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Sir David Attenborough's nature series have always had a cinematic quality to them.
There's the grand story arcs, the attention to character development, and even the way your sympathy is manipulated: as one composer says, you thought you were rooting for the bird, then suddenly you are rooting for the fish the bird is about to make its prey.
It's no surprise, then, to discover the people who make that stirring music that brings the animal world to life on screen are the same ones responsible for the scores of some of Hollywood's biggest films.
Dave Fleming and Jacob Shea, alongside Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer — who scored The Lion King, Gladiator, Inception and many others — were the principal composers on Blue Planet II, the latest BBC-produced nature documentary series narrated by Sir David.
"One of the ways we approach it is to just treat it like a story, in the same way that we would treat any dramatic film," Fleming tells triple j.
"Because, quite honestly, some of these stories they have captured are as amazing as anything a Hollywood screenwriter could come up with."
The stories are complex, which made writing music around the scenes of marine life a challenge.
"The toughest one was at the end of the open ocean episode, where this whale is carrying her baby," Shea says.
"The baby is in this plastic bag — it has died.
"They are very intelligent, these whales, and they are going through this grieving process. Writing music to that was a really difficult process because there are so many things wrong with that story.
"You wanted to capture just how terrible it is that had it not been for humans, these creatures would probably swimming along minding their business."
Sir David's voice 'one of the greatest instruments'
Bleeding Fingers, the Los Angeles-based music production company for whom Shea and Fleming work, won the competitive contract to score the series, and knew it was a major responsibility.
"The stakes are high for the BBC," says Monica Sonand, who worked as a score supervisor on Blue Planet II.
"They knew they wanted this to do better than Planet Earth," an earlier docu-series by Sir David, the second instalment of which one reviewer called "one of the best TV series full stop".
All those involved, understandably, felt a deep responsibility. They didn't want the music to get in the way of the story.
"We are fortunate enough that the stars of Blue Planet II are really the creatures that live under the sea," Russell Emanuel, a co-founder of Bleeding Fingers with Zimmer, says.
"The nice thing is, they are incredible stories — we don't have to make up for it in the music."
There is also the not insignificant fact that Sir David's voice itself is what brings so many viewers to his documentaries.
"His voice is, without a doubt, one of the greatest instruments you could hope for," Fleming says.
"And you do your best to back him up."
In order to achieve that, the idea for the score was to create what the team called "a tidal orchestra".
"We wanted to somehow sonically create something that ebbed and flowed with the tides and the oceans and gave that feeling of the deep," Emanuel says, while allowing space for Sir David's deep croon to shine through.
Radiohead 'jumped at the opportunity' to be involved
Last year Zimmer and Emanuel collaborated with Radiohead to produce the track (Ocean) Bloom specifically for the Blue Planet II trailer.
It was a reworking, with the BBC Concert Orchestra, of the Radiohead song Bloom, from their 2011 album The King Of Limbs.
"The nice thing about Radiohead, and specifically this track Bloom, is that it was created 15 years earlier by Thom [Yorke] — it was inspired by the first series of Blue Planet" in 2001, Emanuel says.
"And just by coincidence, someone at the BBC found this out and we made the connection and the minute they heard that Blue Planet II wanted to do something with them, it was an instant connection.
"I know Radiohead don't just do anything — they are very careful about what they select — and they instantly jumped on the opportunity."
Zimmer, in an interview with the BBC last year, said he hoped the images and the music worked together to help the audience build an emotional connection to the natural world.
"It can get under your skin and maybe make [you] feel about things slightly differently," he said.
"[Hopefully] this can make you love and appreciate this beautiful world, and maybe remember that we are supposed to leave it slightly better than we found it."
Topics: music, arts-and-entertainment, television, environment, environmental-health, england, united-states
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