National Geographic: Wild Passions Page #5

---

gets to really like it.

I couldn't find another woman like

this on the face of the earth,

you know, if I spent the rest

of my life trying,

and especially one that looks

as good as this.

I'm one lucky man, I'll tell ya.

While there are wildlife filmmakers

who work alone,

it's striking how many of them team up

with their spouses or partners.

I'll tell you when you hit 24 frames.

Because in this business,

a good year you might be

gone 250 days out of the year.

And what kind of relationship

can you have

with somebody that's waiting at home?

So the ideal situation is if your

partner can be part of the team.

Most couples, you know,

they see each other at the beginning

or end of the day.

And there's a big chunk in

the middle where they're interacting

with other people.

And we have ourselves.

And very often,

we're off in wilderness areas

and we just have to get on

and thank goodness we do.

Look how easy that was.

That's right, that's right.

We live with the job. I mean,

I could wake up at two o'clock

in the morning and,

you know, "Kathy, Kathy,

I just got the greatest idea."

There sure are difficulties.

I mean, working at nighttime

is an incredible difficulty...

because she wants to sleep

a little bit longer than me.

We have the domestic crossing over

into the professional world,

back and forth.

There would be squabbles taking place

over who was gonna be responsible

for vacuuming up the back guano,

let's say,

that's dragged into the carpet.

We have these goals and things that

we wanted to do in life

and we've dedicated to that.

If Beverly didn't share the dedication

that I had or vice versa,

it wouldn't work.

And we would not be

a filmmaking married couple out

in the bush.

So, what do we do?

Are we gonna get end takes?

First let me do this

and then we'll do a front take

and then we'll add some questions.

One such couple is Richard

and Carol Foster.

The husband and wife are among

the world's leading wildlife filmmakers

They make a perfect team.

Richard's the cameraman,

while Carol does sound,

still photography and research.

Back there. Oh, they're so cute.

We're both naturalists.

And we both think in the same way...

Get ready, get ready, Carol.

even though we do separate things,

then we come together when it is a film

Carol and I compliment

each other very well.

We're actually both very

different kinds of people.

I'm much more laid back.

Carol rev's much higher than I do.

I tend to get a

bit mentally lazy sometimes,

and she gives me a quick kick,

you know, when that happens.

And I try to calm her down

when she gets too hyper, you know,

so we have a pretty good effect

on each other.

It works well.

We couldn't make these films

as individuals. We really couldn't.

It's too wide a breadth

of stuff to get done.

And we both have respect

for each other in what we do.

Recently, this filmmaking team

had to confront a grave challenge.

They were in Venezuela, filming one

of the world's biggest snakes

he anaconda for National Geographic.

At first, it seemed like the danger

would be in getting the shot.

They were following a researcher

whose favorite method

of finding the snakes was to

feel for them underwater

with his bare feet.

To get his respect,

which was, actually,

I was quite happy to do,

was to take off my shoes as well.

We've got stingrays, which if you

tread on one and it stings you,

it's three months out of your life.

They're very, very bad, very poisonous

You've got electric eels,

which put out 500 volts

and they'll knock you straight out

of the water if you get shocked by them

The snakes actually are not aggressive

when they're in the swamp,

because they're used to being trodden

on by other animals.

It's only when you start grabbing them

and hauling them out,

that's when they start turning around

and biting you.

But as it turned out,

the Fosters faced a much more serious

threat than the anacondas

during their time in Venezuela.

And all of a sudden I had these sharp

pains in my spine.

And when I got up,

my right leg wouldn't work at all.

And I was dragging it.

And then my left leg went.

And then we decided

we better medevac me out of there.

The mysterious illness puzzled doctors

Only one thing was certain:

Carol wasn't letting it stop her.

I didn't want to go back to

the States or anything.

I wanted to go back to the film,

because I had spent so much time

getting it to that spot,

so I says,

"I'm going back to the field."

And I was either in a wheelchair or

somebody was always carrying me.

It's a good thing you're light.

I know. They carried me.

And I says,

"I'm going to every scene."

Over time,

Carol regained the use of her legs.

Okay, Frank, you've got her. Okay,

you've got her.

Now, less than nine months after

her stint in a wheelchair,

she's joining Richard

on an arduous shoot.

For a National Geographic film

about bats,

the Fosters and their team

are descending into a huge bat cave,

a few hours from their home in Belize.

Grand Central Station of a cave,

this, isn't it?

It's a monster.

The steep descent is treacherous.

But it's a shoot Carol

wouldn't want to miss.

The Fosters have brought along

a unique thermal camera.

that registers heat rather than light.

It's just the thing for filming

in pitch black caves.

Hidden in the darkness are all kinds

of creepy crawlies

not to mention, thousands of bats.

Going into a bat roost,

it's a pretty unhealthy place.

These bats are all sitting around

the roof, and they crap down on you,

and there's piles of guano

on the floor,

and the temperature is higher

than it is outside.

It's sort of a Turkish bath feeling

about the whole place.

There's airborne diseases that

the bats propagate in the guano.

The main feeling is you want to

get the job done

and get the hell out, quite frankly.

But it's worth going

in there just to get the images.

Okay, we're gonna need that,

so we're gonna need to take that in.

Soon, the team is setting up

for a shot they never could

have attempted before.

The cave is too big to light.

But with the thermal camera,

it's heat, not light that counts.

It's like a starry night. Look at that

Yeah, exactly like a starry night.

You want more detail

on the stalactites,

or you just want 'em darker?

Um, detail, I think, if you can.

That's really nice. Keep it there.

You wanna record that?

The images are everything

Richard and Carol had hoped for.

They're showing the bats in a new way,

using technology early filmmakers

could never have imagined.

But for this husband and wife team,

being able to capture this scene

together is a personal triumph as well

For recently, Carol's mysterious

illness was finally diagnosed

as multiple sclerosis.

Now, I hope I'm going into remission,

and then,

I'm still able to go into some caves

and work on the bat film.

And I really tried hard because I,

you know,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes