The purpose of the ‘Planet Earth’ DVD cover is to persuade its audience to buy the DVD.
‘Planet Earth’ is an award winning natural history documentary series broadcasted by the BBC in March 2006. The title ‘Planet Earth’ along with the image of the Planet Earth illustrates to the audience, who would be people interested in wildlife, nature and the environment, that the documentary is about the earth, nature and wildlife. We also know that the documentary is about wildlife through the images of animals including elephants and a large heard of animals. Also, as both animals are trekking across the earth, it illustrates to the audience that the show treks across the earth and shows the planet’s wildlife. By having no images of humans or cities as part of the image of the Earth furthermore shows that the documentary is focusing on the nature and wildlife aspect of planet earth. The large image of the ‘Planet Earth’ also dominates the cover of the DVD and this represents the Earth as being large and full of life. In addition, by having the colour black against the title connotes mystery and the unknown of ‘Planet Earth’.
Positioned below the title is the phrase ‘as you’ve never seen it before’. Natural History documentaries have been produced and broadcasted for centuries. Conventions of wildlife documentaries include a variety of long, medium and close up shots, a narrator who guides the audience through what they see and explaining things such as an animal’s behaviour. Other conventions include a mix of parallel music and natural sounds of the animals and the wildlife. By saying ‘as you’ve never seen it before’, it sends the message to the audience that although you may have seen many wildlife documentaries in the past, this documentary is different, it’s unique, however, at the same time it can also send the message that all we see around us is buildings and cars, but there is more out there in to see and it’s a side of the Earth you don’t see. The phrase is also acts as a unique selling point for the DVD. Whilst the word ‘you’ve’ shows that it’s directed towards the onlooker.
Sir David Attenborough narrates the documentary. David Attenborough is renowned as ‘the voice of nature’ as his voice is identified through nature and the genre. This in turn may also persuade audience to buy the DVD as Attenborough is the narrator. Attenborough has also presented and narrated many other success BBC wildlife documentaries such as ‘The Life of Mammals’, ‘Life in the Undergrowth’, Life of Birds’ (part of the “Life” series),’Natural World’, ‘the Blue Planet’ and many others. In addition, Attenborough recently confirmed on a Parkinson episode in 2007 that his last ever wildlife documentary series ‘Life in Cold Blood’ is in post production and will be broadcasted n 2008.
The documentary was a series shown on the BBC. The words ‘the complete series’ shows that not only does the DVD feature all the episodes of the wildlife series but also that by being ‘completed’ it means that the series has finished and that buying the DVD is the only way to watch it. However TV channels such as UKTV History have broadcasted the show on several occasions. The series comes with ‘5 discs’ as stated in the bottom left hand corner of the cover. There are 11 episodes in total with each covering an aspect of Planet Earth. Episodes included were ‘From Pole to Pole’, ‘Mountains’, ‘Desserts’, ‘Shallow Seas’, Caves’, Great Plains’, ‘ice worlds’ and four others. Also as this is a DVD, this means that the show has been broadcasted before on TV and therefore members of the audience may have already been seen the documentary and may want to have the complete series.
The BBC, a public service broadcaster, is the institution who both broadcasted the series on BBC TV and selling the DVD. Being public serviced means that its shows have to entertain, inform and educate its audiences, whereas as other channels such as ITV1 are funded through advertising and therefore have no restrictions as the BBC has. Planet Earth entertains its audience through showing stunning and spectacular wildlife scenes such as a Lions successfully hunting an Elephant as shown in the episode ‘Great Plains’. Over recent years global warming has become a serious issue with topics such as ice caps melting, sea levels rising and how humans are over using resources and damaging the planet through things such as deforestation. By showing spectacular wildlife and portraying the Earth as being beautiful and full of life, it is also subconsciously informing the audience that our planet has beautiful wildlife and nature and that its worth saving, One episode ‘ice worlds’ discusses how the Polar Bear, the largest land carnivore, will become extinct as its habitat has been destroyed.
Technology is advancing. BBC Planet Earth was the first ever show to be broadcasted in HD (High-Definition_ format. This reflects how technology is advancing as the quality of the sound and sharpness of the image continues to become better. Also this can be another selling point for the DVD to audience.
To conclude, Planet Earth is a BAFTA award winning wildlife documentary series broadcasted by the BBC. The show goes through our Planet and explores its different environments and its animals. Finally, the image of the Earth on the cover has a horizon instead of a map of the planet Earth and this illustrates to the audience that there’s a lot of the Earth to explore.
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