Battle 360 and Dogfights
April 9, 2008 - 11:20pm — Corys_Stories
For as much as I love the movies and entertainment, I am not much of a TV watcher of all of the new shows. I'm afraid if I catch a new show, I'll get hooked, and be like most of my friends who TiVo and DVR their favorites. Yuck and Blah. I am, however, hooked on two new shows on the HISTORY CHANNEL. Have you seen the CGI shows called DOGFIGHTS and BATTLE 360?
Dogfights is a military aviation themed TV series depicting historical re-enactments of air-to-air combat that took place in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, as well as smaller conflicts such as the Gulf War, the Six-Day War and the Falklands War. The program consists of former fighter pilots sharing their stories of actual dogfights in which they took part, and uses state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery (CGI) to give the viewer a better perspective of what it is like to partake in aerial combat ('camera' shaking when a plane makes a close pass or an explosion occurs close by adds to a realistic 'live experience', reminiscent of the Ace Combat game series).
In each episode, a true historical dogfight is played out. Pilots from the actual fights are brought in to re-tell their accounts of the battle. Along with the battle, there are occasional scenes that describe the pilot's living conditions and events that have happened outside the battle. Each battle is told by the pilot and a special narrator. CGI effects are used, providing a realistic simulation. Also, the show describes the planes. It takes some time to describe their advantages and disadvantages. It also describes air maneuvers and stunts pulled off by pilots. Usually, the battles told are the ones won by the American side of each war. Occasionally, there are other enemies brought into a dogfight, rather than planes. Sometimes, the pilots have to destroy ship fleets, or bomb enemy air fields, but the process is interrupted by enemy planes. After each battle, the show usually gives each pilot a short biography about future battles they might fight in, and then the credits role.
Battle 360° is a documentary series about the World War II-era aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
Battle 360° makes extensive use of computer animation to depict the story of the Enterprise. The animation is combined with documentary footage, interviews of Enterprise crew members and military historians, and voice-over narration.
You have got to watch a few episodes. The CGI is awesome! I don't know how accurate the animations truly are to story detail, but it's very convincing of what may have actually happened. Listening to the old WWII soldiers really makes the episodes interesting. I love CGI, but think Hollywood is overdoing it a bit in the newest movies. I feel that the CGI graphics are displayed rather well in these two series. I have both of the History Channels now, and am twice as bad now.