Editing Winged Migration (section)

==Production==
The movie was shot over the course of three years on all seven [[continent]]s. Filming began in July 1998 and ended in spring 2001. Most of the footage is aerial, shot using in-flight cameras from [[ultralight aviation|ultralights]], [[paraglider]]s, and [[hot air balloon]]s, with additional footage captured from [[truck]]s, [[motorcycle]]s, [[motorboat]]s, remote-controlled [[robot]]s, and a [[French Navy]] warship.

The viewer appears to be flying alongside birds of successive species, with many shots of [[Canada geese]]. They traverse every kind of weather and [[landscape]], covering vast distances in a flight for survival. The filmmakers exposed over 590 miles of film to create an 89-minute piece. In one case, two months of filming in one location was edited down to less than one minute in the final film.

Much of the aerial footage was taken of "tame" birds. The filmmakers raised birds of several species, including [[stork]]s and [[pelican]]s, from birth. The newborn birds [[imprinting (psychology)|imprinted]] on staff members, and were trained to fly along with the film crews. The birds were also exposed to the film equipment over the course of their lives to ensure that the birds would not be unsettled by it. Several of these species had never been imprinted before.

Its producer says that ''Winged Migration'' is neither a documentary nor [[fiction]], but rather a "natural tale".<ref name="makingof">"Making of" special feature on the DVD</ref>

The film states that no [[special effect]]s were used in the filming of the birds, although some entirely [[Computer-generated imagery|CGI]] segments that view Earth from outer space and include animated birds augment the real-life footage.<!-- If the bird images are real but just superimposed over the CGI, then someone needs to establish that with a legitimate citation.-->

The film's soundtrack by [[Bruno Coulais]] was recorded by Bulgarian vocal group [[Bulgarka Junior Quartet]] in Bulgarian, as well as [[Nick Cave]] in English and [[Robert Wyatt]]. The vocal effects include sequences in which panting is superimposed on wingbeats to give the effect that the viewer is right alongside a bird.

'''Release date'''
The film was released in France on 2001/12/12, Japan 2003/04/05...(Tokyo), the USA 2003/04/5...(Philadelphia International Film Festival), and the UK on 2003/09/05