"Human beings venture into
the highest parts of our planet
at their peril."
Planet Earth holds the #1 spot
on the IMDB list of top-rated TV shows,
and the #3 one,
for good measure.
Certainly the Planet Earth series is
a sight to behold --
it’s narrated by British national treasure
David Attenborough
and features footage from
the most remote pockets of the planet,
collected over decades.
But still, how is a BBC documentary
about animals beating out
the most popular narrative shows
of all time,
like Breaking Bad
and Game of Thrones?
The true secret to its power is
that Planet Earth knows how to tell a story.
Tell a story so well,
in fact,
that the series can make
the life of a mole rat
as suspenseful as
a Jodie Foster thriller.
So, let’s look at how exactly
Planet Earth shapes documentary footage
into high drama.
"Now he must choose.
Fight, or flee?"
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The number one reason
we love stories is this --
we feel empathy for
the characters.
Empathy is distinct
from sympathy --
it doesn’t mean liking
the characters, necessarily;
it means seeing parts
of ourselves in them,
recognizing our shared humanity.
So, how do you make us recognize
our humanity in animals?
Planet Earth achieves this
through anthropomorphic storytelling --
the animals onscreen are accessorized
with human-like sentiments and thoughts.
"But this year, she's late.
No, that's not her.
The other birds come and go.
The clock is ticking."
There’s a poetic license
operating here --
clearly, if we saw into this bird’s head,
he wouldn’t be thinking
“the clock is ticking”
because birds don’t use clocks.
The narration translates
the bird’s situation into a human language
and connects us to the “character”
by referring to our own date-related anxieties.
"Could this be her?
At last."
Attenborough’s narration
humanizes the animals
through speaking about them
in the close third and second persons.
Close third-person speaks
in “he”s or “she”s
but gives the audience access
to the protagonist’s inner thoughts
and feelings.
"A cuttlefish may be clever,
but a shark is bigger.
And it eats cuttlefish.
Time to disappear.
Back to the hunt."
These last two lines are said
as if from inside the cuttlefish’s inner
mind.
Second person uses the pronoun “you”
to address us, the viewers, directly.
"For all monkeys, morning is
grooming time --
a chance to catch up
with friends.
But unlike other monkeys,
geladas chatter constantly
while they do it.
It’s a great way to network
while your hands are busy."
So this technique of speaking
with “you” and “your”
explicitly compares us the viewers
to the animal character onscreen.
These tools of second
and close third person
bring out the analogies
between our lives
and what we’re watching,
inviting our emotional investment.
We all know how stressful it can be
to find your dream home,
only for someone else
to snatch it up --
"It's a perfect place
to settle down.
Well, it would be,
but there's already someone here."
to travel through crowds,
"For these commuters,
it's rush hour."
to be judged by teachers
or parents,
"Technique?
Room for improvement."
or to feel the highs and lows,
of romance.
"It's hard not to feel deflated
when even your best isn't good enough."
The technique of using animals
to illustrate human emotions and behaviors
has been around
for thousands of years:
See Aesop’s fables, many fairy tales,
cartoons, children’s books
and, nowadays, all of our
favorite viral animal videos.
The reason animals are such
popular vehicles for storytelling
is that they are
the perfect blank slate --
we don’t understand animals
like we do people,
so we more willingly accept
the interpretation of their character
given by the author
of the story.
Stories about humans are tied to
certain cultural and behavioral codes --
and we respond to
the individual human in a story.
Whereas stories about animals are
universal, representing all of us.
We can project our own memories,
experiences and feelings onto animals
not in spite of, but because of the fact
that they aren’t human.
Think about, say, the Frog Prince --
it’s story of a frog
turning into a beautiful Prince
after a kiss --
maybe the clearest metaphor around
for the transformative powers of love.
Or the Ugly Duckling --
a story that has become the shorthand
for growing out of an awkward phase.
Watching Planet Earth’s tales of animals
imbued with human emotions,
brings us back to the joy
of experiencing children's stories.
The universality of animal stories
allows for discussions of larger questions
of morality, truth, good and evil,
and the bigger picture of our existence.
Oddly, these big truths can sometimes
get more lost in our adult stories,
which are so concerned with
the minutiae of specificity.
Apart from children’s stories,
animal characters are often used in satire
--
think Orwell’s Animal Farm,
HBO’s Animals,
even satirical papyruses from Ancient Egypt
and their modern counterparts -- memes.
By giving an animal character
unpleasant human qualities,
satirists through the ages
have been able to
a) avoid punishment for
their criticisms of society
and b) give people the necessary distance
from these caricatures
to laugh at themselves.
Planet Earth doesn’t use
very biting or explicit satire,
but it does add gentle humor
to frame animals in a way
that lets us laugh at ourselves.
"First, he tidies things up.
Showing off in this jumble of leaves
wouldn't be easy,
and his beauty will stand out
better against a plain background."
Another way Planet Earth
keeps us enthralled is
by never forgetting about
the forces of antagonism.
"The vast herds do not
travel alone --
wolves, packs of them,
eight to ten strong,
shadow the migration."
The caribou migration begins
as a story of endurance,
but the addition of the wolves
weaves in the element of immediate danger.
The stakes are higher now.
The forces of antagonism go against
the hero’s objective or desire,
providing conflict,
the lifeblood of all stories.
If you look at Planet Earth stories,
each one adheres to this principle,
centering around the collision
between the things the animals need
and whatever is in their way.
Here, it’s the penguins’ need
to keep their eggs safe --
"The penguins stay
when all other creatures have fled,
because each guards a treasure."
versus the harsh winter.
"There is no food
and no water for them.
And they will not see
the sun again for 4 months,
surely no greater ordeal is faced
by any animal."
Here it’s the need for water --
"Elephants are in immediate danger.
They must drink almost daily."
versus the danger
of nearby predators.
"They must share what remains with
desperately thirsty animals of all kinds."
The formidable obstacles the animals are
up against make us root for them.
You might think, in theory,
that these antagonists are too severe
to feel relatable in
modern first-world human life.
Most of our stories aren’t about
the desperate search
for food,
water and shelter,
but fall higher on
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs --
centering on things like
internal conflict or self-realization.
But, at their core,
all these different levels of conflict
share a similar DNA --
as Jean-Paul Sartre said,
“The essence of reality is scarcity,
a universal and eternal lacking.
There isn’t enough of anything
in this world to go around.
Not enough food,
not enough love,
not enough justice
and never enough time.”
This lacking as the core driver
of all our conflicts is
as true for the animals
around the watering hole
as it is for the lonely kid
at the school dance.
"Shall we."
"Um, no, thanks."
[LAUGHS]
In our next Planet Earth video,
we’re continuing to look at
how the show tells a story
through some of
its other techniques,
like playing on genres
and building a world.
So stay tuned for part 2.
"Never have those wildernesses been
as fragile and precious as they are today."
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Susannah and Debra here.
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