As allegations of NBC's The Americas using AI swirl, one of the executive producers of the docuseries is out breaking down the show's "challenging" filming process.
The new documentary from the creators of BBC's Planet Earth and Blue Planet explores the wildlife and ecosystems of both North and South America in a ten-episode epic narrated by Tom Hanks.
The series, which started streaming on Peacock as well as airing on NBC, features the sort of stunning, epic cinematography typical of executive producer Mike Gunton's other work, getting up close with some of Earth's smallest and biggest creatures and witnessing their every day existing in their natural environment.
Did NBC's The Americas Use AI?
The America's kicked off its run on NBC on Sunday, February 23, and already the series has found itself marred in controversy.
After only two episodes, certain members of the audience have levied accusations at the series that it made use of AI-generated assets.
This included claims the show utilized AI imagery for its various nature scenes as well as some even insinuating narrator Tom Hanks' voice work was the work of a generative model.
Despite some thinking that AI was used in the making of the series (and is present in the final product), there has been no confirmation of any AI-generated video or audio present in The Americas.
It feels extremely unlikely that any was used, as any use of AI would simply stand out like a sore thumb among the high production values present in the series. This is especially the case given just how much work and how many resources went into the real-life videography that took place over the show's five-year shooting schedule.
Simply put, generative AI has not yet reached the level to produce something that can stand alongside a documentary series on the scale of The Americas (a show that comes from the acclaimed documentarian Planet Earth).
While not necessarily conclusive proof AI was not used, just listening to executive producer of The Americas Mike Gunton talk about the making of the series, one can see the passion he has about authentically capturing some of nature's best and brightest.
Speaking to Cherry the Geek, Guston described the thorough and intense process the team used in the making of the show, calling each day of shooting a "bespoke" filming "expedition," where there was no "one size fits all" solution:
"The biggest challenge is that it is an enormous place. One of the appeals of doing this series was simply because of the scale and the variety and the diversity of habitats and animals on [those continents]. So, the biggest challenge is that every time you go and shoot something, it is an expedition. It is effectively like a filming expedition. And every single one has to be bespoke for that habitat, that animal, that location. So, unfortunately, there is no one size fits all."
He jokes that he "[does] not know how [the logistic teams] did it," calling The Americas "by far the most challenging [project]" he has worked on:
"The logistics team on this series, I do not know how they did it. It is extraordinary, and I have done a lot of these shows, and I think this is by far the most challenging one that I have worked on in terms of the range of logistics."
As an example of these unique filming circumstances for each and every animal/ecosystem captured in the series, Guston used a comparison between massive orca whales traversing the ocean and the tiniest cicadas hatching one every seven years.
Some of these sequences took place in "15 square feet" while others were in "15 square miles of ocean:"
"When it comes to the logistics of it, you would be surprised how similar they are, but one is, we are going to be shooting this in about 15 square feet, and one of them we are going to be shooting in about 15 square miles of ocean. One of them means we are going to have to hire a boat crew for about a month, and the dollar meter is going bur; whereas, the other one is saying, we can say we know these things are coming out on this date. But it is still not cheap. It is a slightly less scary scale of resource costs."
The renowned docuseries producer then described the science of capturing these animals and making every one of them feel "epic" in their own way:
"The difference is that the photography of the cicadas has to be incredibly carefully planned, because they are very difficult to film, because they are tiny. And to make them feel like anything other than just a horrible buggy thing, to make them feel epic is quite challenging photographically. Orcas, they are just epic."
That epic feeling was something Guston and the team tried to capture not just in the lens, but in the booth with the show's narrator Tom Hanks as well.
Guston called the series a "journey to the best places you could ever go, if you had unlimited time, money, and friends," giving people an opportunity to get excited to learn about the creatures in their back yard and around the world (via LRM Online):
"If it successful, it will be because I designed it to be more of am experience. It feels like super safari. A journey to the best places you could ever go, if you had unlimited time, money, and friends. What I want is when people go to these places, they are immersed in the challenges that the animals face, and the empathize; they see their lives in the lives of those animals. And by doing that, the subliminally get excited and involved in it and actually they learn a huge amount."
This energy was something they tried to instill in Hank's animations well, something the Toy Story actor brought to the booth every day during production.
According to Guston, Hanks loved the idea of people learning the unique aspects of these creatures, bringing this, "Come with me. Let me show you something" sort of energy, as opposed to a drier, "Sit back and take notes" kind of feeling:
And that is certainly what Tom Hanks, who narrates it, loved about it. I think he brought to it is that sense of, 'Come with me. Let me show you something. Let me tell you something. Experience this with me.' Rather than, 'Sit back and take notes. I am going to tell you about the size of this animal.' So, that is how we got the balance."
Again, none of this is any sort of 100% official confirmation no AI was used in The Americas series.
However, with all the thought and passion put in both in front and behind the camera, it would seem as though the team working on the project would be fervently against the use of technology that may misrepresent the authenticity of the subject they are capturing.
The Americas continues every Sunday on NBC starting at 7 p.m. ET and streams the next day on Peacock.
Read more about more exciting documentaries coming in 2025 here.
