March 20, 2009

Sheep Art. (SLYT)
posted by dilettante 15 years ago
  • I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, shepherding is an amazing skill, and anything that helps keep it alive is good. And what these guys are doing is brilliantly creative and fun. On the other hand, it looked as if the sheep were a bit stressed at having those LED nets wrapped around them. And running stressed sheep over a hillside in the dark is a sure way to injure some of them. It would be interesting to know if there were casualties from the herd as a result of this.
  • If this sort of thing could get One man and his dog back on a regular schedule, then I'm all for it. I guess people don't sufficiently appreciate the awesomeness of shepherding these days, so it's necessary to add LEDs. Then again, most things are better with added LEDs.
  • It's a Samsung ad that's been digitally manipulated, etc., and so forth. I don't think the ad will do much in terms of keeping shepherding skills alive. If anything, it will probably spawn copycats tossing LEDs on anything that moves, and a plethora of "FW: FW: FW: Watch this!! You won't believe it!!" emails from my relatives... /jaded mini-rant
  • I lubs me some sheepdog herding. Pallas: I didn't see any sheep stressed. They tend to spread their front legs, drop their heads, and hang their tongues as well as rolling their eyes. They look alert to the dogs in the close-ups with the LEDs, most likely because there is a bit of night vision loss. I'm sure the sheep on the edge can see well enough, and they certainly have good hearing. Nobody mentions that sheep learn what the whistles and commands mean, but I've seen older sheep you could 'whistle' in, because they think there's a dog after them. :) I doubt if they are bothered after the initial blanketing with the LEDs--many sheep wear little rugs to keep their wool clean or keep them warm after shearing. I'm sure they sped up the video and that the positioning was much, much slower than it was shown. Work sheep too hard or too fast, and they tend to go off like popcorn and be extremely hard to control. Something that you're certainly not going to want to pay extra time for when you're on a filming budget. I wouldn't be surprised if they put out 'fresh' sheep or filmed this over a period of several days. If nothing else, you know they had a rest between the daylight and night shots. Pretty cool!
  • SMT, you're an old poop. I'll bet most of the herding was an example of great skills. Maybe the Mona Lisa part was digital, but overall, great fun. If you're worried about the relatives, just beat them to it and send it first.
  • Crap. Next you'll tell me that there's no Easter Bunny, too. I figured there was some kind of manipulation with that moving sheep, anyway. Speed was off, maybe? Grumpity grumpgrumpgrump. Kind of a failure as an ad if people don't even catch the Samsung part, isn't it? On the internet, you're allowed to be illiterate.
  • Didn' mean to pull mah dentures out. Oh, I suppose 'um I got my whitey-tighties in a wad since I had no less than 3 emails on this ad yesterday alone, and saw it posted elsewhere on the filter as well. Nuttin' wrong with the post, dilettante! Besides, the first time was mighty amusing to watch... *slaps dentures back in*
  • BlueHorse, I bow to your superior ovine knowledge, and am relieved to know the sheep may be happier than I gave the handlers credit for. Whew!
  • a good morning chuckle... thanks!
  • This is effing brilliant. I don't care if it's sped up and manipulated, it's brilliant.
  • I enjoyed this, and it was a lot more fun after reading BlueHorse's reassuring comments. Working sheepdogs are astonishing. This puts a new dimension to it.
  • Beautiful country; tough life.