Filmmakers usually use different types of techniques nature documentaries to get

viewers hooked – even if it means taking some artistic liberties.

For example, filmmaker Silmon Cade (of DSLRguide) told how, where and what kind of
methods he used to distort reality in documentaries.
First, concerning sound as he explained that it is a basic problem with how nature
documentaries are filmed: “It’s really difficult to record sound when cameras are far
away from something. Cameras can zoom in, but the microphones can’t.”
Cade gives the example of filming a wolf hunting from a helicopter. The actual sound the
camera picked up is probably just a helicopter’s loud rotor. But if the filmmakers kept
this sound in the documentary, it wouldn’t be very good for the viewer — since no one
wants their ears blown out by the noise of a helicopter. Instead, filmmakers later add
sounds to the scene, which imitate what’s going on in the nature.
Second about deceptive montage. When documentarians want to capture a kangaroo
fight, it takes them days or weeks of filming normal, boring, and usual kangaroo things.
Therefore filmmakers can get a bunch of footage that can complement the eventual
fight: a joey hiding in a mother’s pouch, close-ups of two kangaroos looking at each
other, and so on. And during the montage filmmakers edit and filter all materials that
they have and after that, they combine this footage to make a much more emotional
scene.
But these methods are not so cruel and radical as the next one.
In the 1940s and 1950s Disney was famous for its true-life nature films. And there was
one famous and breathtaking scene that showed how hundreds of lemmings jumped off
a cliff in the Canadian Artic into the Arctic Ocean below. The film illustrated the
migration of lemmings. However, a few years ago was discovered that this scene is far
from true life. Firstly, the lemming scene was shot 2,000 km south of the Arctic.
Secondly, I think the most awful thing is the lemmings didn`t jump off the cliff instead of
it they were pushed. And thirdly, Canadian lemmings are don`t actually migrate – and in
that area of Canada, there are actually no cliffs to jump off at that time of year.
So, I have negative feelings about using “deception” in documentaries. People become
insane and cruel because of their desire to increase views and attract more viewers.
Many documentary filming companies make animals suffer and they can even die
because of the shoots. People can beat, force, and harm animals during the shoots. I
hope, nowadays more and more people will try to help and save animals.