CBeebies successful show Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures, which filmed at The Bottle Yard Studios over 16 weeks last year utilising our giant green screen studio and adopting sustainable production practices, returns for its third series on Monday 15th February.
The popular show, produced by the renowned Bristol-based BBC Natural History Unit, took over 10,000 sq ft of studio space in Tank House 2 to make the 25 episodes utilising cutting edge digital CGI technology and the studios’ purpose built green screen facility, measuring 80ft x 40ft m x 27ft and its first stage to have LED mains lighting, to create a thrilling journey through prehistoric time. Dedicated make-up, costume and dressing room facilities were also used by the local crew as well as our on-site lighting contractor 180° Rental who provided the production with low energy lighting as part of the production’s sustainable practices.
The production management team, led by series producer Adam Oldroyd and Production Manager Janelle Backes, encouraged their cast and crew to adopt further sustainable working practices including using a recycled set from the on-site scenery salvage company Dres’d, cutting paper usage, eliminating single use disposable food and drink containers, using tap water rather than bottled water encouraging staff to car share, and video conferencing to avoid travelling to CBeebies headquarters in Salford. The production’s carbon footprint was measured using Albert, a carbon calculator specifically for TV production and the results showed the carbon emissions were one third the average of other BBC programmes filmed in a studio with VT inserts.
Adam Oldroyd, Series Producer said: ‘This series relies on the incredible range of filming & VFX expertise available in Bristol, so finding a local studio large enough to accommodate our plans was very important. Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures is a hugely ambitious series; we are constantly experimenting, trying to do things bigger and better than before, which made The Bottle Yard Studios the perfect home for us, as they are a highly adaptable studio. We needed a dinosaur sized Green Screen studio which The Bottle Yard Studios were able to provide, along with plenty of other onsite filming services. I’m a passionate advocate of Bristol and its vast array of creative talent, so to have a filming facility with the size and scope of The Bottle Yard Studios in our city is hugely important.’
Fiona Francombe, Site Director of The Bottle Yard Studios, said: ‘We were delighted to host our first children’s TV production and to assist such a complex and ambitious series commissioned out of Bristol and employing local talent. It was an ideal opportunity to build a Green Screen studio, one of the largest in the country, adding a valuable facility to our site’s portfolio and boosting the region’s services for the TV and Film industry. As an organisation that is continually developing our green ethos it was wonderful to see the production team proactively engaged in reducing their carbon footprint and utilising sustainable services provided by our on-site tenants as well as our own recycling facilities and local power from the mains rather than diesel generators commonly used in film and TV.’
Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures, which is a continuation of the successful Andy’s Wild Adventures and Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures, will see Andy Day on another epic journey meeting more extraordinary dinosaurs and ice age beasts that once roamed our planet.
Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures, is a co commission from CBeebies in the UK and BBC Worldwide for the international CBeebies channels. It is produced by Adam Oldroyd, directed by John Miller and written by Patrick Makin, Sam Morrison, Katie Simmons and Adam Oldroyd. Jonny Keeling (BBC Natural History Unit), Michael Towner (CBeebies) and Henrietta Hurford-Jones (BBC Worldwide) are Executive Producers.
The series consists of 25 x 15-minute programmes. The first five episodes were previewed daily on the BBC iPlayer from Monday 8th February 2016. It airs daily on the CBeebies Channel at 8am & 4.30pm from Monday 15th February 2016. Subsequent episodes will go out in March and later in the year.