Douban surprisingly gave a perfect score of 10.0 to "Planet Earth 2". What's so good about it?

As a movie fan, you may often hear about "Douban high-scoring movies". Generally, a movie with a Douban score of 9.0 can be classified as a masterpiece. However, we rarely hear about "Douban full-score movies". Recently, such a documentary "Planet Earth 2" was released, which made everyone who watched it find no fault.

Strictly speaking, Planet Earth 2 is not a movie, but a TV documentary produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). When the first Planet Earth was released ten years ago, it topped the Douban charts for a long time, with a higher score than The Shawshank Redemption, and was regarded as a masterpiece by most documentary enthusiasts.

In the reviews of Planet Earth II, if you randomly pick a section of the comments, most of them are positive. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard of this documentary. A few days ago, a popular clip on Weibo, “A group of snakes on the beach chased and killed newborn baby lizards, which made people dare not breathe,” was from the first episode of Planet Earth II.

For documentary lovers, watching BBC documentaries is a great pleasure in life. Watching BBC documentaries not only allows you to trace thousands of years of history and culture, but also allows you to appreciate the wonderful world from the universe to the depths of the earth's core. Even if the super exciting pictures are frozen, they are still excellent photographs. For example, the well-known "Beautiful China", "Story of Life", "Frozen Planet", "The Power of Art" and so on are all produced by the BBC.

The good reputation of documentaries produced by the BBC is mainly concentrated in two aspects. One is that the screenwriters are good and know how to tell stories to the audience; the other is that the shooting technology and means are world-class.

More than 10 years ago, the BBC spent 8 million pounds to shoot Planet Earth, which took five years to produce and more than 2,000 days of field research. A crew of 130 people traveled to 62 countries and 40 photographers went to 200 locations to shoot. At that time, the BBC team used high-definition photography, revolutionary ultra-high-speed cameras, and delicate aerial satellite positioning to enable the lens to capture the most magnificent and magical images on Earth.

It is precisely by using these cutting-edge shooting technologies that the crew can expand their vision to the most inaccessible areas on the planet and get in close contact with the cutest, wildest and most elusive animals. When the film was released in 2006, many friends said that their computer graphics cards could not run it. Even now, Planet Earth 1 is still a documentary masterpiece with outstanding visual expression, and it is not inferior to the current 4K blockbusters.

Director Alastair Fothergill once said, "This is the view of the Earth that I know the next generation will not see. No one will ever invest the same level of resources to shoot the same film again."

Ten years later, they surpassed themselves again. Planet Earth 2 still uses first-class shooting technology. According to the BBC, "When it was broadcast in 2006, Planet Earth, which was shot entirely with high-definition cameras for the first time, was the most expensive documentary produced by the BBC at the time. Planet Earth 2 will use the same forward-looking thinking. In the past three years, we have used ultra-high-definition 4K cameras to shoot, and also used drones and remote-controlled shooting technology. After its broadcast, Planet Earth 2 is likely to become a booster for 4K TVs."

In this regard, we have to admire the foresight of the BBC crew. As we all know, the filming of a large-scale documentary usually takes a long time, which can be as short as two or three years, or as long as eight or nine years or even decades. This requires the filming party to fully consider the timeliness and estimate the popularity of broadcasting technology and audience acceptance when the film is broadcast. In other words, the BBC must have paved the way for today's 4K and HDR eight or nine years ago, otherwise it would be difficult to meet the needs of current audiences.

In addition, the long filming process of the documentary itself is also a test for the filming crew. For example, in order to film the real behavior of penguins, the BBC made more than 40 different fake penguins with cameras hidden in them. At first, some penguins could be recognized, but later the fake penguins became more and more realistic, so that the real behavior of the penguins when they were not disturbed could be obtained.

Living in Antarctica for three years to shoot a series of shots, being exposed to the sun on a 40-degree beach for several months, traveling through the rainforest, and sailing on the sea require documentary filmmakers to exert patience and hard work that is unbearable for ordinary people.

In addition, the screenwriter of the Planet Earth series is David Attenborough, a leading figure in the documentary industry. He is considered to be the person who has traveled the longest distance in history. Over the years, he has explored all known ecological environments on the earth with the BBC production team. He is not only an outstanding naturalist, but also a brave and fearless explorer and traveler. He is known as the "Father of World Natural Documentary".

Yes, documentaries are like movies. First of all, they need to be good stories so that the audience can enjoy them. David Attenborough is a biologist who knows how to tell the legendary stories of nature. If you watch a lot of domestic documentaries and foreign documentaries, you will find that there is a big difference between them. Domestic documentaries tend to educate the audience, while foreign documentaries tend to tell stories. Even documentaries on nature need a good script so that the audience can sit on the sofa and listen to you finish the story.

Therefore, the spirit that BBC documentaries have always followed is "Let me tell you an interesting story."

In addition, like Hollywood movies, how to set up the opening, how long each paragraph should be, how many seconds each interview should be, how to deal with macro and individual, what is the limit of audience tolerance, and similar processes. The BBC will ask a specialized agency to do psychological analysis and data analysis of the audience, and accurately determine which plot, at what minute and second the audience starts to leave. Therefore, the BBC's narrative is based on the audience's psychological feelings and is based on scientific standards. It is an industrialized standard. For example, in their series, no matter how good a plot is, it cannot exceed 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, new content must be released.

Not everyone likes to watch documentaries, but those who do will definitely devote themselves to it, buy the best film sources, burn the best playback equipment, and immerse themselves in the unknown world episode after episode.

Although "Planet Earth" will not be as popular as movies like "The Shawshank Redemption", it will definitely have its loyal fans.

The unknowns of nature and history are so fascinating. When we have limited access to what we can see and do in our lifetime, it is worthwhile for someone to go and see for us. As David Attenborough said, "In my opinion, the natural world is the greatest source of passion, the greatest source of visual beauty, and the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the source of all the richness and magnificence of life, and because of this, it makes our lives worth experiencing and worth living."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.