Discovery Channel's: Planet Earth

Yes it is great isn't it Ponce? I'd have to rank it as the top nature documentary in terms of photography/filming, grand scale and diversity. It covers such a brilliant array of life on earth, as well as the abiotic aspects of our planet too.
Do you have the DVDs (there are 4) Ponce? At the end of each episode on the DVDs are a 10 minute "Making of" mini-documentary. It recounts the antics of the cameramen and the work that went into making a segment of the episode. Some (well, most) show the extreme patience and perseverance of the nature photographers - they are crazy!
I recall my favourite "Making of" mini-documentary, that of episode 8, 'Jungles'. It documents the life of the cameraman filming the scene with the Birds of Paradise in Papua New Guinea. He ends up spending over 100 hours in small rainforest 'hide', waiting for the females to arrive. He starts to go delusional, and gets the 80's tune "My Bird of Paradise" in his head, driving him nuts. They get the few moments of filming in the end, and everyone is overjoyed. There are other rather entertaining ones too, such as that of Episode 10 'Seasonal Forests'.
I highly recommend this series to everyone, even if you are the least interested in animals/plants/environment, as the sheer magnitude of the visuals, and the photography (film) is breathtaking. 10/10

Here is a brief overview of the series:
Episode 1: From Pole to Pole
Episode 2: Mountains
Episode 3: Freshwater
Episode 4: Caves
Episode 5: Deserts
Episode 6: Ice Worlds
Episode 7: Great Plains
Episode 8: Jungles
Episode 9: Shallow Seas
Episode 10: Seasonal Forest
Episode 11: Ocean Deep

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/planetearth/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(TV_series)

- Knights -

That was the most hilarious scene. We (Praetor and I) dubbed that thing the "Billboard Bird" - it so looks like a billboard with a huge smiley face in the middle!

I believe they got footage of the Blue Bird of Paradise, Six Plumed Bird of Paradise and Superb Bird of Paradise (See below - Billboard bird)

Video Footage (not directly from Planet Earth)



Any other favourite scenes? I have a couple of all time favourites

- Knights -

Originally posted by Ponce de Leon I guess my other favorite scene was when they show that shark around south africa catching that seal in mid-air in slow motion. That was nuts. Absolutely nuts

wait I have one more favorite scene that I just remembered. That red squid that lives like really really deep in the ocean. I think it was called the vampire squid. And when the submarine shut off the lights that thing glowed and was so scary and cool at the same time

Originally posted by Knights If you ever get the DVD, the 'Making of' 10 minute mini-documentary at the end of episode 10 is quite hilarious...and Englishmen and a Frenchman in a hot air balloon in Madagascar... - Knights -

After just posting about this in the wrong thread I am glad I found the right one.  I haven't seen all of the episodes but of the ones I have seen my favorites (the program is of such quality its hard to even pick a favorite) are the amur leopard chasing prey in the snow on what is basically a cliff, simply amazing!  Also as already mentioned the scene of white sharks going airborn for seals.  If I'm not mistaken I saw them doing this is a program earlier in the year, off the coast of a small island off south africa, apparently that is the only place in the world where the sharks jump out of the water.

Edited by Justinian - 19-Jul-2007 at 00:45

You're right.

Edited by Justinian - 20-Jul-2007 at 21:30