(NBC) — Viewers who have watched NBC’s nature documentary series “The Americas” have probably wondered how film crews captured the action and scenery they see on screen.
The audience will get some answers Sunday in a special “behind the scenes” edition of the series at its regular time of 8 p.m. Eastern.
Tom Hanks had the easy job, relatively speaking, on “The Americas.” He narrates the stories captured by crews on 180 expeditions over five years.
“You do not take on this lightly,” said Hanks. “You can’t say, ‘Let’s send some people out with cameras for a couple of weeks. We’ll go from the frozen north to the tip of Patagonia and we’ll get everything, more or less.’”
It is an effort that requires unique personnel.
“I’ll ask any of the cameramen, ‘You wanna go and be on a rocky island for 16 weeks, eating protein bars and bottled water? Trying to set up a camera on one little nest just waiting for an egg to hatch?’”
But along with that kind of patience, fortitude was essential for places like Patagonia.
“You know you have to find these people,” said executive producer Mike Gunton. “It’s one of the hardest places you could ever work. It’s high altitude, it’s cold and the wind is brutal.”
The reward for enduring tough conditions was getting just the right shot.
“There’s nothing like the resolution and the detail you can get in these new formats,” said Gunton. “And it looks incredible.”
Often revealing what the eye cannot see.
“The thing that’s always been my passion is to be able to show people things that even if we took you there, you couldn’t see with your own eyes, you could only see it through the lens of the camera.”
Showing the Americas as people have never seen them.
Watch the special “making of” edition of “The Americas,” Sunday at 8 p.m. on NBC4, followed at 9 p.m. by the wrap-up of Gabriel Macht’s appearance as Harvey Specter on “Suits LA.”