Zak Wilkins: Contextual Studies: Critical Review [Planet Earth Two ]

PLANET EARTH 2

Planet Earth 2 is the newest in a long line of expository nature documentary series produced by the BBC and presented by veteran broadcaster and naturalist, David Attenborough. The series, a follow up to 2006 series ‘Planet Earth’, explores “how animals meet the challenges of surviving in the most iconic habitats on earth.”[1] The series is the BBC’s first to be shot in 4k, mirroring its predecessor which was the first documentary series to be filmed in high definition.[2]

Filming was conducted by six teams over the space of three years[3] and utilised many technologies usually used by dramas and high-budget movies, such as drones and better camera stabilisation. [4] [5]For the third episode, ‘Jungles’ the team had to specially adapt drones to fly through the jungles of Costa Rica – something that had never been attempted before – to give audiences a never-before-seen perspective of the jungle and one only ever before seen by the animals that live there.[6] To try and capture footage of elusive snow leopards for second episode, ‘Mountains’ the crew used sophisticated camera traps. A technology that was not available when filming ‘Planet Earth’, the crew could get footage of a snow leopard and cub coming across two other males. The animals are so rare that such a quantity of them had never been filmed in one place before.³

The editing of ‘Planet Earth Two’, like many BBC nature documentaries, follows the conventions of typical western editing, especially during it’s more fast paced moments. This is evident through scenes such as in the first episode, ‘Islands’ where baby marine iguanas are being chased by hordes of hidden racer snakes, moments after hatching[7]. The sequence begins with slow cuts: a close-up, highlighting the small size of the hatchling before cutting to a wide, slowed down shot of the small iguana slowly walking across the pebbles - it’s small size and isolation intensified. The slow editing draws out the tension as slowly the first snake slowly sneaks into frame behind the iguana, quickly followed by more. Suddenly the iguana begins running and the quick edits begin. Although the first iguana is safe, more hatchlings emerge under the hungry eyes of the racer snakes. The overwhelming numbers against the newly hatched iguana is intensified to the audience by isolating it within its own shot and contrasting this with shots of tens of snakes at once. Again, fast cuts are used to highlight the urgency and danger as one by one more baby iguanas are killed.

Despite the many new technologies that ‘Planet Earth Two’ had access to, limited microphone ranges meant that certain animal noises were obtainable; to compensate for which, the show’s sound designers added sound effects in post-production. However, because of this audiences began questioning the show’s realism with many viewers taking to social media to complain and tabloid newspaper ‘The Sun’ lashing out at the programme.[8]
Although some audiences may not have been convinced by the show’s diagetic sound-effects, much praise was given to the score composed by multi-award winning Hans Zimmer[9] who is also known for his scores to cinematic pieces such as ‘The Lion King’, ‘Inception’ and Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight trilogy’. The music beautifully matches the visual wonder onscreen, rounding off ‘Planet Earth 2’ as one of the BBC’s most compelling and captivating nature documentaries to date – definitely one of its most ambitious.

[1] BBC (2016) Planet earth II - BBC One. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02544td (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[2] Radley, R. (2016) Planet earth 2: News, release date and trailer for the BBC’s new nature show. Available at: http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/planet-earth-2-uk-release-date-trailer-bbc-4k-david-attenborough (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[3] Mathews, J. (2016) Will the BBC’s planet earth 2 be even bigger (and more expensive) than planet earth? Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/05/will-the-bbcs-planet-earth-2-be-even-bigger---and-more-expensive/ (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[4] BBC (no date) Sir David Attenborough to present brand new landmark natural history series for BBC One - media centre. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/planet-earth-two (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[5] Knapton, S. (2016) Planet earth II: BBC gives natural world Hollywood blockbuster treatment. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/10/28/planet-earth-ii-bbc-gives-natural-world-hollywood-blockbuster-tr/ (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[6] BBC (2016) Planet earth II - drones in the jungle - BBC One. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3P6MX7bbl0Y5SSnvJWPM4PP/drones-in-the-jungle (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[7] ‘Planet Earth ||’ Islands (2016) Produced by Vanessa Berlowitz, Mike Gunton, James Brickell, Tom Hugh-Jones [TV PROGRAMME]. LONDON: BBC.

[8] JONES, L. and Reporter, B.T. (2016) Planet earth 2 viewers blast BBC over fake sound effects. Available at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2251451/planet-earth-ii-viewers-blast-bbc-over-fake-sound-effects-including-millipede-footsteps-and-bizarre-creaking-mushrooms/?CMP=AFF-Sun_traffic_gen-Awin-19_10_2016-1403-0-0-0&awc=7715_1479986150_dfab5c216093b2d1f02d3e201eaed8d4&CMP=AFF-Sun_traffic_gen-Awin-19_10_2016-1403-0-0-0&awc=7715_1481252330_58f123ac9f9d3cbc67fc24ceb7fbdbc5 (Accessed: 8 December 2016).

[9] America, B. (2016) Academy award-winning composer Hans Zimmer scores ‘planet earth II’. Available at: http://www.bbcamerica.com/blog/2016/09/academy-award-winning-composer-hans-zimmer-scores-planet-earth-ii (Accessed: 8 December 2016).