World News for Students of English

05-02-2015 07:00

A giant polar bear has been spotted roaming the streets of London, giving commuters and joggers a fright.

But there was no need to worry, as the 8 foot-long adult male bear was actually an animated prop created by a team of Hollywood special effects experts to mark the launch of Sky Atlantic’s anticipated Arctic crime drama “Fortitude.”

A team of 19 prop specialists spent eight weeks designing and building the realistic Arctic animal. There were six to eight people working on the costume at any one time, using over 60 types of material, which included 90 square foot of sheep fur.

If that wasn’t cool enough, the prop uses internal monitors like hidden cameras to allow puppeteers inside to control the bear’s movements.

The two people inside the animal studied footage of real polar bears before spending five days rehearsing in order to get their movements right. The new Sky Atlantic series “Fortitude” is set in a fictional town with thousands of polar bears and starts on Thursday at 9 p.m.

Difficult words: spot (to see), roam (to walk), commuter (a person who travels to work every day), fright (a feeling of fear), prop (something used on the set of a film or TV show), launch (to start), Sky Atlantic (a British TV channel), anticipate (to be excited), fortitude (the courage you show when you have problems), at any one time (at any moment), fur (the hair from an animal), monitor (a tool which observes things), puppeteer (somebody who performs with puppets), footage (video), rehearse (to practise).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com