Planet Earth II

jpaul said:
no negatives ? rather than plagiarize it, I share below eloquently expressed opinion ...



also some other interesting comments about production technique eg.



need a how it was made video.
Click to expand...

Or just read their website, even the frozen Planet "scandel" was explained on the website from the start.
The vast majority is filmed in the wild, some scenes are set up. I agree with BBC do you really want them to say in the middle of a sequence 95% of this is real this bit here we staged. It would spoil the show.
Just go to the website where they discus in more detail.
 
Last edited:
I am not suggesting the BBC is so dishonest to use techniques decsribed here but as it suggests
"It's no secret that more dramatic wildlife footage gets higher ratings. Animals hunting, charging and attacking are the shots producers crave"
that is what is needed for primetime tv.

clever editing, like fight scenes in movies obvioulsy helps, would be interesting to see one straight through no edit filming sequence (I believe the film Bullit has that award)

I do not disagree that I would prefer tax payers money to be spent on this kind of content rather than (other?) reality TV, ironically not sure there is no cross-subsidy from those though.

Whilst Mr Attenbourough maybe reading a script so not responsible for the content (need to review titles for any acknowledgment) his delivery is larconic - I want a more enthusiastic presenter and a more clinical/objective commentary - but OK that is not for primetime
(Top natural history films for me Microcosmos and March of the penguins)
 
jpaul said:
I want a more enthusiastic presenter and a more clinical/objective commentary -

(Top natural history films for me Microcosmos and March of the penguins)
Click to expand...

I can't think of a more laconic voice than Morgan Freeman :D

I think BBC editors do "create" some of the stories back in the editing room but the film crews still capture everything for the editors to work with i.e. the Albatross story could have all been captured in one day but then spun out into a "will she/won't she return" in the editing or the single baby iguana which had the epic escape from the snakes may (or may not) have actually have been shots of 3-4 separate iguana's which were then all cut together for example, but that doesn't bother me as it makes for good TV.
 
Last edited:
Bubo said:
I'd like to know from the program commissioners if there was ever any general public demand for these "diary" segments, or whether it was because they realised one day that getting 5 seconds worth of footage of an ant fighting spider costs the about same as a co-producer filming 10 minutes of a cameraman setting up some scaffolding on his camcorder. :)
Click to expand...

They are a filler to make the episode upto a full hour for British TV as we of course do not have adverts on the beeb.
 
Do people not find those bits interesting? Is it not incredible to see the lengths that people are going to get this footage? Are you not curious to know how it's done? Can you imagine having that job, filming penguins on some godforesaken volcano island and sleeping in a tent while storms rage? What qualifies you for that? What waivers are you signing to cover the myriad ways you could die out there?
 
Vonhelmet said:
Do people not find those bits interesting? Is it not incredible to see the lengths that people are going to get this footage? Are you not curious to know how it's done? Can you imagine having that job, filming penguins on some godforesaken volcano island and sleeping in a tent while storms rage? What qualifies you for that? What waivers are you signing to cover the myriad ways you could die out there?
Click to expand...

It's a "journey" for them. Beats working in an office if you're well connected enough to get one of those jobs.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Do people not find those bits interesting? Is it not incredible to see the lengths that people are going to get this footage? Are you not curious to know how it's done? Can you imagine having that job, filming penguins on some godforesaken volcano island and sleeping in a tent while storms rage? What qualifies you for that? What waivers are you signing to cover the myriad ways you could die out there?
Click to expand...

yep i love the segment, would also love to do that. Amazing life and experience they have.
 
Bubo said:
I'd like to know from the program commissioners if there was ever any general public demand for these "diary" segments, or whether it was because they realised one day that getting 5 seconds worth of footage of an ant fighting spider costs the about same as a co-producer filming 10 minutes of a cameraman setting up some scaffolding on his camcorder. :)
Click to expand...

As webber mentions, these are to fill out the program. When they air these internationally, US TV networks for example have a lot of adverts, so they can air the original show plus adverts in the full hour. With no adverts on the BBC, they have to show extras in order to fill the hour.
 
What did they do in ye olden days when BBC natural history programs ran for a full hour without the tacked on diary stuff, which used to be on the red button before being spliced on the end and displacing the last 15 minutes of what would have been your previous full hour of cheetahs chasing gazelles? E.g. the original Life on Earth, running time 55 minutes. Did they chop out 10 minutes of footage to sell Life on Earth to the American market or did they extend the running time to 105 minutes with 10 minutes of adverts spliced in? Do they not show the diary segments at all in US airings of these recent documentaries?
 
Vonhelmet said:
Do people not find those bits interesting? Is it not incredible to see the lengths that people are going to get this footage? Are you not curious to know how it's done? Can you imagine having that job, filming penguins on some godforesaken volcano island and sleeping in a tent while storms rage? What qualifies you for that? What waivers are you signing to cover the myriad ways you could die out there?
Click to expand...

I'd happily watch a full hour or more of the diary parts. I find them an integral part of the series.
 
Semple said:
As webber mentions, these are to fill out the program. When they air these internationally, US TV networks for example have a lot of adverts, so they can air the original show plus adverts in the full hour. With no adverts on the BBC, they have to show extras in order to fill the hour.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that's not the reason for it.

Take for example Top Gear re-runs on Dave. A 60 minute show from BBC that has to be shown within a a 1 hour slot on a channel with adverts. Or even shown on a 50 minute slot with adverts! (every morning at 8:10). They cut all sorts of parts out of the show to fit it in those slots, as I'm sure they could do with Planet Earth or anything else that was an hour long.
 
A few stats on Planet Earth II :

p04f6drz.jpg


400 terabytes doesn't seem that much considering they shot in 4k.

Episode 2 should be amazing. Can't wait to see the snow leopards.
 
Last edited:
probably have to keep raw 4k captures 10bit 30fps ~ 50GB/minute = 3TB/hr, so 400TB = 130hrs material for the series.
I suppose they have some high fps slow motion material too.

Man hours and cost would be the other interesting statistics ?
Apparently PE1 made 108M$ worldwide revenue, 2nd highest grossing nature series.

EDIT OK march of the penguins was #1
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom