Interpreting the Geology of Bryce & Zion

This is a clip from "National Parks Exploration Series: Grand Canyon." In spite of the title the film covers the entire Colorado Plateau. In this clip you'll see Geologist Wayne Ranney and Ranger Poe explaining the in-depth geology of Bryce and Zion National Parks. The "in-depth" is what makes this film unusually interpretive.

In most of these travelogue type films, writers and directors take the "Birds fly in the sky." approach - which is to say that the narration is NO more in-depth than an audio description (head-set audio designed so that vision impaired people can hear about what sighted people are watching). This genre also features wall-to-wall music to fill in the huge dead zones such simple narration creates. This results in products that may (if visuals and music are inspirational enough) create opportunities for emotional connections but seldom offer any intellectual stimulation for anybody older than 4 years of age. Everybody knows that "Birds fly in the sky" and showing a picture of flying birds offer little to that understanding. Without the intellectual component it is NOT interpretation. Indeed without the intellectual component it is not even information and may only serve as orientation. Unfortunately many interpretive centers have spent $ millions to contract such "orientation films" and they are widely popular.

Questions:

1. Why?

A) Few want to learn anything but all like to see pretty pictures set to music?

B) International appeal of America's natural/historical treasures means multilingual captioning/dubbing and detailed science or history can only be easily understood by English speakers?

D) [your better answer goes here]

2. When you invite visitors to attend your live presentation (only being offered now) how often do they choose to watch the 22-minute film offered every half-hour instead? What reasoning if any do they offer?

3. Which interpretive service generates more positive visitor comments (written, verbal, survey rating, etc.) your interpreters live interpretation or your film?

4. What can live interpretation do/offer to rival the appeal of "Birds fly in the sky" films.



Questions:

[MannyByas]

Kudos to the tour guide . He knew EXACTLY what he was talking about and did a good job at painting to overall picture!

[andersfranz]

Bryce Canyon is amazing. I love it there!

[alanroberts]

I was lucky to have parents who liked the west. My dad had a month off work and we would leave our Chicago suburbb in August and go camping. We liked Bryce more than zion. I remember the trail that led through the hoodoos where you got a really good feel for the size of those things.

[kaelinmoore]

Singing tour guide is my new best friend, I want to meet him

[jeffshepard]

No, I also want to know how the rock formed, so you were told wrong.

[merryhunt]

Doesn't make sense. Why would the limey sediments turn to rock when the lake bottom was lifted up? Sediments need to be deeply buried to turn to rock. This is too sketchy and too fast-talking.

[ouivalerie]

Sacred lands, ancient mining grounds, what we think are mountains have been seen to be giant trees, people have lived in them, and when they sawed off, still a home but millions of years later we see petrified wood, or a big rock...sometimes a whole mountain was once a huge thought they softened the stone....but it used to be wood, petrified wood is a beautiful rock. What you see as hooloos, I see as levitation of rocks...looking at hundreds of ancient giant structures...one of which is called dolmens, this is levitation....some giant places to live were likely housing giant beings because of how big their boulder's are...and they are everywhere but you have to look close, very close for the right angle stone work.

[todaywithjesimielmillar]

Great Video! (Jesimiel Millar Fernåndez) 1M1K628