Documentary filmmaking has largely migrated to cable television, and beginning this weekend, a joint BBC and Discovery Channel production takes over 3000 days of filming and unleashes it over 11 nights. From the makers of PLANET EARTH comes LIFE, an 11-part series premiering on Sunday March 21st and extending through April 18th. It promises according to the press release to be “the definitive exploration of our planet’s living things and their spectacular, bizarre and fascinating behaviors.”
Having seen the trailer spot and watched clips online, I have no doubt that this event is worth catching. Shows like this are great to watch with my daughter and my fiancée’s 8 year old. The last vestige of family friendly entertainment, natural history documentaries are often as informative as they are entertaining.
LIFE is narrated by Oprah Winfrey. With over 3000 days of filming, such a project can realistically be described as “epic.” Documentary filmmakers like myself can only drool over the equipment and time provided the filmmakers of LIFE.
The filmmakers of such a project usually all take the credit of “producer” instead of “director.” In one of the making of featurettes on the Discovery Channel website, executive producer Mike Gunton, promises a spectacular event showing truly survival of the fittest. Martha Holmes, the series producer, talks about the visual scope of the project, saying that she wanted to capture the flight of a bird and the march of an elephant in a way that allowed viewers to also experience it. Neil Lucas, a producer on LIFE, says how amazed they were by the things they shot. Producer Ted Oakes, rightly says that it is not often that filmmakers are given an opportunity to make such a project. Anyone serious about making documentary films can attest to how tough it is to get funding for such projects let alone have the time to shoot them.
Oakes goes on to say that LIFE was a chance to show audiences things that they may never have seen before. And another producer, Patrick Morris, says of the series that not only was there a push to show new animal behavior, but they wanted to show other pieces of behavior in a new light. Judging from the clips online, there will be plenty of images I’ve never seen before, and I suspect that I’m not alone.
Series Producer Holmes says in the featurette that the project was really big taking 4 years and involving 70 cameramen in over 50 countries worldwide. Claims of “epic” are not then overstated. Executive Producer Gunton further explains that what they were trying to do is paint the ultimate portrait of animal behavior.
Audiences can decide for themselves starting this Sunday when LIFE premieres on the Discovery Channel. For more information, visit the DISCOVERY CHANNEL website for LIFE here.
