Penguins
Silverback Films for Disneynature โ 2019
My role: Edit Assistant
Natural history feature film by Silverback Films for Disney Nature. In cinemas on Earth Day 2019.
The Our Planet Launch
Never have I worked on a project that has been announced with such fanfare and excitement as Our Planet. The series, four years in the making, finally launched on Netflix on Friday 5th April 2019, marked by a special event at London’s Natural History Museum the night before.
Appearing at the event was, of course, Sir David Attenborough, the narrator of the series. Standing on stage before a huge projection screen, he proudly introduced the series to the small audience.
“What really makes Our Planet stand out is the clear driving story that runs through the entire series and the wider communications project. This has been a true labour of love for hundreds of film makers, cinematographers, conservationists, editors, musicians and production teams, all of whom have brought their best work to the most important story that there is – a story that could not be more universal or more timely.”
– Sir David Attenborough
Amongst those attending the launch were some other well-known faces, such as singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding (who sang the music that features on the closing credits) composer Steven Price (the composer for the series) and world-famous footballer David Beckham and his son, Brooklyn.
Perhaps most headline-grabbing, however, was the attendance of not one, but three members of the royal family – The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex. Once Sir David had finished his introductory speech, he humbly handed over to Prince Charles, The President of WWF UK, who made the following thought-provoking ten-minute address.
All eight episodes of Our Planet are available to stream on Netflix.
Our Planet Series 1 – ‘Halo’ Web Content
Silverback Films for Netflix โ 2019
My role: Editor for additional online content and Edit Assistant for the main series and
In addition to working on the main series as an edit assistant, I edited (and graded) a large collection of online content which accompanied the series. These were published on the official website of Our Planet (ourplanet.com), as well as the social media channels of WWF and Netflix.
The online material that I edited went on to win a number of awards, including…
- Best Biodiversity Short under 15 minutes, World Wildlife Day Film Showcase 2020.
- Best Limited Series Film โ Short Form, Jackson Wild Film Festival 2019
- Best Changing Planet Film – Short Form, Jackson Wild Film Festival 2019
The website, ourplanet.com, also won the People’s Voice award at the 2020 Webby Awards.
For more about Our Planet, please visit ourplanet.com, or view the relevant entries in my blog.
Our Planet Series and Additional Online Content Now Available to Watch
Finally, after many, many months of work, and following a star-studded launch party at London’s Natural History Museum, Our Planet is available to watch on Netflix. Eight episodes, all ready to savour or binge in 4K Dolby Vision HDR with surround sound. But if you don’t have a Netflix subscription, the expansive website of content has also launched.
Ourplanet.com already features a great deal of video content, with more yet to come. In the meantime, you can watch a number of videos that I’ve edited with a small team over the past few months. With the voice of David Attenborough, they delve further into the issues affecting the health of our world and how we can fight to conserve it. The pieces were cut in Avid MediaComposer and graded by myself using MediaComposer’s Symphony toolset.
Some additional examples of films that I’ve edited and graded for ourplanet.com…
How to Save Our Grasslands
How to Save Our High Seas
Our Planet Series 1
Silverback Films for Netflix โ 2019
My role: Edit Assistant for the main series and Editor for additional online content
Our Planet is an eight-part series for Netflix and WWF, which shines a spotlight upon some of The World’s rarest animals and most precious natural habitats. It premiered across all territories in April 2019.
“What really makes Our Planet stand out is the clear driving story that runs through the entire series and the wider communications project. This has been a true labour of love for hundreds of film makers, cinematographers, conservationists, editors, musicians and production teams, all of whom have brought their best work to the most important story that there is – a story that could not be more universal or more timely.”
– Sir David Attenborough, Series Narrator
From the April 2015 WWF press release…
“Our Planet will inspire millions of people around the world by showcasing the planet’s most precious species and most fragile habitats through a visionary series and cutting-edge multimedia storytelling”
– Colin Butfield, Executive Producer, WWF
As well as working on the main series as an edit assistant, I edited (and graded) a large collection of online content which accompanied the series. These were published on the official website of Our Planet, as well as the social media channels of WWF and Netflix.
For more about Our Planet, please visit ourplanet.com, or view the relevant entries in my blog.
Our Planet – March Trailer
A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to sit down with series producers Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill and implement changes to Netflix’s upcoming first main-trailer for Silverback’s series ‘Our Planet’. Netflix have now released that trailer, and I’m very happy to see that most, if not all of those edit suggestions made it through to the final cut. Whilst I can’t claim it as my own work (I think it’s safe to say that someone in Netflix’s team did the bulk of the hard work), I’m incredibly proud to have been involved in such a powerful and eye-catching piece of marketing.
Ed Helms Announced as Narrator for Disneynature’s Penguins
Disneynature’s Penguins comes to cinemas on 17th April
BBC Planet Trailer
In the midst of the exciting flurry of news articles about a number of upcoming natural history series, The BBC have decided to create their own waves by dropping a ‘BBC Planet’ trailer, calling attention to their upcoming projects and commissions. One of those projects is Perfect Planet, a Silverback Films production that I have been involved in for the past three years, and one that will be broadcast next year.
Lazily copied and pasted from the BBC press release…
Planet Earth is perfect. It orbits at the perfect distance from the sun; it tilts at just the right angle and has a decent sized moon to hold it in place. On top of that, the day-to-day workings of the planet naturally serve to nurture animals and plants. For instance, a global weather system circulates and distributes fresh water to all corners, and a cycle of marine currents delivers nutrients to even the deepest reaches of the ocean. As a result, there is literally no corner of our planet where life canโt be found.
Perfect Planet – in a unique fusion of blue chip natural history and earth sciences – explains how the living planet operates. This five part series will show how the forces of nature – weather, ocean currents, solar energy and volcanoes – drive, shape and support Earthโs great diversity of life. In doing so, it will reveal how animals are perfectly adapted to whatever the environment throws at them.
From the white wolves of Ellesemere Island to bears in Kamchatka; vampire finches of the Galapagos to golden snub-nosed monkeys of China, the series will combine a global view of the planet from space with intimate animal stories from the most spectacular habitats. From the Indian Monsoon to Hawaiian volcanoes; tidal islands of the Bahamas to the extremes of the Arctic winter, Perfect Planet will take the audience on a stunning visual journey that will change the way we see our home.
The final episode in the series looks at the dramatic impact of the worldโs newest global force of nature – humans – and reveals what we need to do to in order to halt the dramatic loss of biodiversity
BBC Media Centre – 8th February 2019
Perfect Planet, a 5×60โ for BBC One, is made by Silverback Films, co-produced by Tencent Penguin Pictures, France Tรฉlรฉvisions and The Open University. The Executive Producer is Alastair Fothergill, and the Series Producer is Huw Cordey. It was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, BBC Director of Content, and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual. It will tx in 2020.
Our Planet – Super Bowl Commercial
Our Planet is released worldwide on April 5th 2019, but Netflix’s marketing department aren’t waiting around! They’ve been busy poring through the episodes, collating some of the most stunning shots into a commercial which debuted during the Super Bowl, an event that was apparently watched by almost 113 million people this year… which is insane!
In addition to the team-themed trailer, Netflix also dedicated their Twitter stream to the series, posting such gems as this…
With many weeks left until the series floods onto screens worldwide, I’m very much looking forward to seeing what other treats Netflix’s marketing department have in store for us!
Charles Dyer 