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[Chance To See]

Not One Turtle

There have been a couple of posts/reviews that imply that the film follows one turtle. Not surprising, I guess, since the trailer (and the movie?) imply that is the case.



I wondered how they could follow one turtle. The answer is, “They couldn’t.” For one thing, it’s a 25-year journey.

It sounds like it is one turtle from the beach out to the Gulf Stream, and then after that it’s storytelling with many turtles playing the starring role. It would have been wonderful if it had been one turtle: as you point out, then a viewer would be sure to form an emotional attachment. (“The big difference is turtle follows one main character which also allows the viewer to become emotionally bonded.”)

The logistics are discussed in detail on their website bigwavetv.com.

NOTE: I'm sure it's a wonderful film, an incredible achievement, and the people who made it are good people, but I certainly thought it was one turtle from watching the trailer.

http://www.bigwavetv.com/index.php?page=turtle-the-incredible-journey-nick-stringer

“The odds are stacked against her, just one in 10,000 loggerheads survive the journey around the north Atlantic, yet it’s a way of life that has survived more than a 150 million years, since the age of the dinosaurs, thousands of generations have followed the same pathway before her.”

http://www.bigwavetv.com/index.php?page=turtle-the-incredible-journey-filming

“To get up close to the little hatchling on the beach and capture the sense of the battlefield she has to cross, required the latest in miniature Hi-Definition cameras. They allowed us to get right down on her level and track with her all the way to sea. And once in the ocean, underwater housings for miniature cameras allowed us to keep close to her in the raging surf and all the way out to the Gulf Stream. It’s brought a really intimate and energetic perspective to our opening scenes, enabling us to capture and experience the early life of the turtle as never seen before.

“Another problem is that it’s not humanly possibly to follow one turtle over its 25-year journey. As ever we were dependent the film’s scientific consultant, Dr Jeanette Wyneken, a leading turtle biologist, to advise us when and where to film. We filmed at several locations where we knew we could find the different aged turtles to tie the whole story together. The hatchlings emerging were filmed on a beach in Florida, and with extraordinary luck we captured rare footage of juveniles in the Azores, while adult turtles were filmed in the Florida Keys and the Caribbean.