''Sunrise Earth'' is a

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or television documentary, series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's nat ...

television series that last aired in the United States in 2008 on

HD Theater Motor Trend is an American automotive television network owned by Motor Trend Group, a subsidiary of Hearst Magazines (which in turn is a division of Hearst Communications). It primarily broadcasts automotive-themed programming, including motor ...

(originally Discovery HD Theater), which has since been reformatted and rebranded as

Velocity Velocity is a measurement of speed in a certain direction of motion. It is a fundamental concept in kinematics, the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of physical objects. Velocity is a vector (geometry), vector Physical q ...

. The series focused on presenting the viewer with sunrises in various geographical locations throughout the world. It is also notable for its complete lack of human narration, concentrating instead on the natural sounds of each episodes' specific location. The technique has been described by TV critic

Tom Shales Thomas William Shales (November 3, 1944 – January 13, 2024) was an American writer and television critic. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1 ...

as "crazily uneventful and thoroughly wonderful."HD May Be Too Good To Last
2005-07-05

Production

Compass Light, Conover's small production company in

Camden, Maine Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,232 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is ...

, started producing the series in 2004. Clint Stinchcomb helped produce the series. 64 one-hour ''Sunrise Earth'' shows were created in the first four years of production. The crew shoots with high-definition video cameras, and the editors cut between multiple perspectives at a leisurely pace. The show is presented in real-time, with each shot lasting an average of 30 seconds. Each episode captures one sunrise from a certain location, such as

Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain ridge at . Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire. It is located in the ...

, Turkey or Scandinavia. Captions in the lower portion of the frame occasionally give information as to the location, time, and events on screen.

Audio

High-definition video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines ( ...

and

Dolby 5.1 Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3 (see below), is the name for a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, it is lossy compression (except for Dolby T ...

stereo surround sound are used to present each

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts ...

in a clear and detailed manner. The show is an example of the genre known as "Experiential TV", developed by series creator David Conover.About Compass Light Productions
2008-07-09

Schedule

''Sunrise Earth'' aired weekdays at 7a.m. and 10a.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

on Discovery HD Theater.Sunrise Earth: Discovery HD Theater
However, as of mid-March 2011, the show no longer airs on any channel (current or otherwise), except on Amazon Prime, and is rumored to have been cancelled, though no official word from Discovery or Compass Light has confirmed this. All three seasons were made available on Amazon Prime.

Reception

Ross McCammon of ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' said the show "will relax and reset you", calling it "an antidote not only to everything else happening on TV that night but to everything else that happened to you that day". ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. P ...

''s Kurt Loft wrote, "For eye-popping visuals in the HD format, ''Sunrise Earth'' is a world unto itself."

Episode list

*Season 1 #

Moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

in the Morning #

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

Geysers # Gator Hole #

Bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

Before Breakfast # Sea of

Tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also ...

s #

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

Balloons # Alewife Eternal Return # Tropical Palms #

Swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

Sea Cave #

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is a national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service ...

Dawn # Cribworks

Kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

# Sequoioideae, Sequoia Light # Sunrise

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

Colony #

Lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

Village # Western

Ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...

River of Grass # Wildflower

Elk The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. ...

# Edge of

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

# Milk

Cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called co ...

s in the Morning # San Francisco

Tai Chi is a Chinese martial art. Initially developed for combat and self-defense, for most practitioners it has evolved into a sport and form of exercise. As an exercise, tai chi is performed as gentle, low-impact movement in which practitioners ...

# Teton

Beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

Manatee Manatees (, family (biology), family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivory, herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing t ...

Spring # Island First Light # Greatest Hits East # Greatest Hits West *Season 2 #

Katmai Bears

# Volcano Lagoon # Homer Takeoff # Ninagiak Island # Glacier of Kenai Fjords *Season 3 #

Mayan Pyramid

# Birds of Palo Verde # Cloudforest Waterfall # Playa Grande Moonset # Dawn of Cerro de La Muerte # Angkor Temples of Khmer Kings # Li River Cormorants # Ping An Rice Paddies # Buddhists of Wat Svay # Elephant Trunk Park # Scandinavian Waterfall # Foothills of Turkey # Stonehenge Dawn # Mediterranean Port # Icelandic Geysir # Argentinean Seal Pups # Peruvian Rainforest Canopy # Andean Dawn at Machu Picchu # Amazon Parakeets # Patagonian Penguins # Christmas Lights # Total Eclipse # Polar Bears # Secrets of the Sun (special documentary) *Season 4 – Viewers Choice #

The Skelligs of Ireland

# Great Barrier Reef # Haleakala Crater # Society Island Sunrise # New Zealand Frost *Season 5 – Viewers Choice II #

Japanese Garden

# High Desert Arches # Midnight Sun of Svalbard # Vancouver Inside Passage # Venetian Canals

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0784945, Sunrise Earth
Sunrise Earth on Amazon Prime
Documentary films about nature 2004 American television series debuts Animal Planet original programming