National Parks Exploration Series: An Eagle's View
Posted by Itheliving 11 years, 10 months ago to Education
I love bargains. I love BluRay bargains. I love the National Parks and videos about them. Did I find the greatest bargain ever. We shall see.
America’s National Parks: An Eagle’s View / Not rated but would be OK for anyone since it has no storyline or narration with bad language. Would be OK being the qualifier. See below.
I love a bargain. Finding great films on BluRay, like Romancing the Stone (1984) at $5 or less is a wonder of modern shopping. I also enjoy travel movies and have recommended quite a few. Recently I picked up what appeared to be, at least from a packaging point of view, a real bargain. Normally $5 I found another film in the National Parks Exploration series for only $4. Parts of my body puckered with excitement. Other films in the series on specific National Parks were pretty good except the ones that weren’t so hot and others which drifted into total mediocrity.
An Eagle’s View of the National Parks seems like a great idea. Many of the spectacular features of American scenery need to be seen from way above sea level in order to fully understand the features of the landscape. Kind of you have to see a cave from the inside to get any idea of it’s best parts.
In just over 60 minutes ANP:AEV visits some truly great places. In order of appearance they are; Acadia NP, Great Smoky Mountains. NP, The Everglades NP, Voyageurs NP, Badlands NP including The Black Hills, Deadwood, Crazy Horse Monument and Mt. Rushmore National Monument. Next up a flight over the Rocky Mountains., Rocky Mountains NP, The Grand Tetons NP, Glacier NP, Cascades NP including Mt. Rainier. Then on to the Sierra Nevada’s with visits to Yosemite NP and Death Valley NP. Next up the Colorado Plateau with visits to Zion NP, Canyonlands NP as well as Monument Valley, Lake Mead, Lake Powell and their dams. Finally the Grand Canyon NP and spectacular Yellowstone NP.
All these places are filled with dramatic landscapes and beautiful features seen best from a high point. Unfortunately I have issues. Quite a few of them although not as many as the NP’s they visit.
This film is on a BluRay disk. The visuals are not up to BR quality. It looks like most of the photography was done in helicopters or in some cases small aircraft. Unfortunately the footage is not shot with Hi Def cameras. The fact is that most of looks like it was done using an IPhone camera that the operator was using for the 1st time. If not an IPhone then an old VHS recorder. Proper light filters are not used so those scenes in which there is haze look like there were shot through a heavy smoke. Clear reflections of the not very clean helicopter windows is an additional annoyance. Over the Bad Lands they claim to be in a hot air balloon. Unfortunately the balloon keeps moving at a pace which indicates it was motorized or they are full of hot air.
The other problem with the photography is that this is supposed to be an Eagle’s View. If so the eagle had way too much to drink before he took off. Also he was probably flying with a wounded wing. This would explain the camera shaking like the aircraft was being buffeted by high winds. There are Steady Cam’s available but none were used here. The scenes above the Rocky Mountains are obviously done outside the passenger window of large jets at 28 to 38 thousand feet. You can tell because the Rockies look pretty small way, way down there.
The one shot of Monument Valley is done from a long way off. It could have been a small lit up model in a garage for all I could tell.
A good idea on film is only good if it looks good. BluRay shows up faults like no other home medium. I think I’ve said enough.
Rated 1.0 out of 4.0 reasons to USE REAL EQUIPMENT when shooting scenery for professional films.
America’s National Parks: An Eagle’s View / Not rated but would be OK for anyone since it has no storyline or narration with bad language. Would be OK being the qualifier. See below.
I love a bargain. Finding great films on BluRay, like Romancing the Stone (1984) at $5 or less is a wonder of modern shopping. I also enjoy travel movies and have recommended quite a few. Recently I picked up what appeared to be, at least from a packaging point of view, a real bargain. Normally $5 I found another film in the National Parks Exploration series for only $4. Parts of my body puckered with excitement. Other films in the series on specific National Parks were pretty good except the ones that weren’t so hot and others which drifted into total mediocrity.
An Eagle’s View of the National Parks seems like a great idea. Many of the spectacular features of American scenery need to be seen from way above sea level in order to fully understand the features of the landscape. Kind of you have to see a cave from the inside to get any idea of it’s best parts.
In just over 60 minutes ANP:AEV visits some truly great places. In order of appearance they are; Acadia NP, Great Smoky Mountains. NP, The Everglades NP, Voyageurs NP, Badlands NP including The Black Hills, Deadwood, Crazy Horse Monument and Mt. Rushmore National Monument. Next up a flight over the Rocky Mountains., Rocky Mountains NP, The Grand Tetons NP, Glacier NP, Cascades NP including Mt. Rainier. Then on to the Sierra Nevada’s with visits to Yosemite NP and Death Valley NP. Next up the Colorado Plateau with visits to Zion NP, Canyonlands NP as well as Monument Valley, Lake Mead, Lake Powell and their dams. Finally the Grand Canyon NP and spectacular Yellowstone NP.
All these places are filled with dramatic landscapes and beautiful features seen best from a high point. Unfortunately I have issues. Quite a few of them although not as many as the NP’s they visit.
This film is on a BluRay disk. The visuals are not up to BR quality. It looks like most of the photography was done in helicopters or in some cases small aircraft. Unfortunately the footage is not shot with Hi Def cameras. The fact is that most of looks like it was done using an IPhone camera that the operator was using for the 1st time. If not an IPhone then an old VHS recorder. Proper light filters are not used so those scenes in which there is haze look like there were shot through a heavy smoke. Clear reflections of the not very clean helicopter windows is an additional annoyance. Over the Bad Lands they claim to be in a hot air balloon. Unfortunately the balloon keeps moving at a pace which indicates it was motorized or they are full of hot air.
The other problem with the photography is that this is supposed to be an Eagle’s View. If so the eagle had way too much to drink before he took off. Also he was probably flying with a wounded wing. This would explain the camera shaking like the aircraft was being buffeted by high winds. There are Steady Cam’s available but none were used here. The scenes above the Rocky Mountains are obviously done outside the passenger window of large jets at 28 to 38 thousand feet. You can tell because the Rockies look pretty small way, way down there.
The one shot of Monument Valley is done from a long way off. It could have been a small lit up model in a garage for all I could tell.
A good idea on film is only good if it looks good. BluRay shows up faults like no other home medium. I think I’ve said enough.
Rated 1.0 out of 4.0 reasons to USE REAL EQUIPMENT when shooting scenery for professional films.
