Disneynature’s TIGER is the 9th in the nature series and celebrates the 15th anniversary of Disneynature. Directors Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz are no strangers to filming animals in the wild.
INTERVIEW with Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz for Disneynature TIGER
What excites you most about Tiger?
Mark: I think it’s very unusual that one of the world’s, probably the world’s most popular animal, has not been filmed before in this kind of depth. With this sort of revealing of a kind of content baseline. I think it’s amazing because it feels these days we’ve all seen everything there is to see about every animal. And there’s not a lot that surprises you from the natural world, to be honest.
On TIGER, we saw lots of things that we never heard of. It wasn’t in the script, you know, no one’s ever seen it before. Certainly not in any other documentary. And I think that ability to make a wildlife show that’s full of revelation is really rare these days. And, you know, from tigers, killing sloth bears, and gifting them to their mates, to frogs jumping on the backs of tigers and hunting flies there, too. I mean, there are any number of scenes that we could never have dreamt of. And we’re so used to trying to look for new things in nature and finding it hard. Yes, this was a real privilege.
Vanessa: But also with such a charismatic animal that everybody loves, you know, you just every shot, they just hold it beautifully, like supermodels, they just look great from every angle so that as filmmakers, cinematically, their world is also really exquisitely strong and rich and varied. So I think people will hopefully see a side of tigers they never thought of, they always just think of them as big and scary and dangerous, you know, amazing mothers, males that aren’t as kind of one dimensional. Yeah, bad as you might think. But also, I think we’ve brought this forest to life in a way that hasn’t really been seen you sort of revel in how rich and diverse and gorgeous it is.
On the filming technological advances that were new for TIGER
Mark: I would say that the duration that we spent, was partly because we had to leave because of COVID. But I have to say that that gave us fantastic opportunities to watch our characters develop and change in a way that we’re not usually able to do. So that was that was great. But on the technology front, you’re absolutely right. I mean, we were lucky enough now to have some cameras, which made things possible we could never have done 10 years ago. So for example, we have a gyro-stabilized camera with a very long telephoto lens, that gives us smooth shots when we’re driving along in the car over bumpy roads, saying that the cameras would be getting like that, but the shot is just eautifully smooth. So much so that we can film a tiger that’s 6,070 meters or more away and on the move. And on the move, it’d be a close-up. So that was incredibly game-changing.
And then the other thing that’s really changed for us is remote cameras. So we could put a camera in a place where frankly, it would be very dangerous for us to be you know, outside of a tiger’s den, for example. And we could be 500 meters away…and operating the camera on joysticks to do ball camera work. So the tiger doesn’t know we’re there. Well, there was no one there. So it’s behaving completely naturally. But we’re still able to do camera work as though we were there sitting in front of the tiger, which means that the behavior is so natural, and it gives us stuff that we could never have done, you know, a relaxed tiger and beautiful camerawork.
Vanessa: It really is the first time we’ve shown the secret life of tigers, and I think it is these camera breakthroughs that have helped us to do that. Definitely.
What was the most challenging thing that you found about filming tigers in the wild?
Mark: I think in reality, they sleep a lot. Fourteen to 15 hours a day, if you’re lucky. And so you basically have to keep the faith and keep morale up and pray that one day soon, there’ll be a tiger not sleeping, doing something really interesting. Not behind a tree that you can’t see, and that you’ll be on your game. When that happens and ready to film it.
Vanessa: That’s the only we did go for weeks without seeing Amber and the Cubs at times because they move around. They have large territories and they move around them. And in some parts, you can’t access all the jungles. Yeah. So you know, that can be really frustrating when you’re in the depths of telling the story and you’re keen to see what’s going to happen and then you just lose them for weeks. So it’s tough. It’s one of the hardest animals I’ve ever filmed.
If you could pick an animal to film next, what would it be?
Mark: You know, the animal I love most is always the last one I filmed. So at the moment is Tiger. I can honestly say this, and Vanessa knows, I mean it, the one I’ve always wanted to make a film about is the next one we’re doing. Yeah. I mean, I’ve always wanted to even before TIGER. Yeah, that’s the one I’m keen to do.
Vanessa: I’ve worked with snow leopards on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. And I would love to make a whole film about them. I think they probably wouldn’t sustain a whole Disneynature because you can’t get the sort of level of interaction that we got the storytelling of TIGER. I think it would be even harder with the snow. So yeah, that’s what I would like to do. Yeah, definitely.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
About Disneynature TIGER
Narrated by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Disneynature’s “Tiger” lifts the veil on our planet’s most revered and charismatic animal, inviting viewers to journey alongside Ambar, a young tigress raising her cubs in the fabled forests of India. Curious, rambunctious and at times a bit clumsy, the cubs have a lot to learn from their savvy mother who will do all she can to keep them safe from pythons, bears and marauding male tigers. Directed by Mark Linfield, co-directed by Vanessa Berlowitz and Rob Sullivan, and produced by Linfield, Berlowitz and Roy Conli, “Tiger” is the groundbreaking culmination of 1,500 days of filming. Combining fast-paced action with remarkably intimate moments, Disneynature’s all-new original feature film streams on Disney+ beginning on Earth Day, April 22, 2024.
Narrated by: Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Directed by: Mark Linfield
Co-directed by: Vanessa Berlowitz, Rob Sullivan
Produced by: Mark Linfield, Vanessa Berlowitz, Roy Conli
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