Blue Planet II ‘fake’ scenes filmed in lab
It shows weird and wonderful sea creatures in their natural habitats... mostly.
But some scenes in Sir David Attenborough’s latest nature programme were actually filmed in a laboratory, it has emerged.
the BBC was accused of ‘fakery’ after the team behind Blue Planet II admitted footage of a frightening fangtooth fish was shot in a special refrigerated chamber on a ship after it was taken from the water.
the burrow of a zebra mantis shrimp was also ‘recreated’ so it could be filmed up close. And to show the effects of coral bleaching, caused by rising temperatures, filmmakers used artificial lighting.
It comes six years after footage of a polar bear with her cubs on Sir David’s Frozen Planet turned out to have been filmed in a Dutch zoo.
the makers of Blue Planet II, which starts this Sunday, insist it is ‘totally true to nature’ and that they are ‘honest and open’ about the techniques they use to get footage.
Executive producer James Honeyborne said: ‘the vast majority is filmed in the wild but to bring the full wonder of marine life to our audience it is, on occasion, necessary to do macro filming – to show small creatures that are impossible to film outside of lab conditions.’
Speaking about using artificial lights, he added: ‘If you’re filming something that’s microscopic, you have to put added light on it – that’s just the simple laws of physics.’
the source of the footage is not highlighted in the show. Mr Honeyborne said ‘you can’t just break the spell’ – but said viewers who do want to know how scenes were filmed can find out in ‘making of’ programmes on the BBC website.
Speaking this week to the telegraph about the polar bear row, Sir David insisted ‘we wouldn’t do that now because we are being very, very meticulous to be correct and not in any way misleading’.