杏吧原创

Fakery is sometimes inevitable, says Chris Palmer, the veteran wildlife film producer who is lifting the lid on his industry

You鈥檝e made many wildlife films. What鈥檚 the most blatant trickery you鈥檝e been involved in?

When you watch the IMAX film you think you鈥檙e seeing wild wolves as they roam freely across remote landscapes. In reality, we rented the wolves from a game farm in Montana and released them from cages just before we shot each scene. There was a warning in the credits but I doubt many people saw it. In fact, a lot of the supposedly wild animals you see on TV live in game farms, which charge photographers over $5000 to take an animal to a local beauty spot.

What other tricks do film-makers use?

One classic trick involves hiding jellybeans in carcasses. If you see a bear feeding on a dead elk in a film, you can be pretty sure that the bear was hired from a game farm and is looking for sweets hidden in the carcass by the film-makers.

What proportion of wildlife programmes contain staged or non-wild elements?

It鈥檚 hard to put a figure on it, but far more than most people realise. It鈥檚 virtually impossible to make a wildlife film without some fabrication, manipulation or audience deception. Staging 鈥� making something 鈥渘atural鈥� happen artificially 鈥� is a short cut used to film otherwise inaccessible events. David Attenborough鈥檚 BBC documentary Wildlife Special: Polar Bear showed a mother bear supposedly giving birth in the wild. He later admitted that the scene was shot in a zoo.

The sound in most wildlife films is not recorded live, as it鈥檚 too risky to get close enough. The sounds are usually added in post-production.

Is this fakery always justified?

Sadly, most wildlife film-makers don鈥檛 have the money or the time to hang around indefinitely in the wilderness waiting for wild animals to show up. To make dramatic, exciting footage they sometimes have to stage scenes or mildly harass wild animals. If the film carries a strong conservation message, then I think that鈥檚 OK. If it doesn鈥檛, then I don鈥檛 think the manipulation and harassment are justifiable.

鈥淐rocodile hunter鈥� was a controversial figure long before the accident that killed him. What鈥檚 your verdict?

Mixed. He inspired thousands of young people to revere reptiles, which is great. But he also taught a whole generation that it鈥檚 fine to jump wild animals, stress them out and get in their personal space. That鈥檚 not OK. We need to leave wild animals alone, not make money out of harassing them.

You鈥檝e been in the industry for over 30 years. Why did you decide to spill the beans?

It鈥檚 high time that an insider stands up and says 鈥淲ait. What we鈥檙e doing is wrong and unethical.鈥� I鈥檓 63 years old, and my career is coming to an end, which is probably for the best as many people have turned against me since Shooting in the Wild appeared. The other day I got a letter from a film-maker who runs a game farm. He called me 鈥渢he lowest kind of bottom feeder鈥�. He is understandably angry. I am threatening his livelihood.