Palmer is a wildlife filmmaker and director of American University’s Center for Environmental Filmmaking. His new book, “Shooting in the Wild: An Insider’s Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom,” was released last month.
What is “Shooting in the Wild” about?
“Shooting in the Wild” takes you behind the scenes of hugely popular nature films, sharing the adventures of the daring and creative people who make these films and TV shows. It also pulls back the curtain on the dark side of wildlife filmmaking, revealing an industry driven by money, sensationalism, extreme risk taking, misrepresentation, staging, fabrication, and even abuse and harassment of animals.
What makes wildlife and nature films a popular genre?
We tend to live in cities and so are cut off from nature. One of the few ways to keep connected is through television shows about the natural world. Audiences love wildlife shows because they are serenely beautiful, adrenaline-pumping scary and highly entertaining.
How did you get the idea for this book?
After spending over 25 years making hundreds of wildlife films, I had become troubled by what I had learned about what goes on behind the scenes. The degree of audience deception, animal harassment and lack of conservation was getting on my nerves. I needed to tell the truth, even though I had been guilty of many of the things I now criticize. For example, pretending captive animals are wild, staging predation sequences, using fake sounds, demonizing animals, harassing animals in order to get “the money shot.”
What challenges do wildlife filmmakers face?
How to make a highly entertaining show without being irresponsibly sensational, distressing and alarming animals, or deceiving the audience with staging or any other kinds of hidden manipulation.
— Emily Babay
