Ice magic!
NG Kids: How difficult was it to film in the Arctic?
Adam Ravetch: It was very difficult.
Sarah Robertson: In the winter it can be -40 degrees, but when you’re travelling on the back of a sled you're totally exposed and it can feel more like -80, which is brutal.
NGK: How do you cope with that?
AR: Sarah and the Inuit guys wear full caribou parkas made from animal skin, which keeps them warm. It was too bulky for me to wear while operating my camera so I had to make a sleeping bag which fitted on to my equipment.
NGK: How often would you be out filming?
AR: In the Arctic you only get about two good filming days in every 30 or 40 days, so it's important to spend the time outside. We had to endure storms and terrible weather in order to experience short windows of opportunity to film a magical moment.
SR: Whenever we go to the Arctic, we take our three children. I hire an Inuit family with kids to come with us so that our children have others to play with. They just run wild – especially in the summertime when there's 24-hour sunshine! We usually live in tents, although in the winter we’ll build igloos if we need to. The smallest takes four hours to build.
NGK: What do they do for fun?
AR: Arctic Olympics! They toboggan down the ice and see who can throw harpoons the furthest.
SR: Or they go ice fishing, which they also enjoy. Often they're doing chores though. When you’re living on the land, there's a lot of work to do.
NGK: What kind of work?
SR: They have to do things like gather fresh water. It can take four hours to get enough water for a couple of days. You have to go the lakes and chisel down three foot to get to the water – and then you have to transport it back to camp without spilling a drop.
AR: When we were looking for walruses, we were out in the sea and would have to haul our boat on to the ice when we slept for the night. But I woke up one morning to discover the boat had gone. The ice had broken off, taken our boat with it. We managed to get another boat to search for our first boat, but the engine broke on that one too. We were drifting for 72 hours. This was before satellite phones, so we couldn't do anything. It was just by chance that we were rescued, which was extremely scary. We only had a day’s worth of food, so we didn't eat for 72 hours.
NGK: Were the animals friendly out in the wild?
AR: When I first encountered a walrus, I was told that it could hold knock your head off with one smack of its tusk. We had to go really slow and we learned as we went along how to approach them. Finally we got the mother to accept our presence and the result were remarkable images taken inches from them.
NGK: What was the funniest moment during filming?
SR: Walruses are very funny – and they make very funny sounds. There's a wind sequence in the movie, which is an honest account of what happens. We had to sit right in the middle of a walrus herd for weeks and they’re the smelliest creatures you're ever going to come across. Walruses make the funniest smells and sounds, so we decided we had to let people know what they're really like.
NGK: Is it true the Arctic could be ice-free by the year 2040?
SR: Yes, that's what scientists are saying. A year ago they said it could be ice-free by the year 2060 – but we've heard reports that it could now be as close as 2020.
NGK: What can our readers do to help combat global warming?
AR: There are things everyone can do to counteract climate change. Switch off lights when you're not in the room,
walk instead of taking the car. Little steps lead to bigger steps – and everything helps. Arctic Tale is out on DVD on 8 September
Words: Adam Tanswell