COSMIC VOYAGE will be the first film in IMAX to survey the whole universe. Its main objective is to convey to a broad museum audience the enormous range of space and time scales spanned by the universe, and to locate our familiar human place in this context. The film's centerpiece will be a continuous "cosmic zoom" extending from the largest observable structure of the universe down to the subnuclear realm, a guided tour across some 42 orders of magnitude. This will be followed by a similar excursion through the dimension of time, from the first instant of the Big Bang to the present day some 15 billion years later. The film will take special care to explain the utility and importance of "orders of magnitude". It will indicate the observational basis underlying our description of the physical world. The narrative will emphasize the continuity as well as the open- ended nature of the scientific enterprise over a wide range of disciplines (cosmology, high-energy physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry and biology), and it will integrate the whole into a coherent picture of the universe. COSMIC VOYAGE will communicate this material in ways that are scientifically accurate and instructive, as well as visually absorbing and entertaining. The overall aim is to produce an unparalleled film about the universe that is both beautiful and powerful.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bayley SilleckJeffrey MarvinSteven SoterEric ChalssonMartin Harwit
WHALES, SHARKS & THINGS IN THE DARK - A 70MM IMAX FILM is the first science museum and aquarium film in the 70MM large-screen format to present the diversity of life in the oceans in a science context. Through a unique collaboration of a national environmental education group, a leading non-profit science center, and with the co-operation of a federal agency, the project's main objective is to convey to a general and school- age audience a view of the richness and range of life in the underwater realm -- from the deep sea creatures to whales and sharks and other marine life. Narratively, the film will proceed through the water column and selected food webs, showing the relationships in the complex skein of life--including human. The audience will be guided by explorers and role-model scientists, such as Dr. Sylvia Earle, an enthusiastic and well- known oceanographer, and three other sets of characters involved in marine science and exploration. The content will highlight a range of scientific disciplines, including marine biology, engineering, geology, physics, and oceanography, and it will shed light on the entire study of the oceans as a career path, and as an area for further investigation. Accompanied by a educational package delivered and supported by all three groups, this film will have wide impact, reaching a projected 8 million U.S. viewers within two years.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christopher PalmerDavid ClarkLeighton TaylorPaul Hanle
"Stormchasers" is a 35-minute, IMAX/OMNIMAX film to be produced, exhibited, and distributed by the Museum Film Network, NOVA/WGBH Boston, and MacGillivray Freeman Films-the same team responsible for the critically acclaimed film "To the Limit." "Stormchasers" is a tale of scientific discovery and natural wonder that will take audiences on a journey around the planet to encounter the origins of the earth's weather patterns, to experience our most extreme storms (monsoons, hurricanes, blizzards and tornadoes,) and to witness scientists who study and predict weather events. Using a combination of conventional IMAX documentary filmmaking methods, computer animation, and unique photography, the film will depict the intricate relationship between the drama of nature and the efforts of humans to pursue the systematic understanding of the natural world. The film and its ancillary materials will be offered to the 34 space theaters located at U.S. science museums in 1994-1995. Educational materials will be developed to extend the film's reach into the classroom. Special viewing programs will be offered at science museums, targeting minority, disadvantaged, and female youth and their teachers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jeffrey KirschPaula ApsellSusanne SimpsonBarbara Flagg