When the trailer dropped for the BBC’s new Planet Earth II series, the most memeable moment was a small fox diving confidently and head-first into a pile of snow. It’s a perfect snippet for a good ol’ “It me,” or a “When it’s Monday,” or really just about anything else. But did you ever wonder about the person filming that moment? Standing there in 40-below weather, periodically punching themselves in the eye to keep it from freezing every time she blinks? That’s what Chadden Hunter and his team had to do, during the shoot for this weekend’s Grasslands episode.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking with the creators of Planet Earth II about how exactly they make a show like this. The gear they use, the way they approach the shoots, and how they turn years of wildlife footage into hour-long documentaries. Hunter, for his part, has been working on Planet Earth since the show began, and has seen it evolve as the technology has. In fact, he says if the tech hadn’t changed, there might be no Planet Earth II at all. We asked Hunter, who made a name for himself on the first series as “the guy covered in bat crap,” how he liked shooting with all this new-fangled gadgetry, and what kinds of stories it allowed the BBC crew to tell.

You can watch Planet Earth II on BBC America, Saturdays at 9pm. If you haven’t seen anything yet, you can watch the premiere free on BBC America’s website. See all of our recent Planet Earth II coverage. We’ll do this for the next few episodes, too, through the rest of the season. We still have lots of questions. If you do too, send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds (David Pierce is @pierce, and Michael Calore is @snackfight) or bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.