Lyme Regis: Sir David Attenborough shoots 3D film (From Bournemouth Echo)

Lyme Regis: Sir David Attenborough shoots 3D film

SIR David Attenborough was filming in Lyme Regis this week for a major new 3D film to be screened on Christmas Day.

The world-famous natural history filmmaker was in the resort on Monday shooting scenes at various locations along the seafront.

In his first ever 3D documentary, Sir David is fronting Flying Monsters 3D, a film about Pterosaurs, an extinct flying reptile whose fossilised remains were discovered in Lyme by pioneering palaeontologist Mary Anning.

The documentary will take 40 days to shoot, filming in locations including Germany, Mexico, China, Kuala Lumpur, and London, and will be shown on Sky television on December 25.

Speaking to the Lyme Regis News, Sir David said: “Mary Anning was the first woman to discover a Pterosaur in Britain and she found it down here in Lyme. The film will be in 3D and shown on Sky and IMAX cinema.”

Sir David filmed on the fossil-rich Monmouth Beach with Lyme Regis Museum geologist Paddy Howe, at Sundial Cottage on the Marine Parade, above the Marine Parade Shelters, and overlooking Cobb Gate.

He said: “I come to Lyme quite often, I have been coming for 50 years, and I normally stay with friends not far away inland.

“Lyme Regis is a World Heritage Site and justifiably so.

“It’s on the Jurassic Coast and it is a very important place scientifically.”

Line producer Sias Wilson said: “We’ve been filming here because of the fossil shelf and Mary Anning. We’ve filmed on Monmouth Beach and mainly on the promenade and it’s gone very well.”

Sir David and his crew stayed in Cullompton, Devon, while filming in Lyme Regis.

Mr Wilson said filming the documentary in 3D meant shots took longer to set up, and while in 2D they would expect to film around 50 shots, they can only get through about 10 a day.

Sir David spent the long periods in between filming shading from the intense heat.

He said: “It’s the first film I’ve made in 3D and the apparatus are very much more cumbersome and complicated to handle.

“My part doesn’t differ much because I’m in 3D to start with.

“It means that the sitting about and waiting is rather more in 3D than if you were doing it in 2D.”

Filming on top of the Marine Parade Shelters, he said on camera: “When you consider Mary Anning’s status, a woman with a working class background with no formal education to speak of, it may seem strange that she acquired such a prestigious status. Until, that is, you consider what she discovered.”

Helping out the film crew for the day were brother and sister Olli and Katie Dixon, from Lyme.

For 19-year-old Katie, who will begin studying geology at University College, London, in September, it was a chance to meet her idol. She said: “He is absolutely my hero so it’s great to meet him.

“I got to have a chat with him and he said you should do what you’re passionate about, which helped me because I’m in a bit of indecision.”