Planet Earth

[quentinc]

It's a TV series originally shot by the BBC and shown in Britain. It just had a run in the States with the same footage but Sigourney Weaver narrating instead of the British guy.

It's 11 episodes long, and each one details a different yet rarely observed part of the world (ex: caves, deserts, mountains). In short, it's ********ing incredible. Just watching it on a 14-inch laptop (our bigscreen is temporarily out of service) there were multiple times each episode where my jaw dropped at the sheer awesomeness of the footage (caves full of sulfuric acid, a school of piranhas devouring a fish in seconds, etc.).

Seriously, if you have $50 to drop, get the ********ing dvd now. It's utterly insane. And if you have an HD DVD player, definitely get the HD version. The only version available is the BBC one, although I don't think that's a problem, because I've recognized some footage left out in the Discovery Channel versions that I saw.

It took them five years to make the whole thing, and some of the most interesting parts are when they detail some of their more difficult shoots.

[Morph]

Yeah I watched that, how comes the US is stealing English TV? First you steal Iraq's oil and now our television programmes. :p

On a more serious note, I have all episodes, I'm sticking it on ebay for £100 which is about $100,000 US Dollars, as your money is worthless. I'm waiting for a Yankee to bite.

[quentinc]

Yeah I watched that, how comes the US is stealing English TV? First you steal Iraq's oil and now our television programmes. :p

On a more serious note, I have all episodes, I'm sticking it on ebay for £100 which is about $100,000 US Dollars, as your money is worthless. I'm waiting for a Yankee to bite.
Yeah, good one, considering I bought it for roughly the equivalent of 25 pounds retail. :rolleyes:

[wemess0]

Yeah, good one, considering I bought it for roughly the equivalent of 25 pounds retail. :rolleyes:

What's equally shocking is that there's even a channel here in these United States called BBC America!!! We're not just stealing shows, we've stolen the whole network, apparently. :rolleyes:

As for the thread topic, I've seen a couple of the episodes on Animal Planet, a sister station of the Discovery Channel, and I enjoyed them. I saw the one on the plains and the one on shallow seas. I preferred the latter.

[quentinc]

What's equally shocking is that there's even a channel here in these United States called BBC America!!! We're not just stealing shows, we've stolen the whole network, apparently. :rolleyes:

As for the thread topic, I've seen a couple of the episodes on Animal Planet, a sister station of the Discovery Channel, and I enjoyed them. I saw the one on the plains and the one on shallow seas. I preferred the latter.
Yeah, I just watched the Shallow Seas one; the Great White mauling the seal was insanely cool. My personal favorite is Fresh Water (despite the rather uninspiring name).

[AndSomeAreAngels]

Probably the greatest accomplishment in photography history. It is utterly amazing, not just the fact that they captured what they did, but the sheer beauty and cinematography is unreal. Some of the time-lapses, done over the course of months, are so well-conceived and executed.

It should be required viewing for everyone in the world.

[catenaccio_L'pool]

I've recorded all of them in HD and they are still on my DVR...I'll watch them again soon. An outstanding show.

[quentinc]

Probably the greatest accomplishment in photography history. It is utterly amazing, not just the fact that they captured what they did, but the sheer beauty and cinematography is unreal. Some of the time-lapses, done over the course of months, are so well-conceived and executed.
I know you're involved in cinema, so I was wondering if you'd be able to answer my question. What technique are they using to get some of these time lapses? It's clear that they need to get footage that extends over many months, but it's clear that nothing in the background is moving; it's almost like they photoshopped the plant flowering and then placed it into a stock background.

It should be required viewing for everyone in the world.
It does such a better job of intimating the need to care about global warming than Brad Pitt on the cover of Vanity Fair or Al Gore promoting his self-aggrandizing slide show. Instead of all this ridiculous posturing, they just indiscriminately show video of a tiger killing a monkey and simultaneously make you feel awestruck, energized, and inadequate while saying HOLY SHIT!!! for the 900th time.

Infinitely more effective.

[usscouse]

I'vve only heard things of wonder about this show. I'll probably buy the DVD set and wait until I don't have the time constraints to watch it.

[dragback]

I've recorded all of them in HD and they are still on my DVR...I'll watch them again soon. An outstanding show.


You one lucky fella, agreed it is purely class.

[AndSomeAreAngels]

I know you're involved in cinema, so I was wondering if you'd be able to answer my question. What technique are they using to get some of these time lapses? It's clear that they need to get footage that extends over many months, but it's clear that nothing in the background is moving; it's almost like they photoshopped the plant flowering and then placed it into a stock background.

I don't think anything's done in post-production to achieve those shots. What they do, I believe, is plot out the camera movement using a dolly and track. They then program both the dolly and the camera so that it moves incrementally each day (or hour or week or whatever the unit of time they want; it really depends on the subject matter) and so that it takes a set number of frames.

In theory, it's not all that difficult to do, but the tricky part is being able to visualize the shot. If you're doing a time-lapse that takes place over a few months (which a lot of the Planet Earth time-lapses do) and you don't get it quite right, it's a lot of time and energy to go back and re-do it. Not only that, but it occupies a camera for the entire time of the shot.

I'm not sure if he was the first person to do moving time-lapses, but Ron Fricke (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0294825/) is definitely a pioneer in that type of cinematography. If you haven't seen "Baraka" yet, you really must.

Planet Earth has taken Fricke's techniques and done some incredible things with them. That show just makes my jaw drop every time I watch.

And yes, it's a very effective tool for trying to open people's eyes to the destruction of our planet.

[Twenty26Six]

"This series will take you to the last wildernesses and show you the planet as you have never seen them before."

The tropical birds in part one are amazing, wow.

[quentinc]

The documentary that comes with this DVD is a huge letdown.

[ChanceTheDog]

Great series just a damn shame they got Sigorney Bloody Weaver to do the naration on the American version. Saying that after the first couple of episodes I managed to ignore her. In David Attenboughs book (the British guy) he said that they used to have to edit over his naration back in the 80's over here for his "Living Plant" series (I think that's the name), because no could understand what he was saying.