Longtime producer Palmer provides an in-depth look at wild animals on film, covering the history of wildlife documentaries, safety issues, and the never-ending pressure to obtain the money shot. Marlin Perkins, Jacques Cousteau, Steve Irwin, Timothy Treadwell, and many other familiar names are discussed along with their work, accidents, and in some cases, untimely deaths. Palmer is highly critical of Irwin, and offers fascinating revelations about game farms used by exploitative filmmakers and photographers looking for easy shots and willing to use caged animals to obtain them. He also considers the subliminal messages of many wildlife films, considering everything from Shark Week to Happy Feet and how they manipulate audiences toward preset conclusions about animal behavior. In all this is an engaging and exceedingly timely look at a form of entertainment the public has long taken for granted and which, as Palmer points out, really needs a fresh and careful reconsideration.

While working as a lobbyist for environmental conservation on Capitol Hill, Chris Palmer quickly discovered that Congressional hearings were bland events, poorly attended by the majority of Representatives and Senators and with far less impact than one would expect. So he turned, instead, to wildlife filmmaking, for the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation, with the hope of transforming mindsets and encouraging protection of wildlife. In the process, Palmer discovered both the magic--and the misgivings--of the industry. While Shamu looked beautiful captured on film breaching, was it right to keep killer whales captive? Was it okay to have sound engineers recording the sound of their hands splashing in water and pawning it off as the sound of bears splashing through a stream? And should reputable TV networks be accepted or called out for airing sensational shows that put wildlife in harm's way and present animal fiction like mermaids and monster sharks as fact? In this tell-all expose of the wildlife filmmaking industry, film producer and American University professor Chris Palmer shares his own journey as a filmmaker--with its highs and lows and challenging ethical dilemmas--in order to provide filmmakers, networks, and the public with an invitation to evolve the industry to the next level. Palmer uses his life story as a conservationist and filmmaker to convey his points, with an ultimate call to stop deceiving audiences, avoid harassing animals, and promote conservation. Read this book to find a path forward. "Chris Palmer's new book is a must read for all who care about the natural world and the future of our planet." -Ted Danson, Actor and Environmentalist "Chris Palmer has written a very important book." -Jane Goodal, PhD, DBE, Founder, The Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace "In a world where media holds enormous influence, Chris Palmer's book makes fascinating reading." -Jean-Michel Cousteau, President, Ocean Futures Society

If, as many argue, movies and television have become Western culture's premier storytelling media, so too have they become, for most members of society, the primary source of encounters with the natural world—particularly wild animals. The television fare offered nightly by national and cable networks such as PBS and the Discovery Channel provides millions of viewers with their only experience of the wilderness and its inhabitants. The very films that so many viewers take as accurate portrayals of wildlife, however, have evolved primarily as a form of entertainment, following the established codes and conventions of narrative exposition. The result has been not the representation of nature, but its wholesale reconstruction and reconfiguration according to film and television conventions, audience expectations, and the demands of competition in the media marketplace. Wildlife Films traces the genealogy of the nature film, from its origins as the "animal locomotion" studies that mark the very beginnings of motion pictures themselves, to the founding of the Animal Planet cable channel that boasts "all animals, all the time." The narrative and thematic elements that unite wildlife films as a genre have their roots not in the documentary film tradition, but in the older traditions of oral and written animal fables as reflections of human society. Derek Bousé contends that classic wildlife films often portray animal protagonists living in families modeled on an ideal of the human nuclear family and working in communities that resemble an ideal of bucolic human society. In these stories—presented as documentaries—animals are motivated by human emotions and conduct relationships according to human customs. This imposition of culturally satisfying narrative patterns upon the lives of animals has not only led to the misrepresentation of the natural world; it has promoted the notion that our values, our moral vision, our models of society and family structure derive from nature, rather than being cultural formations.

The cinematographers and directors who shot film in wilderness areas at the turn of the 19th century are some of the unsung heroes of documentary film-making. Apart from severe weather conditions, these men and women struggled with heavy and cumbersome equipment in some of the most unforgiving locales on the planet. This groundbreaking study examines nature, wildlife and wilderness filming from all angles. Topics covered include the beginnings of film itself, the first attempts at nature and expedition filming, technical developments of the period involving cameras and lenses, and the role film has played in wilderness preservation. The individual contributions of major figures are discussed throughout, and a filmography lists hundreds of nature films from the period.

As technology advances rapidly and viewers' options increase, this book presents a fascinating exploration of the future of the wildlife film-making industry. Its unique collection of views and advice make this book an invaluable resource for everyone who wishes to succeed as a wildlife film-maker in years to come. With articles from many leading figures in the industry and case studies of numerous skilled practitioners.

Americans have had a long-standing love affair with the wilderness. As cities grew and frontiers disappeared, film emerged to feed an insatiable curiosity about wildlife. The camera promised to bring us into contact with the animal world, undetected and unarmed. Yet the camera's penetration of this world has inevitably brought human artifice and technology into the picture as well. In the first major analysis of American nature films in the twentieth century, Gregg Mitman shows how our cultural values, scientific needs, and new technologies produced the images that have shaped our contemporary view of wildlife. Like the museum and the zoo, the nature film sought to recreate the experience of unspoiled nature while appealing to a popular audience, through a blend of scientific research and commercial promotion, education and entertainment, authenticity and artifice. Travelogue-expedition films, like Teddy Roosevelt's African safari, catered to upper- and middle-class patrons who were intrigued by the exotic and entertained by the thrill of big-game hunting and collecting. The proliferation of nature movies and television shows in the 1950s, such as Disney's True-Life Adventures and Marlin Perkins's Wild Kingdom, made nature familiar and accessible to America's baby-boom generation, fostering the environmental activism of the latter part of the twentieth century. Reel Nature reveals the shifting conventions of nature films and their enormous impact on our perceptions of, and politics about, the environment. Whether crafted to elicit thrills or to educate audiences about the real-life drama of threatened wildlife, nature films then and now reveal much about the yearnings of Americans to be both close to nature and yet distinctly apart.

This book is an introduction to the world of science and natural history filmmaking. Most books on filmmaking discuss ways to become an independent filmmaker. Yet, working in science and natural history is unique. This book fills a void in education in this field. It gives insight about getting into the industry via National Geographic and Discovery as well as breaking into the world of Youtube. To make science films in any of these venues you need a recipe for success. This book helps you make your own recipe depending on your goals.