Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It's Quinn can Ter Picks one ohsix James Reid on the phone, film
(00:03):
producer, director of the incredible ChimpEmpire on Netflix right now. Welcome to
the show, sir, Thanks verymuch. Thanks having me. You also
did My Octopus Teacher, which Iknow blew a lot of people's minds.
We're just reading about Chimp Empire takingyou what over a year to shoot?
It was, Yeah, it was. It was almost a year and a
(00:24):
half. And you were following onehundred and twenty chimpanzees, which is the
largest chimpanzees society ever discovered. VerWell, it was more than that actually,
So we followed both groups. Sounless you've got to the end of
the first episode, you might notbe aware of the second group. But
(00:44):
there were two groups that can gogo and we were fully embedded, fully
embedded with a camera crew in bothgroups every day. So in total,
there were two hundred and fifty chimpsand we were we were following both groups
all the time, but we haveparticular focus on individual characters within those groups.
(01:07):
Well, that's that's the thing,James, that's the thing. It's
like you get me, you getme into like Jackson and Abrahams, and
I'm like, oh my god,there's bad news coming. This one's the
old guys, the silver Bag,and then here and now you're telling me
it's a whole other group. Andyou kind of did that with me with
the octopus one too. I thoughtthere's gonna be death at the end,
so I got a little scared,which is the testament to your work,
(01:32):
sir. Well that's good, butlike this, you know, we tried
to follow a real cross section ofthe Ngogo chimpanzee society, like you mentioned
Jackson, you know, at thestart when we were considering which which characters
to follow, because we have towe have to pick and focus on specific
characters. Like you know, again, telling any story of a big community,
(01:55):
you need to be able to identifyindividual characters, right. That would
be the same with any any fought. So we applied the same reasoning to
the chimpanzees and we had to choosewho those characters were. And in a
sense, when you have no ideawhat's going to happen, because these are
totally wild animals, you have tokind of you know, make your predictions
(02:20):
about, well, who's going tobe the most interesting perspective who's going to
have difficult relationships, who's gonna allywith who, how's their year and a
half going to turn out? Andthe alpha male Jackson. He was kind
of an obvious choice, and inthe early days we were thinking, well,
that's a bit too obvious, youknow, we would like some perspectives
which are more surprising. So wefollowed Gus, for instance, the sort
(02:45):
of individual loner who was very muchseparate to the group actually, and he
was quite a challenging him to followand to find because he was always quiet,
and he was always separate to thegroup, and he kind of didn't
do very much, sort of nodisabled by his inactivity. But actually they
turned out to be some of themost interesting characters because I don't feel like
(03:07):
I'd seen a temp like him onscreen before. But then Jackson, although
we thought at the beginning, oh, well, yeah, people are going
to understand and get what this guy'sall about, this this alpha male with
all sorts of we relate, wekind of know this character to a degree,
But actually his story turns out tobe arguably the most surprising and fascinating
(03:31):
of all and not not in waysthat you you expect, all right,
So I'm delighted. We did followJACKI and we you know, our instinct
was to treat him as a littlebit of a bee character because we thought,
yeah, this guy, he's goingto be big, strong, he's
going to throw his weight around,but you know that's going to be quite
(03:52):
a two dimensional presence in the story. I imagine, James, this is
how you would approach the shooting ofa reality show. It's almost identical,
you guys, so funny, it'sit's it's I think it's very similar.
Like I haven't actually done any realitybut I think from talking to friends who
have, I think it's very similar. You know, you can't you know,
(04:13):
it's set the same rules apply.You can't, you can't control what's
going to happen, but you cantry and understand as much about their history
as possible and try and understand theirpersonalities and their stage of life and what
they want as well, you know, And that would be the same with
this was a human reality show.So we have this information that the scientists
(04:34):
have been studying these chints of thelast third years and had detailed information about
everything has happened in each individual's lifefuck to now. So the new experiences,
they'd had, the new relationships,they had trauma in their lives,
they knew wow, what life statesthey were at, and then ultimately what
(04:57):
their objectives were likely to be overour filming period, and that allowed us
to sort of position ourselves where wewere filming stories that were going to give
us, you know, an interestingrange of drama without having to create it.
And so, you know, becausethat was commitment from from the beginning,
as with any documentary project, butwe were so strict about it.
(05:19):
You know, this is it's anauthentic documentary story, and we'd had to
film things as they happened and gowith the stories that came up, whether
they were ones that were that weexpected or ones that were unexpected. But
thankfully, you know, the Indozochimpanzee, they're fascinating creatures, their community
(05:41):
assassinating that their lives are filled withdrama. So you know, we were
just and the things that happened wentway beyond things that we would have written.
We wouldn't have had the confidence towrite the story that ultimately took place.
Chimp Empire available now on Netflix.What about personally for your crew safe
do you what kind of precautions didyou have to take well filming if any
(06:04):
look. Everybody asks for that,and I think that it's totally understandable why.
And I remember first walking out andseeing the Ngo Go chimps in the
forest, and your initial response isfear because it's it's intimidazing. You know
that they're they're large creatures. Youknow that they are potentially violent, and
(06:29):
and there's a lot of them,and they make a lot of noise,
they're fat, they're strong. Soyou know, every normal human being has
that reaction when they go in there, But but chimpanzees, you know that
that is just a small part oftheir life that you didn't take any precaussion.
Well, we don't. You don'tneed to, because the chimpanzees have
(06:49):
been followed by humans for almost thirtyyears. The scientists have been following them
with notepads at at a respectful distanceevery day for that entire time. Incredible.
We got to walk in the shoesas those scientists and the chimps view
humans as a sort of passive presentThey don't, you know, they look
(07:12):
at you when you arrive, Youknow, they don't. They don't.
It's not like they look through you, ignore you completely. They look at
us the way we look at cows. I feel like that's a great way
for it. Yeah, well,and to say nothing the infants. I
mean, all you have to dois just watch that infant chimpanzee at the
beginning of the series, and it'slike, oh my god, that's us,
(07:33):
you guys, that's us. Thatthe mother. The mother's reacting to
this infant and this big baby thatwe're so close. So it's fascinating.
Whether you think you're gonna get hookedor not, you're gonna get hooked right
away. You're looking at yourself.Oh yeah. I think I think people
will. I think there's so muchto relate to, there's so much similarity.
(07:55):
But then I think what people willfind is that you start off by
really enjoying the similarities, but thenyour appreciation for the chimps just takes over
and they become just characters in theirown right. So it's almost like a
gateway thing. I think people willcome into it with recognition and seeing like
(08:18):
and that's a fascinating process, seeinghow similar they are, but the subtle
differences as well. But then hopefullywhat takes over is that these individual chi
characters have their own fascinating stories.Whether they're similar to you or not,
they're just fascinating creatures. And itwas a very dramatic period that we were
(08:39):
filming for and some of the eventsthat unfolded, you know, we couldn't
have predicted them, and I thinkan audience willn't predict them either, And
it just gets better and better.Yeah, Chim Vampire available now and Netflix.
James Reid as the directory also didthe Netflix documentary Oscar Winning My Octopus
Teacher. I know you got togo real quickly or octopus? Is it
(09:00):
possible? Octopus? Are aliens?Octopi? Octopi or aliens? Absolutely?
That's what. Yeah, that's whatDavid Crosby thought. I love it.
You're a naturalist. This is beautiful. Now, I can you just tell
me if the octopus dies at theend of that one? Wiz? All
(09:20):
right, it's fine. Look,I was blown away the second I started
watching Chimp Empire. It's on Netflix. Uh, you've clearly won your Academy
Awards. I imagine you're really lovingyour life and it's it's certainly shows in
your work. So thanks for thetime, James, Thanks so much for having made
It's Quinn can Ter Picks one ohsix James Reid on the phone, film
(00:03):
producer, director of the incredible ChimpEmpire on Netflix right now. Welcome to
the show, sir, Thanks verymuch. Thanks having me. You also
did My Octopus Teacher, which Iknow blew a lot of people's minds.
We're just reading about Chimp Empire takingyou what over a year to shoot?
It was, Yeah, it was. It was almost a year and a
(00:24):
half. And you were following onehundred and twenty chimpanzees, which is the
largest chimpanzees society ever discovered. VerWell, it was more than that actually,
So we followed both groups. Sounless you've got to the end of
the first episode, you might notbe aware of the second group. But
(00:44):
there were two groups that can gogo and we were fully embedded, fully
embedded with a camera crew in bothgroups every day. So in total,
there were two hundred and fifty chimpsand we were we were following both groups
all the time, but we haveparticular focus on individual characters within those groups.
(01:07):
Well, that's that's the thing,James, that's the thing. It's
like you get me, you getme into like Jackson and Abrahams, and
I'm like, oh my god,there's bad news coming. This one's the
old guys, the silver Bag,and then here and now you're telling me
it's a whole other group. Andyou kind of did that with me with
the octopus one too. I thoughtthere's gonna be death at the end,
so I got a little scared,which is the testament to your work,
(01:32):
sir. Well that's good, butlike this, you know, we tried
to follow a real cross section ofthe Ngogo chimpanzee society, like you mentioned
Jackson, you know, at thestart when we were considering which which characters
to follow, because we have towe have to pick and focus on specific
characters. Like you know, again, telling any story of a big community,
(01:55):
you need to be able to identifyindividual characters, right. That would
be the same with any any fought. So we applied the same reasoning to
the chimpanzees and we had to choosewho those characters were. And in a
sense, when you have no ideawhat's going to happen, because these are
totally wild animals, you have tokind of you know, make your predictions
(02:20):
about, well, who's going tobe the most interesting perspective who's going to
have difficult relationships, who's gonna allywith who, how's their year and a
half going to turn out? Andthe alpha male Jackson. He was kind
of an obvious choice, and inthe early days we were thinking, well,
that's a bit too obvious, youknow, we would like some perspectives
which are more surprising. So wefollowed Gus, for instance, the sort
(02:45):
of individual loner who was very muchseparate to the group actually, and he
was quite a challenging him to followand to find because he was always quiet,
and he was always separate to thegroup, and he kind of didn't
do very much, sort of nodisabled by his inactivity. But actually they
turned out to be some of themost interesting characters because I don't feel like
(03:07):
I'd seen a temp like him onscreen before. But then Jackson, although
we thought at the beginning, oh, well, yeah, people are going
to understand and get what this guy'sall about, this this alpha male with
all sorts of we relate, wekind of know this character to a degree,
But actually his story turns out tobe arguably the most surprising and fascinating
(03:31):
of all and not not in waysthat you you expect, all right,
So I'm delighted. We did followJACKI and we you know, our instinct
was to treat him as a littlebit of a bee character because we thought,
yeah, this guy, he's goingto be big, strong, he's
going to throw his weight around,but you know that's going to be quite
(03:52):
a two dimensional presence in the story. I imagine, James, this is
how you would approach the shooting ofa reality show. It's almost identical,
you guys, so funny, it'sit's it's I think it's very similar.
Like I haven't actually done any realitybut I think from talking to friends who
have, I think it's very similar. You know, you can't you know,
(04:13):
it's set the same rules apply.You can't, you can't control what's
going to happen, but you cantry and understand as much about their history
as possible and try and understand theirpersonalities and their stage of life and what
they want as well, you know, And that would be the same with
this was a human reality show.So we have this information that the scientists
(04:34):
have been studying these chints of thelast third years and had detailed information about
everything has happened in each individual's lifefuck to now. So the new experiences,
they'd had, the new relationships,they had trauma in their lives,
they knew wow, what life statesthey were at, and then ultimately what
(04:57):
their objectives were likely to be overour filming period, and that allowed us
to sort of position ourselves where wewere filming stories that were going to give
us, you know, an interestingrange of drama without having to create it.
And so, you know, becausethat was commitment from from the beginning,
as with any documentary project, butwe were so strict about it.
(05:19):
You know, this is it's anauthentic documentary story, and we'd had to
film things as they happened and gowith the stories that came up, whether
they were ones that were that weexpected or ones that were unexpected. But
thankfully, you know, the Indozochimpanzee, they're fascinating creatures, their community
(05:41):
assassinating that their lives are filled withdrama. So you know, we were
just and the things that happened wentway beyond things that we would have written.
We wouldn't have had the confidence towrite the story that ultimately took place.
Chimp Empire available now on Netflix.What about personally for your crew safe
do you what kind of precautions didyou have to take well filming if any
(06:04):
look. Everybody asks for that,and I think that it's totally understandable why.
And I remember first walking out andseeing the Ngo Go chimps in the
forest, and your initial response isfear because it's it's intimidazing. You know
that they're they're large creatures. Youknow that they are potentially violent, and
(06:29):
and there's a lot of them,and they make a lot of noise,
they're fat, they're strong. Soyou know, every normal human being has
that reaction when they go in there, But but chimpanzees, you know that
that is just a small part oftheir life that you didn't take any precaussion.
Well, we don't. You don'tneed to, because the chimpanzees have
(06:49):
been followed by humans for almost thirtyyears. The scientists have been following them
with notepads at at a respectful distanceevery day for that entire time. Incredible.
We got to walk in the shoesas those scientists and the chimps view
humans as a sort of passive presentThey don't, you know, they look
(07:12):
at you when you arrive, Youknow, they don't. They don't.
It's not like they look through you, ignore you completely. They look at
us the way we look at cows. I feel like that's a great way
for it. Yeah, well,and to say nothing the infants. I
mean, all you have to dois just watch that infant chimpanzee at the
beginning of the series, and it'slike, oh my god, that's us,
(07:33):
you guys, that's us. Thatthe mother. The mother's reacting to
this infant and this big baby thatwe're so close. So it's fascinating.
Whether you think you're gonna get hookedor not, you're gonna get hooked right
away. You're looking at yourself.Oh yeah. I think I think people
will. I think there's so muchto relate to, there's so much similarity.
(07:55):
But then I think what people willfind is that you start off by
really enjoying the similarities, but thenyour appreciation for the chimps just takes over
and they become just characters in theirown right. So it's almost like a
gateway thing. I think people willcome into it with recognition and seeing like
(08:18):
and that's a fascinating process, seeinghow similar they are, but the subtle
differences as well. But then hopefullywhat takes over is that these individual chi
characters have their own fascinating stories.Whether they're similar to you or not,
they're just fascinating creatures. And itwas a very dramatic period that we were
(08:39):
filming for and some of the eventsthat unfolded, you know, we couldn't
have predicted them, and I thinkan audience willn't predict them either, And
it just gets better and better.Yeah, Chim Vampire available now and Netflix.
James Reid as the directory also didthe Netflix documentary Oscar Winning My Octopus
Teacher. I know you got togo real quickly or octopus? Is it
(09:00):
possible? Octopus? Are aliens?Octopi? Octopi or aliens? Absolutely?
That's what. Yeah, that's whatDavid Crosby thought. I love it.
You're a naturalist. This is beautiful. Now, I can you just tell
me if the octopus dies at theend of that one? Wiz? All
(09:20):
right, it's fine. Look,I was blown away the second I started
watching Chimp Empire. It's on Netflix. Uh, you've clearly won your Academy
Awards. I imagine you're really lovingyour life and it's it's certainly shows in
your work. So thanks for thetime, James, Thanks so much for having made
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