Road rules3 mins ago
Frozen Planet - Excellence in broadcasting or a sign of our moral turpitude?
Cards on the table - I thought the BBC's 'Frozen Planet' was one of the best programmes of the year.
However Mental Mel (or Melanie Phillips to her acolytes), has launched an condemnation on the programme for tricking viewers into thinking that the birth of polar bear cubs was filmed live in the snowy tundra of the Artic.
Not being funny - but I saw that episode and not once did I feel conned...just impressed.
Are the right wing press scraping the bottom of the barrel in their anti-BBC quest, or is this a legitimate complaint?
http://phillipsblog.d...11/12/frozen-con.html
I'll hold my hands up and admit that I think Phillips is...a word that is rarely used in polite society...at least not outside a kennel club.
However Mental Mel (or Melanie Phillips to her acolytes), has launched an condemnation on the programme for tricking viewers into thinking that the birth of polar bear cubs was filmed live in the snowy tundra of the Artic.
Not being funny - but I saw that episode and not once did I feel conned...just impressed.
Are the right wing press scraping the bottom of the barrel in their anti-BBC quest, or is this a legitimate complaint?
http://phillipsblog.d...11/12/frozen-con.html
I'll hold my hands up and admit that I think Phillips is...a word that is rarely used in polite society...at least not outside a kennel club.
Answers
Fantastic show, awesome photography, and the inestimable David Attenborough commentating
Who in their right minds thinks it would be a good idea to send a camera crew to intrude into the den of a polar bear with new born cubs? For that matter, who actually thought...
Who in their right minds thinks it would be a good idea to send a camera crew to intrude into the den of a polar bear with new born cubs? For that matter, who actually thought...
21:10 Sun 18th Dec 2011
I haven't seen them yet, they're all on the planner. I don't think I'll be bothered that the polar bears were not actually filmed there, but them I'm more interested in the landscape of it. The BBC are in for a battering I think because it's not the first porky they have told, didn't Panarama come in for stick regarding Primark and child labour.
I loved the series but I said on another thread somewhere that I thought they should have made it clear on the programme itself that it had not been filmed in the Arctic, rather than by fudging Attenborough's commentary. (It's worth pointing out that they raised the matter themselves, though not during the screening; it wasn't some brilliant scoop by Mr Phillips.)
Just the simple truth - "filming newly born cubs in their native habitat is dangerous/impossible, so we had to make this film in a zoo" would have done. After all there is a segment at the end of each programme detailing the lengths the camera crew went to; to my mind it left the very clear implication that the whole programme was filmed in the polar zones, at great risk to life and limb; and this wasn't as transparent as it should have been.
But to claim that this made the series a "fraud" - and, er, somehow made our whole society a fraud except Ms Phillips and the other illuminati... well, piffle.
Just the simple truth - "filming newly born cubs in their native habitat is dangerous/impossible, so we had to make this film in a zoo" would have done. After all there is a segment at the end of each programme detailing the lengths the camera crew went to; to my mind it left the very clear implication that the whole programme was filmed in the polar zones, at great risk to life and limb; and this wasn't as transparent as it should have been.
But to claim that this made the series a "fraud" - and, er, somehow made our whole society a fraud except Ms Phillips and the other illuminati... well, piffle.
-- answer removed --
Fantastic show, awesome photography, and the inestimable David Attenborough commentating. 7 50 minute shows, and these buffoons complain about what ? 2 minutes worth of coverage?
Who in their right minds thinks it would be a good idea to send a camera crew to intrude into the den of a polar bear with new born cubs? For that matter, who actually thought that was what had happened?
Its just hysterical hand waving, a means for some commentators to attempt to score points from the Beeb. Loons.
Who in their right minds thinks it would be a good idea to send a camera crew to intrude into the den of a polar bear with new born cubs? For that matter, who actually thought that was what had happened?
Its just hysterical hand waving, a means for some commentators to attempt to score points from the Beeb. Loons.
Lazy gun
I wholeheartedly agree with you. In the past year, I've had to start wearing glasses, and it's now become a pleasure to put them on to watch shows like 'Frozen Planet', 'Yellowstone' and 'Nature's Great Events'.
Yes, the BBC as a public service organisation should be held accountable, but not (in my opinion) by rabid little amoebas like Ms Phillips.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. In the past year, I've had to start wearing glasses, and it's now become a pleasure to put them on to watch shows like 'Frozen Planet', 'Yellowstone' and 'Nature's Great Events'.
Yes, the BBC as a public service organisation should be held accountable, but not (in my opinion) by rabid little amoebas like Ms Phillips.
-- answer removed --
It really doesn't matter, it would have disrupted the flow of the programme and is in my opinion 100% irrelevant. No-one was conned, defrauded or otherwise hoodwinked- something was simply omitted.
Melanie Phillips is without doubt one of the most unpleasant, moronic , self centered, attention seeking, self agrandising, right wing halfwits it has ever been my misfortune to encounter- so anything she says I pretty much assume is total rubbish before I even hear about it, since I don't think at her age she's likely to change her spots. The only thing of hers I ever will read with any pleasure is her obituary.
Melanie Phillips is without doubt one of the most unpleasant, moronic , self centered, attention seeking, self agrandising, right wing halfwits it has ever been my misfortune to encounter- so anything she says I pretty much assume is total rubbish before I even hear about it, since I don't think at her age she's likely to change her spots. The only thing of hers I ever will read with any pleasure is her obituary.
@Birdie - In general, I would agree that evidence and fact needs to be stated and obvious - sources documented etc. But this was not a factual record but part of an entertainment series about the natural world.
Do people think that the sound effects, for instance, are all genuine? During the broadcast, do people automatically assume that each sequence of events shown is a true chronological record? Well, not if they think about it for a moment they dont.
I suppose it might come as a surprise to some of the audience - but the level of media comment and the hysteria of some commentators is entirely undeserved.
Do people think that the sound effects, for instance, are all genuine? During the broadcast, do people automatically assume that each sequence of events shown is a true chronological record? Well, not if they think about it for a moment they dont.
I suppose it might come as a surprise to some of the audience - but the level of media comment and the hysteria of some commentators is entirely undeserved.
as someone has pointed out, it's not the first time that the BBC has been caught out faking footage. I did think it was the best programme i had seen for years, so no quibble there. But a sequence at the end of each programme, where cameramen are shown in the Arctic conditions has them battling the elements to get that special shot, footage, why couldn't the BBC have just added that the sequence of the family of polar bears wasn't filmed in the wild due to the danger to the cubs and the film makers.
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