(elephant grunting) (giraffe snorting) - We are quickly getting used to giraffes wandering into shots, trunks coming into shots, getting body checked a little bit.

(Naomi laughing) You know, the curious trunks are always kind of all over our cameras, pulling at cables.

We're getting used to it, and they're getting used to us, which is important because we need to be able to seamlessly be in amongst them to be able to capture their natural behavior.

So normally, when you film elephants, you do so safely from a car, but here at Reteti, you have to be on foot walking along with the baby elephants.

And they're small, they're tiny, but they still weigh nearly a ton.

So we had to be really cautious and we had to learn how to read their behavior.

And we also quickly learned which characters to avoid.

- [Coleman] Hi, Kelele.

Are you okay?

- So Kelele, for instance, was not happy to have us around.

- [Coleman] Have this.

Come on, come on, come on, Kelele.

- [Nicola] And wasn't even happy to have the keeper around.

- [Coleman] Come on.

Come this side.

Come.

- [Nicola] What if we go the other side of the fence?

- [Coleman] Oh yeah, sure.

- [Nicola] Shall I do that?

- Yeah.

Come on, come on, come on.

Don't fight me.

I'm your friend.

- So that was a situation where we had to figure out where we could safely film it from.

- [Coleman] Don't fight me.

- [Nicola] Well, Coleman very bravely carried on trying to feed him branches.

- [Coleman] No, cool down.

(Coleman laughing) - So the keepers were not only vital parts of the series itself on camera, but off camera, we couldn't have done it without them.

They know the elephants so well.

They told us what was going on with each of them.

They know all of their backstories by heart.

They could also help us track them down, draw our attention to behavior that's happening and unfolding.

- Madi!

Madi!

- Naomi is one of the first female elephant keepers in all of Africa, along with Dorothy and Mary.

They are the kind of matriarchs of Reteti and their passion for their job is just palpable, and I hope that everybody falls in love with them, just as much as we did.

So we couldn't have made this film without them.

They were a delight and really became part of the crew.

We were a small unit most of the time.

It was just myself and assistant producer, Jed Allen.

So we were really dependent on the Reteti keepers to help us capture those stories.

(water trickling) One of our favorite characters has to be Long'uro, and to watch him gaining in confidence and learning how to engage in play fights with his herd mates was really beautiful.

Actually, it is very emotional.

When Long'uro arrives with a wound, it's like it miss someone, everyone cry.

We saw the stages of it unfold kind of on the sidelines quite a bit, and then slowly gaining confidence, going up to other elephants, giving a little prod on the bum with his tusks, and then eventually starting to fight even though he doesn't have a trunk.

He was such a sweetheart to film around.

We filmed him a lot.

He really didn't seem to mind.

He's such a lovable character.

- [Person] Oh, he's using a step!

- And then to see him mount for real, which is something that we didn't think he'd be able to manage because the trunk itself acts as a kind of stabilizer when elephants are mounting in the wild.

But he had trained his muscles.

- He's going for it.

- And he did it!

Then he just seemed to be so chuffed with himself for having done it, and we were really happy to be able to capture that story.