as “absolutely superb.”

While shooting “contextual” footage, Thurston took an entirely different route. He shot several time-lapse sequences, “so if they wanted to talk about our ancestry or tool use or cultures, they’d have some really nice images — slow-moving star-scapes and sunrises with light flooding across the valley — to lead into the monkey sequence.” But he shot these on a digital SLR camera, the Canon EOS 10D. To capture stars wheeling overhead and moonlit landscapes, he set the ASA at 400 or 800 and programmed the time-lapse for a series of 30- to 40-second exposures at f2.8. He also shot fluorescent mushrooms and a Brazil-nut factory with the EOS10D. With 6.3 megapixels of resolution, the quality is “way better than hi-def video,” he notes. “Virtually every cameraman I know in England now has one of these digital cameras with a time-lapse setup.”

Additional context is provided by wide-angle tracking shots in the jungle and across the tool yard. Because jungle terrain isn’t conducive to tracks or wheels, a different kind of system had to be devised. The team frequently made use of tree rigs designed by James Aldred, a skilled tree-climber who was the production’s essential “tree grip.” Aldred’s horizontal rig consisted of industrial steel cable strung between trees, a harness to cradle the camera, a remote model-airplane motor to drive the camera, and a transmitter to beam the signal to a portable video assist. “Even if there’s a 100-foot cavern below, it doesn’t matter,” says Allen. “You just rig the camera up and go.”

Vertical rigs allowed the camera to follow scientists as they climbed up to the canopy, where the majority of cutting-edge jungle research is now taking place. Whether the camera was accompanied by an operator or traveling solo, everyone had faith in Aldred’s cable–pulley–sandbag system. “If we want to get up in the tree with the scientist, it’s a huge consideration for us — there are health-and-safety, equipment and weight concerns,” notes Allen. The crew was double-roped, and the camera rigs were just as foolproof. When Flay wanted a 150-fps POV shot of a falling Brazil nut, he handed his Arriflex over to Aldred. “It was nerve-wracking to watch my £35,000 camera plunging down from 200 feet, but I trusted him!” says Flay. “Those pulley systems are so sophisticated, he could slow it down just as it got to the ground.”