PRODUCTION PRESS BOOK

Title picture: Striped Marlin with bait ball © David Reichert - BBC

Ocean © John Ruthven - BBC

AN EVENT MOVIE G R E E N L I G H T M E D I A A N D B B C WO R L DW I D E P R E S E N T T H E SPLENDOURS AND MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS WITH N E V E R - B E F O R E - S E E N I M A G E S O F S P E C TA C U L A R B E A U T Y

Spinner Dolphins © David Reichert - BBC

PRODUCTION PRESS BOOK

DEEP BLUE a natural history of the oceans

A Film by

BBC Natural History Unit

Directors

Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt

Script

Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt

Produced by

BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media AG United Kingdom and Germany 2003

Press Agency

World Sales Contact

Rogers & Cowan

Greenlight Media AG

THE TEAM Directors

Alastair Fothergill, Andy Byatt

Producers

Alix Tidmarsh and Sophokles Tasioulis

Scriptwriters Original Music by Executive Producers

Tim Ecott, Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt George Fenton André Sikojev, Nikolaus Weil, Stefan Beiten and Mike Phillips

Production Managers Cinematography

Lynn Barry and Amanda Hutchinson Doug Allan, Peter Scoones, Rick Rosenthal a.o.

Editor

Martin Elsbury

Sound

Andrew Wilson, Kate Hopkins, Lucy Rutherford

Shooting Locations

USA, Maldives, Falkland Islands, Mexico, South Africa, Republic of Ireland, Costa Rica, Colombia, Canada, Russia, Australia, Ascension Island, Antarctic Peninsula, UK, Galapagos, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil,Yap & Palau, Bahamas, New Zealand,The Azores,Thailand, French Polynesia, Belize, Papua New Guinea, Norway, Spain, Panama,Venezuela, Arctic, Northwest Territories, Bermuda,Tobago, Japan, Cayman Islands

Produced by A Film by Distributed by

BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media BBC Natural History Unit Greenlight Media AG | peppermint international

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FAC T S Format

35 mm

Length

90 minutes

Date of start of principal photography

June 1998

Date of completion of principal photography

June 2001

Year of copyright

Shearwater birds

Countries of origin

© Rick Rosenthal - BBC

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2003 Germany and UK

S U M M A RY

DEEP BLUE is an innovative motion picture that

presents unique images of the world’s oceans gathered over many years of filming. One of the most singular and comprehensive projects ever undertaken in the field of documentary filmmaking, DEEP BLUE plunges the audience into the spectacle of the seas and takes it on a journey from the shallowest coral reefs to the barren shores of the Antarctic, from the vast stretches of the open ocean to the nocturnal landscapes of the ocean’s deepest chasms. “We take you to a world you have never seen before, to what I believe is genuinely the last frontier on our planet.” – Alastair Fothergill, director

Manta Ray © Michael Pitts - BBC

P R E S S N OT E S

DEEP BLUE is nothing less than a visual

masterpiece for the big screen, with images that will mesmerise viewers with their beauty and stun them with their grandeur. Intensifying the film’s impact is a new, full orchestral score composed specifically for DEEP BLUE by five-time Oscar nominee George Fenton (Gandhi, Cry Freedom) and recorded by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – their first-ever recording of a film score. A truly amazing cinematic experience, DEEP BLUE is a documentary event movie that audiences of all ages will want to see. “For many years now, it has been our dream to capture on film the beauty of our planet – and of its deep blue oceans in particular – and present it to people all over the world on the big screen.This dream has now become reality,” – André Sikojev, Greenlight Media

The oceans are the last frontier on our planet – and DEEP BLUE is the definitive exploration of that frontier.

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T H E S H E E R E L E M E N TA L P O W E R O F T H E O C E A N S H A S G R I P P E D M A N K I N D S I N C E W E F I R S T TO O K TO T H E S E A

N O O T H E R H A B I TA T O N O U R P L A N E T S U P P O RT S S O M U C H L I F E

SYNOPSIS

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I N T RO D U C T I O N

Seen from the blackness of outer space, ‘Earth’ is clearly a misnomer. With seventy percent of its surface covered by water, our planet is a distinctive sparkling turquoise colour when viewed from afar. Water, and the vast oceans in particular, make Earth unique.

The oceans are the cradle of life on earth, the engines that govern our climate, the repository of a vast and diverse wildlife.They are an integral part of all our lives and their protection and preservation are our greatest challenge.

Yet despite the fact that the sea constitutes two-thirds of our planet, we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep oceans.

Now, for the first time ever, it is possible to explore a world few have ever seen, the last frontier on our planet; the oceans and the infinite variety of life forms thriving within them, above them and along their coastlines. From the familiar to the unknown, DEEP BLUE reveals the sea and its communities at their most enchanting, alluring and fierce.

DEEP BLUE was shot by the BBC Natural History Unit, by the same team that, together with Discovery, produced the BBC television series “The Blue Planet,” one of the most internationally successful nature series ever made. “If there was a Nobel Prize for wildlife filmmaking, these producers would get it!” – The Wall Street Journal

A more emotional than factual experience in its focus, DEEP BLUE plunges the audience into the awesome spectacle of the seas and takes it on a breathtaking journey from the shallowest coral reefs to the barren shores of the Antarctic, and from the vast stretches of the open ocean to the nocturnal landscapes of the ocean’s deepest chasms. It chronicles the mysteries of the deep, the coastline populations and sea mammals; it explores tidal and climatic influences, as well as the biological systems that rely on and revolve around the world’s oceans. Blackspotted Sweetlips © Georgette Douwma - BBC

But above all, DEEP BLUE is a singular visual and musical event. Coupled with an evocative orchestral score and a minimum of voice-over commentary, it presents highly emotional, powerful images that convey the raw, elemental power of the oceans. It’s a documentary event movie for audiences of all ages.

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SYNOPSIS

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OUTLINE

We emerge

through white clouds to see the vast open ocean stretching before us – an infinite expanse of blue water. It’s completely quiet. Suddenly the silence is broken by the sound of a dolphin exhaling.The dolphin’s dorsal fin cuts across the screen. Gradually the number of dolphins increases and we join them as they playfully surf massive breaking waves.

A L B AT R O S S I N T H E S O U T H E R N S E A S

A solitary albatross

struggles against the stormy Southern Ocean. Gradually others join the albatross and the numbers grow and grow. We follow them as they return to their spectacular breeding colony – where over half a million birds are crowded on a remote windswept island off the Falklands surrounded by the extreme forces of nature.

D O L P H I N S A N D S H A R K S AT TA C K T H E S A R D I N E R U N We suddenly find ourselves alongside a pod of common dolphins heading in from the open ocean, advancing to attack gigantic shoals of sardines which are migrating north along the coast of Natal in South Africa. Soon the hunt is joined by thousands of bronze whaler sharks and gannets diving down from the skies above. Finally, a brydes whale appears and takes an immense mouthful of sardines.

Striped Marlin © David Reichert - BBC

KILLER WHALES AND SEA LIONS

The coast of Patagonia –

southern sea lions have returned from their life at sea to breed. We follow an individual family of the animals where the mother is having fun with her little pups and the young ones are obviously enjoying her attention. Ready to conquer the world, the young “gang” leaves the security of the herd and goes out to the nearby beach. The fun continues and the threatening dorsal fin of a very “big fish” passes by unnoticed. Suddenly, out of the tranquil looking water emerges the shape of a massive killer whale. Driving itself up onto the beach, it steals sea lion pups. Dragging the pups out to sea, the killer whale parent teaches the younger Orcas how to hunt, whilst the sea lion pups are still alive.

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T H E C OA S T – DY N A M I C B O R D E R B E T W E E N L A N D A N D S E A We are flying low in a helicopter along a coastline pounded by mighty waves.This extraordinary montage of images is testament to the incredible strength and power of the oceans above and below sea level.

AN ARMY OF BLUE SOLDIER CRABS

A minute crab jumps into

the picture as it emerges from its hole in the sand. More and more crabs appear and suddenly the entire beach is filled with hundreds of thousands of them scuttling across the sands. A huge army of blue soldier crabs sprints with incredible speed across the shoreline with a military precision that seems like an invasion from outer space.

A T R O P I C A L C O R A L PA R A D I S E

Following a coral reef that stret-

ches to the horizon, the camera dives under a crashing wave and we find ourselves immersed in an enchanting tropical garden brimming with exquisite coloured corals and reef fish. We pass through a macro world of great beauty before a gigantic whale shark – the largest fish in the sea – swims right by us.

C O R A L R E E F AT N I G H T

At sunset the coral reef becomes a new

world, attracting a totally different variety of creatures.This is the night shift and the reef becomes a very dangerous place. We slowly discover the “walking bush” a basket star – one of the strangest animals on our planet – a tree-like creature that only reveals itself at night.This is not the only creature hunting on the reef. We watch a war of two coral colonies attacking each other in what could be a scene from a science-fiction movie, as we witness one colony eating its opponent alive in a biochemical war.The adept-at-killing white-tipped reef sharks also gather in large numbers to hunt down fish among the corals in a feeding frenzy.

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ONE OF THE MOST SINGULAR AND S P E C TA C U L A R P R O J E C T S E V E R U N D E RTA K E N I N T H E F I E L D O F D O C U M E N TA RY F I L M M A K I N G

R I C H E S O F T H E T E M P E R A T E S E A We journey through a microscopic world of plankton; myriads of tiny but intricate structures pass across the camera. In a spectacular scene, thousands of jellyfish float past the lens. Nature becomes a mysterious underworld forest. Perfectly camouflaged and obscured from our view in beds of seaweed, the leafy sea dragon suddenly reveals itself.

K I L L E R W H A L E S T R AC K D OW N A G R E Y W H A L E C A L F In the temperate seas, a gripping drama is unfolding. A grey whale mother and calf are migrating north from their breeding grounds off Mexico to the summer feeding grounds off Alaska. In a dramatic scene they are attacked by a pod of killer whales determined to separate the calf from its mother – after six hours they finally succeed and the calf is drowned.The mother is bereft but has no choice but to continue her migration north alone.

THE FROZEN OCEANS

Following the grey whale mother, we journey

closer to the poles. All around us the sea is beginning to freeze and many animals are heading south to escape the worsening conditions.

P O L A R B E A R S S W I M M I N G Though mighty and fearsome on land, polar bears are among the most elegant swimmers in the oceans. Using a specially designed camera, we are able to see these beautiful creatures underwater for the first time.

EMPEROR PENGUINS

Under the light of the magnificent aurora australis,

thousands of male emperor penguins nestle together for warmth to incubate their Turtle on beach

eggs as the Antarctic winter delivers its worst.They are awaiting spring, when the

© Ben Osborne - BBC

female emperors will return from the ocean with food for the newly hatched chicks. At the end of the season, the ice breaks up and the emperors head back to the open ocean.

A P O L A R B E A R M OT H E R H U N T S S E A L S W I T H H E R C U B The sea has now frozen and the polar bear mothers venture on to the ice with their cubs to hunt for ringed seal. One of the cubs is still small and shows his inexperience as he tries to mimic his mother’s hunting technique.

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P O L A R B E A R S H U N T I N G B E L U G A S The freezing sea ice has trapped a group of belugas far from the open water and they have no choice but to return time and time again to breathe through a hole in the ice. A polar bear discovers their dilemma and soon takes this perfect opportunity to hunt the whales.

W A N D E R E R S O F T H E O P E N O C E A N In a poetically beautiful array of images we join the slow wanderers of the open ocean – the graceful manta ray, sharks, turtles and tiny fish larvae as they search for food.

Spinner Dolphins © David Reichert - BBC

M A R L I N A N D T U N A AT TA C K A B A I T B A L L Out in the big blue are some of the most spectacular predators on earth – tuna and whales. We experience what it feels like to be a tiny sardine among an enormous shoal being attacked by marlin, tuna and even a massive sei whale. After all this action, all that is left is a sprinkle of silver fish scales that gradually sink down towards the abyss.

J O U R N E Y I N TO T H E A B Y S S

We follow the sardine scales as they

descend in to the deep ocean, and we undertake an epic journey into the abyss. Travelling inside a highly strengthened submersible, we pass first through the twilight zone to witness jellyfish and squid.Then, as all sunlight from the surface finally disappears, we enter the dark zone, a strange and marvellous place – home to some of the strangest creatures of our oceans. Here we see the monstrous anglerfish with grotesque features and gaze at a deep sea light show created by the animals themselves. Eventually, our submersible descends deep into the rift valley of a mid-oceanic ridge.There we hover inches away from the hot vents and marvel at the extraordinary ecosystem that survives in this harshest of all ocean habitats.

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V E R T I C A L M I G R AT I O N

We return from the abyss following the grea-

test migration of life on our planet. Each night, under the cover of darkness, millions of deep-sea creatures journey from the deep to feed in shallower, richer sunlit waters. A bizarre and beautiful collection of creatures can be seen as the sequence ends with a burst of sunlight on the waters as dawn breaks.

SPINNER DOLPHINS OUT IN THE OPEN OCEAN Hundreds of spinner dolphins leap out of the water and spin in mid air. Nobody really knows why they do it, but maybe they’re just jumping for joy.

MASSIVE BAIT BALL OFF THE AZORES

Dolphins are following

hundreds of shearwater birds as they find what they have been scouring the ocean for – a bait ball – a massive shoal of tiny fish. Knowing predators are close, hundreds and thousands of tiny fish are packed together in a frantic circling shoal.The dolphins suddenly appear and cut great swathes through the shoal. Giant tuna join the hunt and from the surface, the shearwaters dive down tens of meters to attack the tiny fish. For several minutes we watch an extraordinary underwater scene as hundreds of predators gradually consume the whole bait ball of tiny fish right down to the very last individual sardine. And then, after so much frenetic activity, all is silent and we find ourselves alone again in the open ocean desert.

The scene and the film end with the amazing sight of the majestic tail of the gigantic blue whale disappearing back beneath the surface.

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THE OPEN OCEAN

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A N E N D L E S S D E S E RT O F B L U E

T H E P RO D U C T I O N

DEEP BLUE breaks

through the boundaries of documentary filmmaking to create a stunning visual tapestry, a thrilling masterpiece of nature in motion. DEEP BLUE shows nature in a unique feature length documentary film. It is the feature length epitome of one of the most ambitious documentary film projects ever made.

The makers of the internationally successful BBC series “The Blue Planet” have selected the most stunning images and most captivating sequences to produce the one-of-a-kind motion picture DEEP BLUE.

DEEP BLUE offers audiences familiar with the series as well as lovers of art-house cinema and visual spectacles an unforgettable cinematic experience. Heightening the impact of the big-screen presentation is a new, full orchestral score composed specifically for the film version by Oscar nominee George Fenton and recorded by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chevron Barracuda © Michael Pitts - BBC

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P RO D U C T I O N FAC T S

“Working with the

BBC,” says Nikolaus Weil from Greenlight Media, “meant collaborating with the world-renowned documentary filmmaker and the only organisation with the patience, resources and capability to undertake the monumental task of a $5 million documentary feature.” With an overall budget of $15 million for both the film and the TV series, directors Alastair Fothergill (Life in the Freezer) and Andy Byatt (Monsters We Met) assembled 20 specialised camera teams, shot over 7,000 hours of footage in more than 200 locations around the world for more than 5 years, and descended as far as 5,000 meters in the most powerful submersible crafts.

Full orchestral score composed by five-time Oscar nominee George Fenton (Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Dangerous Liaisons) and performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – its first ever recording of a film score.

DEEP BLUE meets the strong audience demand for cinematic nature documentaries. “Microcosm” and “Le peuple migrateur” (“Winged Migration”) have attracted a combined audience of more than 10 million worldwide.

DEEP BLUE raises viewer awareness towards environmental issues, ensuring the audience understands that the oceans are in trouble and that their future lies in human hands.

Coral reef © Peter Scoones - BBC

New species of ocean dwellers were discovered, and many photographed for the first time ever.

No one has invested so much in boat time before, allowing long camera support in a great variety of locations.

Unprecedented access to submersible craft in locations around the world offers unmatched coverage of the deep.

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WE KNOW MORE T H E S U R FAC E O F T H E THAN WE DO THE DEEP SEA

ABOUT MOON ABOUT FLOOR

L E A V E T H E N A R R O W S T R I P O F S U N L I T W AT E R S AT T H E O C E A N S U R FA C E A N D YO U E N T E R A N E N D L E S S W O R L D O F C O M P L E T E DA R K N E S S – T H E D E E P O C E A N – T H E A B YS S

Mesopelagic Squid eye © David Shale - BBC

D I R E C T O R ’ S S T AT E M E N T “We take you to a world you have never seen before, to what I believe is genuinely the last frontier on our planet.”

“I like making elemental films, where the power of nature can be seen on the screen.”

“The deep ocean is the only place where you can discover new species almost every time you go into it. It is full of creatures much more horrific than most of the dinosaurs; not fossils, but alive there now.”

Alastair Fothergill – director

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THE TEAM A L A S TA I R F O T H E R G I L L , D I R E C T O R , S C R I P T W R I T E R Alastair Fothergill was educated at Harrow School and the Universities of St. Andrew’s and Durham. He joined the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) in 1983. He has worked on a wide range of the department’s programmes, including the BAFTA award-winning The Really Wild Show, Wildlife on One, and the innovative Reefwatch, where he was one of the team that developed live broadcasting from beneath the sea.

Fothergill then went on to work on the BBC ONE series The Trials of Life with David Attenborough. In 1993 he directed Life in the Freezer, a six-part series for BBC ONE celebrating the wildlife of the Antarctic, presented by David Attenborough. While still working on this series, he was appointed Head of the NHU in November 1992, aged 32.

In June 1998 he stepped down as Head of the NHU to concentrate on his role as Series Director of The Blue Planet, a landmark television series on the natural history of the world’s oceans. In 2001, Fothergill became Director of Development for the NHU.

In 2002 he co-presented Going Ape, a film that took him to Ivory Coast. Following his work on the ocean documentary DEEP BLUE, Fothergill is currently Series Director for the NHU’s next landmark television series, Planet Earth, the follow up to The Blue Planet.

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A N DY B YAT T, C O - D I R E C T O R , S C R I P T W R I T E R

Andy Byatt

gained a Masters degree in hydrogeology from University College London. He has been making films with the NHU since 1989, initially as safety diver on The Natural World – Splashdown. He is a highly experienced diver and specialises in underwater films, most recently as one of the directors on The Blue Planet. He is Series Director on his latest project, Monsters We Met, a three part CGI and drama series that transmitted on BBC TWO in April 2003. He has a broad experience of natural history production with director credits ranging from The Really Wild Show (1992) to Wildlife Special – Whale (1997). Other director credits include Wildlife on One films on jellyfish and termites, and the innovative Incredible Journeys (1996), with films on rattlesnakes and grey whales.

A L I X T I D M A R S H , P RO D U C E R

Alix Tidmarsh gained a degree in

Zoology from Bristol University. In 1998 she joined BBC Worldwide as Brand Manager for the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit. In her current role as Director of Intellectual Property Management – Factual, she has been instrumental in managing the global marketing of hugely successful, award-winning brands such as The Human Body, Walking with Dinosaurs,The Blue Planet and David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals, and is responsible for providing consumer insights, marketing and funding support to the production process. A highlight was the funding and marketing of the successful IMAX film version of The Human Body. Prior to joining the BBC Alix gained 14 years’ experience in classic strategic marketing roles from two major international companies, Unilever and L’Oreal, before running her own successful restaurant and bar.

S O P H O K L E S TA S I O U L I S , P R O D U C E R

Sophokles Tasioulis stu-

died aerospace engineering at Berlin’s Technical University (TU Berlin) and Media Design and Media Art at the BILDO Academy Berlin. Since 1989, he has been involved in a variety of film and television productions. In his career he has produced well over 100 hours of factual programming along with some selected feature Leaping penguin

films for an international audience. Among his productions shown at international

© Martha Holmes - BBC

festivals are the documentary series Cheerleader Stories (2001,Venice TV Festival) and Shoes from America (2001, Warsaw International Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival, Jerusalem International Film Festival a.o.). As Vice President of Production at Greenlight Media, he is responsible for the development, financing and production of all factual productions.

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A N D R É S I KO J E V, E X E C U T I V E P R O D U C E R

André Sikojev stu-

died philology, Slavic languages and literature, and orthodox theology in Berlin and Munich. In 1981 he began his career as a freelance journalist for DER SPIEGEL and other publications; he also worked as literary translator of ancient European epics (Narty), philosophers (P. Florensky) and publisher of Russian and African literature. He founded Greenlight with his partners in Munich in 1993. It was there that the idea for Germany’s TV export No. 1 – the animated series “SimsalaGrimm” – saw the light of day. Next to a number of animated series (“Funky Cops”), he has conceived and produced as executive producer the documentary film series “Mystery of Nature” (Sandstones, Iceland) as well as the GLM co-production “Giorgio Armani”, thus laying the foundations for Greenlight’s documentary film division. At GLM he is responsible for new business and strategic partnerships.

Hammerheadsharks © Florian Graner - BBC

N I KO L A U S W E I L , E X E C U T I V E P R O D U C E R Nikolaus Weil studied jurisprudence in Freiburg, Munich and New York. He began managing various music and advertising projects during his student days, as musician and producer. Weil worked as a lawyer for the music and publishing industry before specialising in the field of film financing. In 1998 he came to Greenlight Media as Chief Operating Officer and has been in charge of developing international film projects such as “Happily N’ever After” (with Sigourney Weaver) as well as co-operations with Vanguard Films (“Shrek”). At Greenlight Media he is responsible above all for international co-productions and project financing.

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M I K E P H I L L I P S - E X E C U T I V E P RO D U C E R

As Managing

Director, International Television and Film, Mike Phillips manages BBC Worldwide’s television and feature film business. Responsible for the investment in BBC programming and selected BBC theatrical films, he has served as Executive Producer on Julian Temple’s Pandaemonium starring John Hannah and Linus Roache, the Roddy Doyle comedy, When Brendan met Trudy and the supernatural thriller, Dr. Sleep starring ER’s Goran Visnjic. He is currently developing a feature film based upon the BBC’s classic sci-fi hero, Doctor Who. Before joining BBC Worldwide, Mike was Managing Director of Thames Television - then the UK’s largest independent production company; a director of two UK production subsidiaries, Euston Film and Cosgrove Hall Productions and President of the Los Angeles based production company, Reeves Entertainment. He was responsible for single films for the BBC such as John Schlesinger’s Cold Comfort Farm.

S T E FA N B E I T E N , E X E C U T I V E P RO D U C E R

Stefan Beiten

studied law in Munich, California and Berlin. His love for photography, architecture and design soon brought him into contact with the media and film industry. After ten years of broad international experience as a lawyer and manager in Los Angeles and London (for ABN Amro, among others), Beiten was appointed chairman of the board of Greenlight Media AG, which he also co-founded. He began his active involvement in the development and financing of “SimsalaGrimm” in 1996. His areas of responsibility at GLM are corporate strategy, finances, distribution and New Media.

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G R E E N L I G H T M E D I A Greenlight Media, founded in 1993, Greenlight took off with the launch of the wildly successful animated TV series “SimsalaGrimm”, which has since been distributed in over 125 territories worldwide, making it Germany’s number one television export of all time and for all genres. Greenlight Media made a name for itself as a production and distribution company for high-quality animation and documentary films for television and cinema. These include films such as “Iceland”,“Sandstones” and “Giorgio Armani”, a featurelength documentary film.Today it has a staff of 30 employees in its offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, Moscow and Kuala Lumpur. Greenlight maintains strong relationships with broadcasters, distributors and producers all over the world. Moreover, since 2002, Greenlight has specialised in the distribution of films above all in Eastern

© Rick Rosenthal - BBC

Europe and Asia through its integrated subsidiary, peppermint. DEEP BLUE is the first of five theatrical co-productions planned together with BBC Worldwide. Greenlight is responsible for the exclusive international distribution of the films, in addition to the joint development, financing and production.

B B C N AT U R A L H I S T O R Y U N I T

For more than 40 years the

award-winning NHU, based in Bristol, UK, has been enthralling listeners and viewers around the world with its pioneering techniques to document the flora and fauna of the globe. Its program makers specialize in capturing the living wonders of the world and continue to find new marvels on Planet Earth.The Unit is the world’s largest wildlife television and radio production house and holds the world’s largest archive of natural history film and sound recordings. It will produce around 160 hours of output this year (2003), using a variety of formats including major landmark series, classical wildlife, animal and people documentaries and live broadcasts and presenter-led shows for adults and children. Regular strands are Wildlife on One, Natural World and Wild. Other recent successes include the widely acclaimed The Blue Planet, Steve Leonard’s Extreme Animals, Wild New World, Live from the Abyss and The Life of Mammals presented by David Attenborough.

B B C WO R L DW I D E L I M I T E D

Humpback whales

BBC Worldwide Limited is the com-

mercial consumer arm, and a wholly owned subsidiary, of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).The company was formed in 1994 to develop a coordinated approach to the BBC’s commercial activities: television channels, publishing, product licensing, Internet and interactive. BBC Worldwide is the Europe’s largest exporter of television programming, with 54% of the total UK television programme export business. BBC Worldwide exists to maximize the value of the BBC’s assets for the benefit of the UK licence payer, and to re-invest in public service programming and services. 26

THE DEEPEST POINT IN THE OCEAN IS 11 KILOMETERS DOWN AS DEEP AS MOUNT EVEREST AND MONT BLANC COMBINED

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G E O R G E F E N TO N , M U S I C

One of the most important names in

film music on both sides of the Atlantic, George Fenton has written the scores for countless feature films and television productions. Among the five-time Oscar nominee’s award-winning films are Gandhi (nominated: Grammy, BAFTA, Oscar; winner: Ivor Novello Best Film Score), Cry Freedom (nominated: Golden Globe, Standard, BAFTA, Grammy, 2 Oscars; winner: Ivor Novello Best Film Score), Dangerous Liaisons (nominated: Oscar, BAFTA), Memphis Belle (nominated: BAFTA),The Fisher King (nominated: Oscar), Shadowlands (winner: Ivor Novello Best Film Score),The Madness of King George (nominated: BAFTA) and Anna and the King (nominated: Golden Globes Best Score & Song, Ivor Novello Best Film Score). His most recent productions include Sweet Home Alabama (2002) and Sweet Sixteen (2002). Fenton leads the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its firstever recording of a film score. Fenton’s lushly orchestrated score was recorded in May 2003 at the famous building of the “Philharmonie” in Berlin.

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Founded in 1882, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has for many years been one of the premier orchestras of the world, its name synonymous with technical virtuosity, musical insight, extraordinary range and sonorous tone. At regular concerts in Berlin, where it has been the centre of the city’s cultural life for over 100 years, as well as in the major venues across the world, the orchestra never fails to astonish listeners with its high standards of execution and musicianship. DEEP BLUE marks the first time the legendary musical institution has recorded a movie soundtrack.

Leafy seadragon © Peter Scoones - BBC Worldwide

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I M A G E S O F B R E AT H TA K I N G B E A U T Y T H AT W I L L M E S M E R I S E V I E W E R S

THE MAKERS OF DEEP BLUE: A L A S TA I R F O T H E R G I L L ( D I R E C T O R )

“Very few people have

been down to the deep ocean and certainly nobody’s ever filmed the way we did. And I mean we discovered two completely new species… the anglerfish and a new octopus species… The extraordinary sequence when a party of killer whales runs down and kills a grey whale mother and its calf has been seen only once in fourteen years of research and had never been filmed before… At the end of the film there is a sequence where shearwaters are diving 15 meters down into the ocean. The scientist who had studied them for 20 years came into our cutting room and said ‘I don’t believe this, you’ve done this on the computer, this isn’t real – my birds don’t dive this deep, they were designed for flying, not diving!’.

A N DY B YAT T ( D I R E C T O R ) “The film was incredibly hard to make because in the open ocean you cannot simply go out and find your subjects and, unlike on land, in the open ocean there’s no way of controlling the creatures.You never know when they’re going to be there. I had filmed for over 200 days and achieved absolutely nothing. I had only five minutes of the completed film. On our very last trip we filmed the sequence with the marlin, and on the very last day we filmed the sei whale coming in and eating that scuder fish. For me, that was the most difficult thing of all and also the most gratifying. […] We’re trying to get people to realise how spectacular and vulnerable the ocean is, and how important it is to care about it… We’re not preaching, we’re just pointing out that we know we have only explored one percent of the ocean floor, so we know far more about the moon than we do about the deep sea.”

A N D R É S I KO J E V ( E X E C U T I V E P R O D U C E R ) “This film was always more of a vision for me. Its story is the creation of the oceans, the species – of life itself. We feel that the film offers an opportunity for everyone to understand the environment and the beauty in which we live.” 30

N I KO L A U S W E I L ( E X E C U T I V E P R O D U C E R )

“Usually when

you talk about documentaries, it’s like medicine because you know it’s good for you, but it’s really hard to swallow since it’s factual. It’s very much about information. I think the difference with DEEP BLUE is that it is a lot more about emotions, a lot more about events: the animals and underwater life that we can witness here are really happening this way.”

P E T E R B R E M ( B E R L I N E R P H I L H A R M O N I K E R ) “It’s an incredible experience, creating the music for a film that has no actors, no voices, no language. It’s a wildlife film, and the music acts as a key creator of the experience, which is very different from producing a short soundtrack for an action film or creating musical effects. But I was fascinated by the images, and I must say that George Fenton translated the images into music outstandingly well – the movement of the animals under water, the water itself, the light. I don’t see it as simply a film score. Indeed, this is a special kind of film in which the music plays a very special and distinctive role.”

G E O R G E F E N T O N ( C O M P O S E R ) “The emotions that I am trying to get out of the film with the music are very similar to those that I would try to elicit in the score of any other film, except that there is an operatic quality about the footage and an epic quality for which I developed a kind of tonality during my work on it. I use that language but I think it covers all the emotions that you would find in a normal film.”

S O P H O K L E S TA S I O U L I S ( P R O D U C E R ) “I believe that documentaries must also entertain, and this is what a lot of other documentaries have not done in the past.They have transported stories and information, but without entertaining the audience. And this is one of the major elements that makes a theatrical film for me and Deep Blue certainly has these qualities. If you only convey informaMesopelagic squid skin

tion, you have no business being on the big screen.”

© David Shale - BBC

A L I X T I D M A R S H ( P RO D U C E R )

“I think what a lot of people will

get out of Deep Blue is a real sense of wonder, of awe: “Oh god! I had no idea that’s what was under the waves. I never knew birds could swim. I never knew they flap their wings under water. I never knew that there were weird spy fish, black smokers exploding under the sea.There’s an extraordinary sense of the expanse, the hugeness, the fear, the joy. It’s fabulous.”

31

Back Cover: Female Angler fish © David Shale - BBC Blue whale © John Ruthven - BBC

T H E R E U S E D T O B E M O R E T H A N A Q U A RT E R O F A M I L L I O N B L U E W H A L E S R O A M I N G T H E O C E A N S , N O W T H E R E A R E O N LY A F E W H U N D R E D L E F T

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