Aug 31, 2008
Brian Cox Time Mayan 2012
Some more videos from behind-the-scenes on Brian’s new Horizon on Time are up on YouTube.
The documentary explores the idea of Time – what we think it is, what it isn’t and asks ‘does it exist at all?’ He talks to all kinds of people from the Director of the US Naval Observatory which keeps the Master Clock, to cosmologist Max Tegmark (who acts out what it would look like if he were to fall into a black hole), to theoretical physicist Neil Turok who talks about how Time may *not* have had a beginning. He explores Einstein’s theory of Time as well as newer theories of ‘granulated’ Time…
I’d like to point out the videos where he is talking about the idea that the Maya of Mexico predicted the end of the Universe in 2012. The sensible amongst you may not realise, but there are a sizable number of people around who seriously think that the world is going to end in December 2012 because one of the many calendars used by the Maya ‘ends’ then. Here is what I think of that.
I’m not alone, of course, in my distaste for this kind of ‘whacky stuff’ being taken seriously… Here’s what Brian thinks…
They filmed loads and loads of stuff which won’t end up in the programme, so the director Paul Olding is putting some of it up on YouTube. Here’s a bit of Brian and Jerry from the Talking Heads messing around which won’t be in the documentary ;)…
production 
QR Code DVD 
Great videos! I was sceptical at first, but now I’m really forward to the show.
Shame to waste all that footage though. Why can’t they create an uncut version and show it on BBC4? I mean the bloody “Culture” Show gets two showings a week, so why not Horizon!?
James, the ‘ideal’ shooting ratio for a programme is 10 to 1, that is 10 hours of rushes to every hour of edited programme. The real ratio tends to be way higher than that, and even moreso when there is a fly-on-the-wall or observational element to the programme. So *every* programme on TV will have tens of hours of unused footage.
Also, the reason why things are ‘cut’ from a programme tends to be because they don’t work or don’t fit. I’ve not seen the final version of the Time Horizon yet, but earlier cuts were about 10 minutes too long and even then loads of stuff wasn’t being used.
This is all totally and completely normal for programme-making!
Blimey! I new TV produced a lot of unused material, but I’d never have thought it that high. Surely that must be something fairly unique to documentaries, or does that ratio include ‘outtakes’ and the like that all programmes are prone to? Or maybe lots of camera angles? I don’t get it! Hehe, well TV is known to for being mind blowingly expensive.
Still, all the more reason for an uncut version I say. Surely it represents free TV for the BBC?
(lol – the two recaptha word are ‘small dick’. What you trying to say?)
[...] Gia Millinovich so how come we rarely see you and your hubby Professor Brian Cox in Manchester? [...]