Planet Earth
Planet Earth is a brilliant, innovative documentary that communicates science in a very concise way that is not too advanced for a non scientific audience. It is relatively thorough and is able to provide a general outline that fits in the one-hour film. The documentary is aimed for all ages especially those that have an interest in the Earths natural history.
The descriptive narrative is explained in conjunction with the film. This technique is very effective in informing the audience, as they are able to understand the concepts more clearly.
The documentary I watched specifically described the Antarctic and Arctic regions.
Documentary allows the audience to gain knowledge of how polar bears, for example, survive, it allows the audience to witness them fight for survival. Documentaries give audience the opportunity to observe scientific facts rather than just passively accept them. Audience are able to visualise the lives of animals such as the hump-back whales below water, or the Emperor penguins on ice.
Film documentaries have the ability to fast forward time in order to illustrate the landscape changes throughout seasons, or the behaviour and response of the explored species.
Planet Earth is an informative documentary series that is able to communicate science in an interesting manner. The spectacular scenery as well as the amazing footage of the polar bears shown will definitely captivate the audience.
3 comments:
Vanessa - I added a link so people would know what you meant - hope you don't mind!
Was there nothing you disliked about the programme?
Thanks for the link.
I thought the documentary was on the whole v. good. I can't think of anything I disliked about the documentary. Plant Eart is amazing.
The explanations were not too difficult to understand. One negative could be that it doesn't challenge the audience.
Vanessa - thanks for getting us rolling with a review and picking such an interesting programme!
By chance, I saw part of the specific episode you mention. I thought the last ten minutes were especially interesting: this was used as a 'making of' section, showing how the camera operators and research found their footage. One team, if I remember correctly, had to spend about 8 months in the Artic circle trying to get exactly the right images.
I was really impressed that they showed this background - often nature documenaties give the impression that we are seeing an unmediated view of the world around us. In fact, documentary makers construct the programme: they decide the view of nature that we will see and what footage illustrates this. A lot of hard work and effort go in to getting the images they want us to see - as the 8-months-in-the-cold team demonstrate!
I watched the show with my two sisters, both of whom don't have a science background at all. They loved it - mainly, I think, for the 'awwh aren't baby polar bears cute' factor.
Maybe a criticism could be that shows like these 'romanticise' and 'cutify' nature?
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