Brilliant photography


I should be so lucky as to get my photographic skills to the level of this movie...

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The sights were breathtaking.

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Why did I get the impression that many of the shots of birds flying were superimposed upon shots of beautiful landscapes? Some of the bird images had the 'coloring book' look with black outlines. I would have appreciated much more balanced narrative. As it was it had explanations of some birds and nothing on others. ***Here's an idea, (send royalties to me) why not have one of the language soundtracks a complete narrative and another just music and let the viewer pick what he wants?***

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I didn't notice the "coloring book" lines you mentioned but then I was watching it out of the corner of my eye while I played on the Net.

However, those black lines are from the age of optical special effects. Today's CGI effects don't create them. Nowadays, optical special effects would cost more than CGI, so I doubt that superimposition was the cause of any lines you saw.

If your favorite movie was made during your lifetime you haven't seen enough movies.

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The criticism, ala Marty Stauffer, was that too much was staged. They didn't want foreshortening and a long lens on wild flocks. So they trained a bunch of different birds to chase their powered para-sails or speedboats so that all the photographers had to do was rest the camera on the rail, basically. It was clever. And the shots were really stunning. I have no problem that it was staged. The only staging I think was over the top, and inappropriate, was the sludge scene. It didn't happen. It was all stage effect. Get that scene out of there. Yeah, we understand industrial pollution. But don't try to fake for the camera, not in a documentary.

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I loved the nesting shots of the Alaskan guillemots. Those birds look so much like penguins (except when flying, of course) that it's no wonder animated cartoon producers keep making the mistake of placing the latter in the Arctic!

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I only hope that the scene in the desert with a wounded bird and those horrible spiders was faked. Otherwize I can't watch the movie.

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From the trivia section: "Also, while the wounded Tern beset by crabs was not a staged scene, the bird was rescued by the crew at the last moment after shooting the action."

hmmm, I think it's B.S. that they could have saved the tern at that point.

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Yeah that scene near the beginning with the birds eye shot of white geese landing on the red water was one of the most amazing shots ever.

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Yup, great-looking flick!!!

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