For the Human Planet urban team,
the Fez tannery shoot proved to be the most revolting shoot ever.
Central to the tanning process are wild pigeon droppings.
The crew had to learn to cope with the overwhelming smells of the tannery
and film their main character's life
without falling into the caustic lime pits.
Is this where he goes in, up those steps?
On arrival in Morocco, cameraman Robin Cox recces the location,
looking for good shots and angles for the sequence.
They've been tanning leather here for hundreds of years
and it's supposed to be quite smelly, so let's just see what it's like.
It's... Already, right here, there's something pretty foul looking.
Eugh!
Just put my foot right in it.
Well, this is just amazing. It's some sort of medieval factory.
It's not very 21 st century at all.
Robin sees where the fat-and-hair-covered hides
are first washed and painted with lime before being rinsed again.
It bears no resemblance to what we think of as a leather smell.
At the moment it just smells like offal and rot.
It's pretty gut-wrenching, actually.
It makes you want to squint, let alone stop breathing.
I'm trying to breathe in shallow breaths but it's pretty strong.
I'm not sure what it's going to be like spending a week here.
Their main character, Thami, has worked here for years
and he has a few words of advice for Robin.
Robin finds some relief from the stink by climbing up to the tannery roof.
It's a great place to get wide shots of the main courtyard.
This is it. It's an amazing scene. It's just so colourful.
It's just stunning, it's like paint pots of colour.
The colour of these pits is just incredible, it's a real blood-red.
With all this sort of flesh around, it feels like it is blood.
The shit pits are the sort of bluey-brown ones across the back there.
There's four pigeon shit pits.
Then there's the bright greens over there. Those are the lime pits.
Sort of thing people used to use for getting rid of corpses, you know.
Leave your mother-in-law in one of those for a couple of weeks
and she's vanished, so it's pretty dangerous stuff.
I think this has to be one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen.
It's almost biblical in a way, even just the mishmash of colours,
and even though a lot of the guys are wearing fairly normal clothing,
it still feels completely out of this world.
The next day, the crew start filming at the hide market.
(FLIES BUZZING)
Like the whole herd flat-packed.
There's all sorts of different hides here.
There's sheep and goats and cows and who knows what else.
But they've all obviously travelled some distance, though. Quite smelly.
Although they've been to the tannery,
they still find the hide market tough to cope with.
It's pretty intense,
and I really don't think I'm ever going to eat meat ever again.
They're here to film Thami buying goat skins,
which he'll take back to the tannery to process.
- Good. - OK.
OK, got that.
The crew find the heat, the flies and the hides too much
and leave the market to get a wide shot.
- Shall we go this way? - They said come this way.
OK. I think we might go for a little walk round the outside
to see if there's another shot.
This is where we get killed by a snake.
We're going via the rubbish dump instead!
These are the many to the few
that made it through the skins market alive.
Solidarity!
It's almost a relief for the crew to return to the tannery
to film the most important part of the sequence,
the use of the pigeon poo.
The first challenge is to balance a four-metre jib on the pit walls.
The crew are now ready to film
the most demanding sequence of the shoot.
OK, standing by...
This is the most dangerous part of the process.
What happens if somebody does fall into the lime?
Robin swaps his heavy camera for a lighter one
so he can follow Thami across the caustic pits.
Got this little arrangement.
It's a small DV camera and a couple of gyros.
It has a heavy weight inside that's spinning around incredibly fast.
It's going to stop the camera swaying forwards and backwards
and side to side, hopefully.
Not necessarily going to stop me swaying side to side.
I am a bit worried about falling in.
There's buckets of water at the ready and a hosepipe to hose me down
but I think it'll be goodbye to the camera if I go in.
Following Robin, Patrick nervously steps onto the pit walls.
- You all right? - Whoops!
Undeterred, Robin goes for it.
Stop! Stop, stop, stop!
I lost my balance there.
Thami's concerned for Robin's safety
as he crosses the increasingly slippery walls.
Let's try not to get this too wet, cos this is what's going to get me in there.
Action!
Ugh!
It doesn't want to turn corners.
Oh, look what's happening.
That's not good.
You need to tighten that up.
Patrick fixes the gyro, Robin finds his feet
and starts to get the shots he needs.
Eight times! I didn't fall in once!
Job done, Robin gets an honest review of the day.
Did he think that one of us would probably fall in?
- He did. - Yeah!
So we've done quite well.
Traditional Fez tanneries are known for their use of natural dyes.
Saffron is, weight for weight, more valuable than gold.
and has to be applied carefully by hand.
Pomegranate is used for red dyes,
indigo for blue,
tree bark for brown
and wild mint for green.
Once dyed, the hides are softened again
then sold on for handbags and shoes.
By the end of the shoot, Patrick and Robin feel quite at home.
I don't know about you, but I'm kind of getting used to it now.
Yeah, a couple of days in, it's not so bad.
It's nothing, is it, really?
It's like every day now.
It's like passing by the bin in the kitchen.
I noticed the tourists coming here and looking down on the balcony.
They've all got little bunches of mint held under their nose.
Lightweights!
The team have a whole new respect for the Fez leather tanners
and for the power of pigeon poo.