Check out what it takes to film humpback whales in IMAX in this behind-the-scenes look at MacGillivray Freeman’s expedition to Tonga where humpbacks come to breed and give birth. Experience close-up footage of mother humpbacks and their calves and learn why patience and perseverance are essential when filming such elusive animals for the world’s largest screens.
Humpback Whales is Now Playing in select IMAX and giant screen theaters, and is available on Blu-Ray!
Narrated by two-time Golden Globe® nominee Ewan McGregor, Humpback Whales is an extraordinary journey into the mysterious world of one of nature’s most awe-inspiring marine mammals. Set in the spectacular waters of Alaska, Hawaii and Tonga, this ocean adventure offers audiences an up-close look at how these whales communicate, sing, feed, play and take care of their young. Captured for the first time with IMAX® 3D cameras, and found in every ocean on earth, humpbacks were nearly driven to extinction 50 years ago, but today are making a slow but remarkable recovery. Join a team of researchers as they unlock the secrets of the humpback and find out why humpbacks are the most acrobatic of all whales, why they sing their haunting songs, and why these intelligent, 55-foot, 50-ton animals migrate up to 10,000 miles round-trip every year.
A MacGillivray Freeman film presented by Pacific Life, Humpback Whales is directed by Greg MacGillivray and produced by Shaun MacGillivray. Filmed with 15perf / 65mm IMAX® cameras, Humpback Whales is written by Stephen Judson with a musical score by Steve Wood. A One World One Ocean production.
Action!
That was the day, Sean.
Today was the day.
That was amazing.
Absolutely one in a million day.
Today, October 11th, was the day.
That's one of the best encounters I've ever seen.
Here we are in Tonga, heading out to go film some humpback whales
with Howard, Michelle, Peter Krall, Bob Haskell, and Jason, with Sam, and myself.
When we were picking out locations for our film Humpback Whales,
we knew we wanted to find a place where we knew we could find humpback whales with their calves.
We came upon this place called Tonga.
We wanted to use that location.
It was just so stunningly beautiful.
The water is absolutely gorgeous, and thumbs up! Let's go!
Every day, we would go out and we would look for humpback whales,
which could be very, very aggravating, you want to say.
Never even saw a thing.
Never even saw it.
There's the problem of finding the whale.
Good shot.
Blue water.
And then there's the problem of actually filming with the whales.
I think we might get this.
This could be a good one.
They made us look silly.
They just went right under you and then...
It is very difficult to film these whales.
It was a little bit frustrating today with the rain that we've had the last two days.
We haven't had any sun for almost seven or eight days.
But you just don't stop at the first roadblock.
Today, we've been sitting and searching and motoring and searching,
and then we got an intel that there was mom and calf down this way, preaching.
So we are hoping that today is going to be our day, Thursday, October 11th.
Whales.
Exciting. I got no spit.
It is tough to do. You have to put in the time.
But when you get it right, you get it right.
We were able to spend four and a half hours with this mother humpback and her calf
and really get a sense of what it's like to be these animals in this environment.
It was magical. Absolutely magical.
You know, I'm really stoked that we came to Tonga because it has a unique culture.
What they've done is gone from a whaling society to a conservation slash education and tourist society.
Because they were ancient whalers and they actually hunted whales for sustenance,
it makes the saving of the whales here much more poignant.
And I think that will touch people's hearts.
