Tiny Creatures, a series of short nature films created and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Jonathan Jones, take some of this planet’s smallest – and in some cases, most misunderstood animals and sends them on adventures. The remarkable thing is that each episode, which takes place in a different region in the U.S., was shot in his backyard studio in England, all during the current pandemic lockdown. Does he make the locales look like the real thing? The first episode takes place in Arizona, following around an adolescent kangaroo rat as he tries to survive. A kangaroo rat has huge hind legs that let them hop around and skitters away from predators pretty quickly. And as we see in Jones’ footage, there’s plenty of danger around the little guy. Even if you didn’t know exactly how Tiny Creatures was made, one watch and you know that it’s not structured like your typical nature show. It is shot like a mini-movie, and you can tell. Sets are made, plot points are planned out, and there’s lots of green screen and it all looks spectacular. And then when you read up on how Jones, known for his work on Planet Earth II, actually made the series (in 27 days, no less!); the results are even more remarkable. Shooting everything in his backyard, using animals that are not native to the British location – Jones was able to faithfully recreate a movie-set version of each locale that looked real enough.

– Compilation