Apple TV+ continues to up the manufacturing stage on the Long Way journey collection from Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, and that’s partly all the way down to the brand new tech that the staff used to movie the present.
The journey franchise has come, like its namesake implies, a great distance for the reason that first season, Long Way Round, kicked issues off on Sky in 2004. By 2007 when season 2, Long Way Down, was launched on the BBC, the pair have been working round with Nokia 6110 Navigators and camcorders.
This grainy, shaky digicam high quality arguably grew to become a part of the present’s actuality type and made it really feel extra like a journey vlogging collection on YouTube; consider the kind of DIY residence movies you discover of bikes on lengthy stretches of street in picturesque areas.
Since Apple TV+ picked up the present in 2020 and launched Long Way Up, the collection has actually change into a way more polished journey documentary full of beautiful drone footage and scenic panoramas. And after seeing a sneak preview of the primary two episodes of Long Way Home, season 4 of the present, I’d say it’s stepped it up but once more.
That’s doubtless all the way down to the truth that the manufacturing staff had Apple behind them once more, which meant that nothing was spared when it got here to utilizing the perfect tech to seize this new journey. I acknowledged fairly a little bit of the gear within the early episodes, and after talking with the staff, I received a listing of what was used to movie the most effective Apple TV+ reveals.
What gear was used to movie Long Way Home?
Preparing for an enormous biking journey that’ll take you throughout miles / kilometers of unknown roads in new international locations is an enormous enterprise and has at all times been a part of setting the tone of every season of the Long Way TV collection, with the primary episodes exhibiting McGregor and Boorman within the lead as much as their journey. It’s a variety of logistics, to-do lists, and working round, nevertheless it’s the fact of crossing so many borders whereas holding to a schedule.
In the case of The Long Way Home, this preamble is all captured within the first episode, making fast work of the prolonged episodes that was taken up by this in earlier seasons – hey, they’re professionals now in any case. It reveals McGregor fixing up his 1974 Moto Guzzi Californian police bike, an 850 El Dorado, and Boorman bringing again to life a 1972 BMW R75/5 (though he had flirted with the concept of a 1978 Ducati 900 earlier on within the episode).
In the earlier season, the pair had ridden electrical bikes in South America and earlier than that had ridden the BMW 1200 GS in addition to its predecessor within the first season, so it’s thrilling to see them combine up their bikes for personalized classics as a substitute of the newest high-powered journey bikes.
They’ve additionally stepped up the cameras with the most effective vlogging cameras, the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. This is one in every of my favourite cameras for filming whereas touring due to its small weight and dimension, making it a no brainer when you must preserve packing area. For the motion pictures, two of the perfect motion cameras have been deployed: the DJI Osmo Action 4 together with the ‘Adventure Combo’ attachments (additional batteries, case, and selfie stick) and an Insta 360 (though I’m not clear on which actual mannequin was used, it makes a variety of sense to have a equally light-weight digicam for fast-paced scenes).
Of course, the iPhone is the smartphone of selection right here, and that is no actual shock contemplating it is the most effective telephones you should purchase. The iPhone 15 Pro Max could be seen in numerous pictures all through the primary two episodes – there’s even a bit the place the duo lose one in every of their telephones at first of the journey and have to drag aside furnishings to retrieve it.
Less consideration is paid to the extra sensible however no much less vital tech within the present. For these curious, the manufacturing staff tells me that they used SENA’s 50C bike Communication and 4K Camera together with the SC-4B-01 4-button distant and 50S bike Jog Dial headset. On the audio aspect, Ultimate Ear’s Sound Ear Pros have been used as their in-ear screens for all comms.
What to count on from Long Way Home
Every yr, the manufacturing staff behind the Long Way franchise is at all times taking a look at what new tech has been launched to verify they’re utilizing the perfect of the perfect. It is smart given the fast-paced nature of the trade. There’s additionally the truth that a few of their gear has damaged up to now, too, making the concept of reusing sure tech nearly unimaginable.
Of course, the above is not a whole record of all of the tech that was used to movie Long Way Home. As you may think about, there have been loads of different cameras, together with drones, gimbals, tripods, microphones, and extra used to make this manufacturing as slick because it seems to be. Indeed, McGregor and Boorman are at all times accompanied by a cameraman shut behind them to seize the journey.
In truth, in a Long Way Down, Claudio von Planta, the cameraman, crashed whereas filming one of many episodes. No tools broken by the tumble, exhibiting how resilient their gear was. The identical could be mentioned of the gear they used for Long Way Home, going by what the manufacturing mentioned, particularly contemplating that their drone nonetheless labored after being submerged.
“While in Finland, Ewan and Charley went fishing with a drone, capturing the second,” the manufacturing staff shared with me. “At one level, Charley forged his line and by accident snagged the drone, inflicting it to plunge into the water. The line stayed hooked, and he managed to reel within the drone. They seen the lights have been nonetheless on and, remarkably, it was nonetheless recording so, managed to seize the entire underwater journey!”
We’ll should preserve an eye fixed out for that scene when the primary 4 episodes of Long Way Home premiere on Apple TV+ this Friday, May 9. It’s one in every of three new Apple TV+ reveals we advocate streaming in May, making it splendid for a lighthearted watch when you like journey TV reveals.
