I just had a wonderful 3 weeks finishing up the principal photography on COSMOS : A SpaceTime Odyssey for FOX . Thirty-three years ago, Carl Sagan wrote and hosted the original COSMOS for the Public Broadcasting System here in the US. It is still talked about today as a groundbreaking mini-series that made big science more accessible to a non-scientific television audience of all ages. Carl’s passion and teaching ability coupled with his everyman personality guaranteed the enormous acclaim the series ultimately achieved. I remember the series as being very informative, entertaining and of course - great television!
The new show picks up where the last one left off and features many exciting new scientific breakthroughs and discoveries that have occurred since production wrapped in 1979. Sadly, Carl is no longer with us; but an acolyte of his has assumed the reins as series moderator. Neil deGrasse Tyson – astrophysicist and “Frederick P. Rose Director” at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Mr. Tyson is an engaging, warm and super nova bright television personality.
I took over for Bill Pope, ASC and prepped and photographed the last six days of principal photography. Our assignment was to shoot scripted scenes and pick-up shots throughout Southern California. We shot at Cal Tech, in the city of Pasadena, Leo Carrillo State Beach and on the back lot and on Stage 5 at Paramount Pictures. We were very fortunate to have Cory Geryak - Gaffer, Jeff Kunkel - Key Grip and David Leb – Focus Puller on the “A” camera. Scott Fuller and Ernesto Melara were our excellent additional camera operators.
Stay tuned for “COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey” in 2014 on FOX and The National Geographic Channel.
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