INTERVIEW: ‘Ocean’ is David Attenborough’s most meaningful project
Photo: David Attenborough has made his most personal film yet with Ocean With David Attenborough, premiering June 7 on National Geographic. Photo courtesy of Silverback Films and Open Planet Studios / Keith Scholey / Provided by Nat Geo press site with permission.
David Attenborough, the preeminent naturalist and storyteller, is nearing 100 years old, and now he has gifted the world with the most meaningful film of his career. Ocean With David Attenborough is set to premiere Saturday, June 7, at 8 p.m.on National Geographic, and as the title of the program suggests, this film is a deep dive into the wonders of the mighty oceans of the world, including the challenges they face and the hope one can find when considering their future. Streaming is available on Hulu and Disney+.
This feature-length special has been brought to life thanks to a dedicated team of creative professionals who worked alongside Attenborough for years. They traveled the world and faced difficult conditions, but ultimately they gathered the necessary shots and were able to showcase the unique splendors of the vast blue oceans of planet Earth.
Toby Nowlan serves as director and producer of the project. He’s joined by fellow directors Keith Scholey and Colin Butfield.
“This is the kind of dream project to work on and have out there,” Nowlan said in a recent Zoom interview. “This is three years in the making, 500 hours underwater, 300 days at sea, filming on all seven continents and even a little bit from space. We’re talking a huge amount of effort and devotion to a project. This isn’t just another wildlife film. This is David Attenborough’s most important story, the greatest message he’s ever told. … As a bonus, it seems to be doing really, really well. It’s been performing really well in the cinemas in the UK and Australia, and it’s been very well reviewed. So we’re very happy to have it out there.”
Nowlan sees the movie having three angles. There’s the showcasing of the ocean itself, and for this part, the water never looked more beautiful. The camera captures the surface-level environment of the ocean, plus stunning images from the depths of the water. Plenty of marine animals are featured as well. Secondly, there’s the simple message of the film: Don’t take the ocean for granted because it’s being harmed. But it’s the third angle — the theme of hope — that Nowlan and the team are most interested in.
“Hope is the biggest take-home of this film,” he said. “It’s not often you get a chance to tell a real hope story. There’s a lot of fake hope around, fake news. This is something huge and tangible and right in front of us, and there’s no greater motivator than hope, especially when you have the greatest authority in the world in natural history storytelling, David Attenborough, giving you these words. You know you can believe it. You know you can trust it. So I’d say there are three strands there. You’ve got your theme of wonder and discovery. You’ve got your theme of revealing exactly what is happening below the waves, including the demolition of our seabed by some of the most destructive industrial fishing practices, including in our protected areas, and then this overarching, overwhelming story of hope.”
Nowlan said there is no one quite like Attenborough, who has built an unparalleled career as a TV presenter of natural history films and specials. Nowlan credits Attenborough for the reason he got into TV in the first place, and the director is not alone with that assertion.
“He’s just the biggest inspiration to all of us,” the director said. “He’s shared with us more of the natural world than any other human alive, and I would say he’s the greatest storyteller out there. I’ve worked with David Attenborough on David Attenborough Films for the last 15-16 years: Planet Earth II, A Perfect Planet, Our Planet. But nothing has come close to the authored and personal piece that is this feature film. This is his greatest story, as I mentioned, his most important message, so to be producer and director of that film is just the greatest privilege.”
Attenborough is the consummate professional, in Nowlan’s mind. He remembers once sitting on a freezing beach during wintertime in southern England, and Attenborough would deliver his lines to the camera with such meaning and authenticity. He didn’t miss a beat.
“Despite it being 2 degrees and him being 99,” Nowland remembers. “It wasn’t the easiest shoot. He’s just absolutely brilliant, and he just makes it work every time and delivers with such emotion and power. … To top it off, he’s just the greatest listener. He’s incredibly humble. There’s no ego with David. The last thing he wants to talk about is David Attenborough. It’s all about the subject, and for him, this time the subject is the ocean. And he’s very clear that that is the most important thing for us to be talking about right now.”
Filming Ocean was not easy. Being on the open water and needing to find shots both above and below the surface was incredibly frustrating and demanding. There are the logistics of not being able to fully communicate when team members are underwater, and there’s also the need to ensure everything floats and doesn’t sink.
“You have to overcome light challenges and depth challenges and current challenges, especially when you’re making a cinematic feature of such high resolution,” Nowlan said. “It adds even greater technical challenge to the whole picture. But filming out in the open ocean, now that really is a challenging habitat. You can go for weeks at a time in challenging conditions — strong waves and winds and very difficult, tough situations out there — and not see a thing. You’re out on this vast, empty, open blue habitat, and you cannot turn the camera on for weeks at a time. And then suddenly you might see something in the distance.”
That something in the distance may be bluefin tuna slamming into a big wall of fish or whales surfacing nearby. Nowlan said the team had to be laser-focused, otherwise they may miss their only chance to record some of these unique scenes.
“Every bait ball is different,” the director said of the groups of fish in the ocean. “Some of them are moving. Some of them are stationary. Some of them are at depth. … You cannot turn a camera on for the best part of a month, and then suddenly within four minutes you have this blockbuster scene if you’re lucky.”
Scholey, also billed as a director of the project, agreed with Nowlan’s sentiments that Ocean is the most meaningful project of Attenborough’s career.
“In so many ways, it’s a special film for all of us who kind of worked on it,” Scholey said. “I guess it’s the most mission-driven film I’ve ever worked on. I’ve been making wildlife films for all my life, but this one really had a goal. So its goal created a great story, and what’s lovely about the people who have seen it, they seem to feel that the narrative has told them something they didn’t really know before. And that’s exciting, and we’ve also hopefully thrilled them with the ocean.”
Scholey added: “Never ever give people a problem without a solution, and this one has got such a good solution. It’s very easy to implement because you just have to leave the ocean alone. It’s easy. It doesn’t require a huge amount of investment. You don’t have to build anything. You just have to leave it alone, and then you get this huge payback for all of us. … We can also get our fisheries to rebound, and I think we all know our fisheries around the world are in trouble. And this is a win-win — yeah, a really important film.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ocean With David Attenborough, directed by Toby Nowlan, Keith Scholey and Colin Butfield, premieres Saturday, June 7, at 8 p.m. on National Geographic. Streaming will be available on Hulu and Disney+. Nowlan also serves as producer. Click here for more information.
