Frozen Planet

[Rodrigo]

I thought i should recommend the new BBC documentary series, Frozen Planet, in case there are people who didn´t know about it. As usual, it´s visually spectacular and since it´s narrated by Sir David Attenborough, well...you just can´t ask for more.
There are some really beautiful images that do take your breath away, i highly recommend it! Well, to everyone except perhaps Molch Stark who can just look out the window :P

Check the series out, it´s really worth it!

Just as an appetizer:

[emz]

I very much agree. It is a captivating programme. The filming is amazing how i wish i could do that for a living.

[Molch]

[QUOTE=Azhael;313364 Well, to everyone except perhaps Molch Stark who can just look out the window :P
[/QUOTE]

hehe, speaking of looking out the window; check out the sequences of rutting muskoxen and fall color changes which I believe come up in the Fall episode. I was their muskox consultant during filming, and we got those just up the road from my house :)

I have seen the proofs, but no episode yet; they won't come here till 2012 I think.

[Rodrigo]

Are you serious? I just watched it!
I have to say you consulted the hell out of them because those were the best images of muskoxen i´ve ever seen. Every time the two males crashed i gave a small jump in my sit xD
The footage of the fall change and the ice crystal formation were simply beautiful.
I also enjoyed the reindeer footage a lot, it trully showed just how magnificent the rutting males are.
I´m well and truly amazed you have THAT just upside the road...that´s unbelievable.

You can´t disclose any pictures or anything from the filming, can you :P?

[Molch]

getting muskoxen head butting battles is pretty difficult. I have seen a lot of those in my days, but I learned that seeing is one thing and filming a totally different thing.
During a month of filming, we observed 3 epic battles. One was too far away and the light was kinda flat and undramatic. The second was partially concealed behind bushes. The third was perfect, in early morning light during the height of color change, and that's the one in the show :)

I've worked with other film teams, but the BBC folks are the best. They are incredibly knowledgeable, patient, tough, and truly concerned about the animals. One of their most important concerns is to cause no stress to the animals during filming. If the animals get worried, they back off. The camera people and producers I met all had natural history backgrounds in biology etc, so they knew their stuff and understood that you only get the good stuff after hours and hours of sitting and watching and being rained on and freezing your parts off lol.

btw, after the muskox fight, we went back to the place and apparently they had clobbered each other again. The cameraman found a broken-off bloodied horn and there were clumps of hair everywhere.

[Molch]

here's a pic of my doggie at the place where the muskox battle took place

[emz]

Sorry for butting in on your conversation but WOW! It must be amazing to live so close to such incredible animals and scenery. I would expect its worth braving the harsh weather for.
On the autumn episode the part with the penguins returning was great too i always find it amazing how penguins dont seem to be affected by people being around them at all.

[Rodrigo]

Sorry emz, didn´t mean to monopolise
First Mark showing off his frogs for Life in Cold Blood, now you behind Frozen Planet...man, we are not worthy. I think i´m going to start telling people "hey you know those glorious scenes of muskoxen battling from that BBC series? I know the woman that made that possible...yeah....you can touch me...".
No, really, you got to work with the BBC and to me that makes you royalty xD. Consider me monumentally jealous.

Is it common for them to damage or break their horns? I always wondered because the the bit between the base and the tip looks surprisingly thin for such big animals, specially when you compare them to the massive, thick horns of other caprids.

[Mark]

This thread was very close to being "on topic". Years ago they asked if I would help with a Salamandrella keyserlingii freezing sequence for Frozen Planet. Of course I said yes, but nothing came of it. Miles Barton, the series producer, is a big amphibian fan and he really wanted them to feature, but as often is the way I assume the larger fauna won the limelight.

[Eva]

I've only just watched the first episode and although it was spectacular I couldn't stop worrying about David Attenborough, seeing him on top of icebergs and what not...
I mean, have they cloned him yet? How c**p is our life going to be without him?
Who can forget Tilda Swinton killing a Galapagos documentary with her ueber-acting...then there's Steve Backshall who thinks he's Indiana Jones or something...man I worry...

[Rodrigo]

Don´t think about it, Eva, just close your eyes very hard and hope the fear goes away xD
I feel the same way, i grew up watching David Attenborough. Every other narrator falls short to the task...
His BBC series are simply the best wildlife documentaries ever made, period.

The cloning thing sure would be nice, hehe.
Mind you, for his age he is looking rather well. I hope to be able to stand on an iceberg at 85!


Aaaaaargh Mark, don´t tell me that...footage of Salamandrella would have been the cherry on top. Still, it´s hard to complain when the larger fauna look so bloody good...


PS: I don´t care for Steve Backshall...but at least he is not Gordon Buchanan...that one just annoys me.

[Molch]

Originally Posted by Azhael

Is it common for them to damage or break their horns? I always wondered because the the bit between the base and the tip looks surprisingly thin for such big animals, specially when you compare them to the massive, thick horns of other caprids.

their horn bosses are pretty thick; there's about 3-4 " and another 3 " of bone underneath. They do try to hit each other sideways sometimes, or they kinda spar at close range, and I think that's when horns break off. To see a bull with a broken-off horn is pretty common. They can injure or kill each other too. And even if they win a fight, it doesn't guarantee fatherhood. The cows have opinions too, ya know I've seen the girls run off into the bushes to get a quickie with a handsome youngster while the big boys were battling it out. It's a regular soap opera.

Originally Posted by Mark

Years ago they asked if I would help with a Salamandrella keyserlingii freezing sequence for Frozen Planet. Of course I said yes, but nothing came of it. Miles Barton, the series producer, is a big amphibian fan and he really wanted them to feature, but as often is the way I assume the larger fauna won the limelight.

lol. When he heard I was a herp nut, he sent me the In Cold Blood series - only it's in PAL format and I haven't figured out how to watch it yet
Salamandrella would have been awesome, but I can see how it got voted off in favor of the large hairy megafauna...

years ago there was a somewhat less successful series called "Wild New World", which mixed footage of real animals with CG extinct ice age animals - somewhat unsuccessfully I think. They came to film muskoxen for that one too. But that filming was bogged down by hideous weather so wasn't as successful. We got rained on for two weeks solid and got only a few good shots during the rutting season. They came back in winter (I wasn't here at that time) and worked with my neighbors to film a sequence of muskoxen (real ones) being attacked by a shortfaced bear (CG) on the hill right behind my house lol.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Molch

lol. When he heard I was a herp nut, he sent me the In Cold Blood series

That's pretty funny, he's a great chap. Miles is really to blame for me being here. He gave me some ambystoma he'd been filming and it was only because I was looking for care advice on the internet that I stumbled across c.org 7 years ago. The funny thing is those very same ambystoma (which I still have) are going to be filmed again, same sequence, different show. They'll want a trailer soon.

[Molch]

are those ambystoma in the Cold Blood series? Which species is it? Do tell :)

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Molch

are those ambystoma in the Cold Blood series? Which species is it? Do tell :)

No, it was a long time before Cold Blood. It was a programme about evolution and the salamanders were Ambystoma maculatum.