Series 3 For 'Andy's Prehistoric Adventures'

CBeebies' show Andy's Prehistoric Adventures has returned to the channel for its third series.

The show, which is produced by Bristol-based BBC Natural History Unit, was filmed at The Bottle Yard Studios, also in Bristol, over a 16-week period last year, and used the facility's large Green Screen studio.

The cast and crew utilised the 10,000 sq ft of studio space in Tank House 2 to make the 25 episodes and deployed cutting-edge digital CGI technology, the studio's purpose-built green screen facility, and its first stage to have LED mains lighting, to create the show. Dedicated make-up, costume and dressing room facilities were also used by the local crew, as well as The Bottle Yard Studio's 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 was led by series producer Adam Oldroyd and Production Manager Janelle Backes. Through a variety of measures, the cast and crew were encouraged to adopt further sustainable working practices. This included 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 it was found that 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, added: "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 Andy's Wild Adventures and Andy's Dinosaur Adventures, will see Andy Day on another journey as he meets more extraordinary dinosaurs and ice age beasts that once roamed our planet.

The latest series of Andy's Prehistoric Adventures consists of 25 x 15' programmes, and 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.

www.thebottleyard.com

(JP/MH)