Six legs better than two

By FRANCES GRANT

Ruud Kleinpaste is not the type to be fazed by that old showbiz dictum: never work with blowflies and cockroaches.

But even television's premier "Bugman" had his doubts whether creatures which have been around for many millions of years would care to take direction from Johnny-come-lately human documentary-makers.

Yet, as tonight's Documentary New Zealand begins, we seem to be riding right on the back of a bumblebee as it zooms into a surburban garden and homes in on The Bughouse.

The miracle of this flight of the bumble bee is that it was not generated by computer. It's the real thing - one of the wondrous shots of the small creatures we live alongside that feature in this ingeniously filmed documentary.

"What I think is the star of the show," says presenter Kleinpaste, "is the fact that we've done it in New Zealand with techniques that we developed, one step at a time. We used all sorts of crazy little things and ideas."

Without the big budget needed for expensive computer animation, Kleinpaste, producer-director Bryan Bruce and cameraman Richard Williams, simply had to use good old-fashioned fly-on-the-meat filming.

They also had to coordinate a cast of thousands of small critters, from garden wetas to weevils, carpet beetles to the microscopic mites that like to share your bed.

Not to mention the cockroaches - a creature not known for its willingness to take instruction.

Kleinpaste explains the process: "The first time we started talking about how to film this, the producer says, 'Now, Ruud, I would like you to put this cockroach here and then I want it to walk from here to the end of the wastepipe and then up the weatherboards to here, then stand still and look at the camera, then turn right, walk up the weatherboards and in through the kitchen window. And I want you to do that three times with that cockroach.

"I wasn't sure if this guy [Bruce] was for real or not. I just stood there and looked like a stunned mullet ... and blow me down, we did it in an hour. It was amazing!"

Kleinpaste is fulsome in his praise for the skills of Bruce and Williams, but his own expertise played a part in the choreography.

"When you work with insects a lot like I do, giving talks and playing round with them and handling them, you get to know roughly how they operate.

"Do they go away from the light or towards it? Do they walk upwards or downwards, do they fly away or do they walk away? Once you have that information, when you start looking at the possibilities of getting a thing to walk in a certain direction you'll find that you can actually do it."

The camerawork is indeed impressive, but will viewers appreciate finding out exactly what housemates are living off them, lurking down there at microscopic level?

Kleinpaste is certain the wow! factor will eclipse the ew! factor, even for those squeamish about close-ups of, for example, blowflies landing on steaks and maggots feasting on dead flesh.

"Oh, they're all right," insists the Bugman. "Actually they're very useful.

"I think the documentary is saying that we think we are the cleverest animal species in this world, being the most advanced predator on the earth, sea and air.

"But we have nothing on the insects. They are the big force in this world."

Bugs rule, he says, and their adaptability is something the human race, consumed with coping with technological change, should take note of.

"Insects have been adapting and utilising things that come up for millions of years," says Kleinpaste. "They invented niche marketing."

The creatures in your house and garden are worthy of admiration, he insists.

"We are providing them with all these opportunities and they are just grabbing them with six feet."

With an attitude like that, it's no wonder the bugs adjusted so happily to the demands of a film shoot.

"Yep, they nearly went to make-up."

* The Bughouse, TV One, 8.30 pm