Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Simply Beautiful .....

Sometimes the simplest of ideas can turn out beautifully ... especially if they are well realized and executed.

For me, a perfect example of this is
Sunrise Earth, a simply beautiful celebration of the sights and sounds that accompany the sunrise, in locations around the Earth. It's also a GREAT reason for having high-definition television.

The idea is simple, really ... find a location, set up some cameras and microphones, then start rolling and keep rolling, get some wide shots, get some close-ups, then take it all back to your studio and edit them together. Simple, right?

Maybe, in conception, at least. But execution might be difficult, as anyone with experience in location shooting can tell you. Suggesting a location is easy enough, but scouting that location, finding the right times and locations to position your equipment, might be a different matter. And let's hope that Mother Nature doesn't throw you a curve, so you can't even see the sunrise on shooting day ... better keep your travel and accommodations arrangements flexible.

And speaking of unexpected, be ready to capture those wonderful and fleeting moments that might accidentally stray into your location.


The edited, finished product is beautiful, and simple. Just the sights and nat-sounds. No music, no narration, no sfx ... just a line of cg that appears at the bottom of the screen every ten minutes or so, reminding you of the location and offering a fact-of-interest about what you are seeing.

Those of you looking for some quiet time before jumping into the rest of your day - even as an aid to relaxation and meditation - you might give this program a try. It airs weekday mornings at six o'clock (central) on Discovery HD Theater (channel 751 on Suddenlink Cable).

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