SEE NATURE in ultra high definition as GMA Network launches its newest infotainment program, Amazing Earth, featuring footage from BBC’s Planet Earth II.
It will air every Sunday, starting June 17, at 6:10 p.m.
Planet Earth II is the 2016 follow-up to the network’s successful Planet Earth documentary which aired in 2006.
GMA will bring the show to the Philippines but instead of Sir David Attenborough narrating, the network brought in Jose Sixto “Dingdong” Dantes III to serve as the show’s host.
Planet Earth was the most expensive nature documentary ever commissioned by the BBC, reportedly costing $25 million to produce. It took five years to make, with 40 cameramen filming in 200 locations around the world.
The first series was one of the first natural documentary series to be made in high definition. It also went on to win several awards, among them four Emmy Awards (including Best Nonfiction Series) in 2007, a Peabody Award in 2008, and an award from the Royal Television Society for the episode, “Pole to Pole.”
The series follow-up was filmed in ultra high definition (4K) and has included remote recording, aerial drone technology to capture aerial action sequences, and improved camera stabilization to allow cameramen to move at speed with the animals.
A 2016 story published in The Telegraph noted that the team used advanced camera traps “placed so close to wild animals that they even captured the sound of breathing.”
For Amazing Earth, footage from Planet Earth will be interspersed with footage from the Philippines, with Mr. Dantes bringing the audience to different places in the Philippines — from “its natural formation and all types of terrains to its fascinating flora and fauna,” said a press release.
“One of the challenges [in doing Amazing Earth] was localizing the BBC content to make it interesting for Filipinos,” said Mr. Dantes during a press conference on June 13 at the network offices in Quezon City.
The show is directed by Rico Guttierez.
The network previously aired BBC’s Blue Planet, a 2001 nature documentary focused on the world’s oceans, in 2012 on GMA News TV, and Planet Earth in 2014.
Amazing Earth airs Sunday nights starting June 17, 6:10 p.m. (after 24 Oras Weekend) on GMA 7. — Zsarlene B. Chua

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