This interesting story (Wildlife filmmaker Chris Palmer shows that animals are often set up to succeed) just came out in the Washington Post in response to environmental film maker Chris Palmer’s new scandalous (you can tell this word has various degrees of seriousness for the average reader) tell-all about the fakery that goes on in capturing the natural side of wildlife.
I was a little distraught to find out my own idol, David Attenborough (I will forever observe interesting moments of animal behavior in nature with an astute British man’s voice narrating the action in my head) has even indulged in staging a moment of coital bliss between a pair of scorpions in a studio. However, one would have to be a bit thick (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) to realize the scene in Blue Planet where they show deep sea fish and plankton zipping about involves souped-up sound effects. First of all, the nature of sound in the sea means we hear ocean audible in a very distorted manner, but I hardly think minute little ctenophores sound like 80’s influenced sci-fi spaceships.
But perhaps the most horrifying part of the article is this little clip:
“The lemmings that plunge to their deaths in the 1958 Disney documentary “White Wilderness” were hurled ingloriously to their doom by members of the crew, as a Canadian documentary revealed.”
I will not be able to watch an animal documentary for a bit yet without thinking there may perhaps be an over-worked wildlife cinematographer roughing up the baby seals before the next take so they look nice for the camera…
And on the same type of note, the photo featured above was taken by wildlife photographer José Luis Rodriguez, recently stripped of his National History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year title. Tiger Woods ain’t got nothing on being a wildlife documentarian….
A Bit of Stardust 