WASHINGTON (March 4, 2010)—In OCEANS, the official companion book to the new, landmark movie event from Disneynature of the same name, National Geographic presents a deeply expansive survey of the world’s oceans.
OCEANS (National Geographic Books; ISBN 978-1-4262-0626-9; on-sale date March 23, 2010; $35 hardcover), by François Sarano and Stéphane Durand, captures the mysterious and fascinating marine world as never before. It mirrors all the beauty and drama of the new Disneynature feature from veteran filmmakers Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud — the innovative team responsible for the groundbreaking blockbuster, Academy Award-nominated documentary “Winged Migration” — who collaborate again for another look at the natural world.
From the tropics to Antarctica, from Norway to New Zealand, and from tiny organisms at the bottom of the marine food chain to such magnificent creatures as blue whales, swordfish and giant squid, this vividly illustrated book roams the seven-tenths of the Earth blanketed by oceans. To capture the amazing images, divers swam unprotected among great white sharks and patiently staked out the breeding grounds where families of humpback whales sing their distinctive songs.
For the movie, resourceful crew members created everything from streamlined camera pods able to keep pace with frolicking dolphins to a remote-controlled mini helicopter that hovered over a pod of whales to obtain otherwise impossible footage. Photographers invented a new microscopic lens that revealed and recorded a universe of plankton, algae, coral and tiny fish eggs — the minute building blocks that nourish this entire intricate, interdependent ecosystem.
The book is not only an authoritative guide to the world’s oceans but also a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at practical filmmaking under demanding, difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. Filmmakers Perrin and Cluzaud both write forewords to this compelling document of the world’s oceans as preludes to Sarano and Durand’s narrative.
About the film
Disneynature, the studio that presented the record-breaking film “Earth,” brings “Oceans” to the big screen on Earth Day (April 22) 2010. Featuring spectacular, never-before-seen imagery captured by the latest underwater technologies, “Oceans” is a powerful, yet enchanting motion picture offering an unprecedented look at the mysteries beneath the sea.