Narrative Research On The Nature Documentary A Perfect Planet

Nature documentary has been deeply loved by the audience since its birth.The relationship between people and animals and between people and nature discussed in the film goes beyond the language of film and television itself,causing people to think about life,emotion and their own existence value.Compared with western countries,the creation of nature documentaries in China started late,and it is still in a relatively marginal state in the international market.However,natural documentaries have a solid audience base in China,and have become an indispensable type in the current documentary market.Therefore,it is particularly important to learn from the creative experience of foreign excellent nature documentaries and guide the practical development of local nature documentaries.At the beginning of 2021,the nature documentary A Perfect Planet,which was produced by BBC for four years,achieved a double harvest of word-of-mouth and ratings once it was broadcast in China.Apart from the support of huge funds,technology and expert teams,the rich narrative connotation and superb narrative strategies of the film itself are also worthy of reference by Chinese nature documentary creators.Therefore,based on the relevant theories of narratology,this thesis uses case analysis and text analysis to analyze A Perfect Planet from three aspects: narrative story,narrative discourse and narrative symbols,in order to provide some useful references for the development of nature documentaries in China.This thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter mainly summarizes the related theories of nature documentary and narratology,and on this basis,discusses the feasibility of narrative analysis of nature documentary.The second chapter analyzes A Perfect Planet from the level of narrative story.The narrative plot of the film is interwoven by core events and catalytic events.In narrative structure,it is divided into parallel plate structure among subsets and progressive sequential structure within subsets.On the narrative theme,it conveys the awe of nature and life and the reflection of ecological trauma.The third chapter analyzes A Perfect Planet from the level of narrative discourse.The narrative perspective of the film is mainly "God’s perspective" of zero focus which presents a grand natural picture,and at the same time,it is assisted by internal focus and external focus to narrow the distance between the audience and animals.In narrative time,the story time is partially reorganized in the reverse sequence of preview and narration,which arouses the expectation and association of the audience,and at the same time,the narrative rhythm of the film is adjusted by means of narrative techniques of overview and expansion.The fourth chapter analyzes A Perfect Planet from the level of narrative symbols.In the construction of picture symbols,the film forms the defamiliarization narrative of visual performance with the help of lens,scene parting,light and shadow and color,so as to satisfy the audience’s curiosity and visual pleasure.In the construction of sound symbols,the natural ecological sound,vivid offpicture explanation and proper background music are integrated to achieve the real narrative effect,which makes the audience feel immersive.The fifth chapter,based on the narrative analysis of A Perfect Planet and combined with the development status of China’s nature documentaries,puts forward that in the future,when creating this type of documentaries in China,we can try to add narrative plots and diversified narrative themes,coordinate with limited narrative perspectives and reasonably regulate narrative time intervals,and enhance the audience’s audio-visual aesthetic experience with rich audio-visual narrative symbols.