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(0)Windfall Films
Description
A glittering new tower will soon be scraping the skies over Paris. Transparent and thin as a pencil, it will challenge the laws of nature. But will it snap in a storm or collapse like a house of cards? Our host for this program is Tony Fitzpatrick, a dynamic engineer who has built some of the world's most flamboyant skyscrapers. In addition to examining this new tower in Paris, the program traces the dizzying history of skyscrapers and our quest to...
Description
Every day our cities are swamped with a logjam of cars, trucks, and buses. Behind this chaos, though, lies a master plan which struggles to keep the modern city on the move. This program explores the age-old battle between the city and its traffic as we follow a colorful London cabby on his journeys throughout the city. The program explains the origin of traffic signals, examines the American grid plan, speaks to the man responsible for all traffic...
Description
A railway through the underworld? The idea required a leap of technology as well as a leap of faith for its riders when first introduced. This program traces the history and development of subways, using unique techniques to bring old drawings and photographs to life, to dramatize the building of the first subways. The program explores the role of the subway today, peeling back the pavement to reveal the rattling metal trains which play such an integral...
Description
This program explains the surprisingly strong effect that street lighting has on our cities. In addition to being a powerful tool to prevent crime, more and better lighting has improved the sense of well-being and added new dimensions to the business and social activities of the city. But as a whole new world was created from lighting the darkness, the problem has turned from quality of light to the quantity. What are the consequences of too much...
Description
Odorless, hygienic, and sanitized-although that's how most of the western world's city sewer systems would be described today, it wasn't always so. Using London as an example, this program looks at the history of the city and its sewage, and the development and effect on cities of indoor bathrooms and toilets and the sewers built to cope with them. Once considered a wonder cure which made cities cleaner and healthier, the convenience of the modern...
7) Light
Description
How to capture light is a major preoccupation for artists, and each has a different way of accomplishing the task. Although John Greenwood paints still lifes of imaginary objects, he is nevertheless determined to paint them as though they were sitting in natural light. On a fishing boat, Len Tabner tackles the challenge of adapting to changing light. How artists such as Masaccio, Turner, and Monet used light in their work is discussed.
8) Brushstrokes
Description
John Virtue is painting an impressionist landscape on an enormous canvas laid out in a field. While he paints, he discusses how he expresses himself artistically through creative brushstrokes rather than through realistic imagery. Through Virtue we learn how the elevated social status of artists in general, and physical changes in the composition of paints, have allowed for more artistic experimentation with a wider variety of mediums and techniques....
Description
Saving Notre Dame documents the immediate aftermath of the devastating fire and the first-year efforts to save the cathedral from collapsing. Embedded with architects, archaeologists, engineers and all the special crafts needed to rebuild (carpenters, builders), this series captures unique human stories and bears witness to the progress and difficulties of this challenging mission.
Description
One of a series on the history of painting techniques, with interviews with contemporary artists and reconstructed scenes from earlier times: the work of British painters, Ben Johnson (b.1946), who often works from photographs, and Patrick Hughes, (b.1939), who paints three-dimensional illusions.