Mayday (TV series)
Mayday | |
---|---|
| |
Also known as |
Air Crash Investigation(s) Air Emergency (National Geographic Channel) Air Disasters (Smithsonian Channel) |
Genre |
Documentary Docudrama |
Created by | André Barro |
Narrated by |
Stephen Bogaert for Canada and the US Bill Ratner for the US (Smithsonian Channel) Jonathan Aris for Australia, Asia and Europe |
Country of origin | Canada |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 15 |
No. of episodes | 130 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 45–90 minutes |
Production company(s) | Cineflix Productions |
Release | |
Original network |
Discovery Channel Canada National Geographic Channel |
Original release | 3 September 2003 – present |
External links | |
Production website |
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation(s) in Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Asia and some European countries, and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television program produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes, hijackings, bombings and other disasters. Mayday uses re-enactments and computer-generated imagery to reconstruct for its audiences the sequence of events leading up to each disaster. In addition, aviation experts, retired pilots and crash investigators are interviewed explaining how these emergencies came about, how they were investigated and how they could have been prevented.
Cineflix started production on 13 August 2002, with a CDN$2.5 million budget. Cineflix secured deals with France 5, the Discovery Channel, Canal D, TVNZ, the Seven Network, the Holland Media Group and the National Geographic Channel, to take Mayday to 144 countries and 26 languages. The series was received well by critics and nominated for a number of awards. Sharon Zupancic won a Gemini Award for her work on the Mayday episode, "Lockerbie Disaster". A UNSW senior lecturer, Raymond Lewis, conducted a study on teaching strategy loosely based on the series. Lewis's results indicated using the strategy had "a positive effect on learning outcomes."
Hallmarks
The series features re-enactments, interviews, eyewitness testimony, computer-generated imagery, and in nearly all of the episodes, cockpit voice recordings to reconstruct the sequence of events to the audiences. Several passengers and crew members (whether they survived the incident or not) are picked and actors/actresses play the role of those passengers and crews throughout the flight usually starting from boarding of the flight. The flight routines in the air traffic control, cockpit and cabin are recreated on screen starting from departure up to the moment of the emergency. At the moment of the emergency, external view of the aircraft from different angles are recreated to show the effect and what had happened to the aircraft. The responses and reactions of the passengers, crews and air traffic control leading up to the eventual crash or emergency landing are then recreated. All the scenes in cockpit and air traffic control centres are recreated using the actual script obtained from the cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft and other recordings made at the time.
Throughout the episodes the victims or relatives and friends of victims are interviewed.[1][2] In addition aviation experts, retired pilots and investigators are interviewed on the evidence and explain how these emergencies came about and how they could have been prevented.[2]
Production and distribution
Cineflix started production for Mayday on 13 August 2002, with a CDN$2.5 million budget, after Channel Five commissioned the six-part one-hour series.[3] To keep the costs down most of the production was kept at Cineflix's Toronto offices in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[4] While in production the series was sold to France 5, Discovery Channel and Canal D.[5] On 2 June 2003, Cineflix announced that it had sold the series to TVNZ, the Seven Network and the Holland Media Group.[5] Later that year on October 10, a month before the airing of the first season, Cineflix announced that it had secured a major international deal with National Geographic Channel to take Mayday to 144 countries and 26 languages.[6]
In 2011, Smithsonian Networks aired Season 5 renamed to Air Disasters, making it the first time in the USA that Mayday had aired other than on National Geographic. On 25 January 2012, Cineflix Rights announced that it would be selling Seasons 8, 9 and 11 (23 episodes) to Smithsonian Networks.[7] On 28 March 2014, Cineflix Rights announced a deal with Smithsonian Networks to air seasons 3, 4 and 13 (34 episodes).[8]
Episodes
As of 17 February 2016, a total of 130 episodes of Mayday have aired – including 5 Science of Disaster specials and 3 Crash Scene Investigation spin-offs, which do not examine aircraft crashes. In January 2016, Cineflix confirmed that a 16th season is currently in production. Containing 10 episodes, it is planned to air in the first weeks of 2017.
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD release dates | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||
1 | 6 | 3 September 2003[9] | 22 October 2003[9] | 9 April 2009[10] | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
2 | 6 | 23 January 2005[12] | 27 February 2005 | TBA | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
3 | 13 | 14 September 2005[13] | 7 December 2005[13] | 15 May 2012[14] | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
4 | 10 | 15 April 2007[15] | 17 June 2007[13] | 15 May 2012[14] | 5 October 2015 <ref name"=Zavvi2">{{cite web|title=Mayday Air Disaster - Complete Series 4 DVD|url=http://www.zavvi.com/dvd/mayday-air-disaster-complete-series-4/11150851.html|website=Zavvi.com|accessdate=2 September 2015}}</ref> | 7 March 2013[11] | |
5 | 10 | 16 April 2007[13] | 2 March 2008[13] | TBA | 5 October 2015[16] | 7 March 2013[11] | |
6 | 3 | 9 April 2008[13] | 11 June 2008[13] | TBA | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
7 | 8 | 4 November 2009[17] | 17 December 2009 | TBA | TBA | 6 May 2010[18] | |
8 | 2 | 10 June 2009[19] | 17 June 2009[19] | TBA | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
9 | 8 | 8 September 2010[20] | 27 October 2010 | TBA | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
10 | 6 | 27 February 2011 | 28 March 2011[21] | TBA | TBA | 7 March 2013[11] | |
11 | 13 | 12 August 2011 | 13 April 2012 | TBA | TBA | 5 September 2012[22] | |
12 | 13 | 3 August 2012 | 15 April 2013 | TBA | TBA | 14 August 2013[23] | |
13 | 11 | 16 December 2013 | 9 May 2014 | TBA | TBA | 2 December 2015[24] | |
14 | 11 | 5 January 2015 | 2 March 2015 | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
15 | 10 | 4 January 2016 | 17 February 2016 | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Reception
The series has been received well by critics.[1][2] Paul Mavis from DVD Talk recommends Mayday as "Harrowing and surprisingly emotional" and continues with "Never exploitative, [Mayday] not only ratchets up the suspense with its well-done action scenes, it validates them by showing us the human side of these horrific air disasters."[1] Franck Tabouring from DVD Verdict said "It's a well-produced show with plenty of compelling information about tragic accidents, telling how some people survived and others didn't."[2]
University of New South Wales's senior lecturer, Raymond Lewis, conducted a study on teaching strategy loosely based on the series. The study was done with prospective pilots studying the "Aircraft Systems for Aviators" undergraduate course by including "study of air accidents and incidents associated with aircraft systems". The results of the study showed "the use of air accidents and incident scenarios had a positive effect on learning outcomes."[25]
Awards and nominations
Overall, the series was nominated for nine awards. It won two, both for film editing.
Year | Nominated work | Recipient(s) | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canadian Society of Cinematographers | ||||
2004 | "Flying Blind" | Michael Boland | Best Cinematography in Docudrama | Nominated |
2008 | "Final Approach" | Damir I Chytil | Nominated | |
"Gimli Glider" | D. Gregor Hagey | Nominated | ||
2009 | "Air India: Explosive Evidence" | Paul Tolton | Nominated | |
"Fatal Distraction" | D. Gregor Hagey | Nominated | ||
Gemini Awards | ||||
2009 | Mayday: Season 5 | Simon Lloyd • Larry Bambrick • Katherine Buck • Alex Bystram • Greg Lanning • Samantha Linton • Glen Salzman • John Vandervelde |
Best General/Human Interest Series | Nominated |
2010 | "Lockerbie Disaster" | Sharon Zupancic | Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Series | Won |
Canadian Screen Awards | ||||
2014 | "Focused on Failure" | Brian Eimer • Jessica Moniz • Josh Vamos • Matt Vandersluys • Michael Bonini • Nadia Awad |
Best Sound in an Information/ Documentary or Lifestyle Program or Series | Nominated |
2015 | "Into the Eye of the Storm" | Dan Hawkes | Best Picture Editing in a Factual Program or Series | Won |
See also
References
- 1 2 3 Mavis, Paul (15 April 2009). "Mayday — Air Disasters". DVD Talk.
- 1 2 3 4 Mavis, Tabouring (23 April 2009). "Mayday — Air Disasters". DVD Verdict.
- ↑ "New Cineflix science series Mayday starts production" (Press release). Cineflix. 13 August 2002.
- ↑ Luke, Donna (1 January 2003). No Borders. Interview with Susan Zeller for Realscreen.
- 1 2 "Cineflix goes global with popular science series Mayday. Germany's Prosieben latest channel to acquire the show" (Press release). Cineflix. 2 June 2003.
- ↑ "Cineflix International strikes NATGEO deal for new popular science series Mayday" (Press release). Cineflix. 22 October 2003.
- ↑ "Cineflix Rights seals North and Latin American deals" (Press release). Cineflix. 25 January 2012.
- ↑ "Cineflix Rights seals multiple deals in advance of MIPTV 2014" (Press release). Cineflix. 28 March 2014.
- 1 2 "Mayday premieres on Discovery, Wednesday, September 3 at 10 p.m." (Press release). Cineflix. 14 August 2003.
- ↑ "Mayday: Air Disasters". Amazon R1 S1. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Air Crash Investigations: Season 1-12 Collection (Limited Edition Box Set) (DVD)". EzyDVD.com.au. EzyDVD Pty Ltd. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
- ↑ "Mayday – Popular Cineflix series returns to Discovery Channel with two new back-to-back episodes, Sunday, January 23, 2005, at 8 pm ET" (Press release). Cineflix. 1 December 2004.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mayday (a Titles & Air Dates guide), epguides, 14 July 2013
- 1 2 "Mayday!". Amazon R1 S34. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ↑ "A New Season of Mayday Takes Flight, April 15 on Discovery Channel" (Press release). Discovery Channel Canada. 30 March 2007.
- ↑ "Mayday Air Disaster - Complete Series 5 DVD". Zavvi.com2. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ↑ "Never Take a Safe Landing For Granted Again – Discovery Channel Presents Season 7 of MAYDAY and DAILY PLANET's "Flying Things Week" in November" (Press release). Discovery Channel Canada. 15 October 2009.
- ↑ http://www.sanity.com.au/products/2144867/Air_Crash_Investigation_S7
- 1 2 TV.com. "Air Emergency - Episode Guide". TV.com. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ↑ "Buckled In and Cabin Baggage Safely Stowed, MAYDAY returns to Discovery Channel for a 9th Season, Sept. 8" (Press release). Discovery Channel Canada. 13 August 2010.
- ↑ "Air Crash Investigation TV Listing (UK)". National Geographic Channel. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
- ↑ "Air Crash Investigations - Season 11". JB Hi-Fi.
- ↑ "Air Crash Investigations - Season 12". JB Hi-Fi.
- ↑ "Air Crash Investigations - Season 13 DVD". Shock Records.
- ↑ Lewis, Raymond (December 2009). "Air Crash Investigators — comments on a pedagogical strategy to increase intrinsic motivation in order to enhance student learning." (PDF).
External links
- Cineflix: Mayday
- Cineflix: Mayday – Science of Disaster (Archive)
- Cineflix: Crash of the Century
- Mayday on Discovery Channel Canada
- Air Crash Investigation on National Geographic Channel UK
- Air Crash Investigation National Geographic Channel Australia
- Air Disasters on Smithsonian Channel
- Mayday at the Internet Movie Database
- Air Emergency at TV.com