MORNING LIGHT
By: Iggy Michniacki on 6.19.2009
The Movie Itself:
Fifteen college aged kids, eleven spots open to cross the Pacific, and less than a year to prepare. Sounds like the next American Pie movie but it isn’t. It’s actually Disney’s documentary called Morning Light that took some ordinary college kids (by ordinary I mean Ivy League and rich), and trained them to sail the TransPacific on a sailboat called the Morning Light.
Roy Disney, who at one time held the time record for the TransPacific (TransPac from here on out), decided he would sponsor a ship called the Morning Light and fill it up with young adults as opposed to a trained, veteran crew. Thus, Morning Light was born as a documentary, following the process of the fifteen finalists as they trained and prepared for the TransPac, then dwindling it down to the eleven who eventually raced it. The youngsters, Jeremy Wilmot, Chris Clark, Jesse Fielding, Kate Theisen, Chris Branning, Steve Manson, Charlie Enright, Graham Zawadzki, Chris Welch, Robbie Kane, Kit Will, Chris Schubert, Genny Tulloch, Pieter van Os, and Mark Towill, all ranging in between the ages of 18 and 23 spent over six months of training that pushed them to the limits. Over night sails for the first time, extensive safety training, and even learning how to swim for one young man was just the tip of the iceberg as the training was more than extensive. Emotionally, they are torn apart, and physically they are beat down, but every single one of them feels that everything they do to prepare is worth it. Worth it indeed, as the payoff is the first open sea race for any of these young adults, and even better for them, they are in control, as it is one of them is the ‘skipper’, and it is all of them who must make everything work or it could all end in a very dramatic manner.
Morning Light doesn’t dazzle as it falls shy of some of the more exciting documentaries such as the lengthy Planet Earth and Blue Planet, both from Discovery Channel, but it does grab the attention of its audience. The young men and women training to sail are well spoken and aren’t afraid to open up to each other. The way the movie is somewhat narrated works for this type of production and the editing of the documentary is simply amazing as some of the shots are more than stunning. Beautiful scenery, wonderful camera angles and other amazing shots are the saving grace as the way the movie looks falls shy of nothing. On the other hand, though, there is little to no connection with the young crew, as the inability for me to remember the names, or the fact that some never speak a word on camera show this. Of course over six months and the decision to go from fifteen to eleven finalists drama is expected, but that ends up being far from the case in this production. There are no attitudes, no distrust, no anger from not being selected, and no arguments during a cramped eleven days on a sailboat. Although Morning Light isn’t the type of film that needs drama one would expect it, and by holding it back (if there was any) makes the young adults involved in this production seem less real and, in a way, disconnects them from the viewers and reality.
The faces on the screen aren’t completely separated from reality though, as at times you can see the reality on their face. Emotions may have not flared, but hurt from not being the finalists is present and one stupid decision for one of the young women has the potential to shatter the whole dream. I guess this is the closest I will ever get to sailing across the Pacific Ocean, as a day on water is something I would want to do to relax not something I would do to rip myself apart just surviving. The concept is obviously different, as this is something that Disney tried to recreate because it had been since 1969 since a young man borrowed his dad’s sailboat and won the TransPac with just a group of his friends. Did Morning Light win? Well, you’ll have to watch to find out as the ride is definitely a rollercoaster for them with both the possibility of winning and losing occurs more than once.
To top it all off, Disney just manages to work magic not only in the studio, but now in nature, as the Morning Light sailed into Hawaii in the morning light of a beautiful sunrise with an impressive finish that made the trip more than worthwhile for every one of these young men and women. Every single person involved on this project will remember it for the rest of their lives and cherish the events as this is truly a once in a lifetime experience for a few, and a never in a lifetime experience for most of us watching. In the end, the documentary was a pleasant surprise, and although isn’t a movie I will replay over and over again, it was interesting enough to keep my attention and worth the watch.
Rating: 6/10
 The Presentation:
Documentaries are a tough cookie to swallow when it comes to presentation as they usually use different filming styles, cameras, and angles. But if it wasn’t hard enough to deliver a consistent transfer on a documentary, imagine a documentary on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. Encoded with an AVC 1080p transfer, Morning Light has moments of brilliance mixed in with moments of flatness and lack of detail. The cameras used were a wide variety and it shows throughout the documentary. Some scenes, especially those on shore, are simply stunning. Sunsets show colors amazingly, skintones are real and detail is present from one corner of the screen to the other. Other scenes seem flat, lacking detail and washed out. Colors can look great one moment and then over saturated the next. A few things do stay consistent though throughout the movie. Blacks seem to hold details fairly well, and contrast seems to always be there. Much like other documentaries we are awed with moments of greatness but then disappointed with limitations of technology.
Although impressive at times the audio track can find itself a bit inconsistent as well. Even though Morning Light is packing a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, the style of filming and capturing audio really showed its limits here. The audio sounds fine as it isn’t muffled or distorted. Every conversation comes across clear. Narration and spoken journal entries come across the center channel without interruption and music sounds crisp and clean. The problem really lies in the fact that the center channel does the majority of the work and the audio that should be surround sound is not strong enough and comes off as front heavy. The subwoofer doesn’t work hard either, as it is often left sitting in the corner all by itself. The audio did its job but without the limitations this track could have obviously been much, much more.
Rating: 6/10 (video 6/10, audio 6/10)
 The Extras:
Morning Light comes equipped with only two extras. Although they are great extras they are just a couple and both are in standard definition. Stories from the Sea spends about half an hour going behind the scenes with crew, cast, coaches, and filmmakers looking at how the documentary was put together and discussing some of the difficulties of shooting a film like this. The second extra is Making the Cut which originally aired on ESPN. This featurette was a prime-time special looking into what it took for these fifteen young adults to make the cut and have the chance to sail Morning Light.
Rating: 2/10
Overall:
Morning Light falls under the same pros and cons that most of the Blu-ray documentaries fall under. The documentary itself is exciting enough for a single view but has its moments of being drawn out and the Blu-ray’s audio and video suffers from inconsistency due to the use of a variety of filming styles and trying to capture audio on a sailboat. With a minimum amount of extras, Morning Light should be a rental for most and only purchased if you frequent your sailboat once or twice a month.
Rating: 5/10
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