Globe Trekker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Globe Trekker (Pilot Guides) | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Travel/adventure |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Starring | Ian Wright Justine Shapiro Megan McCormick |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original channel | PBS OLN Canada Travel Channel TVOntario NYCTV |
| Original run | 1994–Present |
| No. of episodes | 130+ |
Globe Trekker (also called Pilot Guides in Canada and the United States and originally broadcast as Lonely Planet) is an adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The British-based series was inspired by the Lonely Planet travelbooks and began its 11th season in late 2005. Globe Trekker is broadcast in over 40 countries across 6 continents.
Each episode features a host, called a presenter, who travels with a camera crew to a country—often, a relatively exotic locale—and experiences the sights, sounds, and culture that the location has to offer. Special episodes feature in-depth city, beach, dive, shopping, history, festival, and food guides.
The show often goes far beyond popular tourist destinations in order to give viewers a more authentic look at local culture. Presenters usually participate in different aspects of regional life, such as attending a traditional wedding or visiting a mining community. They address the viewer directly, acting as tourists-turned-tour guides, but are also filmed interacting with locals and discovering interesting locations in (mostly) unrehearsed sequences. Globe Trekker also sometimes includes brief interviews with backpackers who share tips on independent travel in that particular country.
The series is known for its distinctive theme and background music, which consists largely of instrumental, downtempo, electronic dance compositions containing global folk music elements. Most of the music is written for the show by Ian Ritchie, Michael Conn, Colin Winston-Fletcher, Mako Sakamoto & Jesper Mattsson, and Stephen Luscombe & Pandit Dinesh.
[edit] Presenters
(alphabetical by last name)
- Jonathan Atherton
- Estelle Bingham
- Christina Chang
- Bradley Cooper
- Andrew Daddo
- Neil Gibson
- Nikki Grosse
- Zay Harding
- Katy Haswell
- Shilpa Mehta
- Megan McCormick
- Holly Morris
- Sami Sabiti
- Justine Shapiro
- Lavinia Tan
- Ian Wright
[edit] Trivia
- It takes from 2 to 3 weeks to film city and country guides respectively.
- A presenter is often accompanied by 5–6 members of camera and production crew, who almost never appear on camera. Specifically, the crew consists of a camera operator and a sound technician, plus a producer and a director, who scout locations 2 weeks before filming. A driver, pilot, or other type of facilitator is often hired locally.
- It takes 12 to 15 weeks to complete an episode, including at least 4 weeks of research, 3 weeks of planning and preparation (speaking to tourist boards, making travel arrangements), 2 to 3 weeks of filming, and 3 weeks of editing and post-production.
- A presenter and crew almost never spend more than three nights in one particular area.
