Morning Light (2008)

Director:

Mark Monroe

Release Date:

12 March 2009 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | Sport

Tagline:

A 2500 mile journey that will change the course of their lives forever.

Plot:

Fifteen young sailors... six months of intense training... one chance at the brass ring. This documentary...

Plot Keywords:

Yachting

Cast

Chris Branning	...	Himself
Graham Brant-Zawadzki	...	Himself
Chris Clark	...	Himself
Charlie Enright	...	Himself
Jesse Fielding	...	Himself
Robbie Kane	...	Himself
Steve Manson	...	Himself
Chris Schubert	...	Himself
Kate Theisen	...	Herself
Mark Towill	...	Himself
Genny Tulloch	...	Herself
Pieter van Os	...	Himself
Chris Welch	...	Himself
Kit Will	...	Herself
Jeremy Wilmot	...	Himself

Directed by
Mark Monroe

Produced by
Leslie DeMeuse	....	executive producer
Roy Edward Disney	....	executive producer
Morgan Sackett	....	producer
Phil Uhl	....	coordinating producer

Cinematography by
Josef Nalevansky

Film Editing by
Paul Crowder
Mark Monroe

Sound Department
Steve Baine	....	foley artist
Ethan Beigel	....	adr mixer
Keith Bilderbeck	....	supervising sound effects editor
Barbara Delpuech	....	supervising dialogue & adr editor
Yann Delpuech	....	sound designer
Yann Delpuech	....	supervising sound editor
Christopher Fina	....	adr mixer
Harry Haese	....	sound mixer
Matt Hovland	....	adr mixer
David S. McJunkin	....	lead sound mixer
Frank Morrone	....	sound re-recording mixer
Peter Persaud	....	foley recordist
Scott Weber	....	sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Eddie Bonin	....	visual effects producer
Christopher Dusendschon	....	digital imaging supervisor: iO FILM
Daniel Kumiega	....	visual effects
Christopher D. Martin	....	lead compositor
Scott Ramsey	....	visual effects supervisor
Jon Rosenthal	....	digital effects artist

Camera and Electrical Department
John Behrens	....	camera operator
Todd Cogan	....	camera operator
Todd Cogan	....	still photographer
Andreas Crawford	....	rigging grip
Rick Crum	....	electrician
Craig Hoffmann	....	assistant camera
Sid Lubitsch	....	camera operator
Ryan Sheridan	....	video engineer
Don Thiel	....	camera technician
David Unitan	....	unit cinematographer
Terence Chu	....	additional photography (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Zack Arnold	....	editor: Opening Sequence
Nathan Godley	....	assistant editor
Derek Herr	....	on-line editor
Andy Lichtstein	....	digital colorist
Lara Mazzawi	....	assistant editor
Jacqueline Savonarola	....	assistant editor
Christine Seino	....	assistant on-line editor

Music Department
Liz Gallacher	....	music supervisor
Alexandra Hill	....	music supervision executive

Other crew
Alexandra Hill	....	music supervision executive
Joe Piasecki	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Walt Disney Pictures

Distributors

• Walt Disney Pictures (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (2009) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista International (2009) (Argentina) (all media)
• Gativideo (2009) (Argentina) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Big Machine Design  trailer production
• Cutting Edge Group  music services
• NovaStar Digital  sound post-production
• Runway  post-production services
• iO Films  digital intermediate

Also Known As:

La gran regata (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
Morning Light (Japan: English title) [en]
Morning Light: To istioforo pou egrapse istoria (Greece) (DVD title) [el]

MPAA:

Rated PG for some language. (edited for re-rating; originally Rated PG for language and some rude dialogue)

Runtime:

100 min | USA:97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG | Australia:PG | Ireland:G | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Singapore:PG

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

The Slip and Slide of Cinema

What happens if you put fifteen young, good looking adults in the same place, and make them compete to join a team that will participate in one of the most elite races in sailing? As it turns out, nothing but sailing in the documentary Morning Light.

Roy Disney wanted to get young sailors in the TransPac race so he bought the Morning Light, and set off to get the best to man it. Fifteen mostly obscenely rich, mostly white, all good looking, young sailors, Chris Branning, Grahm Brant-Zawadzki, Chris Clark, Charlie Enright, Jesse Fielding, Robbie Kane, Steve Manson Chris Schubert, Kate Theisen, Mark Towill, Genny Tulloch, Pieter van Os, Chris Welsh, Kit Will and Jeremy Wilmont are chosen to vie for eleven spots on the Morning Light. They go sailing, talk about sailing and look at sail boats.

A reasonable person would venture a guess that a bunch of young virile men in a competitive situation trapped in a small space with a couple of women might bring some sexual tension. It would be expected that directly competing to participate in one of the most elite races in sailing, the TransPac, would cause outbursts or the occasional jockeying for attention or recognition. The powerful part of competitive reality TV…er movies… is the strong emotional connection between the people on the screen.

Watching Morning Light is like trying to swim on a slip and slide. While it is wet and you can move across it swiftly on your stomach, you can't drown in the story because the water is only there to lube you up. Nothing that would make the audience submerge into the depths of the people or circumstances even grace the screen.

Morning Light has the emotional depth of a sociopath. We might as well be watching, "How to sail: A Step by Step Guide for the Rich and Moronic," because it offers equal levels of emotional expressiveness. They did not make me wonder or care about who would be selected to make the team, if they won the race or how they got along. Instead of asking myself questions of wonder during the movie, I often asked myself, "Who cares?" On the plus side, I do know far more about sailing than I ever did before, maybe enough to encourage me to buy a sail boat – if I could afford one. Until then, I hope Disney leaves Morning Light out at sea.