New Netflix series Night on Earth shows wildlife in a startling new light

Intrepid camera crews braved harsh nighttime conditions and used all the technical ingenuity at their disposal for Night on Earth, a new nature documentary series from Netflix that lets viewers see familiar animals in a startling new light. Further ReadingNatGeo’s riveting series Hostile Planet puts you in the center of the action"We wanted to show the color and magic of the night," series producer Bill Markham told Ars. That said, finding stories of things that happen in the wild after dark was quite difficult, because not many scientists stay up all night to observe animal behavior, although there is much they can infer from tracking data, for instance. But the low-light conditions of night shoots restrict lens length to about 400 millimeters and also require filming at regular speed, because you lose light very quickly when you shoot at high speed and slow it down, according to Markham.If conditions were just right, crews could use moonlight-sensitive cameras. The crew tasked with filming speedy cheetahs mounted cameras on an AWD vehicle and used night goggles to navigate the terrain, since turning on the headlights would startle any animals.As always, the crew relied on scientists in the field and local guides for their expertise.