Bring ’em Back Alive 393 Even more than in their written accounts, their visual media programs follow and precipitate two distinct human-animal representations in wildlife film, one toward the hunter’s preoccupation with conflict and danger, and the other toward conservationist stewardship and zookeeper welfare. In addition, their visual media presentations focus almost exclusively on the animals, whether capturing them physically or only on camera, and exclude most of their humorous interactions with people. While the visual versions provide immediacy, offering viewers the satisfaction of seeing with their own eyes the worlds and creatures previously so vividly described, the books continued to provide more personal insights and backstories of the capture adventure. Just as Durrell jettisoned aspects of the truth in his diaries to write his popular books and Buck collaborated with writer Anthony to contextualize the highlights of his captures, both men knew the same had to be done with film. They blur distinctions between documentary truth and compelling visual stories, corroborating what Jean-Baptiste Gouyon (2019: 3) attests when he states that all wildlife documentary is “intrinsically artificial.” Moreover, the relationships between their books and films vary significantly depending on whether the film/TV episode was made before or after the book. Buck capitalized on the popularity of his books by making films based on them, thereby illustrating what the audience had already read and imagined. Only in his later autobiography, All in a Lifetime, does he include descriptions of the film outtakes. Durrell was not filmed replaying what he had already written; instead he wrote books about the filming expeditions, revealing what could not be seen or told in the film itself. He and Buck both write about the travails of the filming process—its obstreperous crews and cumbersome equipment impeding their captures, as well as the events that happen off camera, both comic surprises or frightening attacks. The follow-up books counter the ocular version offered in the television episodes and films with a behind-the-scenes experienced version told in the heightened prose of the star
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