CNN’s bill Weir and filmmaker Philip Bloom barely knew every other once they launched into a 5-month journey world wide, taking pictures in places ranging from Vanuatu to Venice, the Greek Island of Ikaria to the Galapagos Islands and the French Alps to the Florida Everglades for the brand new CNN documentary sequence The marvel checklist with invoice Weir, which premiered in early March.

“It’s like getting married to any individual you’ve handiest been on a first date with,” cracks Bloom, the collection’ director of pictures. “We didn’t take some time.”

“It used to be a shotgun marriage ceremony,” host and executive producer Weir adds, noting he had in fact asked any individual else to shoot the collection. “The actual story is I provided the job to a pal of mine who bought a greater provide,” he explains. “We had been each fans of Philip, and that i said, ‘I’ll express him. I’ll make him jealous. I’ll get the man himself!’ I despatched Philip an email, and we were on the telephone a couple of days later, and per week later we have been having gin and tonics and just dreaming about the place we wanted to go.”

With Weir as information, The marvel listing—airing on CNN Sunday nights—introduces viewers to stunning, awe-inspiring locations as well as individuals and creatures that are beneath chance as a result of the whole thing from climate alternate to societal shifts. The hope is that the exhibit will get individuals considering and speaking about how we are able to transfer into the long run without destroying what’s precious from our previous.

Weir was continuously stunned with the aid of what he revealed in locations like Venice. “I went there thinking it was going to be a narrative about water and rising sea stage administration, and it really—in spite of everything—became out to be a narrative about overpopulation,” he says. “The Venetians say they can deal with water—they’ve been coping with it for 1,500 years. What they’re trying to wrap their hands around is massive cruise ships that dump heaps of individuals in St. Mark’s square.”

every episode of The surprise record makes a speciality of one situation. the theory for the sequence finest, shot in Vanuatu, a gaggle of lush islands north of recent Zealand, came from Weir thinking, “I want to find a tribe in paradise.”

“I wasn’t certain the place that might be. I talked to quite a few NGOs that care for indigenous people, and you know it’s an actual ethical thicket,” he says. “There are tribes in the Amazon, uncontacted tribes, which sound like they’d make great television, but maybe now not. perhaps they don’t want you there.”

Weir determined to head to Vanuatu, home to the Yakel tribe. while dwelling a ways off the grid, these individuals had had at the least some publicity to the skin world, and he knew they would welcome a consult with from a tv crew.

It used to be a small crew—”I was once just on the lookout for a small ninja team of guys who knew shoot and who had an interest in DSLR pictures but might also deal with themselves in the field,” Weir says—made up of the host, Bloom and two people.

The marvel record is a CNN in-house production, marking the primary time the information network has produced an original non-fiction collection—displays like Anthony Bourdain’s components Unknown and Morgan’s Spurlock’s within Man come from out of doors manufacturing corporations. And it wasn’t a big-budget production. “a part of getting the greenlight, type of the asterisk to this superb greenlight to get to do that dream venture was that it would be an experiment in inventive value keep watch over,” Weir says.

That didn’t section Weir or Bloom, who is known for pushing digital filmmaking to the bounds and writing about method and tools on his weblog. To capture the lovely visuals viewed in The wonder checklist, Bloom, who did lots of the taking pictures himself, relied on a Sony F55 and FS7 in addition to the Sony A7, and he used GoPros, too.

Mounting a digital camera to a drone allowed Bloom to get some excellent photographs, including one in all Weir trekking up the facet of a volcano, although he didn’t use a drone as frequently as you may think. “there are many episodes the place we simply wished shall we use a drone, however we couldn’t,” Bloom says. “In complete truthfully, it’s a difficult one. i’ve been barely using them [this past year for any projects]. In most locations, the rules aren’t in situation but. We’re still ready for international locations to determine it out.”

while Bloom knew get the most effective out of his camera tools, he additionally credits excellent teamwork and organization with enabling The surprise list crew to seize a lot wonderful imagery. “i think season two, if it happens, will likely be an important notch up on account of our experience,” Bloom says. “We’ve discovered what works.”

For his section, Weir would modify his workflow if The wonder listing will get a 2nd season. “It was just a beast to move through all that photos after which for me to script it within the few days we had between trips. It become a burden,” Weir says, including, “but speak about a crash route in documentary filmmaking. every night time, we’d sit again and allow ourselves to be sort of gobsmacked by using the idea that we have been seeking to shoot eight original hour-long documentaries in eight nations on 5 continents in five months, and that i’m so pleased with how it indirectly all came out, somehow in opposition to all odds.”