talkmagic.co.uk

It's not just magician's who are guilty. http://news.yahoo.com/video/environment ... n-22179614

does it matter? Its common knolwedge that sounds are added, and often things are stages withing a controlled envioroment, like a tank. On Halcyon Diarys,( bbc1 sundays) almost everything was staged in one way or another..

Just like in magic, to those of us with that common knowledge it makes no difference. But to those without it, it means a lot.

I was semi-aware of this already, although it's sad that this guy has to reveal it so brutally. just like in magic most people prefer watching the magic, knowing how it's done ruins the effect. exactly the same here and I think that many will not ever feel the magic of a wildlife documentary again after this kind of exposure

Arkesus wrote:But to those without it, it means a lot.

Not really

It's painfully obvious that Mock The Week isn't off-the-cuff and the comedians come pre-prepared with jokes (just watch russell howard's live show then watch the spinning wheel round, or listen to the now show to see what I mean), but it doesn't make it any less funny. In Top Gear it's not always Jeremy and co. driving the cars during the various shots you see in the films - but it doesn't make it any less entertaining and doesn't stop it from getting hundred of millions of viewers

Sometimes it will take too much time or money to make a program the way you might think it is (or is just impossible/impractical). If it's a well make program it won't really matter anyway. Sometimes (in the case of Top Gear) it even adds to the show

Didn't we have the same situation years ago when Professional Wrestling in the UK was shown to be mainly choreographed?

Oh no! You mean all those squelchy noises ants and spiders and so on make on David Attenborough programmes aren't real? My rug has been pulled, completely pulled!

Guys, as I mentioned, "we" know the truth, so it's nothing new to us, but there are those out there who believe it when they are told, "this is real nature as it happens". To then have it handed on a plate to them, "actually that's a studio, and we rented those animals from some trainers" is basically exactly the same as being told "yeah I lied to you just to get your money." To "THOSE" people, it's not a pleasant experience, their enjoyment of further nature documentary's etc might just be a little bit tarnished, thanks to having a little information they didn't have before.

I studied film & TV production at uni, and this was common knowledge and readily accepted even then.

The argument goes as follows: Reptiles eat insects. If you want to show a reptile catching and eating an insect, you have better control over framing, lighting and angles if that reptile is in a vivarium, than if it's out in the wild. Regardless of where it is, it would chow down on its prey in the same manner.

Where it all falls down, however, is when filmmakers set-up scenes to capture things that don't really happen in the wild.

The classic example was Disney's Oscar-winning 1958 wildlife documentary, 'White Wilderness'. The producers failed miserably in their quest to capture a mass lemming suicide on film. This is because lemmings don't really hurl tthemselves from cliffs. Also, The movie was shot in Alberta, Canada, where there are no indigenous lemmings. Lemmings were imported, and placed on snow-covered trolleys to create the illusion of a migration taking place. Once that sequence had been shot, the rodents were loaded into a bucket, taken to the edge of a cliff and hurled off the edge, while the camera team shot from underneath.

It doesn't just apply to wildlife documentaries. Check out Andrew Douglas' documentary, 'Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus'. It's a documentary about the Southern States of America, taking music as its focus. There are some tremendous musicians on there, and some great performances. It's all shot in the style of a polished music video, though - but these musicians exist, this is their music, and they do live in this environment. The framing, editing and staging of the performance pieces are all measured, controlled and contrived, however.

I think it all comes down to the fact that it's sometimes more efficient and effective to deliver truth by means of a fiction... Legends, folklore, parables and religion, anyone?

Pete