When watching documentaries many viewers take the occurrences on screen as facts unfolding a story. The word ‘documentary’ too many of these views is almost a synonym to non-fiction, leaving them with the expectation of a non-staged footage. However, this is not the case in all nature documentaries according to Chris Palmer. Palmer tells the Huffington Post that there are lots of ethical questions surrounding these documentaries. On one hand the filmmakers are given little time and money to find the shot that brings entertainment to an audience causing an inability to provide for their families. On the other hand filmmakers are staging shots, renting animals or using CGI. In 1958 Disney’s “White Wilderness” a documentary tried to prove a legend that animals commit mass suicide when population increases too much. Filmmakers on this production bought lemmings and forced them off a cliff while cameras were rolling.
Palmer confessed in his book Shooting In the Wild that he had used staging tricks as well. Palmer admitted, “…the 1999 documentary short “Wolves” actually filmed canines they’d rented from a game farm, Animals of Montana, Inc. An up-close shot of a mother wolf feeding her pups was shot on a controlled set”.
Rockumentaries 