Netflix will invite viewers into the depths withOur Oceans, a new documentary series from the filmmakers behindOur Great National Parks. This five-part series follows ocean currents around the globe and highlights incredible animal stories in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern, and Arctic Oceans. Also likeOur Great National Parks,Our Oceansboasts an impressive narrator in former United States President Barack Obama.
Our Oceanswas made with the help of executive producer James Honeyborne and series producer Jonathan Smith, both of whom alsospoke withScreen Rantat anOur Oceansscreening. Both men were instrumental in shaping the scope, scale, and tone of the series, and helped bring together a global network of scientists and filmmakers to document unbelievable animal stories. Honeyborne and Smith also worked directly with President Obama on the series’ narration.
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Screen Rantinterviewed James Honeyborne and Jonathan Smith about their work on the new Netflixnature documentary. They shared their favorite moments from the series, the importance of highlighting humanity’s impact on the natural world, and discussed what it took to put together something as ambitious asOur Oceans. Plus, they detailed their collaboration with President Obama and reflected on moments in the series that were near to the former president’s heart.
James Honeyborne & Jonathan Smith Discuss Putting Together Our Oceans’ Teams & Stories
The Filmmakers Spoke To Local Sources To Document Rare Behavior… And Discovered New Behavior Of Their Own
Screen Rant: James the ambition of this feels huge. You’re going all over the world with these episodes. Logistically, how do you assemble a team to get enough footage so that you have enough stories from all over the globe?
James Honeyborne: It all takes a long time, and it’s not a process we feel we can rush. The research phase is protracted. It probably takes us six months before we start really finding the stories that feel very exciting and new, and we have to build up relationships with scientists in all parts of the planet, because we want to work with local teams with local expertise where we can. We want to try and share with the audiences stories that they wouldn’t have heard before, because we know novelty and surprise is a real gift these days. Fortunately, in the oceans, there’s a lot of new science being done. If you can build those relationships and do really in-depth research, there’s a chance you find the sort of stories that we would want to share. It is just not something you can rush.
In terms of the teams, we have made a lot of underwater films over the years and there’s a community of underwater filmmakers around the world. We’ve probably worked with 700 people, all credit to them, [and] every single contribution is vitally important to us. So often it’s the local knowledge, the knowledge of the conditions, and the knowledge of what animals are doing in a particular place that makes the difference between getting the shot and not. So, it is a big endeavor. It’s a global endeavor.
Jonathan, how much are you out looking, filming, and finding behaviors in the wild versus hearing, “Oh, this thing is happening here?” You’ve also captured things that we’ve never seen before, so how much surprise is built into this process versus trying to find what you’ve already heard about through a source?
Jonathan Smith: We find ourselves constantly surprised. We find ourselves surprised when researchers, scientists, and field people might have spent their whole lives studying and understanding one animal and they’re kind enough to share it with us. That gets us excited and surprised from the beginning.
Then, we go out in the field. We will make a really firm plan for what we’re going to do. We’ll hear a story, we’ll think, “Oh my gosh, that could be an incredible behavior, an incredible character,” and we’ll build a storyboard, have a script, and have a plan. The one thing you can guarantee will always happen is the animals won’t read the script, and they will go off piece.
They will do something completely different, and that’s when it can get really, really exciting. We went to film an octopus in the Indian Ocean, and it’s a really quite an extraordinary story of this octopus and the solutions it’s found. You see an animal like an octopus [and] you could look from a fire and think it’s a bit alien, but in Our Oceans you’ll realize, “No, this is a sentient being. It’s a being with emotions,” and without wanting to give away too much, there’s a point where it uses its body as a gun to scare fish away from itself. Not only did we have no idea that would happen—science had no idea that happened. It was only by our team spending so many hours on their rebreathers right next to it, living with the animal, that we filmed this absolutely extraordinary new discovery.
Honeyborne Explains How Our Oceans Can Help The Scientific Community
“It Feels Really Important” To Give Back, Says The Executive Producer
James, I read that there were scientific papers being written based on what you all captured in the field. I would love to hear more about how your work has benefited or might stand to benefit the scientific community.
James Honeyborne: I think over the years, wildlife filmmaking has taken a lot from the scientific committee in terms of new stories and things. It really feels really important that whenever we can collaborate and give back, we should. For some of our filming where we were going to see things that maybe hadn’t been captured before or [where] there would be new insights to be told, we were able to work with scientists and even take scientists on some of the expeditions to verify what we were seeing.
From that, of course, can come new science, and Netflix has generously shared the material with the scientists who have requested it so that papers can actually be written on some of the discoveries. The octopus one is a good example. Another example would be the narwhal hunting char that we’ve got in the Arctic episode, which really was quite a holy grail of wildlife filmmaking and seeing what the tusks are really for. But also, when we sailed down to the Southern Ocean to film the crabeater seal scene with the wave washing orcas, there was a scientist on board that vessel too. It is great to feel that we can collaborate but also then have the confidence to share scientific interpretation of what we’ve captured.
Smith Explains Our Oceans’ Focus On Humanity’s Impact On The Seas
It’s About A Showing A “True Portrayal Of Today’s Oceans”
Jonathan, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an ocean documentary lean into the impact of humanity as much as this does, from how it affects behaviors to seeing the pollution and plastic in the ocean. What was so important to you all about exploring that as much as you did?
Jonathan Smith: From the offset? We wanted to give a true portrayal of today’s oceans. We have changed our world. Humanity has changed it, but it doesn’t mean it’s any less amazing. We never turned our cameras away when we saw the impact of humanity on location. Whether it’s litter passing by [or] a rope that might entangle a whale, we were always there, and we were just filming the actuality of what was around us.
But that’s one of the things that really blew us away—because the world has changed, the solutions the animals are finding to get by in this changed world are inspiring. They can bring hope like you wouldn’t believe, whether that’s the tenacity of a crabeater seal or the resilience of an octopus. It’s today’s world. Today’s oceans are absolutely extraordinary.
Honeyborne Reflects On Working With President Obama
Obama’s Team Worked With The Filmmakers On The Scripts
Were either of you involved with working with former President Obama on the narration?
James Honeyborne: Both. I was in the room, and Jonathan was monitoring it and keeping eye on things.
Did you have to change the script at all, realizing that it would be read in the voice of a former president of the US?
James Honeyborne: Sometimes we [tend to] write things with a slightly British accent, if you like, but the president and his team are very helpful in that they’re fully engaged with the script and the script writing process and will actually help us deliver the final commentary. Actually, there was room in some of the script for the president to ad-lib, which I think he did brilliantly.
Was there a particular moment, creature, or story that you remember him being particularly excited by as he was narrating this?
James Honeyborne: He’s a real man of the ocean, and he was born in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was starting the series in Hawaii with the humpback whales—it just felt so right and so natural because he’s a very authentic voice in that regard. And because, of course, he set up Papahānaumokuākea, the big Marine reserve in the Pacific, it just felt such a natural fit.
Honeyborne Shares What He’s Most Excited For People To See In Our Oceans
“We Want People To Fall In Love With Life Beneath The Waves”
James Honeyborne: For me, ultimately we want people to fall in love with life beneath the waves. There’s an incredible world out there, [and] so often it’s out of sight and out of mind. A lot of the fish we meet tend to be in the fish mongers, and it’s not often that we get a chance to really go beneath the waves and enter this other world. I think that if we can help people connect with it emotionally and come to care for it more, that’s a huge goal.
We have such great enthusiasm for the oceans. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share it and share the lives of all these sea creatures, and for people to realize that actually they might look a bit weird or a bit alien sometimes, but actually they have lives remarkably like our own. They have challenges they face in their lives that are remarkably relatable to us, and I think that’s a great entry point that allows it to also be entertaining and fun to watch.
About Our Oceans
Our planet’s five oceans are driven by a single, all-powerful engine: the “Global Ocean Current,” a thousand-year phenomenon that links their diverse ecosystems into one giant lifeforce, fueling existence as we know it. From the tiny, tenacious cuttlefish to the gracefully enormous blue whale, every ocean-dwelling creature relies on that current to provide the resources they require to survive. Narrated by President Barack Obama, this five-part documentary from Freeborne Media — the Emmy Award-winning team behind Our Great National Parks — takes viewers on a 75,000-mile cruise across and beneath the oceans as they are today, giving us unprecedented access to some of the most unexplored realms of our planet
Also check out our interview with Executive Producer James Honeyborne and Series Producer Jonathan Smith
Our Oceans
Cast
The oceans, crucial to Earth’s balance, remain largely unexplored, with “Our Oceans” revealing the wonders beneath their varying waters, from the warm Indian to the icy Arctic.
