How is this filmed?

[White Fox]

I would love to know how this was filmed. Is it somehow staged with animals? etc. There is indeed one semi tamed Grizzly in Canada. Bart the Bear. But to catch all of that from the proper camera positions, etc. Not easy. Could it be a huge "Teddy Bear" in some of the scenes? The chase scenes with only the bear are easy to film and put together. But not so easy to get the whole sequence with the bear and kitty kat in the same scene, etc.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4xueqvdb-8&feature=email

 

W

[JGalanos]

Not sure. But with the film and bear angle, I'm sure Spielberg -- Err, I mean Worker -- Will have at least two cents to share.

[Worker 11811]

Yes, the big bear at the end of that clip is, indeed, "Bart the Bear."

 

It was all done with "animal actors."

 

You can find out a lot more about "The Bear" and Jean-Jacques Annaud's other movies at:

http://www.jjannaud.com/

 

Unfortunately, that site is entirely in Flash so I can't navigate you to the right page. You'll have to weasel through it yourself to find the links. But there is information on that site about how the movie was shot.

(Another of the 1,000 reasons why Flash sucks!)

 

BTW: I think that even a bear as small as the one in that movie could have put up a fight with a mountain lion. He might not have won in real life but I'm pretty sure the lion would not have come out of it unscathed. What do you think?

[White Fox]

I mentioned to someone else awhile ago...

 

Many people do not realize why it is so hard to fight animals. Most of the time they are very, very close to you when they attack. Films do not really do that attack justice. I have in my life been involved with both pigs and cattle, plus being around animals in the back country of our great lands. If a sow or a bear for instance gets angry with you and decides to attack their face is not two feet away to allow you to defend yourself easily. It is more like 8 to ten inches. You cannot easily hit them to defend yourself as they are way, way too close to allow you to do that. Many have been the times that I have taken a short two by four along in case I needed it. And believe me I have used it more than once. And, don't anyone tell me that was cruel. Because if I had not had that weapon there is a very good chance that I would not have survived to tell the story. And although those animals were put in their place very abruptly not much more than their pride was really injured. Yep it stung obviously. But an hour later they would not know anything had happened.

 

Thanks for the explanation there. The one thing I did notice that did not look quite right was when the cub pushed himself away from the rock with the kitty cat on it while floating down the river.

 

I've tried such nature photography. And believe me it is not easy!

 

W

[Worker 11811]

Yeah! Animals don't think about pleasure and pain the way humans do.

 

Of course, they FEEL pleasure and pain but they don't have the emotional connection to it like humans. To an animal, it's either "Ouch!" or "Nice!" but they do not have the empathy that humans associate with those sensations.

 

You're right. If you whack an animal on the nose, assuming you didn't traumatize it or leave it injured, fifteen minutes later, it won't care.

 

Scratch a dog behind the ear one minute and watch him wag his tail. Paddle him on the behind the next minute and he'll sulk away with his tail between his legs. But, a few minutes later, he'll be wagging his tail again when you give him another scratch.

 

When I was a kid our dog wanted to eat anything he saw people eating, just as many dogs do.

One day, I was holding a bottle of Tabasco Sauce and the dog sat there, licking his lips. I said, "No! You don't want this!" but he kept staring the way hungry dogs do and licking his lips.

"All right! You're asking for it!", I said as I held out a tablespoon full of hot sauce. The dog licked it up, ran over to his water bucket and drank about 900 gallons but thirty seconds later, there he was sitting beside the table, licking his lips, wanting more! He just wanted it because his humans had it.

 

Me, being the rotten kid I was just fed him more and he licked it up, wagging his tail all the while.

His mouth must have been on fire but it became a big joke for everybody to see a dog that loved to eat hot sauce!

 

It is clear to me that his eating hot sauce was more about his instinct that drove him to eat food than it was about the pleasure or pain he got from licking up spoonful after spoonful of Tabasco Sauce!

 

No, animals just don't think the way people imagine they do.

[White Fox]

Just noticed where old "Bart" died, but he is being replaced by two cubs. Probably full grown by now I would think. Bart 1, and Honey.

 

Bart was one fearsome looking critter. Tame or not I sure would not want to meet him at night! Watched an animal trainer one time give a show at the Wringling museum in Wisconsin. Can't remember for sure but think it was tigers. The show was not to show tricks as much as it was to show the attitude of the animals and training of them. In short educational rather than theater. And he was showing how attitudes of animals can change quickly, etc. And, man do they change.

 

(Off topic, I also had the chance to carry a full grown cobra this year.) That succor was huge. And when I picked up that garbage pail he was resting in I would have almost sworn it was empty. I could not believe how little that he weighed! And, you would also not believe how quickly he could move across ground when he would attack!

 

W