National Geographic‘s “Life Below Zero” follows the everyday struggles of people living in the secluded state of Alaska. After 22 seasons on the air, executive producer and showrunner Joe Litzinger jokes, “It’s all Sue, just purely Sue.” He’s referring to one of the show’s biggest stars, Sue Aikens, who joins our panel along with producer Crofton Diack and editor Tanner Roth.
“We are fortunate that we have an incredible cast that hooked viewers from the very beginning,” he continues. “I think everyone wants to spend more time with them, on top of Alaska being an incredible visual. You can watch hours of Alaska footage alone.”
When asked if her love for a secluded lifestyle has been ruined by the show, Aikens responds, “No, I wouldn’t allow that, I’d just lock the door. The palpable amount of respect that the film crew gives me is what they do. It’s their job to say, ‘Are you getting up today? Because we’d love to film.’ They accept if I’m just not feelin’ it that day. You’re going to go home and I get my very secluded life back.”
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Crofton reveals, “The logistics of getting to Sue’s is really hard. The first time we got there it was 45 below and Sue turned around and told me, ‘Hey you know the bear is probably living in my tent. Thank God that didn’t happen, but what did happen is that it went from 45 below to 67 below with with windchill. I was legitimately terrified and called Joe and said, ‘What have we done?’ But, I kind of have a healthy respect and fear of flying. We have to fly over some pretty rugged terrain just to to get to Sue’s. There’s been times where we’ve all had to scrape the wings to get the ice off. It’s kind of terrifying sometimes.”
“The biggest problem is my mental health when I’m covered with 300 mosquitos,” Crofton continues. “I just totally lose it! I start talking to Tanner in the third person. Sue has to watch me come unhinged and then we get it back together. Then we continue on with filming.”
Roth says he’s very grateful to be in a warm edit bay with warm coffee while he edits the show. “In terms of how I select the footage, I think about these story we’re trying to tell and the emotions that we want to come through,” he says. “That guides a lot of my editorial decisions. If we have an hour of footage that we’re trying to turn into a a three-minute scene, I try to see what information is essential to push the story from point A to point B to point C.”
“Life Below Zero” airs on National Geographic and is streaming on Hulu and Disney+. It has won eight Emmy Awards to date.
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