Nature documentary

The first 50-minute weekly documentary series, The World About Us, began on BBC2 in 1967 with a color installment from the French filmmaker Haroun Tazieff, called "Volcano".

[6] During the late 1970s and early 1980s, several other television companies round the world set up their own specialized natural-history departments, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne, Australia and TVNZ's unit in Dunedin, New Zealand — both still in existence, the latter having changed its name to "NHNZ".

[citation needed] The BBC television series Walking With, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, used computer-generated imagery (CGI) and animatronics to film prehistoric life in a similar manner to other nature documentaries.

Notable examples include: Every two years the Wildscreen Trust, of Bristol in the UK presents the Panda Awards for nature documentaries.

[12][13] Examples also occur in modern nature documentaries, such as Hidden Kingdoms (2014)[14] and Blue Planet II (2017),[15] indicating that such practices are still routine.

[20][21] Wild animals are often filmed over weeks or months, so the footage must be condensed to form a narrative that appears to take place over a short space of time.

[22] Such narratives are also constructed to be as compelling as possible—rather than necessarily as a reflection of reality—and make frequent use of voice-overs, combined with emotional and intense music to maximise the audience's engagement with the content.

[23] One common technique is to follow the "story" of one particular animal, encouraging the audience to form an emotional connection with the subject and to root for their survival when they encounter a predator.

[23]Nature documentaries have been criticized for leaving viewers with the impression that wild animals survived and thrived after encounters with predators, even when they sustain potentially life-threatening injuries.

[24] They also cut away from particularly violent encounters,[10][25] or attempt to downplay the suffering endured by the individual animal, by appealing to concepts such as the "balance of nature" and "the good of the herd".

Series narrated and/or presented by him include: Steve Irwin's documentaries, based on wildlife conservation and environmentalism, aired on Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.