Treasure Island with Bear Grylls continues its new series tonight and here’s just how it’s filmed and made.
This year’s series is currently airing at 9PM on Channel 4 on Sunday nights.
As usual, The Island has seen a number of contestants dropped off on an inhabited island to fend for themselves.
The twelve contestants are from a diverse range of backgrounds, including a 20-year-old waitress to a 75-year-old AirBnB owner. There are also doctors, nurses, salespersons and writers.
Before the show kicked off, Bear and his team prepped the island to make sure that it could – in theory at least – support the contestants for the duration.
In past series, this has included adding extra wildlife and vegetation indigenous to the area including water sources, paca, turkeys, iguanas, caiman, boa constrictors, coconuts, sugar cane and yucca.
But Bear insists that it is still up to the Islanders to find these resources and exploit them.
The contestants are also provided with some starting supplies which typically include six knives, six machetes, fishing equipment, head torches, whistles, and a medical kit.
And before the show, the contestants were given a two day crash course in survival including basic first aid, lighting fires, water purification and the humane dispatch of animals. They also received basic health and safety training.
The Islanders each have an emergency satellite phone plus GPS tracker to contact Bear and his team in case of real problems. In the worst case scenario, a helicopter can be on the island in 30 to 40 minutes.
In addition, at least one of the contestants on The Island is a qualified doctor.
When it comes to how The Island is filmed, recording is undertaken by both an embedded camera crew and the contestants themselves using a range of equipment.
Everyone had a go at shooting both with handheld cameras and GoPro cameras attached to them having been given some basic film training before starting.
The embedded camera crew live in similar conditions to the islanders and are part of the island community.
Meanwhile, for 2019, the series has seen money become directly involved with a £100,000 prize in what has been named ‘Treasure Island With Bear Grylls’.
Over 35 days, bundles of cash are dropped in various locations around the island. Those who find the money can keep it to themselves, share it, give it to another islander or hide it; it’s left with the islanders to decide what to do with their cash.
But if an islander leaves the island for any reason, they’re required to hand over their cash and forfeit their right to a prize.
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