The Spectacle Blog
Hey! Did you know that what is depicted in those nature documentaries is not always genuinely “in the wild?” It’s often set up in controlled circumstances, according to Chris Palmer, author of a new book that uncovers the tricks used by wildlife videographers. From the Washington Post:
…At 63, he has written a confessional for an entire industry. “Shooting in the Wild,” published this year by Sierra Club Books, exposes the unpleasant secrets of environmental filmmaking: manufactured sounds, staged fights, wild animals that aren’t quite wild filmed in nature that isn’t entirely natural.
Nature documentaries “carry the promise of authenticity,” Palmer said, speaking on a morning stroll through the manufactured wilderness of the National Zoo. Nature filmmakers profess to present animal life as it is lived, untouched by mankind. Yet human fingerprints are everywhere.
Palmer’s book underscores the fundamental challenge of wildlife filmmaking: Nature is frequently boring. Wild animals prefer not to be seen….
Palmer asserts that manipulation pervades his field. Game farms, he writes, have built a cottage industry around supplying nature programs with exotic animals. Much of the sound in wildlife films is manufactured in the studio. Interactions between predator and prey are routinely staged.
What a surprise, that environmentalism devotees would distort reality to paint the picture they want in the minds of their viewing public. Even more so for those lying to push their agenda, like those who produced the anti-oil propaganda pic “Crude.” Or “Gasland.”
Or like this guy:
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james wilson| 9.23.10 @ 11:18AM
Kinda reminds of the old exploding car gas tank trick on 60 Minutes years ago.
Eric Cartman| 9.23.10 @ 11:25AM
Wasn't that NBC? Or did they both do it?
JEM| 9.23.10 @ 4:30PM
It was NBC that put the model rocket engine on the GM pickup gas tank.
It was CBS and '60 Minutes' that allowed an attorney suing Audi over 'unintended acceleration' to demonstrate a car whose transmission controls had been reworked to force the car to accelerate when it was put in gear.
gdp| 9.23.10 @ 12:15PM
Didn't the old "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" always end with the disclaimer: All scenes whether actual or created depict authenticated facts?
Once upon a time nature show producers were principled enough to let you know that you may have been watching something that was carefully staged and not so wild.
Bob S| 9.23.10 @ 12:39PM
My favorite episodes were always the ones where they were trying to cage a wild animal for transport, and the thing would break loose and chase Marlin Perkins up a tree.
L Nettles| 9.23.10 @ 1:55PM
Who to they think we are, a bunch of lemming to follow them off a cliff?
http://infomantic.net/2009/06/14/of-lemmings-and-sheep/
JeffT| 9.23.10 @ 7:23PM
These nature film documentaries were the first "reality" shows. Staged events presented as real.
astorian| 9.24.10 @ 1:02PM
This kind of thing is not new. TV shows like “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” have long engaged in a certain amount of trickery. They’ve staged fights between animals that weren’t really interested in fighting, and they’ve created opportunities for predators to kill animals they wouldn’t otherwise have gone after.
The reason for this trickery had nothing to do with environmentalist ideology. Rather, the problem was that… well, Nature is BORING! I’m being a bit facetious in saying that, but the reality is, if you took a video camera to Yosemite or the Serengeti, you might have to wait around for WEEKS to get any footage that people would want to see. I’ve heard nature photographer Thomas Mangelsen say he usually has to take 400 animal photos to get ONE that he can sell.
Mangelsen, of course, is a one-man operation. He can take all the time he wants. But if you’re producing a weekly TV series, you don’t HAVE that kind of time. You need action footage and plenty of it, and you need it NOW!
Suppose Marlin Perkins is doing an episode on the lions of the Serengeti Well, the average lion SLEEPS 20+ hours a day! Nobody is going to tune in to watch lions snoozing. People want to see lions stalking their prey! So, Marlin and Jim Fowler might capture a warthog and chase it toward a pride of sleeping lions, in hopes of getting some dramatic footage. And if the lions ignore the warthog? Marlin and Jim might have to chase the warthog toward the lions repeatedly, until the lions finally decide to attack it.
That’s show biz.