February 2007 Archives

Daniel Lucas Stern - Producer

Growing up, I was always enthralled by stories of the dangers and rewards of commercial fishing in Alaska. Be it those adolescent dreams of adventure, survival, camaraderie, and riches, or my post-college wonderment of a career choice I never quite pulled the trigger on. Needless, to say you can imagine the excitement and anticipation my peers and I enjoyed as we prepared to make our way to Bristol Bay, Alaska for the 2006 sockeye salmon season.

In late June, much to the envy of many of our friends and family, the crew and I made our way to the Alaska Peninsula for an adventure that promised to be priceless. Flying into Alaska, high above the tallest, steepest, snow covered peaks I'd ever seen, I couldn't help but feel as if I was truly going to a completely new, unspoiled world that I was previously unfamiliar with. I had known places like this must exist, but had never been fortunate enough to experience one first hand. I quickly got the feeling that many of the people we met up there, from the natives to the seasonal fishermen and workers from the lower forty eight, knew this and carried with them a sort of friendly, "I told you so" demeanor.

Jeremy Garrett - Art Director

When designing a logo and show package, it's always vital to find out as much as possible about the show before starting the creative process. Strategy briefs or rough/finished copies of the shows are very helpful. In this mini-series, Planet Carnivore consists of four different one-hour shows, with four different animals and locations. Each show revolves around apex predators and how they survive in their fragile environment.

Our challenge was creating a common thread between four different show logos and show opens. We solved this challenge using an interchangeable logo where the subtitle could be easily swapped out. Each of the animals has a certain attitude and demeanor that I wanted to capture; so I chose a font that was clean and bold. I modified the font by adding weight to the subtitle word and adding an additional bar to the letter "A."

The animation in all four-show opens remained exactly the same. Each show open captured the environment in which the apex predator lives. For example, Planet Carnivore: Sharks open had an underwater tone. The Planet Carnivore: Lions open looked like the logo lived on the African plains. Another key component to the open animations was the audio. Each open had the same eerie music accompanied by the specific sound of that animal. This helped reinforce the graphics and help set a mood for the show to come.

Andy Baker - Creative Director

As a fan of mixed martial arts and boxing, I love watching, participating and talking about combat sports. And the first time I saw a 3 minute teaser for "Fight Science", I knew that THIS show was going to be right up my alley. My name is Andy Baker, and I'm the Director of the National Geographic Channel Creative department. What that job title really means is that I make promos and commercials for the National Geographic Channel - and I was not going to miss out on the opportunity to work on. "Fight Science".

About a year before I had even seen a cut of the film, I saw this teaser "trailer" for the show at a meeting - it was incredible because not only did it showcase MMA fighters, it was essentially a competition between the different fighting disciplines to see which one (karate, kung fu, boxing, ninjitsu, muay thai, tae kwon do, capoeira, etc) was best at certain aspects - kicking, punching, power, speed, reflexes, balance, and so forth. It was so cool for me to see scientific data about these legendary techniques - and I wanted to capture MY own excitement for the show and hopefully get other people excited about it in promos as well.

We started with producing a promo for the show, which basically entails writing a script that sums up what the show is about and getting people interested in the topic (sort of like movie trailers you see). Then we take clips from the show and edit them together with some music and graphics and hopefully the viewer at home is interested in the show and wants to watch it on TV. As we were in the final stages of making the promos, (which usually start running about a month from the airdate) we realized that we had an opportunity to get some of the key martial artists in one place at one time for an interview - which we could edit into a podcast and make available for real "die-hard" martial arts enthusiasts online and even on the Apple iTunes site...and I thought it might be really informative and fun to get the principals together in one room and just talk about the show - how they got picked, what they thought about the process, etc. So once the logistics and technical details were all worked out, I flew out to LA where they were all gathering for a convention and basically we all sat down in a suite at their hotel with a sound engineer and about 9 microphones.

Gail Mitchell - Special Contributor

Telling friends or family I just spent two months in a California maximum-security prison elicits a priceless reaction. When the initial shock fades, the questions spill out... Did you sleep there? Did you feel safe? What are the inmates like? What are the inmates in for? The list goes on...

To be honest, getting to know Valley State Prison for Women's staff and inmates was more normal than I had anticipated. The catch phrase amongst inmates is that prison is a "world within a world." This could not be more accurate. When an environment becomes your world, then that is what is normal.

When I first walked into this world, it looked like a typical maximum-security prison to me. Several rows of electrical fencing circled the complex. Touch the fence, and face electrocution. Keeping watch over everyone was a gunner in the tower, and he is armed with live ammunition. As far as I know, the gunner hasn't fired any fatal shots yet. A good thing, considering his training is to shoot to kill.

Shirley Tatum Producer

NASCAR champ Benny Parsons said it best: "Makin' moonshine was a way of life. So many people involved, as a matter of fact, that Wilkesboro had its own courthouse for tryin' moonshiners".

Benny never made moonshine. But growing up near the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina's Wilkes County, he watched bootleggers cruise the streets in their jacked up 1940 Fords. "I was a car fan, every kid under the age of eighteen was a car fan. Loved the shiny cars, the hot rods. I mean, the cars with the 4-barrel carburetors, the fast cars."

 On a humid day in June, Benny Parsons returned to Wilkes County for our interview. Legendary NASCAR racer and bootlegger Junior Johnson was already with us. "How's the wine business, Benny?" Junior asked with a drawl. "I don't know much about it, I hope to learn something about it," said Benny. He planned to get the soil ready for next year's crop.