Encounters at the End of the world
Narrated by Werner Herzog
Cinematography by Peter Zeitlinger
Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger go to Antarctica
to meet people who live and work there, and to capture footage of the
continent's unique locations. Herzog's voiceover narration explains that his
film will not be a typical Antarctica film about "fluffy penguins", but will
explore the dreams of the people and the landscape. They begin at McMurdo
Station and interview some maintenance and support workers, as well as iceberg
geologist Douglas MacAyeal. They travel next to a nearby seal camp supervised by
zoologist Olav Oftedal. Next they join guitar player, composer and music
producer Henry Kaiser at his diving camp, and interview cell biologist Samuel
Bowser and zoologist Jan Pawlowski. Kaiser and Bowser stage a rooftop guitar
concert.
Herzog and Zeitlinger return to McMurdo for some more interviews, and visit the preserved original base of Ernest Shackleton. After some brief footage at the South Pole, Herzog interviews penguin scientist David Ainley. This footage includes a shot of a penguin marching in the wrong direction, walking to a certain death in the barren interior of the continent.
Herzog and Zeitlinger next visit Mount Erebus, and interview volcanologists. A strange sequence follows which was shot in tunnels deep below the station carved from snow and ice. Various trinkets and mementos, including a can of Russian caviar and a whole frozen sturgeon, are placed in carved-out shelves in the ice walls, and preseved by the extremely cold and dry air. On the slope of the volcano, Herzog and Zeitlinger explore inside ice caves formed by fumaroles.
The film next visits the launch of a giant helium balloon used in a neutrino detection project (ANITA) and features an interview with physicist Peter Gorham. The film concludes with some philosophical words from a maintenance worker, and more footage from the fumarole ice caves and Kaiser's dives.
I had a chance to see Werner Herzog's latest documentary at the Telluride Film Festival, where it received great buzz and very high praise upon its debut. Herzog informed the audience that he was shown some footage taken by a photographer in Antarctica while doing post-production on Grizzly Man and he was immediately entranced by what he saw. From this he was compelled to visit the continent and shoot some footage of his own, which became Encounters at the End of the World.
The film perfectly balances both gorgeous footage of the continent as well as fascinating interviews and anecdotes of the many researchers and workers of the McMurdo research station. There are many humorous moments, such as a scene in which visitors must go through a follow-the-leader type exercise before being allowed to venture out into the wild. Participants in the exercise must wear buckets adorned with ridiculous caricatures over their heads in order to simulate a whiteout. They must then try to follow each other as a group and find a researcher a distance away. Herzog simply observes as the participants fail over and over to find the researcher, which left the audience laughing for minutes on end. Another excellent scene has Herzog interviewing an expert on penguins, who goes into some of their more bizarre behavior, such when penguins go insane. In both cases, Herzog features striking footage and amusing interviews and narration.
The film fits in well with Herzog's already substantial canon. It is a beautiful look at a beautiful continent populated by a forklift driver with a PhD, a woman who once traveled to South America in a sewage pipe on the back of a truck, researchers who play electric guitars on top of research station to celebrate discovering three new species of aquatic life in one day, and many more. Their stories converge where all the lines on the map meet at the end of the world. Herzog shot the film with a crew of just himself and the camera operator, and the result is a film with some of the most beautiful footage I've ever seen. Do not miss this when it receives general release!
Herzog and Zeitlinger return to McMurdo for some more interviews, and visit the preserved original base of Ernest Shackleton. After some brief footage at the South Pole, Herzog interviews penguin scientist David Ainley. This footage includes a shot of a penguin marching in the wrong direction, walking to a certain death in the barren interior of the continent.
Herzog and Zeitlinger next visit Mount Erebus, and interview volcanologists. A strange sequence follows which was shot in tunnels deep below the station carved from snow and ice. Various trinkets and mementos, including a can of Russian caviar and a whole frozen sturgeon, are placed in carved-out shelves in the ice walls, and preseved by the extremely cold and dry air. On the slope of the volcano, Herzog and Zeitlinger explore inside ice caves formed by fumaroles.
The film next visits the launch of a giant helium balloon used in a neutrino detection project (ANITA) and features an interview with physicist Peter Gorham. The film concludes with some philosophical words from a maintenance worker, and more footage from the fumarole ice caves and Kaiser's dives.
I had a chance to see Werner Herzog's latest documentary at the Telluride Film Festival, where it received great buzz and very high praise upon its debut. Herzog informed the audience that he was shown some footage taken by a photographer in Antarctica while doing post-production on Grizzly Man and he was immediately entranced by what he saw. From this he was compelled to visit the continent and shoot some footage of his own, which became Encounters at the End of the World.
The film perfectly balances both gorgeous footage of the continent as well as fascinating interviews and anecdotes of the many researchers and workers of the McMurdo research station. There are many humorous moments, such as a scene in which visitors must go through a follow-the-leader type exercise before being allowed to venture out into the wild. Participants in the exercise must wear buckets adorned with ridiculous caricatures over their heads in order to simulate a whiteout. They must then try to follow each other as a group and find a researcher a distance away. Herzog simply observes as the participants fail over and over to find the researcher, which left the audience laughing for minutes on end. Another excellent scene has Herzog interviewing an expert on penguins, who goes into some of their more bizarre behavior, such when penguins go insane. In both cases, Herzog features striking footage and amusing interviews and narration.
The film fits in well with Herzog's already substantial canon. It is a beautiful look at a beautiful continent populated by a forklift driver with a PhD, a woman who once traveled to South America in a sewage pipe on the back of a truck, researchers who play electric guitars on top of research station to celebrate discovering three new species of aquatic life in one day, and many more. Their stories converge where all the lines on the map meet at the end of the world. Herzog shot the film with a crew of just himself and the camera operator, and the result is a film with some of the most beautiful footage I've ever seen. Do not miss this when it receives general release!
Hi There, I'm Rick Miller from Comprehensive Photography. I'm very pleased to see almost
50,000 visits since my site was started on
January 29th 2009 (about 215 per day).
PLEASE CHECK OUT SOME GREAT PHOTOS, ARTISTIC NUDES, via link NUDE ART — MY BLOG AND SOME VERY NICE MOVIES!
While you visit and navigate through my site, next to the home tab, there is now a BUY menu item, that will link you to my gallery of pictures for sale — all High Resolution and top quality. So clicking on 'BUY' simply directs you to a new page to view and shop at your leisure; with the understanding that you are not committing yourself to a purchase. I've put some nice music on this new page as well, you can manage this in the upper right hand quadrant if you would rather have silence.
If you have been to Amazon.Com, or any other online store, the procedure for purchasing my work is equally as easy thanks to PayPal.
Some may remember posing for an "impromptu" photo opportunity during every family gathering. You stood there frozen, with cemented smiles as you wondered if Aunt Thelma would ever take the photograph. Cheese...... then Bam! You were blinded by the bright flash bulb. Auntie had the right idea. She wanted to memorialize every event. It didn't matter if the developed film never made it out of the card board envelopes. What was important is that she enjoyed taking photos.
Amateur photographers everywhere are still snapping pictures as a favorite pastime. Photography is a good means to chronicle someone's life. A picture tells a thousand words, so what an excellent way to document special moments, highlights and milestones.
Over time, our memory isn't as iron-clad as it once was. With photographs you can still recall the special moment even when the memory fades. Photography is good for your well being. Reflect on all the studies that talk about how beneficial laughter is to your health. Now consider your emotions when you see photos of a new baby, or a wedding, or any of the other adorable photos that are found in email in-boxes on a daily basis. They make you happy! Photos elicit positive emotions. Think about the people who were in south Texas during the winter of 2004. I'm sure they were happy to be down there when they had snow for the first time in over 100 years. There were people outside taking pictures at midnight; what an opportunity!
Have you ever seen deer on the side of the road? Not too many bucks will stop long enough to be photographed. If you're fortunate enough to see sitting deer, you better hope to have a camera with you; as they likely won't be sitting there waiting for you the next time you drive by.
While some people still prefer film cameras, digital cameras now come in any size or budget. For the novice photographer who merely enjoys taking photographs as a way to relax or capture those one of a kind moments, suitable digital cameras are available for under $100. Some people are still using 1.3 mega pixel digital cameras. By today's standard, that is considered a dinosaur. However it would still work if the photographer just wanted to take an occasional photo to list items for sale on eBay. Today many amateur photographers are using digital cameras with 4-6 mega pixels. As a rule of thumb, the higher the mega pixel, the higher the price tag. Notwithstanding, higher mega pixel cameras also come with more bells and whistles and have a higher resolution. Most all digital cameras also have a timer and ability to make very small movie clips. Many also have zoom lens features.
With digital photography it is fun to play around with new technology. Create a screen saver of your best photo with Image Box from CoolUtils. If you came back from Hawaii and have lots of great photos that you want not to just show to your friends but amaze them - make an astonishing slideshow. Imagine all pictures will be shown one by one with different effects, accompanied by music and your comments. With ImageBox every photo stops being a snapshot but becomes a living part of the presentation. Your friends will be amazed! Don't think about how difficult it is – you will create your first slideshow in 6 minutes. There are software programs that allow you to make digital images look better than real life by removing unwanted blemishes, moles, or wrinkles. Experiment with the software to add or remove people or objects from the photo. New technology provides the ability to alter a photograph so that it looks like an oil painting, pencil sketch, negative, sepia, black and white, charcoal drawing and a plethora of other options.
While it is possible to make a living as a photographer, the majority of camera users simply take photos because they enjoy it. It's true that time will not stand still. The taunting school aged children had it right when they responded to stares, "Take a picture why don't you – it'll last longer!" Now you do the same - stop reading and go take a picture... it'll last longer! REGISTER
Thank all of you so much for helping me to do something I love and enjoy. Please REGISTER and tell me what you think of the site.
While you visit and navigate through my site, next to the home tab, there is now a BUY menu item, that will link you to my gallery of pictures for sale — all High Resolution and top quality. So clicking on 'BUY' simply directs you to a new page to view and shop at your leisure; with the understanding that you are not committing yourself to a purchase. I've put some nice music on this new page as well, you can manage this in the upper right hand quadrant if you would rather have silence.
If you have been to Amazon.Com, or any other online store, the procedure for purchasing my work is equally as easy thanks to PayPal.
A NICE THOUGHT
Photos
Why do we take them?
By Mary Banas
Jan 22nd 2007
Some may remember posing for an "impromptu" photo opportunity during every family gathering. You stood there frozen, with cemented smiles as you wondered if Aunt Thelma would ever take the photograph. Cheese...... then Bam! You were blinded by the bright flash bulb. Auntie had the right idea. She wanted to memorialize every event. It didn't matter if the developed film never made it out of the card board envelopes. What was important is that she enjoyed taking photos.
Amateur photographers everywhere are still snapping pictures as a favorite pastime. Photography is a good means to chronicle someone's life. A picture tells a thousand words, so what an excellent way to document special moments, highlights and milestones.
Over time, our memory isn't as iron-clad as it once was. With photographs you can still recall the special moment even when the memory fades. Photography is good for your well being. Reflect on all the studies that talk about how beneficial laughter is to your health. Now consider your emotions when you see photos of a new baby, or a wedding, or any of the other adorable photos that are found in email in-boxes on a daily basis. They make you happy! Photos elicit positive emotions. Think about the people who were in south Texas during the winter of 2004. I'm sure they were happy to be down there when they had snow for the first time in over 100 years. There were people outside taking pictures at midnight; what an opportunity!
Have you ever seen deer on the side of the road? Not too many bucks will stop long enough to be photographed. If you're fortunate enough to see sitting deer, you better hope to have a camera with you; as they likely won't be sitting there waiting for you the next time you drive by.
While some people still prefer film cameras, digital cameras now come in any size or budget. For the novice photographer who merely enjoys taking photographs as a way to relax or capture those one of a kind moments, suitable digital cameras are available for under $100. Some people are still using 1.3 mega pixel digital cameras. By today's standard, that is considered a dinosaur. However it would still work if the photographer just wanted to take an occasional photo to list items for sale on eBay. Today many amateur photographers are using digital cameras with 4-6 mega pixels. As a rule of thumb, the higher the mega pixel, the higher the price tag. Notwithstanding, higher mega pixel cameras also come with more bells and whistles and have a higher resolution. Most all digital cameras also have a timer and ability to make very small movie clips. Many also have zoom lens features.
With digital photography it is fun to play around with new technology. Create a screen saver of your best photo with Image Box from CoolUtils. If you came back from Hawaii and have lots of great photos that you want not to just show to your friends but amaze them - make an astonishing slideshow. Imagine all pictures will be shown one by one with different effects, accompanied by music and your comments. With ImageBox every photo stops being a snapshot but becomes a living part of the presentation. Your friends will be amazed! Don't think about how difficult it is – you will create your first slideshow in 6 minutes. There are software programs that allow you to make digital images look better than real life by removing unwanted blemishes, moles, or wrinkles. Experiment with the software to add or remove people or objects from the photo. New technology provides the ability to alter a photograph so that it looks like an oil painting, pencil sketch, negative, sepia, black and white, charcoal drawing and a plethora of other options.
While it is possible to make a living as a photographer, the majority of camera users simply take photos because they enjoy it. It's true that time will not stand still. The taunting school aged children had it right when they responded to stares, "Take a picture why don't you – it'll last longer!" Now you do the same - stop reading and go take a picture... it'll last longer! REGISTER
Thank all of you so much for helping me to do something I love and enjoy. Please REGISTER and tell me what you think of the site.
Sincerely
Rick Miller