GREAT FACTUAL
The greatest show on Earth
SPECIALIST FACTUAL WINNER
OUR PLANET Netflix Silverback Films
Silverback Films’ Alastair Fothergill explains how the epic four-year project, Our Planet, combined the stunning visuals of natural history filmmaking with an objective to highlight the environmental issues affecting the planet
Our Planet can claim an historic place in the world of landmark wildlife programming: the first epic series to merge entertainment with the task of raising global concern around environmental issues. “We have in our hands as wildlife filmmakers a really powerful weapon in communicating the problem,” says the series producer, Alastair Fothergill. “When I left the BBC in 2012 to set up Silverback with Keith Scholey, from the very beginning we said the time has come to make a mass audience landmark natural history series that dealt with the climate crisis in some detail.” The two had worked together on Frozen Planet at the BBC Natural History Unit, “We felt a warning at the end of a series was simply not enough. The
challenge was the bigger narrative: to make it accessible and celebratory, and for people to want to watch it at the end of a long day, with their kids.” Eight-parter Our Planet was announced in 2015: a four-year project for Silverback, Netflix and The WWF. For the streamer, it was a first nature documentary original, a big investment for a nascent service with its roots in drama. For Silverback, the decision to go with Netflix
wasn’t straight-forward. At the time, it had under 50m subscribers. “It was quite a frightening decision in some ways,” says Fothergill. “Our previous series, through BBC Worldwide, had been seen by literally billions of people…
..It was a risk for Netflix and for us, but it absolutely paid off.”
23
televisual.com Special Supplement Spring 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
