Discovery Flaunts New HD Technology in Planet Earth
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/10/2007 2:30:00 PM
Pasadena, Calif. -- New camera technology will allow for unprecedented HD images that will make up Planet Earth,an 11-hour series on Discovery Channel that executive vice president and general manager Jane Root said will "redefine natural-history filmmaking."
During the network's presentation at the Television Critics Association Tour here, executives explained that the content was filmed in 200 locations in 67 countries. The new technology -- such as a high-tech gimbal that keeps HD cameras steady and level -- allowed film crews to shoot their animal subjects, for instance, from a height of 1,000 feet. At that distance, filmmakers still got intimate shots without impacting on the behavior of their subjects.
The presentation was prepared by some of the same producers who created the series on Mt. Everest, a work faulted by some critics who said it was so full of quick edits that viewers had to tape it in still frame to enjoy the cinematography.
But the filmmakers -- Huw Cordey, Mark Brownlow and Doug Allan, all of the BBC Natural History unit -- said this presentation would feature more lingering shots, some of up to three minutes, and an orchestral score.
Sister network TLC touted My Life as a Child.The reality series focuses on 20 children who were provided with hand-held digital cameras to capture their own lives. The subjects include an eight-year-old living with cerebral palsy, an eight-year-old writing prodigy and a 10-year-old African-American girl adopted by a Caucasian mother.
This series will launch Feb. 26.
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