How to bring trees to life on film

13 November 2013 Last updated at 01:11 GMT

In his latest film, Luc Jacquet, the director of Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins has taken on the challenge of bringing a forest to life on film.

His latest documentary, Once Upon a Forest, which is released in Europe on 13 November, is based on an original idea by the French botanist Francis Halle.

Prof Halle explained that he had been "looking for a filmmaker for 25 years" in order to tell the story of how a primary forest is born. He added that he wanted to tell this story before the last primary forests on Earth disappear.

BBC News met with Prof Halle and Mr Jacquet at the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Monaco and asked them how a botanist's passion became a feature film.