Incredible Animal Journeys
Drone Operator
Plimsoll Productions · National Geographic · Disney+ · Hulu
Drone operator on Episode 1 — Chasing the African Rains — of Incredible Animal Journeys, the Plimsoll Productions migration series for National Geographic / Disney+, narrated by Jeremy Renner.
The episode follows the great migration’s annual journey from Tanzania up through the Maasai Mara and out into Tsavo East, threading the herd-level story through the seasonal weather that drives it. My aerial work covered the dry-season elephant family movement and the wide herd-establishing passes that anchor the episode’s first half.
PetaPixel’s behind-the-scenes feature on the series included a credited shot of the drone unit on location:
“Drone Operator Barny Trevelyan-Johnson sets up a shot of the herds grazing in Masai Mara.” — National Geographic for Disney / photo by Charlie Luckock
Production context
Plimsoll Productions is a Bristol-based natural-history producer with a slate that runs across Nat Geo, Disney+, BBC, Netflix and Apple TV+. Incredible Animal Journeys sits in the high-end Nat Geo broadcast tier — RED HELIUM and GEMINI cinema cameras, full long-lens coverage, drone integrated into the principal-photography schedule alongside the named episode DPs (Episode 1’s lead cinematographer was Manu Akatsa; RED’s case study profiles the per-episode cinematography team).
The series was Emmy-nominated.
Press
The two third-party features below cover the production’s making, with named-credit coverage of the drone operations:
Stills from the work
What the client said
We worked with Barny for 'Incredible Animal Journeys' for Nat Geo/Disney+ (Emmy nominated). Barny captured some amazing material for us in Kenya and Tanzania of elephants, flamingo and zebra for the episode 'Chasing The African Rains'. I found his experience of working in with these animals invaluable. He was highly skilled at following the animals, flying close at times - but also taking care not to stress the animals or affect their behaviour. He worked with us both as part of a team and remotely and his drone work played an important part in helping to tell our stories in a visually exciting and immersive way.
Other natural history work
