There’s nothing like settling down in front of a good nature documentary on a Sunday night, right?
Make a nice cuppa, cosy right in and watch David Attenborough, the nation’s granddad, speak about our beautiful world in all its splendour and the animals that live within it. Gorgeous.
Then, suddenly, oh my goodness, no. The beautiful, whimsical penguins you were enjoying watching just got stuck in a ditch. They’re screaming. The world is a nightmare. Why isn’t the film crew intervening?!
Well, because they usually can’t. Their job is to document the natural world and for all of it’s beauty, there really is terror out there. Not to mention their own health and safety.
Except, of course, when they can intervene.
When can wildlife photographers and filmmakers intervene
While previously, it was considered to be overall unhelpful and dangerous to get near the animal subjects in film and photography, the world that they live in is increasingly impacted by human waste and this has led to a changing landscape for filmmakers as they work to undo some of the harm people have created whilst also conveying the natural world as accurately as possible.
The filmmakers of Planet Earth spoke to the experts at IFLScience about an incident that they intervened in to give an idea of the kind of work that they do to help wildlife.
Producer Matt Brandon spoke about the filming of Planet Earth III and said: “Over the period where they were filming, [the crew] found numerous turtles trapped in nets and there was no way those turtles could survive, so they did step in and cut them free.
“I think they were able to save all bar one of them, so that’s probably the right choice and a justifiable thing to do.”
Brandon also explained that this is a decision that is made not only by the crew but by scientists and field workers who are on hand to assist during these filming periods.
Quite bittersweet, isn’t it?