Bringing the 'Wild Isles' to life

In the days before the BBC’s incredible Wild Isles documentary was broadcast there was a flurry of activity on social media sites in Shetland. One of the posts was from drone pilot Nick McCaffrey expressing his excitement that his footage would appear on a TV show narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Nick, a regular contributor to Promote Shetland, was unsurprisingly excited. His work, gathered along with his friend and colleague Richard Shucksmith, was about to be broadcast primetime on a flagship BBC series.

As anticipated, the incredible footage of orcas hunting off the coast of Shetland was stunning and incredibly popular – prompting an upsurge in interest in visiting the islands to catch a glimpse of the incredible creatures.

In the aftermath of the broadcast, Nick and Richard say the response has been incredible. They’re also keen to point out that none of it could have happened without the incredible knowledge, skills, and supportive community that is part of life in Shetland.

Richard is a renowned wildlife expert, guide, photographer, and filmmaker. Originally from Oban he moved to Shetland in 2010 attracted by the diverse and unique natural habitat. Over that time he’s developed a wealth of knowledge about Shetland wildlife.

Like Richard, Nick also moved to Shetland, where he has developed his skills as a drone pilot, with a particular interest in capturing images of the most incredible marine wildlife. The pair’s shared passion for the natural world, and filming it, has helped them build a deep understanding of the “27s pod” of killer whales that often visits Shetland. And when the production company Silverback Films began looking for expertise in Shetland introductions were made.

But as Nick explains, despite all the experience it was still nerve-wracking. “When you sign up to Silverback it’s really daunting. They were investing a lot and were bringing up teams to Shetland and were expecting a level of quality.

“There was pressure to deliver. These guys are just about as good as you can find, and [you discover] you’ll be working alongside them.

“It was great to work with Richard as well.”

That is a sentiment that Richard echoes, adding that rather than competing against each other for the ambitious project, it made most sense to pool skills and resources.

“You’re much better collaborating, by working together you get the right people and the best way for us to work was to bounce off ideas each other and work together.”

Despite flying drones himself, Richard acknowledges that there “probably isn’t anyone on the island that can fly quite like Nick”. The collaborative approach allowed two different skillsets to combine – “we have ended up working on lots together and have complementary skills,” Richard adds.

That is indicative of the creative talent available in Shetland, and the supportive community that thrives on getting things done to the highest quality.

For the Wild Isles project both were evident.

“We are lucky that Shetland is well known for its wildlife,” says Richard. “Because of that a lot of nature lovers and naturalists live in Shetland, and the killer whales create a big interest, especially on social media.

“It’s like there are mutual benefits to sharing information. Shetland has been fantastic like that. It would have been much harder to film so much without that cooperation – because of the community there are ‘eyes’ out there sharing sightings. That helped the filming of killer whales to be successful.”

Nick adds: “Without that network, that community, openly sharing information on the animals’ whereabouts I’m not sure it would have been possible to shoot the killer whale sequence [Silverback] required.”

Not only does that help people keep track of where the animals are, the network of ‘citizen scientists’ also provides a pool of information so specialists can build a fuller picture of their behaviour and understand their movements.

In that way, Shetland finds itself feeding data into internationally important research projects. And, of course, it provides people like Nick and Richard maximum opportunity to hone their skills.

“There cannot be many drone pilots out there with the amount of time and experience we have had,” says Nick. “We have fairly unrestricted access and we have the chance to see orcas regularly and understand their behaviour.

“That’s a positive aspect of Shetland itself – you have the chance to hone those skills before you put them to the test.”

Despite possessing those skills developed over many years, both Nick and Richard were impressed by the Silverback team and how they operated. Including the patience and resilience of the crews who twice travelled to Shetland attempting to get footage of pods feeding, filmed from the water.

Anyone who has seen the first episode of Wild Isles, and the “making of” segment at the end will know how difficult filming that sequence was. But Richard believes it was crucial to the success of the whole episode.

“There are so many layers to this kind of shoot. You saw it in the final film, there is drone footage, long lens footage, underwater footage. There’s a whole mixture that comes together to build a sequence.

“When you think about the whole shoot, the footage from the boat was crucial because of the perspective that it gives. It’s unique and never been done before in the UK.”

You can watch the results of Nick and Richard's work for Wild Isles on the BBC iPlayer.