Frozen Planet. Another ace from the BBC.

[mattc]

Ten minutes into that, I concluded the most interesting animal on this planet is the Human. Fascinating, and sort of inspiring.

I think you may be right; have the BBC made any other programmes about this fascinating species?

[gordon taylor]

Ten minutes into that, I concluded the most interesting animal on this planet is the Human. Fascinating, and sort of inspiring.

I think you may be right; have the BBC made any other programmes about this fascinating species?

Er, a whole series: Human Planet

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00llpvp

Also mindblowing, IMHO.

[HTFB]

I also enjoyed the gull egg harvesting chap turning his nose up at the chicken korma ready meal in the 'how it's made' bit - I didn't quite catch what he said though, I think it was subtitled or translated, but I missed it....

He merely said --- it was translated --- that he'd tried it before. His expression was everything.

What they didn't translate was what was so funny when the various hunters met up. Attenborough insisted that it was "the latest jokes", but you just know that it'll be the same routine every year:

I am the Egg Man.

They are the Egg Men.

I am the Walrus.

All collapse laughing and roll around on icy floor.

[nicknack]

 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I think I prefer the programmes about aminals.

[Morrisette]

Is it really true wot it says in the Grauniad TV guide about the climate change episode not being shown in the States?? I thought it was an internet rumour....

[Wowbagger]

It's true.

[LEE]

Climate Change?

[mattc]

Climate Change?

You know how last winter we had a LOT more snow-n-ice than usual in the south-east?

Climate Change. Seemples!

[citoyen]

Is it really true wot it says in the Grauniad TV guide about the climate change episode not being shown in the States?? I thought it was an internet rumour....

See the links I posted upthread.

d.

[Arch]

I also enjoyed the gull egg harvesting chap turning his nose up at the chicken korma ready meal in the 'how it's made' bit - I didn't quite catch what he said though, I think it was subtitled or translated, but I missed it....

He merely said --- it was translated --- that he'd tried it before. His expression was everything.

What they didn't translate was what was so funny when the various hunters met up. Attenborough insisted that it was "the latest jokes", but you just know that it'll be the same routine every year:

I am the Egg Man.

They are the Egg Men.

I am the Walrus.

All collapse laughing and roll around on icy floor.

  

I've just had a second "Worth the licence fee alone" moment from this series (the first one being the thieving Adele penguin). The submarine coming up from the ice. Awesome to start with, but with a beautifully comic twist when you noticed the lump of ice sitting on top of the conning tower, just like the snow on a car roof...

[mrcharly-YHT]

Is it really true wot it says in the Grauniad TV guide about the climate change episode not being shown in the States?? I thought it was an internet rumour....

It's true, but the urban myth/internet rumour bit is the 'episode is banned in USA' story. I think Citoyen's link explains it all.  This story was carried by the Daily Mail. Need I say more?

[Mr Larrington]

Not enough narwhals chiz but I can never get tired of penguins.  Also, Sir Dave is a fookin' legend.

[mattc]

I've just had a second "Worth the licence fee alone" moment from this series (the first one being the thieving Adele penguin). The submarine coming up from the ice. Awesome to start with, but with a beautifully comic twist when you noticed the lump of ice sitting on top of the conning tower, just like the snow on a car roof...

That was indeed rather awesome (and funny) - perhaps cos it wasn't what you expect from a nature prog. I bet the guys that make submarine movies are cross.

I do wonder how nervous they were while planning that:
Are you SURE this is where they'll surface? It all looks the same out here. Perhaps I'll leave you to man the camera ...

[Arch]

I've just had a second "Worth the licence fee alone" moment from this series (the first one being the thieving Adele penguin). The submarine coming up from the ice. Awesome to start with, but with a beautifully comic twist when you noticed the lump of ice sitting on top of the conning tower, just like the snow on a car roof...

That was indeed rather awesome (and funny) - perhaps cos it wasn't what you expect from a nature prog. I bet the guys that make submarine movies are cross.

I do wonder how nervous they were while planning that:
Are you SURE this is where they'll surface? It all looks the same out here. Perhaps I'll leave you to man the camera ...

I hadn't thought of that!

[De Sisti]

Turns out that some of it was "faked"

[Arch]

'Faked' is only the word you use if you're anti BBC, I reckon.

The Life of Plants had lots of sequences filmed in greenhouses, stuff that required long time lapse sequences. No one was bothered about them. 

I'm not remotely bothered myself. It's a rather small thing in the general scheme of the world...

[Jaded]

There's a wildlife programme made in the Antipodes coming along on the BBC; when they filmed the bats they didnt like the look of the tree they were in, so they moved them to a more photogenic tree.

I'd think that this goes on all the time - after all they are faking the music and the noises anyway, what's wrong with adding some out of context footage too.

[mattc]

I'd think that this goes on all the time - after all they are faking the music and the noises anyway, what's wrong with adding some out of context footage too.

I guess the problem is the slippery slope - which is why the cameraman didn't make it upto the real polar bear den! IGMC ...

Sherioushly, this example didn't bother me much; I can see how hard the "genuine" footage would have been to get, and it wouldn't have looked any different.
However, if this sort of thing got out of hand it would impact on the credentials of the programme. A sort of suspension of disbelief is operating - once the viewer starts thinking about which bits are real, the illusion falls apart

[citoyen]

What's wrong with this kind of thing is that it changes the programme from a pure documentary into a dramatisation.

Why bother going to the Arctic at all? Why not do it all with CGI?

d.

[nicknack]

I'm not sure a "pure" wildlife documentary has ever existed.

[Steph]

I am with Arch on this, and loved the Great Man's explanation: either the cub would have died, or the mother would have killed the cameraman. Speaking as a bird watcher...does anyone really think that the footage of, say, a lemming nervously twitching its whiskers, and that of a great grey owl grabbing dinner, are of the same lemming? Thought not.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I can't get too bothered by it, but I do think it would have been better if they'd said "this bear, filmed in a wildlife sanctuary, is giving birth to cubs" or whatever. It's David Attenborough - we accept whatever he tells us as absolute truth!

[citoyen]

I can't get too bothered by it, but I do think it would have been better if they'd said "this bear, filmed in a wildlife sanctuary, is giving birth to cubs" or whatever.

This.

I'm not so naive that I don't know this kind of thing goes on all the time, but I do wonder why it goes on. What's wrong with telling the truth? "We couldn't get a shot of this happening in the wild, but here's what it looks like..."

Austin Stevens was mentioned upthread and, tbh, I don't even regard his programmes as documentaries at all. But I expect higher standards from Attenborough.

d.

[Wowbagger]

When Constable painted his picture of Hadleigh Castle, he deliberately put Leigh Church in the wrong place. And he distorted the ruin to make it look more dramatic.