A deeper look into wildlife behavior
Snow blankets the Gobi Desert, where camels must quench their thirst by swallowing frosty mounds.
In a tropical rain forest, a blue bird of paradise pirouettes in a mating ballet, while in a nearby tree, howler monkeys and tamarins fight over figs.
And in shallow sea water, dolphins gather momentum to hydroplane in their hunt for a seafood dinner.
“It’s like your own personal rocket ship into the most microscopic, and largest, wonders of the world,” actress Sigourney Weaver says of “Planet Earth.”
She narrates the 11-part overview of wildlife behavior and wilderness locations that debuting tonight on the Discovery Channel.
“You get to explore and understand the layers and seasons, the search for food and water, and the courtship,” Weaver says. “It allows you to celebrate the world with all of its creatures and to want to be part of it without wrecking it.”
The series, which was produced by the BBC and has aired in Britain, took nearly five years to complete, spanning 200 locations where 70 photographers spent 2,000 days recording in the field. (The five-disc DVD set will be released April 24.)
While each episode is presented as a one-hour documentary, the entire series fits together as a portrait of the globe’s geography and species.
“It also has an emotional feel,” says executive producer Alastair Fothergill. “I wanted the audience to know what it feels like to be in any of these places, and that’s about the way you photograph the habitat, the way you edit, the music and the chemistry,”
Fothergill – whose previous project, “The Blue Planet,” focused on Earth’s oceans – says audience response to the epic scale and cinematic style of that series prompted him to try for similar results with “Planet Earth.”
“The real challenge is to show new places and new animals, to film extraordinary things,” he says. “The premise is, maybe you’ve been to the Sahara, but have you seen the Gobi Desert in the winter covered in snow?”
Among the unusual segments are an inside view of Mexico’s 1,400-foot-deep Cave of Swallows; close-ups of a snow leopard and her cub; and footage of lions bringing down elephants at night – all sequences that required exceptional amounts of time and patience to film.
“Natural history is always a bit unpredictable, but the great thing about it is, you can spend a month (trying to get the shot) and then get it all in one day,” says Huw Cordey, a cameraman and producer on the project.
“One sequence that stands out as unbelievably lengthy was the birds of paradise,” he says. “We spent two months shooting 200 hours and we got about 15 to 20 minutes of actual footage.”
The episodes benefit from sophisticated production technology, such as a stabilization system that allows a camera lens attached to a helicopter to capture close-ups of distant animals without interfering in their routines. The use of time-lapse and ultra-high-speed cameras gives the material a rich, detailed look.
“When you watch these, you feel you’ve been there,” says Weaver, whose spare narration coupled with natural sound enhances the series’ visual impact.
“What I found is that I would be with the birds, protecting their eggs, and then when that arctic fox took an egg, I would become an arctic fox who needed to eat,” she says.
“Each (episode) was so surprising. We can’t even imagine how elaborate nature is and how well it works.”