蜜芽传媒

By Felicity Lanchester, Kingdom Series Producer

Buckling in...

Making Kingdom was always going to be a thrilling ride – nothing like this has ever been tried previously by 蜜芽传媒 Studios Natural History Unit. We would spend more time in one place than ever before for a single series, and, with all our eggs truly in one basket, this huge risk required 100% commitment. One place; four animal families; five years; nerves of steel whilst waiting to capture extraordinary behaviours; and then an enormous amount of record keeping, analysis and research as the story began to reveal itself. The experience was a nail-biting rollercoaster of ups and downs, much like the series itself.

Choosing the Kingdom

So how on earth to find the right basket for all our eggs? Believe me, it was very tempting to do an around Africa recce, but the very specific circumstances we needed clearly pointed to one place - Nsefu, and once we’d been there, there was no need to keep looking. (Maybe next time!) Our attention was first drawn to Nsefu by the work of the Zambian Carnivore Program (ZCP) – an organisation that studies and protects the predators of South Luangwa. Their research highlighted the extraordinary opportunity to follow lions, wild dogs, hyenas and leopards here and explore the dynamic between all those families – just what we needed – and that kickstarted a partnership without which this series could not have been made. ZCP were with us almost every day in the field, and ZCP’s extraordinary work to protect these animals is showcased in our sixth episode.

Sharing skills, knowledge, stories… and dried mango

We were also very fortunate to know in-country cinematographers who could help us. Talented filmmakers Lianne and Will Steenkamp have lived in Nsefu for most of every year for the last decade. And Samson Moyo, Zambia’s first wildlife cinematographer, grew up right on the doorstep of South Luangwa National Park. Their combined incredible base of knowledge of the whole area gave us the ultimate head start and meant we could react quickly to events year-round. The whole network of people who would support us in Zambia was phenomenal – over 170 people worked on Kingdom during filming, and nearly 100 of those were Zambians. Working together came with a great exchange of skills, knowledge, stories… and dried mango!

Spots Emerged from the Undergrowth

A paradise stretch of river that draws lions, hyenas, wild dogs and leopards to all live alongside each other – we were in no doubt that a dramatic story of some sort would emerge… Now we just needed to identify some great characters to tell it through. On my first trip to Nsefu five years ago, something happened that still has me smiling today. My aim was to spend a few days with each species to identify who may become our leading cast of characters, but the animals themselves had different ideas.

Even with the best field teams in the best location, you can still go for days without finding the animals, and this had been a week of disappointment. A couple of lions had been seen but identified as nomads just passing through. Wild Dog Storm’s satellite collar data informed us the pack was in an unreachable location, and the best I’d seen of hyenas was a bottom disappearing into the undergrowth. All hope was pinned on leopards, but they too were proving elusive. We agreed to drive one more loop searching the likely trees before moving back to the river to film the quelea flocks coming into roost at sunset.

One more loop we did and came across two huge hippos wallowing, encrusted in mud. We paused to smile at the scene, and then spots emerged from the undergrowth… Olimba, followed by her two small cubs. I held my breath and cinematographer Lianne Steenkamp readied her camera. That’s when Moyo, Olimba’s son, crept closer and closer to the hippos – unadvisedly close given a hippo’s temperament. It was like watching a spark travel along a fuse… what on earth was this reckless cub thinking? This one short moment had me fully invested in the future of this surprisingly brave little leopard – what on earth would he attempt next? We confirmed one character that day at least!

Though it took me a long time to finally meet Wild Dog Storm in person, the other crews were quickly convinced of her suitability as one of our heroes. Her father was an extraordinary dog, producing over 200 direct descendants, and it seemed that Storm was determined to follow in his footsteps.

Hyena and lion characters were harder to pin down. There was much less research on hyenas than the other species, so we had to build a picture of the clan here for ourselves whilst slowly habituating them to our vehicles and cameras to see any more than a glimpse. Lions were challenging in a different way – with no young cubs in the pride, they were roaming widely, supremely confident, and totally at ease with our vehicles, often coming unnervingly close – too close even to focus at times!

The ultimate jigsaw puzzle

Hours and hours of footage started to pour in. 1,400 filming days across five years – that’s a lot of shots of animals walking… and sleeping… But luckily a huge number of much more exciting events were filmed too. The next step was record keeping, analysis and research. Days, weeks and years spent ID-ing lions by their whisker spots, leopards by ear notches and wild dogs and hyenas by their individual markings (conveniently each as different as a thumbprint) followed. Painstaking work both in the field and back home with the rushes, so we could be sure of the story that was unfolding and work out how best to illustrate the hugely dramatic and nail-biting events we witnessed our characters face.

It was like building the ultimate jigsaw puzzle, finding the right pieces without knowing what final picture would emerge. Luckily I love jigsaws. With the crucial help from the Zambia Carnivore Program, we started to reveal the bigger picture of their lives – what does it take for these powerful predators to live alongside each other? How do they impact each other, and ultimately, who will rule?

And the final piece

That just left the last and arguably most important part of the story to be told – actually the only part of the picture that was immediately obvious to us on arrival in Zambia: the story of a team of extraordinary human characters taking nail-biting action to protect this extraordinary place, and the communities of people who live alongside it. Whilst our animals’ story is all about competition, the human story behind this series, The Secret Story of Kingdom, is all about collaboration.