Incredible Animal Journeys
Drone Operator · Long-lens · Specialist Camera
Plimsoll Productions · National Geographic · Disney+ · Hulu
Drone, long-lens and specialist-camera contributor on Episode 1 — Chasing the African Rains — of Incredible Animal Journeys, the Plimsoll Productions migration series for National Geographic / Disney+, narrated by Jeremy Renner.
I covered drone and long-lens filming as well as specialist camera shots for the episode, across almost ten shoots in Kenya and Tanzania — including remote shoots in Bogoria and Elementaita for the flamingo sequences. 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.
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:
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
