A Life on Our Planet: Sir David Attenborough's Witness Statement

Factual America

20 Oct

Written By

Sir David Attenborough is a broadcast legend. And probably no individual has seen more of the Earth's wilderness in his illustrious nearly 70-year career. That makes him the perfect witness to the devastating changes afflicting our planet.

In David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet (2020), which premiered on Netflix, co-director Keith Scholey of Silverback Films and producer Colin Butfield of the World Wildlife Fund bring us Sir David's witness statement. In the process, they also provide us with simple solutions to saving our planet before it is too late.

"The things that are happening to this world are unnecessary. Not getting out of the problem is unnecessary. So make sure that your voice is heard, so that we solve it." - Keith Scholey

Some of Sir David Attenborough's Documentaries include:

Our Planet
Planet Earth II
Blue Planet II
and a whole lot more

Not only has his works opened the eyes of millions of viewers around the world, but has cemented the BBC Natural History Unit’s place as a frontrunner, if not the best, in producing nature documentaries.

Time Stamps:

00:35 - David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet trailer.
02:50 - The film we are looking at today and who our guests are.
05:17 - The synopsis of A Life on Our Planet and who Sir David Attenborough is.
08:36 - First clip from the film: The Best Time of Our Lives.
12:30 - Why A Life On Our Planet has not been made earlier.
14:07 - Second clip from the film: Sir David Attenborough’s statement on biodiversity.
16:08 - What will happen if we do not preserve biodiversity.
20:26 - How A Life On Our Planet's mission is connected with the Our Planet series on Netflix.
24:48 - Third clip from the film: Seeing the images of Earth from outer space for the first time.
27:17 - How people can engage without being scared into inaction.
34:04 - How the idea came about to create a retrospective of Sir David Attenborough’s life.
37:50 - What it was like working with Sir David Attenborough.
43:51 - How COVID-19 has affected the filming of David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet.
45:40 - The follow-up to this film and upcoming WWF global events related to saving the Earth.
48:15 - The lasting message of A Life on Our Planet.
51:51 - The opportunities arising from addressing climate change and preserving biodiversity.

Resources:

David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet (2020)
Our Planet (2019)
Silverback Films
World Wildlife Fund
Steward Brand: America's Last Great Optimist
Alamo Pictures

Interesting Reading from Factual America:

Transcript for Factual America Episode 33 - A Life on Our Planet: Sir David Attenborough's Witness Statement

Keith Scholey 0:00
Hi, I'm Keith Scholey. I've been Wildlife filmmaker for too long to remember. I'm now a director of Silverback Films who made the film David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.

Colin Butfield 0:13
Hi, I'm Colin Butfield. I work for the UK branch of World Wildlife Fund. I'm an executive director there, and I was one of the executive producers on David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.

David Attenborough 0:25
I am David Attenborough, and I am 93. I've had the most extraordinary life. It's only know if I appreciate how extraordinary. The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. Yet the way we humans live on Earth is sending it into a decline. Human beings have overrun the world. We're replacing the wild with the tame. This film is my witness statement and my vision for the future. The story of how we came to make this our greatest mistake. And how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. Our planet is headed for disaster. We need to learn how to work with nature rather than against it. And I'm going to tell you how.

Matthew 2:03
That is the trailer for the Netflix documentary, David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet. And this is Factual America.

Intro 2:10
Factual America is produced by Alamo pictures, a production company specializing in documentaries, television, and shorts about the USA for an international audience. I'm your host, Matthew Sherwood, and every week we look at America through the lens of documentary filmmaking by interviewing filmmakers and experts on the American experience. Subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Alamo pictures to be the first to hear about new productions, to find out where you can see our films and to connect with our team.

Matthew 2:51
Sir David Attenborough is a broadcast legend. And probably no individual has seen as much of the Earth's wilderness as he has in his illustrious nearly 70 year career. In David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, Keith Scholey of Silverback Films and Colin Butfield of the World Wildlife Fund bring us Sir David's witness statement. And they also provide us with simple solutions to saving our planet. We caught up with Keith and Colin from their homes in Bristol and Surrey, England. Keith Scholey and Colin Butfield, welcome to Factual America. Keith, how are things with you in Bristol?

Keith Scholey 3:32
Pretty good, pretty good. Obviously, you know, times are strange. And you know, we've got through the Coronavirus first round in the spring pretty well. But times are changing again. So, let's wait and see.

Matthew 3:49
Indeed, yes. On the drive over here I think the radio was full of just all the news around Europe in terms of all the new lockdowns and the such. Colin, you're also here in the UK. How are things with you?

Colin Butfield 4:05
Yeah, things are pretty good with me, actually, thanks. We've got, I mean, same thing wierd world, these times, all the rest of it. And we're in quite a small town so it's not so locked down as other parts but yeah, all good. Thank you. Good to be on.

Matthew 4:20
Well, thanks again for coming on. The film is, we've just listened to the the trailer, is David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet. Described as "a pre-emptive eulogy for the Earth" by the Times of London. It's one of the top films in Netflix, was certainly in the top 10 when I was watching it last night. Had viewings with Prince William and his family. The media is alive. Certainly in this country, talking about it being a tear jerker and quite an emotional film for many. So again, thanks for coming on to the show. It would be remiss if I didn't say it's on Netflix everyone, released on October 4, after a limited cinema release in late September. So, Keith, now, maybe for those who haven't had a chance to see it yet, could you give us a little, little synopsis of the film?

Keith Scholey 5:18
It's very much David Attenborough's witness statement. We came up with the idea with David. Because we just finished doing a series called Our Planet on Netflix. And we realized that actually all the kind of big changes that have happened to the world, the really significant ones, have all happened in David's lifetime. And we just thought, wow, that's, that's extraordinary. This is a guy who's probably seen more of the world than any other human that's ever lived. Let's hear what he has to think about what he's witnessed, what he's seen, and crucially, what he thinks we should do now. And that's really what the film's about.

Matthew 6:00
Alright. And this is going to sound like a funny question. So it's for three guys, three blokes here in the UK. But we do have an international audience. And I've been aware of Sir David Attenborough for a long time. I even, growing up in in Texas in high school, you know, we saw some of his documentaries then. And I'm not a young man anymore. But Colin, maybe you can tell us a little bit about who is Sir David Attenborough. For those who have maybe been, you know, maybe even a younger audience who doesn't know.

Colin Butfield 6:31
No, it's a great question. I have many friends in other parts of the world where some of David's series have been dubbed by other actors. So they don't, they don't necessary know him so well. But, what a lot of people don't know about David, is he's so much more than a presenter and voiceover artist. He grew up really, really deeply understanding the natural world, he has huge interest in anthropology and in geology, collected fossils at a young age, studied biology and natural sciences, real genuine understander, and curiosity of a wealth of different sciences. And then he really kicked off the whole of Natural History broadcasting by getting what must have been the most incredible gig in TV history. At a time when nobody had gone overseas to make natural history programs, he basically got told, go spend three months somewhere exotic finding stuff, and record it for audiences. And he did that. He absolutely pioneered it, along with his crew. So he has quite literally been filming, recording, experiencing the natural world for 60 years. And if you're British, as I am, he's routinely rated as the most trusted human being in our country, because he's got an unparalleled knowledge of what he talks about. And he never overstates the facts, which is, I think, why this film has been so powerful for so many.

Matthew 7:59
And has resonated. Yes, I think we'll get a bit more on that in a few minutes. But I think, in terms of the first part of that answer of yours, I think we have a little clip we can show or listen to for our listeners. It's basically, it's about a 50 second clip that basically talks about, shows some great archival footage, and talks about getting his start in this industry, and what he called the best time of my life. So let's listen to that clip now.

David Attenborough 8:38
Wherever I went, there was wilderness. Sparkling coastal seas, vast forests, immense grasslands, you could fly for hours over the untouched wilderness. And there I was, actually being asked to explore these places and record the wonders of the natural world for people back home. And to begin with, it was quite easy. People have never seen pangolins before on television, they've never this before. They'd never seen the Central New Guinea before. It was the best time of my life.

Matthew 9:27
All right, so he says that that was the best time of his life. But I think he, right after that, right at the end of that clip, he says it was the best time of our lives. And Keith, I mean, you've been a longtime collaborator of his, nearly as long as his career obviously. But he's nearly been, it's what, nearly 70 years on. And where do we find ourselves now? What did he mean by those were the best times of our lives?

Keith Scholey 10:04
I have a bit of understanding, obviously, I'm a little bit younger than David. He's 94 now. But, I grew up as a kid in Kenya, in the 60s, and my parents liked to go out on a safari and see the wilderness. And Kenya in the 60s was just like paradise. I mean, the wildlife and everything was absolutely incredible. And this was the sort of, this was the stage that David traveled the world on. He was there. When most of the wildlife of our world, a great wilderness of the world was still very much intact. And in, you know, the things you could see were just absolutely amazing. And I just caught the back end of David's kind of front end of his career. So it must have been just amazing for him. Traveling to places like Borneo that have been hardly untouched. And East Africa was in fantastic case, the Amazon was hardly untouched. So he really saw the pristine natural world at that time.

Matthew 11:19
I think, yeah, you mentioned Borneo. I think there's even a little, some archival in there, about even meeting up with the tribe that had never had any contact with the outside world. And that's early 70s, you know.

Keith Scholey 11:31
Yeah, that was in New Guinea, actually. But you could still, in the 70s, you could still go to places on this world and at the same time we were putting a man on the moon, you could still meet people who had no contact with Western civilization, none whatsoever.

Matthew 11:52
I'm a little, I'm a little younger than you. I'm sure I'm older than Collin. But I remember like National Geographics, or the youth version of it coming in the 70s. And they'd have these whole spreads about this tribe in New Guinea, that had not, you know, no one had encountered before. And this is, that's only 50 years ago. Keith, since you know David so well, why this film and why now? You said you, it was talking with him, and he wanted to do the film. But why not sooner? Why, you know, I think maybe there's obvious reasons why not delaying this anymore, but...

Keith Scholey 12:32
You know, we've been on the same journey for the last 30 years, at least, where, when I got into wildlife filming, we were worried about species going extinct, we were worried about losing rhinos and elephants. And then, sort of in the 90s, we started to see whole habitats look threatened. And then, after the 2000, and I remember talking to David about this, there was this sudden change, when the whole world seemed to become fundamentally unstable. It was no longer species, it was no longer about habitat, it was just the whole thing seemed to be falling off the rails. And David felt very, very deeply that, you know, having witnessed this, I mean, almost being a broadcast through it all and not letting the world know. He desperately wanted to let the world know that we were in an extraordinary dangerous moment. And that was the inspiration of the film.

Matthew 13:34
Okay. I think that brings us to a good point to see or listen to another clip. One where he talks a lot about biodiversity, which is I think, I don't remember hearing about biodiversity when I was growing up, but it is certainly something that my children talk a lot about now, my teenagers. And it's also one way he talks about this being his witness statement. So let's listen to that now. And see what Sir David actually has to say.

David Attenborough 14:13
The living world is a unique and a spectacular marvel. Billions of individuals of millions of kinds of plants and animals, dazzling in their variety and richness. Working together to benefit from the energy of the sun and the minerals of the earth. Leading lives that interlock in such a way that they sustain each other. We rely entirely on this finely tuned life support machine and it relies on its biodiversity to run smoothly. Yet the way we humans live on Earth now is sending biodiversity into a decline. Natural world is fading. The evidence is all around. It's happened in my lifetime. I've seen it with my own eyes. This film is my witness statement and my vision of the future, the story of how we came to make this our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right.

Matthew 15:38
So Colin, we just listened to that clip about biodiversity. I mean, I highly recommend the film, obviously, I sat down with my family and watched it last night. So we don't want to go through the whole, rehash the whole film, you know, people should go and watch it. I'm sure you would agree. But basically, let's kind of cut to the chase, what happens if we don't do anything?

Colin Butfield 16:10
Well, I think we've got two things happening at exactly the same time. So, on the one hand, we're shrinking biodiversity, as David talks about in the film. The single most important component for keeping the planet stable. And I think the rate we're losing it is extraordinary. I mean, one stat that springs to mind was that we've lost 68% of average wildlife population since the 1970s. So my lifetime, we've lost, on average, 68% of wildlife population. So extraordinary decline. And that has often been considered as something that's a bit sad. You know, it's not just that, those animals that were lost, but actually what we're trying to show you here is that it's destabilizing the planet. It's absolutely destabilizing everything we rely on. And, of course, what's happening hand in hand with that is climate change. And the climate, as I'm sure most of your listeners know, has changed incredibly fast, particularly over the last couple of decades. And actually, the fact that the oceans have been absorbing so much of the excess heat and carbon, means that we've actually masked that impact, so it's likely to continue to accelerate. Those two things happening at the same time will create a destabilized planet where, to be honest, I mean, probably the scariest thought in all of this, is human civilization only existed on this stable planet that we've had for about 10-11,000 years in the Holocene. We destabilized it so much. There's a real question. We've never tried to exist in these conditions before. And that's the challenge. We're having an unstable planet at the time we're putting the greatest demands on it.

Matthew 17:48
And I think that's a point the film makes quite well. I mean, you mentioned the Holocene, is 10 to 11,000 year period that we've had, and you also make mention of these previous mass extinction, that have happened. And the there's a segment of the film about, I guess, 45-50 minutes in, where Sir David talks about what someone born now, what they could possibly expect to see in their lifetime. And we won't go through all that. But even just thinking in terms of the 2030s, which is as little as 10 years away. He talks about the Amazon rainforest. And we've already got like, what the Brazilian wetlands, already a quarter of it has been lost this year from from wildfires, you know, things like that. The Arctic ice free in the summer, I mean, are these, that timeline that he paints out, is that if we don't do, if we do absolutely nothing? Or even if we carry on with the few little things we've been starting to do? Is this, you know, how likely is that really, to happen?

Colin Butfield 18:59
And so the points you make about the Amazon, the Arctic, are extraordinarily realistic within the next decade. That we'll pass a tipping point where they become irrecoverable. Now, that doesn't mean the Amazon, for example, is completely disappeared within a decade. It means that we're past the point where we can turn off that system. Where we can stop the decline. It will, ultimately, in the case of Amazon, it will have lost so much moisture, it will ultimately be in a tipping point towards perpetual decline. And same with the Arctic sea ice. So yeah, I'm afraid that it's completely realistic. And it's on the trajectory that we are currently on. Now that said, people are starting to take steps particularly with regard to climate change and renewable energy. There is still time to turn this off and change it. But yeah, on a current trajectory, you will pass tipping points within a decade.

Matthew 19:47
It's interesting, you mentioned tipping point. That's in my notes here. Because it brings me, you both worked on Our Planet, is that correct? Yes. So, that seemed to me, that came out in on Netflix as well, last year. It's one of my family was keen to watch. And you show scenes from it in this doc. That was really, I mean, maybe Keith, you can talk about this as well, that seemed to, was that a bit of a change from what had been done before? Because it seemed to me that was really capturing this Earth at a tipping point. And yes, the scenes with the walruses and that kind of stuff.

Keith Scholey 20:31
Yeah, no, the whole idea of the Our Planet series was, Alastair Fothergill and I, who started Silverback films, we've made lots, we used to work at the BBC, made a lots of landmark series, like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, before. But what we noticed was loads of people had watched it, millions of people. But we hadn't brought about change. And the whole idea of our planet was, we need to start to bring about change. That's why we teamed up with Colin and WWF. Because we thought, together, we stood a better chance of actually making a series that could both draw in a big audience, and bring about change. And that's quite a tricky thing to do. Because the school of thought was, if you start talking about the doom and gloom of what's happening to the planet, you'll lose audience. You just talk about wildlife, you'll gain audience. So the idea of Our Planet was absolutely to try, through the powerful images of the natural world, also tell stories about change. Because we've realized that we're at this kind of crucial, you know, Colin talks about a tipping point, humanity is at a tipping point. Where we can either decide to fix this thing, which we can do, or we're just going to let it go. And if we let it go, it runs out of control. And as Colin rightly says, human civilization has no experience of existing in an outer control planet. And with COVID-19, we're just learning what that means. Because this is part of the process. So it's a really, really urgent thing to do. And we as journalists and communicators in this area, we have to do something, and we have to do it quickly. And that spot off then the film with David.

Matthew 22:27
And I mean, there's a point in this doc where, I think David's being interviewed by Christine Lagarde who's used to hit the IMF and is president of the ECB, he says you could happily retire. Why I mean, he's in his 90s but he hasn't retired and he still seems to be going strong. Is this what really is keeping him going? In terms of carrying on doing these documentaries?

Keith Scholey 22:51
I think, I mean, David's always gonna keep going. I mean, that's the man. You know, David, you meet David and you, you just think, I mean, he's kind of he's the mental age. He's about 50-52. In terms of how he thinks and how he does things. He's got no interest in retiring whatsoever. And he also knows passionately that he has a voice, people will listen, people trust him. And you know, as time's running out, so he's doing everything he can now to help to make a difference. And good on him.

Matthew 23:28
Well, I mean, I think in terms of making a difference, let's talk about that. But we're going to have a little break first. And as part of that break, we have a third and final clip that WWF has provided us with. And it's this one about, an interesting one that we've talked about on this podcast before, the power of the first time people really saw the image of the Earth from outer space. We interviewed the filmmakers behind the Stewart Brand Doc, and he was really big in the US on bringing, well getting NASA to release some of those images. And David talks, David Attenborough talks about what it meant for him, and what it meant for basically humanity to see that there were actually limits to our Earth. So let's listen to that clip, and we will be back shortly with Colin and Keith.

Factual America midroll 24:28
You're listening to Factual America. Subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at Alamo pictures to keep up to date with new releases for upcoming shows. Check out the show notes to learn more about the program, our guests and the team behind the production. Now back to Factual America.

David Attenborough 24:55
I was in a television studio when the Apollo mission launched. It was the first time that any human had moved away far enough from the Earth to see the whole planet. And this is what they saw. What we all saw. Our planet, vulnerable and isolated. One of the extraordinary things about it was that the world could actually watch it as it happened. It was extraordinary that you could see what a man out in space could see as he saw it at the same time. And I remember very well, that first shot, you saw a blue marble, a blue sphere, in the blackness, and you realize that that was the Earth. And in that one shot, there was the whole of humanity, nothing else except the person that was in the spacecraft taking that picture. And that completely changed the mindset of the population, the human population of the world.

Matthew 26:22
Welcome back to Factual America. I'm here with Keith Scholey and Colin Butfield, co-directo and producer of David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet. The Guardian says: "Attenborough delivers a stark warning that time is ticking for the planet." Keith or Collin, either one, for all this talk about people being scared to death and hiding behind their sofas at home watching this thing. I took a slightly different, not slightly different, quite a different message from this. I find David seems relatively calm and hopeful, actually. And we've talked about this on the podcast before. We've had a academic who's looked at Inconvenient Truth and what scare films can do in terms of backfiring and these sort of things. But why is this time different? Do you think, is that I guess the balance, you've already alluded to this Keith, but the balance you were trying to strike, in terms of certainly in Our Planet, but now this film. Getting people to engage, but not be so afraid that they turn off and don't do anything.

Keith Scholey 27:36
I mean, the crazy thing about our times, is the scientists have done the work, they've shown us the problems. And they've also shown us the solutions. It is very, very clear that we can get ourselves out of this mess. And everyone needs to know that. It is not an inevitability that things are going to carry on and go badly wrong. We know all the solutions, we know what we have to do. We just require now the will and the determination to do what needs to happen. And that has to be the message, people have to understand. Now it's, now we can get out of this thing. But we haven't got a lot of time. If we're going to get out of it, we have to do it quickly. And that is why the whole thing is, in my mind, so frustrating, but also so urgent.

Matthew 28:29
Well, I mean, for me personally, I remember I was working for a zoology professor actually, in the early 90s, having these discussions about global warming, and these sort of things. And then I've, you know, lately I've been saying it's going to be Gen Z or Gen Zed depending on where you live, that's going to save the day. But it seems to me that we don't even have time to wait for them to start doing things. Colin, or both of you? Is this about rewilding? Help us understand what we, I want to focus, first of all, because I think many times as individuals, we kind of feel like we're powerless. Maybe what can individuals do to help?

Colin Butfield 29:13
Well, I think the first bit of it picks on really the fact that, as David is trying to say in the film, we've got an ability suddenly to communicate with billions of people around the planet at the same time. And we know most of the solutions that we need for this, in some respects is a communications challenge. rather than it being a scientific challenge. It's if enough people want this and enough people believe it's serious. Turning the world around to do this is achievable. So the first thing really is we're all of our voices and things like that. But obviously people want to know practically What can I do every single day. Obviously it depends where we are and what lives we lead. But probably the single biggest three areas of impact each of us have is 1) the emissions we generate, and particularly through the way we travel and the way we eat, 2) how, if we're fortunate enough to be in a position like my country, it's mandated to have a pension, if you're employed how your money ia saved and spent. And the other one is 3) what we waste. And again, that's particularly prevalent in a country like the US, the UK, we throw in waste, so much of the resources we use, whether it's energy or food or materials. And so those things can turn things around very, very quickly as individuals. But actually, it's the system's change. It's the kind of viewing the world as finite, as he talked about and David showed in that previous clip, and that mindset shift and way that we approach everything, is fundamental to this. And it's very, very achievable. As Keith saidma few minutes ago, we can turn this around within a decade. And we will gain an awful lot from it.

Matthew 30:47
Okay. I've even got my, I mean, I think the message is getting through to certainly certain generations, I mean, my own daughter's doing her EPQ project, she wants to rewild our garden. So she was very keen on watching last night. But I mean, are there, while I've got your here, I think I've seen, are there things on your sites? Like links to your website, to show what, as individuals we can do in terms of helping?

Colin Butfield 31:16
Yeah, definitely. I mean, really, it's interesting what you say about your daughter rewilding. I mean, nature is going to be the biggest ally that we have in all of this. Bringing back pollinators, bringing back trees, restoring the ocean, all of those things will not only bring the benefits, they must obviously bring back those environments, but they also bring stability back to the planet. So restoring nature is probably the fundamental thing that each of us can do. And we can do it in different ways. But the other one, of course, is reducing our impacts on the climate. And that'll be different for each of us, whether it's the fuel or the way we fly or travel.

Matthew 31:52
And I guess COVID has shown, and if there's a silver lining is that, if the world puts its mind to it, it can do a lot of things. It can you know, we make it a vaccine in record time, you know, if resources and scientists are given that sort of backing things can be achieved in a much quicker time than any of us had imagined.

Keith Scholey 32:15
Absolutely, we said that we couldn't stop flying. We said that we couldn't do all these kinds of things. And look what happened. Boom, overnight, we stopped doing a whole lot of things, we did other things. That was because we realized that we had to do something. The really frustrating thing with the environmental crisis is that people don't realize the seriousness of it. And so they're not prepared to do something quickly enough. And that's why, as Colin says, it really falls down to us as communicators to get this across. That the environment crisis makes COVID, I'm sorry, look like a very, very small issue. COVID is huge for many people and huge for all of us. But it's tiny compared to what's coming down the track in 10-15 years time. And if we can do what we've done to try to beat COVID, we can beat the environmental crisis, but we just have to do these things. And we have to them quickly.

Matthew 33:20
Well, I do want to get to talk a little bit more about what needs to be done. Although the film is pretty, pretty straight to the point and gives us a lot of solutions in terms of what needs to be done in order to avoid this worsening crisis and then ultimately, what is potentially a human extinction. And I think, as David says it's really about us, forget about trying to save our planet, it's about saving ourselves. But I wanted to get to the project, because this is, we've kind of touched on this already. But, I mean, whose idea was this to actually, let's do a retrospective, nominally, of David Attenborough's life.

Keith Scholey 34:12
I'll chip in here. Like a lot of great ideas. It came about with us all chatting. And Colin and I and David. And suddenly the penny drops and you suddenly think Ah, this is what we should be doing. And, you know, David had never really wanted. David's all about the subject is far more important than him. He's actually a very humble man. And to persuade him to say no, we're going to put you front and center. That this is actually going to be really you, your witness statement. You know, it was, I think quite a difficult thing for him to come and take on. He could see the logic, and he could see that it might make a difference. And so, in the end, it boiled down to him and him deciding that he was prepared to go down this road.

Matthew 35:12
Okay. And how do you go about telling this story? I know you're an experienced filmmaker when it comes to making nature films and factual. But, you know, you start in Chernobyl, which is an interesting way to frame it. Whose idea was that?

Keith Scholey 35:32
I think it was Johnny, I think it was Johnny Hughes, who was the co-director with us. But we'd filmed in Chernobyl for the Our Planet series. And so we knew something about it. And again, I think in a kind of a brainstorm, we actually worked out that it was a sort of, it was the perfect parable, to go with what's happening with the environmental crisis. The fact that people could live in civilization and the perfect kind of world. And suddenly, an accident happened, that took away their ability to live in this place. And we thought, wow, that's sort of what's happening with environmental crisis. A big accident is happening, which is going to take away our ability to live in this place. And then when we kind of built on that. And then the other key thing about Chernobyl, is that actually, although humans left, nature carries on. And so the moral of the story is that actually, our civilization and what have you, may not be able to survive the changes that are coming. But nature will find a way and be able to carry on. And, you know, that's quite a thought, ain't it? It's that fundamental thing, I think, as Colin said at the beginning, human civilization has only been able to happen in the last 10,000 years. Us humans, anatomically modern humans, have been around for 200-230,000 years. Only the last 10,000 years, could we get out of being hunter-gatherers. And in 10,000 years, we invented agriculture and put a man on the moon. That is what stability does for humans. That's why humans must never let stability go. Never. Because we don't thrive in an unstable planet.

Matthew 37:35
And you've mentioned David Attenborough's humility. And we've already discussed his amazing energy levels, for a 94 year old man. Colin, what was it like for you to work with what I imagine is one of your heroes?

Colin Butfield 37:51
Yeah, you're quite right, he is one of my heroes. And even now, I've been working with him for about 15 years on various things, to work this intensely on a project where he was often recalling elements of his career, in particular his career, to degree his personal life, but mostly his career, was extraordinary. And one of the techniques we used in the film was, simply because David's such an accomplished presenter, people are so used to, he's so used to being on camera, people are so used to seeing him on camera. The director of photography, Gavin Thurston, created this mirrored camera box, where effectively David could see the person that was interviewing him and having a conversation with him coming down the lens at the camera. So you've got this very sort of relaxed conversational experience, and to be able to, as therefore one of the days when David was just talking and remembering things and reflecting on things. And what was most extraordinary about that is he would have this big recollection of a moment in time, let's say when the Blue Planet film crew first filmed coral bleaching, and he didn't know what it was, and nobody really knew why it was happening. And then it's suddenly turned into this laser perfect sentence. And just the genius of the man to be able to flip an entire story that many of us would spend minutes waffling about and just let down to this perfect thing that made sense to anybody. Got the hairs going on the back. It's just, it's his proper talent, it's his experience and talent combined. And it was a joy to watch.

Matthew 39:22
Yeah, I certainly know something about waffling. But, does he write his own lines? Are these prepared? Or does he just, you turn the camera on, and this comes out of him, what we see on the screen?

Colin Butfield 39:35
There's bits and bits. I mean, some of this was recorded literally over several days of asking him questions and the directors asking him questions and him reflecting and responding. And so some of those bits where you see him against the black backdrop are, I mean, they're his words, obviously, but they're not scripted. He knew he was going to discuss certain themes, but the exact words that came out of his mouth are what he was reflecting at that moment. And others, of course, whereas voiceover is scripted. But it's a blend of the two. And I think it's really nice to break how you normally see David.

Matthew 40:09
That's what I thought was very interesting, to see him, as you said, but, you know, I had the black backdrop, that's a very different way of seeing David Attenborough. Did he resist that? Or did he kind of understand why that was a good technique to use in this situation? Because we're used to seeing him with gorillas in Rwanda, or you know, cavorting with penguins, you know, this sort of thing.

Colin Butfield 40:35
I think one of the things that people forget, and certainly I wouldn't have known before working with him was, you seem, because he's 94 he's not into technology. In fact, the opposite is true. He's, by nature, it means a trained filmmaker, trained producer has been for years. When somebody like Gavin came up with a different way of presenting this and different ways of interviewing him. He was, he bought into it from a filmmakers perspective, from a producer's perspective, as opposed to an individual. And he knew that that would really work for the storytelling. So no, he completely embraced that.

Matthew 41:10
And yet, you're talking about technology. Keith, what strikes me, and please take this the right way, the film has a certain simplicity to it, I would say. We're in an age where documentaries have, can have loads of animation and graphics and almost special effects. But this is pretty much David on camera, wildlife footage, which I know, it's not easy to get. And then a few titles that show some of the, you know, the statistics about population and carbon and the decimation of wilderness areas. Was that sort of a concerted effort on your part?

Keith Scholey 41:53
Absolutely. Simplicity in this film was everything. Because the real problem with environmental crisis is the world is confused. And they just hear so many different problems, cascade of different things and don't seem to relate. And the idea of this film was to try to tell a very simple story. And actually how everything just ties together as a set of consequences. And so once you tell a simple story about why we've ended up having a problem, you can then tell a very simple story about how you can get out of the problem. And also a great, the chief scientist of WWF, Mike Barrett, I remember going to him and saying, Mike, this is when we started doing Our Planet, I said Mike, give me three things that the world needs to do to save the planet. And he looked perplexed at me. And he said, Keith, there are only two. Carbon and the food. Actually, that was a genius, he can boil down the problems of the planet into two things. And actually, I've gone over that carbon and food thing time and time again. And Mike's absolutely right, you solve those two issues, we get out of jail. And obviously, there's a lot to do to solve those two issues. But it's that. And so the whole idea of the film was, let's just keep it simple. And let's make it a clear narrative so everyone knows what the problem is and how to get out.

Matthew 43:33
Okay. I think that's a very, very important point. I do have a question I want to ask you, that's a bit off that track. Obviously this come out this month, October 2020. This is a year of pandemic. How are you guys affected by COVID-19? And getting this out? Because it's quite an accomplishment to do that. Or had you gotten most of the filming done before all the lockdowns hit?

Keith Scholey 44:02
Yeah, the film, we've finished. We were originally going to release it in April. That was the plan. And it's rather sad because we're gonna have a big premiere in the Albert Hall and cinema release, and so on and so forth. And Colin and I watched this plan go up in smoke. But I think actually, what's happened now is the whole COVID crisis has allowed people to reflect very much about what's important. And in a way, it's a terrible thing to say, but I wonder if it's a blessing in disguise that this film came out after this disaster has happened. Because I think it allows people now to actually understand what an unstable world means for them, but also to understand that actually we can solve problems if we go come together. But the key thing we've learned from COVID is the world has to act together, if you're going to fix it. You can't do it on your own. And you can't fix environmental crisis on your own. You have to do it together. So I'm hoping in the long run, that maybe this might help us in solving the bigger problem.

Matthew 45:27
Okay. And Collin, since you work for the WWF, what is the follow up to this? I mean, do you have more films, bigger projects, maybe working with Silverback? Or what is the follow up to this film? I know you're still, it's still early days in terms of just been released.

Colin Butfield 45:49
Yes, carrying on working with Silverback is definitely part of them. We're working together on other projects, this kind of communications challenge we talked about, we know we were going for at least the next decade, so definitely working together. But also then in the other part of our world is politically, as Keith said, we've got to solve this together as a world and the whole world is, under the auspices of the UN are getting together for big, new look at climate change, so the follow on from the Paris Climate Agreement, and on biodiversity. And it's all happening in the next 12 months. So in terms of us all acting together to deal with these problems. That's not the only way clearly, you know, it's not only through governments, but there was a moment when the whole world has an opportunity to act in unison and address this together. So we're definitely going to try and use some of the momentum from this film towards that.

Matthew 46:42
Okay, and when is that big meeting happening?

So there's two of them. There's one on nature and biodiversity which is happening in May next year in China. And there's one that's happening on climate change, which is effectively the follow up to the Paris Climate Agreement in November next year.

So the WWF is working hard to, besides making all of us who have Netflix subscriptions relies, making governments and policymakers aware of the dire nature of this situation?

Colin Butfield 47:21
Yeah, absolutely. But also the ways out of it. And actually, that is very achievable. I think one of the great things about making this film with Silverback and Sir David is that even policymakers want to see these films. So we've had the opportunity to, obviously not in the same way we would have done before COVID, to screen them. But we know many heads of state, many government leaders, many business leaders have seen these films. And this film in particular, Our Planet before it. And seeing that public reaction to it, seeing it themselves with their families, we've had numerous messages. It touches people, it does, I mean people respond to what their kids response to watching the film with them. It's the reality. So, yes, yes, we are.

Matthew 48:02
And for both of you. I think you've pretty much said it, but what do you want the lasting message of this film to be?

Keith Scholey 48:12
For me, it is recognize that we're in a crisis, and come together to do everything you can to enable the changes to happen that need to happen. And I know Colin talked about this before, but I think the main thing is have your voice. The things that are happening to this world, which are bad things, are unnecessary. Not getting out of the problem is unnecessary. So have your voice and make sure that your voice is heard, so that we do solve it. And it's not just for us or for our children. It's for all the thousands, billions of people who are going to follow us. Because we are the generation that is stuck in this moment where we can either fix it or destroy it. So it's a huge responsibility on our generation, the only generation in human history that's had this responsibility. And we have to fix it for those that follow us. Even for ourselves. I feel passionate about that.

Matthew 49:23
Yeah. And I think that was very well done in terms of having David talk about someone born today. What they we're likely to see in the next hundred years. Because then he gets people thinking, even if you're thinking, you're so selfish, you don't care about, you know, I'll be dead before any of this stuff happens. I mean, what about your children or your children's children, you know.

Keith Scholey 49:44
And the thing is we have set in train a geological process. Now, if you studied geology, you know, once you have a geological process playing out, it doesn't solve itself in 100 years. It doesn't solve itself in 1000 years. It solves itself in hundreds of thousands of years. And so an unstable world, and we know this from what's happened in past extinction events, can take eons to sort itself out. So that means everyone who follows is in our hands. And it's a very, very profound moment we sit in now. And this film is really there to try to let people know. And as Colin says, these two conferences that coming with the UN, which hardly anyone knows about, historically, in a 100 years time, they'll look back on them as the most important meetings that humanity ever held. And they will either look back on them as saying, Wow, they did it, they fixed it, or they totally let us down. And that was the end. And so, you know, it's such an important time, and communicators like us need to do whatever we can.

Matthew 51:04
Reminded me of something much more pedestrian, But it was a financial crisis. I remember someone in the Obama administration saying, never waste a crisis. And I think, you know, if you want to get it from positive, put as positive spin on this, I mean, so much could be achieved by all this.

Keith Scholey 51:21
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think everyone thinks that fixing this is all going to be, we're all gonna have to become poor, we're all gonna have to live in terrible lives. No. There's jobs in fixing it, there's all sorts of opportunity in fixing it. And there's a better world to live in. And so it's, you know, it's a win-win. It really is.

Matthew 51:43
Well, I think, Colin, you've got a bit of an economics background and sort of visitors background as well. I mean, there are opportunities in this.

Colin Butfield 51:52
There are huge opportunities. I mean, like in economic terms, this is the greatest market certainty of all time, right. We know, we are going to have to flip our entire economies to become more sustainable. And we're going to either do it in a slightly controlled ways, sort of, on the faster version of the trajectory we're on now, or we're going to do it in a panic in a few years time. But one way or another, if you're in the business that solves battery storage for renewable energy, or you come up with new ways of dealing with waste, or your community that manages your fish stocks better than the others, you're gonna have huge benefits. And on the flip side of that economics, if you think about things like clean air are one of the biggest killers of us as humans. Biggest environmental crisis we face on a week to week basis is air pollution. We'll gain out of all of this clean air, we will save health services and economists, billions, will gain better water, better food, stable, growing seasons, all of those things that businesses rely on to thrive. So it's totally a no brainer. The problem is, of course, lifting ourselves up from the day to day to address it, but independently is a no brainer to embrace this.

Matthew 53:04
I think you've made, both of you've made the case extremely well. I think the film is done very well. And it's hard to believe, I think we're coming up on the end of our time together. But I had watched this film, thinking this might be sir David's swan song, but then listening to you tonight, I'm beginning to think that's definitely not the case. If he can keep going, he will keep going. Is that, maybe we can end on that note?

Keith Scholey 53:40
You know, the first series I worked on with David Attenborough, I was a 24 year old researcher for the BBC. And some of the people in the BBC says, Well, I reckon this is probably going to be, you know, Attenborough's last one. I was 20. This was 1983. And so ever since then, so don't ever, anyone, don't ever bet on it's being David's last one. Because we've had hundreds of David's last ones. And I'm sure there are a lot more to come.

Matthew 54:16
Well, hopefully, I hope that is the case. I definitely know that. And I definitely know my children do too. So I guess maybe that's, I think we've made, as I've said, we've made the case for what needs to happen, your film does. And maybe that's a good place to wrap up here. So I just want to thank you both Colin Butfield and Keith Scholey for coming on to Factual America. It was very much appreciated. The film is David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, on Netflix. So, can I give a thanks also to all our listeners and a shout out to This Is Distorted studios in Leeds, England. And to remind you to please remember to like us and share us with your friends and family wherever you happen to listen or watch podcasts. This is Factual America, signing off.

Factual America Outro 55:16
You've been listening to Factual America. This podcast is produced by Alamo pictures specializing in documentaries, television and shorts about the USA for international audiences. Head on down to the show notes for more information about today's episode, our guests and the team behind the podcast. Subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at Alamo pictures. Be the first to hear about new productions, festival showing our films and to connect with our team. Our homepage is alamopictures.co.uk

A Life on Our Planet: Sir David Attenborough's Witness Statement

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A Life on Our Planet: Sir David Attenborough's Witness Statement

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Linda Ronstadt: An Homage to Mexican Americans

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