Glacier calving filmed by fast-response drone fleet

To film calving glaciers from an aerial perspective the team used drones. The glacier in question, Store Glacier, measures 5km across and the team had to be on standby watching the glacier 24/7 for more than four weeks, ready to launch the drones whenever action seemed likely, within minute of activity starting.

Then the pilot had to fly the drone some 1.5 km across the ocean to reach the vast glacier before they could even get a shot.

High-altitude filming using a gyrostabilised helicopter-mounted camera in Pakistan

The incredible ice-covered mountains of the Karakorum range have seldom been filmed. The Frozen Planet II team gained access to fly with the Pakistani Military and document both the ice fields and the mythical mountain, K2. Flying at over 7,000m, this was one of the highest altitude aerial filming trips ever undertaken by the BBC Natural History Unit and the pilot and crew had to be on oxygen at all times.

Light-weight drone revealing new insights into killer whale ‘wave-washing’ behaviour

Lightweight drones allowed a new angle on their amazing co-ordinated hunting. Viewed from the air, the way they form waves becomes more apparent producing new insights for science as well as television.

The team also employed new pole cameras to give an underwater insight, where diving would have been too dangerous.