Planet Earth: "Shallow Seas"

[timepiececlock]

I've been watching the reruns of Planet Earth on Hi-Def Discovery Channel, and it's pretty awe-inspiring. I've never been so intrigued by an animal/nature film series before. The photography is breathtaking, with videos that been sped up or slowed down to show incredible imagery. So far I've seen: Shallow Seas, Oceans Deep, Deserts, Ice Worlds, and Caves.

In this episode, Shallow Seas, there is one of the most amazing video scenes I've watched: a Great White shark leaping at least 6 feet out of the water--completely out of the water-- to catch a seal in its jaws. You watch that, and you're like "MOTHER FUCKER THAT'S A HUGE SHARK." The camera crew had to film it with a special high speed motion camera designed for observing car crashes. Just watching it in slow motion is about 10x scarier than watching Jaws.

I found the clip on Youtube, but it looks like its taken from BBC, with a different voice-over than the Discovery Channel series, which uses Sigourney Weaver. It seems to use the same script, though, which is weird. I checked and apparently it was originally aired on BBC, and they re-cast the narrator for the American version. That seems silly to me; I understand British just fine thankyouverymuch. Anyway, here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9L4Mwn6wu0

The best clip is about 1:10sec into it, that's the one I'm talking about.

Comments

[ipsumlorem.livejournal.com]

The movie industry can pack up and go home. We don't need slasher films, monster movies, or the entire horror/suspense genre. They've all been superseded by nature films. That shark was terrifying. o_o

I'm so glad I live here!

[hecatehatesthat.livejournal.com]

I've been watching Planet Earth too! For about the same amount of time, apparently, because I've seen the same collection of episodes. Plus Seasonal Forests! Holy shit, trees! It's one of the only things my sister and I make a point to sit down and watch live every week; we love having our minds blown for two hours on a regular basis.

We do a lot of repeating the last thing the narrator said, plus providing some first-person input from the animals and plants, like, "Mom, I'm hungry Mom, when we gonna get some prey Mom, I'm gonna pounce on it like this," -- and then the young leopard kind of half-pounces his mom's behind -- or, "damn, I'm really thirsty but there's definitely crocodiles in this water," -- to which dilemma we compared the seals who are really hungry but definitely have to swim past great white jumping sharks to get to their food. Yikes! I cracked up when Discovery showed the little 'making of' snippet at the end of that one and said that the photographers were torn between their desire to get that perfect shot of a shark leaping and their sympathy for the seals, because we had just been discussing how, when it's, say, seal vs. penguin or seal vs. orca, you don't know who to root for, but when it's seal vs. shark it is always, GO SEAL! SWIM SEAL, SWIM! JUMP! GO! Sharks are so fucking scary and ugly and older than dinosaurs and they don't die of old age and evolution basically hit a jackpot with them and you are pretty much never on their team, at least when it's shark vs. any mammal.

I'm so glad you're watching this too! I might have to start posting reactions, even though they'll be largely the same every week: "our planet is so amazing!!"

Re: I'm so glad I live here!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

We should post reactions! I'll post them too! I've been saving them on DVR, so I still have some episodes to watch before the next batch, like rivers, mountains, and forests. I don't think the Discovery Channel is airing them in order.

I've been watching them during the afternoon, then later in the evening calling my parents over and going, "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS SHOT ITS SO AMAZING." I did that with this shark scene, and the stuff about the seals jumping for their lives [hopping for their lives? hopping, Rose?] past crazy ass shark giants. We also commented that now we were feeling sympathy for the penguins when just a minute ago we were feeling sympathy for the seals.

Re: I'm so glad I live here!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

In the one about ice worlds, the final shot of the two now-grown polar bear cubs walking over frozen ice, then the camera puuuuuuuuulllls back and keeps puuuuuuuuuuuullling back, it's amazing. My mom and I were like, "Oh. Wow."