Frederique and Lara have recently returned from a couple of months shooting on Christmas island.
Fred was working as DOP, for two different programs, capturing the famous Red-crab migration. One for Disney+ called Great Migrations and one for Netflix called Our Planet on the Move.
Lara's shoot was linked to Fred's project and also involved the crab migration, but was more of a 'Behind the Scenes' film that featured the way the Christmas Island community interacts and works around the annual crab migration.
Frederique Olivier working along the coastline of Christmas Island. (Photo: Lara Van Raay)
For the first program they filmed the spectacle of adult crabs migrating to spawn. The second program featured the spawning itself, which takes place at night, and later on, as the tiny 2mm crab babies return from the sea to climb back up to the top of the island.

Fred and Lara will discuss the challenges of their respective shoots. Lara writes 'Fred and I have worked together on many projects - sometimes we're shooting together, sometimes I am directing or producing and Fred is shooting and sometimes I am shooting Fred!
It goes without saying that I've become a great admirer or Fred over the years and have seen her work in all sorts of circumstances, but it was while I was working with her in her element of wildlife filmmaking that I truly saw how incredibly talented she is.
While Fred was hired by Plimsoll to shoot the crab migration, I was also employed by them to shoot behind the scenes vison of Fred and how the crabs and the town live together.
It was a most challenging shoot physically, due to the heat and the mosquitoes and long days, but it was also by far the best thing I have had the privilege of doing in my career to date.'
Lara van Raay (L) and Frederique Olivier (R) working together on Christmas Island.
|