Thread: Planet Earth

I've been watching this and have been blown away by the camera work and overall quality of the program. The scale of the project is awesome and the never-seen-before footage is incredible. I love David Attenborough and, as you say, it has a great soundtrack. However I have to admit to being somewhat of a detractor as well.
Don't get me wrong, I have all the BBC's Life Collection on DVD (60 odd hours of the best nature documentaries in the world), and I love it all, but this particular series smacks of - to coin a phrase - McNature to me. It's all about the instant spectacle and the people that make the spectacle possible. Commendable though this is, it kind of takes something away from the subject of the documentary itself. It's as if finally the medium has become the message and the real 'content' is shunted aside for the sheer entertainment. Empathy for the animals seems to be lost somewhere in a mix of slo-mo, High Definition, time-lapse trickery. Also, a lot of this ground has already been covered in programs like The Living Planet and Trials of Life without the unnecessary anthropomorphism and jumped-up drama. Having said all that I will watch it every week and perhaps reserve full judgement until its conclusion.

Perhaps this is how nature documentaries have to be presented to kids fidgeting on the sofa with portable Play Stations shoved in their back pockets. I still think they should have called it 'Planet Earth - The Money Shots'.

I also noticed that it was very orientated towards the making of the programme how they did everything, whilst the ‘stories’ of the animals themselves are diminishing. A few too many panoramic shots as well. Still, very good so far- and the panda was sooo cute!

The other new-ish series 'life in the undergrowth' was pretty good too, and had much less material about the camera work and stuff

Yeah I've been watching it. Pretty amazing stuff. It's just fascinating seeing how the animals interact in the wild when they can't see what's filming them. And that gyro-camera they use on the chopper is amazing, how it keeps stationary... Jesus the BBC are loaded.

Originally posted by Pensive Patrick
Jesus the BBC are loaded.

I bet the guy who filmed the snow leopard hunting got a nice tasty £££bonus£££- Unless the BBC are also a bunch of cheapskates.

By the way - if anyone wants to see the best bits of this, they are available on the BBC website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planet...arth/realmedia/

Well, it's finished for now, but it returns in the autumn.

All in all, ruddy-bloody good!

I loved planet earth, imagine how that guy felt when he finally spotted the snow leopard after all that waiting.

I can't believe how agile those things are! It ran straight down a near verticle rocky slope, then dragged its dead prey all the way back for its cub.

I am really looking forward to the next series.

God dammit I missed it all.

I missed it too.

Originally posted by Courtney
I missed it too.

Well duh, it wasn't on in the US :P

I d hear the camera work was really something though. Anyone know if there's a HD version planned for the future?

It's on BBC four if anyone has freeview or digital...

Planet Earth was just shown here. It contains absolutely awesome footage of animal behavior, and of the planet itself. The narrator was Signourney Weaver.

The series is truly amazing - you see the planet from a new perspective. I highly recommend it. Here's the Discovery Channel link.