by Documentarian John Downer recently shot a special feature for the Discovery Channel. It’s a film about birds. Birds flying, eating, and doing general bird shit… with CAMERAS strapped to their backs!
That’s right, the documentary features breathtaking shots captured by cameras mounted on the birds. According to Downer (thank God he’s not a psychiatrist), the film took 4 years to shoot. A bit more reference on the footage and time constraints: every minute of film you see on screen was derived from 30 HOURS of footage. The final cut was 2 hours long.
Here’s a clip of a condor just being a condor and flying over the Andes:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/m4mPPDoMSQI[/youtube]
Eileen O’Neill, president of the Discovery Channel and lover of animals who fund her paycheck, has this to say:
Discovery Channel has captivated audiences everywhere with our natural history programs such as Planet Earth, Life and most recently Frozen Planet. We are once again thrilled to invite the world to join us in witnessing some of wildlife’s greatest spectacles, only this time from the wings of our feathered friends. In Winged Planet our viewers will get up close and personal with these magnificent creatures thanks to cutting edge technology and sophisticated filming techniques. If you think you know birds, think again.
In other words, this is the diary of birds. You think you know… but you have no idea. Most importantly, do you think they have an adults-only supplement that has POV shots of birds making sex at each other?
Photos via MAKE, Pop Photo, and The Discovery Channel.
