A Cry Heard Round The World: Kim Sun-Il died desperate and alone, but he did not die unheard.
Looking At And Longing For Mars: Reflections on a childhood dream.
A Robot May Not Harm a Human Being. Is The Opposite True?: Thoughts on the future rights of artificial intelligence.
Long After The Boys Of Summer Have Gone: What makes a relationship work?
Winter Of Our Feline Discontent: What the cat wants, the cat gets. But what DOES it want?
To Tell The Truth: There may be no honor among thieves, but can't we find it even in a few good men and women?
Should The Human Brain Retire?: We know that we cannot win forever. We know that machines will continue to improve. So why don't we let the human brain retire gracefully now, with honors?
Read Bear Left in:
Chinese
German
Japanese
Korean
French
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Translations powered by Alta Vista Babelfish
To learn how services incorporated into this blog may use personal information, click here.
Total entries in this blog:
Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:41 PM
Tue - December 30, 2003
A Winged Victory Hits The Small Screen
—Jacques Perrin, Director, "Winged Migration"
The result of four years following bird migrations through 40 countries and seven continents, over seas and snow-capped mountains, in winter and in spring, Winged Migration isn't so much a documentary as it is a visual spectacle. A film that shows birds up close and personal, in shots that seemingly defy explanation.
In one scene, we see the arid red buttes of the New Mexico desert pass slowly below us and then the camera pulls back—just a touch—and we find that we are soaring along in, and not beside, a flock of migrating geese, tracking along with the adjacent birds like a member of the flock. Another camera follows a mallard duck as he zips along in flight along a cold northern riverbed, dipping under bridges with graceful swoops.
How in the world did they get this footage?
Five teams comprising more than 450 people, including 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers, used planes, gliders, helicopters, balloons, and remote-controlled aircraft to film birds in flight under all latitudes, to observe the behavior of species on the ground and on the seas. Hundreds of feet of film were shot for every one used in the final product as the cinematographers ascended air currents, braved weather conditions, and flew with their subjects wherever the birds carried them. The result—if the trailer tells all—is an 85 minute film of stark and surpassing beauty. As close to sharing the sky with birds as most of us will ever come.
This is one DVD I'm definitely going to rent. If only we could afford that wall-sized screen ...