Waiting for two years to gain access to shoot it, literally living in guano for about a month, and leaving the light of day for ten days. If those are the criteria to make a documentary, the finished product better be something spectacular. The end result of BBC’s Planet Earth Caves is spectacular and the work that went into bringing these images into the homes of viewers is mind-numbing itself.
The documentary begins by showing people base jumping into caves in Borneo, Mexico with parachutes. The shots the BBC used to show the people jumping and then what it looks like on the inside as they are falling gives the viewer a great sense of how massive these caves can be. The narrator, David Attenborough, also uses the analogy that the cave could fit the Empire State building, which gives viewers an instant image in their heads as to how big it actually is.
When they move to another set of caves, they bring the viewer to a massive pile of bat guano, covered beatles and other wildlife. The innovative camera work used to slide up the hill is a credit to the BBC’s long-time experience with making documentaries. They use a pully system where one end has the camera and the other is an opposing weight so the camera glides smoothly up the hill without anyhitches. To show how many bugs there were on the pile, they showed one of the cameras being swarmed by insects as soon as it was set on the pile. Again, it gives viewers a great sense of what it is really like. The BBC is great at not only explaining the conditions, but actually showing proof of the conditions as well.
Maybe the most fascinating portion of the documentary was the cave called Leiturgia. It took the researchers ten days in the cave to get down to its furthest point to show viewers giant crystals that had formed over the years — a sight Attenborough says is one of the most unique in the world. To give viwers a sense of how steep and dangerous the plight to the bottom of the cave is, they give an anecdote of an explorer breaking his or her ankle. It took around 100 cavers three days to figure out a way to get the person out of the cave. I can’t think of anything better to describe how incredibly mysterious and almost untouchable these caves are.
And of course the narration is always good with the BBC and David Attenborough. When they are at the end of Leiturgia, Attenborough tells viweres it is the only time people have had and will have permission to bring high-tech camera euipment down that far into the cave. At one point he says they were able to bring a crane — which is necessary to bring the giant crystals to life. And of course right after he says “bring them to life,” the nest four or five images are breathtaking views of those crystals and it shows why any person would take ten days out of the sunlight to capture it.
Another great narration from the documentary is when they are showing an arial view of the cave the people were base jumping out of. Attenborough says not only is it spectacualr above, but the most spectacualr is what is waiting down below. Right after he says this, the camera dives down into the caves’ waterfall, and proceeds to follow the running water through a maze of caverns while Attenborough describes the process of erosion and previews what viewers are about to see. It is somethig very subtle, but it also something that separates the professionals from the amateurs.
