Last night the Discovery Chanel began running a seven part series called North America. It is a wildlife and nature series. The photography is incredible. It gives the appearance of all being shot in natural habitat. I would love to see a “making of” video but we probably never will. There is limited information on their web site but not much. If it really is all on location shooting in natural habitats my hat is off to them all. Usually these kind of shows are a combination of set up shots and location work. Either way it is spectacular.

Steve

It's probably one of Discovery's "insta-docs" where in they go into their footage archive and create a documentary. Whenever you produce for any of the cable networks they own all the raw footage and this is one of the ways the networks squeeze more money out of the footage. Cheap to produce and has a long life on the air with which to sell advertising.

There is so much great stock footage out there, who needs to spend a lot of money in order to travel around the world to film? Even the BBC offers hundreds of thousands of high quality video clips to other producers: HD Video Stock Footage, Stock Video Footage - BBC Motion Gallery (http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/)

I was actually a bit disappointed in the first two chapters. I had seen an interview with the Directory/Producer, and I got the impression that this was all new shooting. I also expected decent coverage of the natural history of North America. Instead what we got is some great photography with very little substance. Seems like the producers wanted to sell a flashy film style including slow motion and cinematic looks, rather than provide an in depth look at the wilds of North America.

True, not a lot of educational information. But I like the show. It is not a stock footage burner. I do wonder how many of the shots are set up by biologists though.

You don't see cameras often. They did show one rig where they mounted a gyroscopic camera (think helicopter cam) to a 4 wheel atv so they could shoot while it is in motion. It is not a low budget production.

Steve

I was actually a bit disappointed in the first two chapters. I had seen an interview with the Directory/Producer, and I got the impression that this was all new shooting. I also expected decent coverage of the natural history of North America. Instead what we got is some great photography with very little substance. Seems like the producers wanted to sell a flashy film style including slow motion and cinematic looks, rather than provide an in depth look at the wilds of North America.

I agree. There wasn't a story. Even wildlife documentaries should tell a story about their subjects. Instead, we were bombarded with one beauty shot to the next. And the next. And the next, quickly, over and over. I watched the first episode and I wasn't sure what it was about. We went from shots in the arctic, to video in a tropical rain forest within the first 30 minutes. What were they trying to tell me? I was bored within the first hour.

It was like watching a Michael Bay movie. Lots of flash, explosions and colorful cinematography, but you're left with nothing of substance.

"but you're left with nothing of substance" What can we expect from a society that has been trapped in Rap Music for over 20 years? We can't seem to move on.

Most the people I know are tired of 2 second clips, endless special effects, and TV shows with no substance.

I believe that things will eventually change. At least I hope they will.

Listen to the people, they are starving for good writing and real musical scores. Also, have you noticed that all the successful TV commercials are using music from the past?

Every living thing on earth has a story to tell, and the audiences are ready to hear those stories.

The question is, are the producers going to listen to the audiences, or continue to listen to each other.