June 10, 2007
Planet Earth
A Hollywood location scout explores this breathtaking BBC hit documentary.
The series, which took five years to complete, ranges all over the world, including the Arctic. The DVD box set is available in three formats: standard definition, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
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THE PLOT
No stone or species goes unexplored in the British Broadcasting Corp.'s ambitious documentary Planet Earth, which is the first DVD to crack Amazon's top-10 list in three formats. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the 11-part series took five years to complete. The filmmakers (there were 71 camera people) circled the globe to capture nature and wildlife from each continent in stunning high-definition. Settings include deserts, caves, jungles and ice worlds.
OUR INSIDER
Mike Fantasia is a Hollywood location manager whose work on "Memoirs of a Geisha" won him the 2005 Location Professional of the Year award. His 30-plus films include "The River Wild," "Dante's Peak" and "Seabiscuit." Fantasia was the U.S. Forest Service liaison for Steven Spielberg's 1989 movie Always. Since then, he has secured locations for globe-hopping films like "Catch Me If You Can" and "Munich." He's now scouting the next Spielberg film.
OVERVIEW
"Being in the movie business and knowing what it takes to work in remote locations, I was blown away. As a location scout, you typically spend weeks scouring film commission and university databases before you even leave the office. But then these filmmakers helicoptered in and hiked for hundreds of miles [with heavy equipment] to shoot in terribly difficult conditions: in oppressive heat, in subzero temperatures, underwater."
BRUSHES WITH THE WILD
"They got amazing photos of panda bears, polar bears and even grizzlies. It made me remember the time I was chased up a slope in Montana by a grizzly bear. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but we lost all of our food and equipment to the bear. I'm assuming that the filmmakers were more responsible than some of the knuckleheads that go around chasing bears with cameras."
DANGER ZONES
"The filmmakers went to dangerous places, whether it was the Arctic or Antarctica. Last year, I was scouting locations in New Mexico [for the upcoming Russell Crowe movie 3:10 to Yuma], and I found myself standing on a sheer cliff. If I'd slipped, I would have died. Sometimes, it gets scary: You've got a camera in one hand, you're wearing the wrong shoes for the terrain, and all of a sudden you're in a bad spot. But for a lot of location managers, the worst place you'll find yourself in is a bad street in downtown Los Angeles."
TRAVEL PLANS
"After watching the movie, I've got a list of 20 places that I want to check out, either when I'm working or when I'm traveling on vacation. I want to go to the Mulu caves in Borneo, where they filmed the bats. I want to go to China to see the Stone Forest and the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and the city of Wuyuan, which many say is the most beautiful village in the country. These are rare places that may not exist in 20 years, and I would love to see some of them before they are overrun with strip malls and Jack in the Box."
-- Frappa Stout
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