How did the highest-rated documentary in history come about? ｜ Blue Planet 2

With a click, the heavy circular gate of the "Nadir" submersible closed. It submerged inch by inch, and its bright yellow shell disappeared into the depths of the Antarctic ocean.

"Nadir" is shaped like a tank, and its cabin is a transparent hemisphere. Three members of the BBC's "Blue Planet 2" filming crew were squeezed into the gap on the dashboard. They brought picnic food and chocolates and planned to stay at the bottom of the sea for eight hours.

"We don't know what will happen. It's a place that humans have never explored, and there may be nothing." In the cabin, producer Ola Doherty was a little anxious. This time, the film crew will dive into the 1,000-meter-deep seabed in Antarctica, where people don’t even know as much as about Mars.

This is not the first time the BBC has explored the ocean. In 2001, the BBC launched "Blue Planet 1", which showed unprecedented oceans from the coastline to the deep sea, the poles to the equator. The documentary won several awards including an Emmy Award and a BAFTA Award.

Sixteen years later, the BBC produced a sequel, which was broadcast simultaneously in China and the UK at the end of October 2017. So far, it has a Douban score of 9.9, making it the highest-rated documentary. Sir David Attenborough, the 91-year-old host who served as the narrator last season, appears again at the beginning of the film. He explains the reason for returning to the ocean: "Technological advancements have allowed us to enter a new world and capture animal behaviors that were previously impossible to film. , this is "Blue Planet 2""

Natural History Department

"It all started 20 years ago" "Blue Planet 2" director James Honeybone. It was said that it was the first time that a BBC documentary involved the ocean. In 2001, "Blue Planet 1", known as the "ocean epic", was launched.

The director of "Blue Planet 1" Aleister Fathergill was the director of the BBC's history and nature department at the time. He planned an Antarctic documentary in 1993, which was very popular. Audiences said that this film Let them see the "unknown" continent they have never had the opportunity to see.

"Unknown" became an important factor in choosing the next topic, so Aileste made up his mind about the blue area that accounted for 70% of the map. In an interview, he said: "Think about it, 70% of the earth is covered by oceans, but we have only explored 1%." Starting in 1996, the BBC History and Nature Department formed a team to begin five years of ocean photography . They launched "Blue Planet" in 2001, and the ratings for the first episode hit a new high for the BBC in the past two decades.

In 2013, director James began to conceive of a sequel, because 16 years later, new photography and diving technologies gave the film crew more possibilities. Rebreather technology has extended the diving time from 45 minutes to 3 hours without making bubbles or noise. "The fish is very relaxed and accepts our existence. It can be itself." The camera has also changed from the 16mm film of the year. 6k high-definition digital can capture deep-sea scenes that had to be abandoned due to technical reasons. More importantly, in the past 16 years, British audiences' enthusiasm for nature documentaries has only increased.

Director James

Nature documentaries have always been popular in the UK. More than a hundred years ago, the museum craze began in the UK. Rich people were keen to build their own zoological and botanical gardens with greenhouses and collect rare birds and animals. The hobby of museums subsequently became popular among the working class. After the movie came out, the wildlife videos shot by the expedition in the African grasslands became very popular in the emerging movie theaters at the time.

When the BBC was founded in 1936, a presenter named Scott brought animals into the studio for the first time to do a program. Someone suggested, "Why not have a department dedicated to photographing animals and plants?" Scott thought it made sense, so he found an old house near his home and established the Natural History Department in 1957.

Compared to a TV station, the Natural History Department is actually more like a science club. Sir David Attenborough, who served as commentator for two seasons of "Blue Planet", graduated from the Academy of Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. He has been producing nature documentaries since the 1950s. He has been in the industry for 60 years and has participated in the production of almost all nature documentaries for the BBC. Known as "the father of the world's natural documentaries", "The Guardian" commented: "Attenborough shaped modern people's understanding of the world."

The Department of Natural History is quite wealthy, with an annual production budget of 3,000 Ten thousand pounds, more than the annual funding of the American Public Broadcasting Corporation. Unlike some TV stations that contract with program groups on a project-by-project basis, staff in the Natural History Department are hired on a long-term basis. They work almost like scientists and have no pressure to make a living.

In a rigorous scientific atmosphere, the producers of the Natural History Department are often zoology and biology scholars. They may not necessarily be the most expert in filming, but they must be experts in the field they are filming. Many producers were employed as biologists, but after working for many years they became proficient in shooting and editing techniques and turned into producers. James, the director of "Blue Planet 2", graduated with a major in biology, while producer Ola studied marine ecology and lived at sea with an NGO for 10 years, specializing in coral reefs in the Pacific region.

In addition to its own staff, the Natural History Department also has professional support from all over the world. They cooperated with scientists, surfers, divers, and guides from various countries. In the five years of filming, they conducted 125 expeditions and visited 39 country.

James said that there are only 25 "office members" in "Blue Planet 2", and the remaining thousands are from all over the world. "That's why in the film, you will always hear accents from all over the world."

In addition to filming a "never-before-seen" documentary, the Natural History Department sometimes has a scientific mission. "Blue Planet 2" producer Mark Brownlow said that because of the difficulty and cost of underwater exploration, it is difficult for the film crew to "set up a tripod, adjust the long lens, and start!" like shooting land animals under the guidance of scientists. "This time, the film crew not only introduced the scientists' new discoveries, but also participated in the research together.

The Natural History Department spent a whole year researching, roughly dividing the series into seven episodes according to "habitat", and looking for stories in animal research. In 2011, a researcher read the paper "Tool Use of Wild Toothfish". There was a group of toothfish on Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef that used coral as tools to break open clams and eat their meat. This surprised the film crew, who had only seen apes and birds using tools like humans before. Everyone suddenly realized: "This is the story we want to tell."

"Our mission is to show what people don't know." Producer Ola said, "It has been 16 years, it is time to re-examine The ocean."

1,000 meters deep under the sea

In "Blue Planet 2", the highlight of "re-examining" the ocean is: letting humans go 1,000 meters under the Antarctic sea in a submersible. ——A truly unknown place where life is not even certain to exist.

At this time, director James was sitting in a helicopter above the sea filming: "No human has ever seen the bottom of the Antarctic before, at least not with the naked eye." The submersible plans to stay there for 8 hours. The three members ate a lot of chocolate. "They didn't have any chance to pee. They have to have strong bladders," James said.

The "Nadir" slowly descended along the side of the iceberg. Through the glass cover, Aura saw that the iceberg was full of holes like a sponge. The light is getting darker and darker, and the surrounding sea water is increasing in light blue, dark blue, and navy blue. At the same time, in the cabin of the marine research vessel Alucia on the sea, the staff were watching the TV screen. They kept in touch with the Nadir by radio and guided its movement. "No one knows how the submersible will react in extreme situations," a staff member said.

"Nadir" is not as simple as a vertical dive. There are icebergs floating on the Antarctic sea, and they move. Like Tetris, the "Nadir" has to dodge at any time according to the movement of the iceberg, because one cubic meter of ice weighs one ton. Aura, who was sitting in the Nadir, discovered that some ice blocks were "as big as Hyde Park."

After diving 200 meters, the "Nadir" entered the twilight zone, and the light became dim. 90% of the fish in the ocean live here. The three scientists in the "Nadir" became excited, "The animals look so strange, as if they come from outer space": the pyrosome is two meters long, like a huge colorful loofah. A bright red squid has a right eye the size of a tennis ball that only looks down, while its left eye is normal-sized and looks only above. The brain of the opisthophorus is transparent, and the green brain inside can be seen.

The deeper we dive, the weight of the water becomes unbearable for the scientists in the submersible. Half an hour later, the "Nadir" reached 450 meters. Aura found a pool of water on the ground. She dipped her finger in the water and tasted it. It was salty. "It's leaking," she told her companions. At this time, it would take half an hour to return to the sea, and she was worried that a large amount of seawater would pour into the submersible on the way: "Then we won't be able to escape."

After a brief panic, the film crew in the submersible quickly recovered Calm down, they are already prepared. The driver found the leak and spent 20 minutes repairing it. It turned out that the Antarctic ocean reached minus 1.8 degrees, and the low temperature affected the operation of the submersible.

Then, they heard another collision, and a small stone hit a location not far from the "Nadir". Above them, icebergs collided. "This is not a common risk. We didn't consider it before." After Ola came ashore, she said that this "accident" frightened her to some extent: "If we are hit by ten or twenty tons of rocks, we will be finished."

After several attempts, the film crew finally reached 1,000 meters on the Antarctic seabed. It is surrounded by silent darkness. "The last ray of light has completely disappeared. You have a feeling as if you are suspended in space." James described.

This place is much richer than they imagined. Although the surroundings appear pitch black to the naked eye, using camera equipment, they captured blue-green dots of light floating on the seafloor. Deep-sea animals have strange shapes that "seem to be from aliens", squids spit out blue ink, and siphonophores, which are almost composed of blue dots and lines, can remain immortal due to self-cloning. These are scenes that could not be photographed 16 years ago due to technical limitations.

With a dull vibration, a whale carcass fell down, and the torn flesh exuded the smell of blood, attracting a group of six-gill sharks to enjoy their first meal of the year. This shark is very aggressive and constantly hits the glass shell of the submersible.

The underwater scene even surprised Sir David Attenborough, who has been making nature documentaries for 60 years. In an interview, he said: "I have been on submersibles many times before, so I was not too surprised by the scene in front of me." Until a dark blue lake appeared in front of him, "a fish plunged into the lake one by one, arousing a wave of excitement." String of waves".

After a while, he realized, "It shouldn't be. I'm already at the bottom of the sea. Why is there still a lake?" This is a methane lake. The methane on the bottom of the sea becomes liquid under water pressure. "I stared at it for a long time. Some people say that the bottom of the sea looks like an alien planet, which makes sense."

After filming "Blue Planet 2", director James sighed: "I make underwater films It has been 20 years, and only now have I realized how little I know about the ocean, and less than 1% of the ocean floor has been explored."

New Discovery

"Blue" The memo of "Colorful Planet 2" contains a long list of animals, and the film crew needs to find them one by one. Many of these animal behaviors only appear in fishermen's "legends" and there are even no photos to prove it.

In order to confirm these legends, the most they did was wait. In order to find the "fish that can use tools", the film crew stayed on the Great Barrier Reef for 6 weeks, diving for 8 hours a day, hiding near the toothfish and watching. They discovered a fish that blew into the sand in search of shells, only to hit them on the same coral to eat. The crew loved it and called it "Percy" and the coral was called "Castle."

After waiting for 100 hours, the camera crew captured the scene of "Percy" using coral to crack open a clam - this 30-centimeter-long blue toothfish was holding a clam in its mouth. Swim towards the bowl of coral. It found the familiar protrusion and slammed the clam against the hard coral. The clam did not move at all and bounced out. It picked up the clam again and struck it. By the 50th time, the clam split open and exposed the flesh.

"It's as smart as a chimpanzee." The camera crew wearing wetsuits lurking around "Percy" was extremely excited. It wasn't just "Percy" that excited them - for the first time in the Seychelles, they also photographed a fish rising into the air and eating a low-flying tern in one bite. "A kind of bird-eating fish! It's incredible." James said, "Our understanding of fish is very limited, and we have almost just begun to understand their abilities."

In order to explore in depth, the film crew invented A "suction cup camera" attached to the whale's back allows the audience to experience the fish's perspective. There is a rubber suction cup at the bottom of this kind of camera. James said that the whale has no feeling at all: "It feels like a seal fish that is parasitic on it with a suction cup and follows it around."

Camera It fell off after a period of time, and there was a device on it to help it surface. The crew used radio to locate it. "It feels like looking for a shoe in the sea! It's a very small thing and it takes a long time to find it," said director James.

Using a variety of equipment, the film crew penetrated into the fish school and discovered various secrets: For example, in New Zealand, false killer whales will suddenly appear in a few months and cooperate with bottlenose dolphins to hunt. Doesn't seem to be a coincidence. "They even have best friends in the group. The same individuals come to New Zealand year after year from childhood, and appear at the same time."

The film team was in "an area equivalent to the size of Belgium" Within the range, we were looking for a pod of false killer whales as big as a football field. "Hundreds of dolphins were waiting, and they were very talkative, making the sound of squeezing plastic bubbles and whistles, and the sound could be heard for several kilometers. Many fish have their own language, and it is said that a considerable part of the language of killer whales is used to taunt inexperienced young whales.

Suddenly, the dolphins turned around and swam away. When they reappeared, there were about 150 false killer whales in the middle of the group. They formed a formation and their calls changed. Scientists speculate that they may have invented a language for communication. When hunting cooperatively, they spoke loudly and swapped places.

In addition to large animals cooperating, the crew also spotted octopus and grouper hunting together. The grouper moves its head to notify the octopus of the location of prey hiding in the coral. The film crew believes that this is some sign that fish can use "sign language" to communicate.

The filming of "Blue Planet 2" promoted new discoveries in the academic community, and scientists published more than ten papers based on this. James said that in addition to telling an interesting story, "Blue Planet 2" is more meaningful in that it participates in cutting-edge science: "We are not simply reporting, but helping to explore new scientific stories."

New Hope

The filming of "Blue Planet 2" lasted five years. Five years later, the crew returned to the Department of Natural History with a total of 6,000 hours of footage. They checked the shooting plan before departure. "Our original intention was to connect all the facts together. Some were successful and some failed. The ocean is actually a very difficult place to work," James said.

The film crew spent 18 weeks editing the footage. Like "Blue Planet 1", the sequel does not allow human scientists to appear on camera to narrate the story. It relies entirely on the lens of marine life to tell the story, coupled with the voice of Sir Attenborough. "This is to allow the audience to immerse themselves in the story to the maximum extent. Once the scientists appear on the screen to explain, it is easy to make a dry science and education film." Sir Attenborough explained.

Sir Attenborough

In addition, the BBC is also opposed to anthropomorphizing wild animals and providing self-righteous interpretations of their behavior. "So the facts have to be weighed against the drama of nature. It has to be completely true to nature," James said.

When he saw the image of a turtle accepting fish to clean its dead skin, the turtle "closed its eyes and spread its limbs, looking very comfortable", which made Sir Attenborough think "it seems to be accepting Facial Massage Service” idea. He was hesitant to write this sentence into the commentary until the staff found a paper that confirmed that "when receiving dead skin cleaning, the hormones in the turtles changed, proving that they really enjoyed it." In order to ensure scientificity, Each episode of "Blue Planet 2" has scripts checked by experts.

Compared with 16 years ago, the film crew intuitively felt the changes in the ocean, which were somewhat "heartbreaking". In 2016, the film crew witnessed the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Due to global warming, the ocean surface temperature of the Great Barrier Reef has increased by 1 to 2 degrees. After a few weeks, the originally brightly colored large corals began to turn white and fade. The coral's white skeleton is exposed as photosynthesis is affected, forcing the microorganisms that provide the coral's color to leave.

In one episode of "The Reef," the crew recorded changes to the Great Barrier Reef with cameras fixed to the seafloor. It turns out that this is a colorful underwater city. Microorganisms make corals rich, and small fish and shrimps shuttle back and forth. A year later, the film crew used ultra-slow-speed shooting to record the same piece of coral in the same camera position, changing from a colorful underwater city to a pile of lifeless cement-colored ruins. ” The residence of the toothfish “Percy”.

"About 90% of the branch corals on the observed coral reefs experienced bleaching and death. This is the largest coral reef death event in history." Producer Ola said. However, "Blue Planet 2" still leaves hope for the audience. At the end of the film, the crew filmed a night with a full moon. In the sea, the camera captured a strange scene: all the corals on the coral reef began to spawn at the same time, and billions of fertilized eggs spurted out from the gaps in the corals like bubbles.

These fertilized eggs float away with the ocean currents and stay in a suitable open place on the seabed at any time. "Coral reefs can regenerate." Sir Attenborough explained in a joyful tone. Another underwater city began to quietly lay the foundation. "The future is still full of hope." Maybe this is "life."

The picture comes from the Internet and has been deleted~