33 NATURAL HISTORY FOCUS Atlantic Productions
Expanding the depth and interactivity of its documentary content is a continuous goal for Atlantic. Part of this strategy is to combine video, data and interactivity in new combinations to engage and educate audiences and provoke wider discussion. “I think that’s where a whole lot of natural history and documentaries are going to move,” says Geffen. “We’re working on another project now where we’re using artificial intelligence to actually give us a view of how animals see the world. It’s taking on new perspectives. I think we have to go there, using new technologies coming in and since audiences love natural history, but show it in a different way.” FINDING THE FORM Documentary formats are undergoing changes, too. Geffen sees the possibilities for nature documentary streamed live or broken down into smaller, short- form pieces. Finding these new ways of engaging people becomes especially vital
when the global climate is approaching so many cataclysmic environmental tipping points. One of Atlantic’s recent landmark programmes was a simple face-to-face interview, which looked at the importance of natural history education and the environment. Nothing too groundbreaking about that – except that this was Barack Obama interviewing Sir David Attenborough. At the other end, during the VR experience Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough , Atlantic put up an interactive website that allowed millions of people to engage live with the state of the reef. They could monitor the Great Barrier Reef’s health and the robustness of its animal population and the surrounding oceans. “You could see, during this ocean warming event, a great influx of hot water that was going to hit the Great Barrier Reef,” recalls Geffen. “People said, ‘Well, that’s not really going to hit there. I mean, we
LEADERS’ SUMMIT Barack Obama’s interview with Sir David Attenborough promoted the importance of natural history education
can probably stop it.’ And we were sending feeds back saying, ‘No. In two months, it will hit.’ And it did. I think we have to be more clever about how we outreach. We can’t just say a television programme is going solve it.” “When I was working with David, he always had a very good rule, which is to tell the story of something so you fall in love with it. You’re interested by it and you’re curious and it’s only at the end that you start saying, ‘The whole colony of coral on the Great Barrier Reef could be wiped out and could create these problems’. I think, otherwise, people don’t engage.” From a company that won the first BAFTA for VR storytelling, we look forward to ever more engagement and continuing to fall in love with the natural world.
I THINK WE HAVE TO BE MORE CLEVER ABOUT HOWWE OUTREACH. WE CAN'T JUST SAY A TELEVISION PROGRAMME IS GOING SOLVE IT
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