nandywell

It'd seem even odder to make a prog about the aurora and then not show any of it.

Steve Crook

It would have been odd if that had been the case

Steve

oxfam1uk

I saw this, and I too was a bit suspicious of some of the shots. In particular, the shots where we saw the shimmering lights, with Jo Lumley in the bottom right-hand corner looking up.

The composition was just too neat. It could be that they had genuine footage of the lights, and they superimposed Jo Lumley onto it.

Not exactly evil, but definitely fake ...

Mark O

Well, it all looked real enough to me, why not just sit back and enjoy the amazing spectacle we were fortunate enough to be shown........it was absolutely fabulous, dahling! (I think she forgot the Bolly though!)

I've no problem with my Licence fee going toward something like that, and who better to take us there than Joanna Lumley herself, a dream she had since Childhood that became a reality, she's well mannered and well spoken, the perfect Hostess

The Igloo Hotel looked fun, I'd be game for a stay there, wonder what's on the Menu?!!

Mark

nandywell

I couldn't have put it better myself.

Neither have I, it was a decent docu from what I saw of it and you're right it was spectacular, I was just hoping to see some raw footage of the lights and not some fantasy version of it.

MB

That is the bit I didn't fancy - brr - it looked beautiful but freezing, freezing surely?

Well, I am watching it again and I have a real ex-BBC cameraman poised in my living room! He is going to tell me what he thinks and if it is suspicious - he'll ask one of his spies.

nandywell

Super-duper. If it comes back that the footage was absolutely 100% genuine, then not only does the photographer deserve some sort of accolade but I think I should get myself a BBC camera to update the £250 MiniDV one that I own

MB

Well - this is what he thinks. He is BBC trained in sound and camerawork and currently works as a cameraman. He has also seen the Aurora Borealis from an aeroplane!
He says this:

"I have no reason to doubt that the aurora images were real, given that they were specifically credited to a different cameraperson, Kjetil Skogli. It is possible that the wide angle silhouette pictures of Joanna in front of the aurora were composed of two different shots superimposed in post production.

The difficulty facing the camera operator is that, in order to capture the images of the aurora, very low ambient light is required, meaning that they couldn't really throw any artificial light on Joanna at the time of 'filming' the aurora, and that they would have to shoot Joanna separately from the aurora."

nandywell

Oh well, I guess we'll never really know. Anyway, for those that missed it, this is the sequence I and others are referring to. Judge for yourself and thanks for the comments MB.

Steve Crook

Ice cream
Baked Alaska


Steve

Steve Crook

That's why Joanna Lovely spent some time detailing all the different layers she was wearing - and then she put a survival suit on over the top of all of them!

Steve

Steve Crook

They couldn't use any artificial light - but they didn't need to. The moon was bright and they filmed it with the aperture wide open to gather all the light there was

Steve

Maralyn

I was very moved by Joanna's thrill at seeig the lights and did not think for one moment that I was being hoodwinked. I tend to go along with the BBC camera friend of one of our members and believe it. Real or not it was just wonderful theatre!

Maralyn

CaptainWaggett

Wow! Thanks for posting that. It must be like living in Screensaverland.

Steve Crook

See the whole thing on iPlayer (UK only). Skip forwards to the last 5 minutes

She started by reminding us how she grew up in Kashmir and Malaya and how it was always hot so she dreamt of going somewhere cold. How it was a rare event and a bit of a special one for her to put on a cardigan. How she was given a book about a penguin as a young girl and it showed the penguin staring at the Aurora Australis. It's no wonder she got so overwhelmed by the whole place and by the lights in particular.

Steve