I sat down with series director, Stephen Cooter, series producer, Gideon Bradshaw, and lead VFX producer Rob Harvey to chat about the BBC's latest documentary series with Professor Brian Cox; The Planets.

We chat about the challenges of such a CGIheavy documentary, the role of anthropomorphism in storytelling, and the tradeoffs involved in making a scientifically accurate entertainment piece. I was lucky enough to be invited to watch episode two, The Two Sisters Mars and Earth, on an IMAX screen at an early showing before this interview (thanks BBC!) but this is not a sponsored video.

Timecodes for questions:
00:00 Intro
00:17 Can you introduce what your roles are?
02:00 Given the amount of CG (computer graphics) involved, did you know exactly what the final product would look like before you started?
03:30 Were there times when you were in the edit when you wished you had one more animation?
04:30 Tradeoffs between visual effects, CG and reality – you can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not.
05:50 From a factual point of view, how important is it to tell the audience what’s real and what’s visual effects?
08:15 One of the big concepts is anthropomorphising the planets. Who came up with the idea of turning the planets into a family drama? (Andrew = Head of the BBC Science Unit, Andrew Cohen)
09:40 Do you see this as an entertainment piece more so than an educational piece?
11:50 Are you aiming at an audience that wouldn’t normally watch BBC documentaries?
12:50 From a production perspective, what were the challenges you came up against?
16:05 It’s almost sad that you go to so much effort getting that shot, but the audience could think that it was all added in in post. (DP = director of photography)
17:45 Do any of you have traditional science backgrounds?
18:25 At what point do you get the experts involved?
20:25 From a CG perspective, is it helpful or hindering to have scientific boundaries?
21:45 Was it fun coming up with what you think the planetary details look like?
22:40 It must be nice for the scientists to see visualisations of their theories – did they get any new ideas from seeing them?
25:10 It’s important for scientists to be able to work with the media and see their work accurately represented.
26:00 What moment are you each proudest of?
29:10 What one thing do you wish the audience knew about the production that you don’t think they know?

If you liked this, you might like my podcaststyle series, Sofa Science, where I interview other science YouTubers about their careers and their views on the science communication industry. You can watch the playlist here (   • T rex wasn't male and female?  Kalli...  ) or find it by searching "Sofa Science" in your favourite podcast places.

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Dr Sally Le Page is a British evolutionary biologist and science YouTuber. The aim of these videos is to bring science further into popular culture by making science videos that make you laugh, make you feel and make you think.