My first post's theme will entail going all around the world and learning about things you may not know. To portray this I've chosen an episode of Discovery's Daily Planet, Part 1 of BBC's Planet Earth series, and a feature documentary from 1922 created by Robert Flaherty called Nanook of the North.
To begin the Daily Planet team travelled to Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Florida to meet with Winter the dolphin who was rescued back in 2006 that lost her tail from amputation due to injury. You are able to see techniques on how they shot Winter for the film Dolphin Tale by Daily Planet paralleling from them being on set to the actual film itself and how the shot turned out. Daily Planet goes on set and interviews the original designers of Winter's prosthetic tail, the directors of the film based on Winter, as well as the team of workers in Clearwater who helped Winter swim again to give you a detailed, full circle story. This was a well done segment full of aspects leaving me with no question left to ask.
Daily Planet also traveled to the Netherlands to talk to the Dutch National BMX team preparing for the London Olympics in 2012, Magnetic Hill in Moncton, New Brunswick, and many, many other places in stories packed into a one hour segment. The different stories are engaging and interesting on top of being informative.
You can catch all these fascinating stories and more on Discovery Channel's Video Catalogue.
Planet Earth
For those of you unaware of this documentary TV series, Planet Earth is a nature documentary produced by the BBC detailing on certain habitats and parts of Earth each episode through stunning visuals and narration shot over a five year period. BBC has the reputation for creating mind blowing documentaries on the world around us from Planet Earth, to The Blue Planet, and their newest series, Life. I honestly can never get enough of these amazing documentaries because they're so well done with so much heart put into them.
From Pole to Pole is part one of the series. This part takes you all around the world with narrator David Attenborough discovering how basic things like sun and water shape the world in ways you otherwise wouldn't be able to see. It is a relevant documentary shaping different parts of the world with stunning substance and cinematic style.
From Pole to Pole is just a general overview of the series before the more focused parts, but even seeing the forests, wetlands, and polar caps and knowing that they're deteriorating is saddening. Planet Earth lets you see these animals in all their natural splendor and it's fascinating to watch through the amazing cinematography and patience required to film such an extraordinary documentary.
My favourite segment is the birds of paradise in New Guinea. These birds look like they are props put together for some mythical setting in a world far, far away. They seem like they've been plucked out of people's imaginations and brought to New Guinea. I think what most amazes me is how they actually got these shots by waiting in hides for days. The documentary specifies how rare the birds are and, like with all of Daily Planet, relay the importance of all these birds and animals.Clearly this film has taken years of dedication to get such amazing photos. Shots of elephants swimming as the camera swims with them, a great white shark exploding completely out of the water in super slow motion to grab a seal, and the hunting dog's co-ordinated flanking attacks to catch a meal are just a few the most amazing things you'll find in this series. Although it's shot in a typical nature documentary way like many of BBC’s docs with close ups and tracking shots, their visuals are beyond compare simply because you won't find these animals anywhere else.
There's a filmmaker's perspective as well in their segment at the end of each part called Diaries. Diaries shows you exactly how it is they got the shots in the first place. From Pole to Pole's Diaries is entitled Eye in the Sky, showing how top shots to close ups were filmed all through the use of Heligimbal; a HD helicopter lens that bears amazing results.
For clips of Planet Earth and all their segments, visit Discovery channel's Planet Earth section.
Nanook of the North
1922’s Nanook of the North by Robert Flaherty is a documentary based on the lives of Eskimos (or Inuit) in northern Quebec spanning one year. The central target of Flaherty’s film is Nanook or ‘The Bear’ and his followers, the Itivimuits.
The film stylistically is narrated by Flaherty through cuts to paragraphs describing what it is you are about to see; sometimes vaguely, sometimes with thorough explanations. There are also many different variations of shots and interesting moments that help this film stand out especially for when it was made.
There are bonding moments throughout the film’s content showing just how close Nanook and his people are. They are close not only for survival, but for the loving union they share. Examples include the moments around building the igloo. Nanook’s son not only gets to watch his father build the igloo, but when it’s all made he teaches the boy how to hunt with a practice bear made of snow and keeps his son’s hands warm by pressing them against his own cheeks.
What always caught intrigued me about this when I first watched it years ago to watching it again for this is just how in-depth the film goes. It was a remarkable untold story of people that weren’t understood at all in the 20s. I am also aware that Flaherty was widely criticized for staging scenes in the documentary, but it still fulfills its main purpose of educating people on who the Inuit are and how they live. It’s certainly a documentary that shouldn’t be forgotten.
To watch Nanook of the North you can find part 1 here.
This has been 'The World You May Not Know.'
