Winged migration: the making of the documentary - Essay Example

Winged Migration: The Making of the Documentary After filming the insect world with his brilliant Microcosmos, filmmaker Perrin takes to the skies with a nostalgic 35 mm tribute to our feathered friends (Hyde, 2004). Jacques Perrin and an enormous team of technicians laboured for nearly four years to create the beautiful documentary "Winged Migration". The team moved from the Himalayas, Saharan dunes, Greenland glaciers, paddies in China, Desert Oasis, polluted industrial districts of Eastern Europe and Antarctica, to follow the birds in flight. The flapping birds can be seen near the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, River Seine, the World Trade Centre, and the Great Wall of China and even at the backdrop of total solar and partial lunar eclipse (Loftus, 2006). Perrin along with his crew records the flight of dozens of different birds as they follow their navigational instincts and make the taxing journey to more temperate climates in the fall, all chronicled without the use of narration. It is a wonder how Perrin and company managed to photograph these animals in mid-flight without affecting their behaviour. The images would have been ranked as the most impressive special effect of the year, except that all the images are real (Rodriguez, 2003). The film was made to explore the mystery of birds at flight. The director wanted the documentary to be a learning experience for the viewers. He felt that very few films are made about nature and his humble attempt was geared towards making a small contribution in the field of nature documentary. Environment being the most important issue that we encounter today, be it the problem of global warming or habitat destruction, making a nature film will help motivate individuals to preserve it. The director through his visuals wanted to stir people's emotions which may help initiate concerted efforts towards preserving our environment. Perrin felt that the best way to contribute towards our society during our lifetime is to dedicate our life to the cause of preservation of our natural surroundings. He was inspired to do the film when he saw a short documentary about migratory birds entitled "Ultrageese". The documentary was made by two Canadian, named Bill Lishman and Joseph Duff in 1994, who led 18 trained Canadian geese from Ontario to Virginia in an untralight aircraft. Perrin had developed a strong urge to make a film with a similar theme but with a bigger dimension. Considering the fact that birds are not confined by boundaries, Perrin welcomed the idea of filming migratory birds, which was much more challenging than filming narrowly confined subjects. "Winged Migration" traces the life of migrating birds over the course of a year, as they travel around the world looking for more hospitable climates. The shooting of the film was spread over 3 years and innovative techniques and ideas had been employed to film the flight of birds, which included the minute details of their movements and travelling speed. For this, the crew had to move from one continent to the other, braving all kinds of weather and climatic conditions. Traditional gliders which could travel for miles unaided had been used to follow some birds in ascending currents. A remote controlled aircraft attached with a compact camera was used to film flocks of bird during take-off and in the midst of formation flight. Aircrafts or gliders were operated from the operational control centres. Two video drives were installed either on the ground or on accompanying helicopter, which reproduced on the one hand the spectrum of vision needed to pilot the motor glider and on the other hand, the management of the camera's panoramic movement. The film begins in the spring, reaching a midpoint at the Arctic Circle, where many birds begin raising their young ones during its brief summer. On the onset of fall, the birds follow the same patterns in reverse, as birds travel southward to escape cold. The crew had travelled all over the world covering places like the south and north pole, snow-capped mountains, seas, mangroves, swamps, frozen areas, hot deserts and beautiful countryside under all latitudes. The cameras capture nature in all of its grandeur with scenes of glaciers collapsing into the seas, avalanches, and fierce storms, and the birds in all of their magnificence, whether it a single crane fishing for food or flocks of thousands rising up from the land and filling the sky (Berardinelli, 2003). The ways the crews covered so much ground is truly impressive. All four migrations "axes" in North America, Europe, Asia and Southeast Asia are explored from the perspective of the birds that they travel during seasonal shifts (Vice, 2003). The obvious difficulty of filming the documentary was to fly along with the birds. Birds fly at different altitudes and speeds. In addition, all birds do not fly in a linear pattern and instead they fly in circle. So, gliders, ultralights, balloons, helicopters and other aircrafts had to be used to obtain footage. To help the camera operators get an unobstructed view of flying, swooping or circling birds, ultralights had to be modified. The operators had to face most difficulties as they had to sit on pieces of metal that were about 6 ft long while filming. The filmmakers adopted the scientific method developed by the renowned ethnology pioneer, Konrad Lorenz, in order to get close to the birds. New-born birds are "imprinted" by close contact with human beings, who become their surrogate parents. Once they've played their part, the birds are entrusted to competent ornithological associations who oversee their return to nature. Many of the scenes have been staged and for many of the close flying shots, trained birds were used. In fact, many of the birds have been raised just for the realization of this film. Geese were raised to follow ultralights and even exposed to human voices and camera sounds while still in their eggs. There are three or four CGI sequences in which flights of birds are crossing continents and oceans above the curved globe as seen from a satellite which are obviously not true and used as transitions. Perrin also admitted that in one scene, they did not let the crabs eat an injured bird, but pulled it to safety and substituted a dead fish. In another scene, to depict the affect of industrial pollution, a red breasted goose was brought down which was also a staged scene (Loftus, 2006). Perrin also claims that the scene of ducks apparently being shot down by hunters is in fact also a staged scene. As revealed, the birds aren't being fired upon at all, but are merely drop-diving to the lakes below in sport, and that the sound of a hunter's gun was added to the soundtrack to make it dramatic (Greydanus, 2006). But all this takes a back seat to the absolutely stunning visuals that are the heart and soul of this remarkable work. With such poignant imagery and impressive sweep, Winged Migration literally takes flight and one that is worth watching again and again on a big screen and is a cinematographic delight. The documentary although lost to Fahrenheit 9/11 during its Oscar run in 2002, it has won many more laurels and rave review across the globe. Among the awards received, the most prominent are: 2002: Best Editing, Cesar Awards (France) 2003: Best Cinematography, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2003: Golden Reel Award for Best sound editing in a foreign feature, Motion Picture Sound Editors (USA) 2005: Best documentary DVD, Canadian Entertainment Network (CEN) award. The documentary was released in France in 2001. However, it was released in US theatre only in 18th April, 2003. The DVD and video version of the documentary was released on the 18th of November, 2003. Presently the CEO of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Jacques Perrin is one of France's most respected producers. At the age of 27, Perrin started up his own production company and produced the sensational film "Z" in partnership with Algeria, directed by Costa Gavras which was a Hollywood hit and went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Partnered with Costa Gavras, Perrin produced other two films namely State of Siege (1973) and Special Section (1975). Jacques Perrin won his second Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1976 with "Black and White in Colour", a film with a deliberately philosophical storyline. In 1977, he produced the Desert of the Tartars. His unquenchable thirst for producing unconventional movies led him to produce Microcosmos in 1996, a spectacular big-screen documentary film about insects directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Prennou, which was an widely received by the audiences worldwide and went on to earn a variety of international prizes. In France alone it won five Csar awards, including that for Best Producer award. Perrin's interest in wild life film's dates back in 1983, when he produced "The Monkey Folk" along with famed director Grard Vienne. "Winged Migration" (Le Peuple migrateur) is Jacques Perrin's third animal film, after "Le Peuple singe" and "Microcosmos." To authenticate the bird facts, Perrin took help from ornithologists and nature scientists during the production of the documentary. The Musum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris), the World Wildlife Foundation and the League for the Protection of Birds/Birdlife International are partners in the project. "Winged Migration" (The Travelling Birds) is a hymn to nature. Before it, Jacques Perrin produced the sublimely beautiful Himalaya , l'enfance d'un chef (a.k.a. Caravan), directed by the adventurer/photographer Eric Valli, about the daily life of an aging Buddhist village chief in the remote Dolpo region of Nepal . The film beautifully blended the land and customs of the people of Nepal into a visually moving story was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film in the year 2000. Perrin's some of the successful production include " Les Enfants de Lumiere," "Guelwaar", Ph pardon! tu dormais", "Hors la vie", "the Monkey folk", and "The desert of the Tartars". Apart from these, he also directed the television series "Medecins des Hommes" and L'Empire du milieu du sud". Production milestones apart, Perrin acted in over a hundred films which included "Special Section" "State of Siege", "Shock Troops" and "The sleeping Car Murders" by award winning director Costa-Gavras, and "A Captain's Honor", Le Crabe-tambour", "The 317th Platoon", "La-haut" by Pierre Schoendoerffer. For his film "Un Uomo a meta" he won a Volpi cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival in 1965. He acted in the academy award winning "Z" which he also produced. It took five crews of more than 450 people, including 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers three years, to gather the footage which spanned 40 countries and seven continents. Crews were dispatched on over 300 assignments to every continent on earth. Given below are the brief introductions about the crew members. Jacques Cluzaud (Co-Director) was the assistant director for the film "Bille en tete" and "La Lune d'Omaha". In 1990, he directed the television series "Constance et Vicky". Michel Debats (Co-Director) served as assistant director on several films, including "Les Borsalini", La 7 eme cible", "Comedie d'ete, "Le Dernier tour", Madame Butterfly", and most recently, "Himalaya", for which Debats also served as costume designer. Stephane Durand (Writer): Winged Migration is her debut film. Christophe Barratier (Producer): Mr. Barratier previously worked with Jacques Perrin, producing "Himalaya" and "Microcosmos" Jean de Tregomain (Executive Producer): He was also executive producer for "Himalaya", and was production manager for "Les Faussaires" and "Simeon". Cinematographers: There were 14 cinematographers working for the film. Provided below are their brief bio-data: Michael Benjamin: He shot "Droles de clowns" and worked on "Like a fish out of water", "Heroines" and "Chez ma tante." Sylvie Carcedo-Dreujou: Worked on the films "Le Retour de Casanova" and "Rive droite, rive gaucher." Laurent Charbonnier: worked on the sound for "Les Solitaires" and "Le Nombrei" Luc Drion: Served as cinematographer on "The Abyss", "Golem, le jargin petrifie", "Tout do it disparaitre" and "Un Noel de chien". Laurent Fleutot: was the cinematographer on "La Ballade de Don" and "Les Savates du bon Dieu, besides doing camera work for a number of films. Philippe Garguil: Winged Migration is his debut film. Dominique Gentil: was cinematographer in many films including "Le Cri du printemps", "Visages de femmes", Mortu Nega", "Udju Azul di Yonta", Quelque part vers Conakry", and "Siblings, ce qu'on ne peut traduire". Bernard Lutic: involved in the shooting of films such as "The Luzhin Defence", "Lumumba", "I Dreamed of Africa", "My life so far", "Mookie", "Hanuman", and "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea". He was also cinematographer on "Le Roi de Paris", Les Faussaires", "Time is Money", "Return of the Musketeers and so on. For the film, "Le Colonel Chabert" he was nominated for France's Cesar Award for best cinematography. Lutic died in a tragic plane crash in 2000. Thierry Machado: was cinematoghapher on Perrin's "Microcosmos", and won France's Cesar Award for best cinematography. Stephane Martin: filmed "Ton tour viendra" and did camera work for "Mon copain Rachid". Fabrice Moindrot: has previously worked on "Confession of an Ugly Stepsister", Highlander: The Raven", "Marceeel", "Les Mysteres de Sadjurah", "Le Raisin d'or", "Total Eclipse", and "Les Eaux doemantes". Ernst Sasse: "Winged Migration" is his debut film. Michael Terrasse: makes his film debut with "Winged Migration" Thierry Thomas: "Winged Migration" is his debut film. Bruno Coulais (Composer) He composed score for "Microcosmos", for which he won France's Cesar award and the georges Delerue Prize at the Flanders International Film Festival. His other work includes "Quidam", "La femme secrete", "Zanzibar", "Lejour des rois", "LeRetour de Casanova", "Le Petit prince a dit", "Vieille canaille", and ""Simeon". Philippe Barbeau (sound Recordist) He worked with Perrin previously as sound recordist on "Microcosmos" in 1996. He won France's Cesar Award for best sound for his work on that film. Marie-Josephe Yoyotte (Editor) has edited many films including "La guerre des boutons", "Le Distrait", "Le Silencieux", "Le Sauvage" for which she was nominated for a Cesar award. Regis Nicolino (Production designer) was set dresser for "Les Maris, les femmes, les amants" and "Comedie d'ete". Mathieu Simonet (Stills Photographer) is the son of Jacques Perrin, Simonet acted in several films before taking still photographs for his father's film. Valentine Perrin (Idea) worked as a cinematographer for "Portrait des homes qui se branlent" and did camera work for "Entangled" and "Les Nuits fauves". Although this exceptional documentary was nominated for an Oscar in 2002, people in the US had to wait until the next summer to actually see the documentary. Soon after hitting the theatre in 18th April, 2003, it immediately hogged the limelight and there was rave review for the film. Featuring some of the most splendid nature footage ever seen on film, the movie helped in rekindling people's fascination towards birds in general and migratory birds in particular. And as the images of flying birds in perfect, swooping formation accumulate, the film speaks wistfully to humankind's profound, residual longing to soar through the heavens without mechanical help (Holden, 2006). The breathtaking shots in the movie are designed to keep the audience enthralled for hours without even batting an eyelid. One is staggered by the sheer number of birds captured in a single shot, sweeping across the sky like a curtain being drawn or covering an island to the horizon and the edges of the screen (Greydanus, 2006). An exquisitely beautiful documentary with stunning high altitude photography of birds in flight, the Winged Migration was successful in bringing an intimately close look at the staggering marvel of the natural world. References Berardinelli, J (2003) Winged Migration, A film review, retrieved from the website: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/w/winged_migration.html David Loftus (2006) Winged Migration, Review, retrieved from the website: http://www.documentaryfilms.net/Reviews/WingedMigration/ Greydanus, Steven, D (2006) Winged Migration review, Decent Films Guide, retrieved from website: http://www.decentfilms.com Holden, S (2006) Winged Migration, a.k.a. Le Peuple Migrateur; Travelling Birds, NY Times review, Sunday, 9th April, retrieved from the website: http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie Hyde, Chris (2004) What's up, Doc, Box Office Prophets, January 1, retrieved from the website: http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/hyde/whatsupdoc.asp Rodriguez, R (2003) Beauty of the world truly enthralls in 'Winged Migration', Miami Herald, Friday, 13th June, Retrieved from the website: http://ae.miami.com/entertainment/ui/miami Smithey, C (2005) Winged Migration, Mandatory vacation: Documentary takes you on an avis world tour, Cole Smithey, Independent voice of film criticism since 1997, retrieved from the website: http://filmcritic1963.typepad.com/reviews Vice, J (2003) Winged Migration, Movie Review, Deseret Morning News, Deseretnews.com, retrieved from the website: http://deseretnews.com/movies/view/ Websites consulted: http://www.sonyclassics.com Read More