Flying penguins

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adelie penguin in the foreground

Flying penguins or Miracles of Evolution (German: Fliegende Pinguine or Wunder der Evolution ) is a one and a half minute film trailer that wasproducedby the BBC on April 1, 2008and the alleged discovery of a colony of flying penguins on King George Island , about 120 km from the Antarctic Mainland away, signs. In fact, it is an April Fool's joke filmed with computer-animated penguins that was used to promotethe BBC iPlayer .

The next day, The Daily Telegraph praised the quality of the cinematic work and declared the film was

“This is an instant classic. It is accomplished work of this kind that guarantees the BBC its unique status. "

“This is a classic straight away. It is such top performances that secure the unique status of the BBC. "

- The Daily Telegraph

MSN declared the Flying penguins the BBC as one of the twelve best hoaxes of the decade.

The film

The trailer shows Adelie penguins , the most abundant species of penguin in the world, and claims that a colony of Adelie penguins has been discovered that possessed amazing skills: to escape the long and extremely cold Antarctic winters, they would have the ability to fly (again) won and moved over thousands of kilometers to the rainforests of South America to spend the winter there.

Presented by Terry Jones , a former member of the British comedian group Monty Python , the film starts with waddling penguins, until one bird after another rises from the ground and finally the whole sky is filled with flying penguins. You can see how the birds fly over icebergs and through a hole in an iceberg. Then they leave Antarctica behind and the viewer sees the green of the rainforests of South America. Finally, it is shown how the penguins end up in the treetops of the rainforest at the end of their migration .

Announcement of the trailer

On April 1, 2008, the two competing newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mirror, published articles about the upcoming film. The Mirror put the report on the front page, and it was one of the main headlines of the day in the Daily Telegraph . While the alleged filmmaker Prof. Alid Loyas touted the discovery as conclusive evidence of Darwin's theory of evolution in the Mirror , the Daily Telegraph wrote that the BBC had "unusual images of flying penguins as part of their new scientific series 'Miracles of Evolution'" and quoted Terry Jones with the words:

“We'd been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come. But then the weather took a turn for the worse. It was quite amazing. Rather than getting together in a huddle to protect themselves from the cold, they did something quite unexpected, that no other penguins can do. "

“We had watched and filmed the penguins for days without knowing what to expect. But then the weather turned and worsened. It was amazing: instead of huddling together in a big pile to protect themselves from the cold, they did something completely unexpected, something that no other penguin can do. "

- Terry Jones

In addition to the technical quality of the film, the collaboration between the BBC and the two newspapers contributed to the persuasiveness of the April Fool's joke. Chris Tryhorn, editor at the Guardian , admitted that it gave him pause when two competitors simultaneously reported on such an important discovery. First "Prof. Alid Loyas ”as the director's name put him on the right track:“ Prof Alid Loyas ”is an anagram for“ April Fools Day ”.

The Daily Mirror later published a breakup for its readers waiting for the documentary to air on BBC 1. The trailer is still on the BBC website, but can only be viewed there with the BBC iPlayer, which can only be used with a British IP address. It can also be found on YouTube. The BBC website says the birds are shy and difficult to find. It is almost impossible to find them in the dense jungles of South America or to watch their migrations across the southern oceans.

production

The BBC released another short film about The Making of Flying Penguins , in which the makers of the film explain the trick technique. For the production of flying penguins , images of real Adelie penguins from the Antarctic were combined with images of computer-animated penguins. It turned out to be particularly difficult to let the flight movements appear natural. Finally, the flight pattern of the black guillemot was used as a model, the shape of which is reminiscent of a penguin.

Terry Jones was filmed in a studio with wind machines, artificial snow on the floor and artificial ice on his polar parka in front of a green screen. This material was then merged with the real footage from Antarctica and the footage of the animated flying penguins.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Report in The Daily Telegraph, April 1, 2008 , accessed March 27, 2014.
  2. ↑ A Classic, Report in The Daily Telegraph April 2, 2008 , accessed March 27, 2014.
  3. ↑ MSN "The BBC's flying penguins" ( Memento of March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on March 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b BBC Nature Wildlife , accessed March 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ World's First Ever Flying Penguins? in ABC News on April 1, 2008 , accessed March 29, 2014.
  6. ^ Stretching Sarko, flying penguins and other April Fools at The Guardian home , accessed March 29, 2014.
  7. ↑ Did our April Fools penguin story get you in a flap? The Daily Mirror, April 1, 2008 ; accessed March 29, 2014.