hey tweets,

i saw the film, winged migration at the paris theatre in NYC
yesterday. it was really amazing! i thought the filming of the
birds and the scenery was really wonderful and some of the
shots were quite moving. the music added to the experience.

some of the camera angles and shots were so romantic in their
beauty (the geese flying over water that reflected their image
like a moving sheet of glass, for example) and powerful (the
bar-headed geese sleeping in the himalaya mountains when an
avalanche occurred) and moving (the captive canada geese watching
their wild bretheren migrate over their heads) and shocking (the
hunters, ahem) that i was right there with those birds, that i
WAS a bird.

i wondered how they got the sound of the birds' wings and their
voices as they "talked" to each other in flight? they used some
powered (as well as unpowered) aircraft to get some of these shots,
so how did they edit out the sound of the engine of the powered
aircraft?

i have several criticisms, though. i thought the film could have
been "tighter". by this i mean that there were many unfinished
stories that i thought they would explore (for example, the bald
eagle).

i also wondered about the albatross story, since it made an
appearance quite late in the film. i enjoyed it, no doubt about
that, but its order of appearance interrupted the continuity of
the story, in my opinion.

i also think -- but the credits were so many and in such small font
that i can't be sure -- they filmed the snow geese at reifel wildlife
refuge in canada. there were quite a few images of the northwest in
this film, in fact. it was very nice for this former seattle grrl to
see her old stomping grounds once more!

they also had many images of european birds. in fact, the film starts
with one easily recognizable little english bird that you will no
doubt enjoy watching. very sweet footage, in fact.

i think this film is best for nature and bird lovers, that other
people might find it a little long. for example, the person who saw
this film with me is a pilot and even though he liked the film, he
said later that "too much of a good thing is just ... too much."

regards,

Devorah A. N. Bennu, PhD
email:nyneve at amnh.org or nyneve at myUW.net
work page http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/personnel/bennu.htm
personal pages http://research.amnh.org/users/nyneve/