Natural History Documentaries- Attenborough

[Into the wild]

Hello everyone! My name is scott and i am a final year student at university. I am writing my dissertation on the use of 'drama' in natural history documentaries and the ramifications it has had on the size and diversity of the target audience. I am looking particularly at the extensive works of Sir David Attenborough as there is a good body of work to chose from with his broadcasting history spanning 30 years starting with his 1979 series 'life on earth' and culminating recently with his 2008 series 'life in cold blood'.

I am exploring this subject because I have found, particularly with Attenborough’s programmes that there are many ‘dramatic’ situations which can be likened to that seen in TV and Film outside of the natural history genre. The varying uses of certain shots, shot composition, angles, edit speeds and sound & music I believe add a certain dramatisation and entertainment to what is widely seen as an informative, educational genre for an educated, middle-class audience. I believe this will prove to be a very interesting case study and the reason I intend to explore this topic is because there is a clear gap in the literature and research. The issue of the use of drama in natural history documentaries is largely unexplored and there is a severe lack of empirical or pragmatic research previously undertaken.

If anyone has any opinions on this matter and anything constructive they would like to share then please by all means post your comments on this thread....i would love to hear what other people think about this matter and if it's something that anyone else has picked up on in the past.

cheers.

[Hobjob]

If you can get hold the DVD boxed sets of his works, there is usually extra info about the hows and whys about the filming.

He is but a tiny, though visible and charismatic, cog in a massive organisation.

The skill and patience of some of the cameramen is truly awesome.

[Cowgirl]

I remember being shocked when I first saw the chimpanzees hunting, killing then eating monkey (& it still being alive). That was certainly a 'drama'! I think it was the Life on Earth series? It would be early 80's I think.