Each of the 9 screens is full video quality. Model dinosaurs were placed into full sized background film shot with 9-35mm cameras. Nine video projectors can be aligned to make a circular video image that surrounds the audience. When Iwerks developed this video version of their 360° film format they needed to produce software to run in these unique theaters so they came to Metavision.
We wrote, produced, shot and edited the entire twelve minute production from beginning to end. Patrick Stewart narrates the show. Steven Speilberg's dinosaur expert, Dr. Jack Horner, walks us through the science of paleontology on screen. The world's fascination with dinosaurs is explored through many visual and audio techniques on the 360° screen.
Above are three of the nine screens that surround you during the climactic dinosaur battle. We enlisted the Chiodo Bros., premiere experts in stop-motion animation, to create realistic dinosaurs for the most amazing fight ever staged. Set in a real forest, a large Tyrannosaurus attacks a baby Triceratops.
Mother is not amused and she battles the Tyrannosaur, driving him away. The two scenes that make up the fight are the two longest stop motion shots ever made in the history of film, each well over a minute in length. Not to mention that they surround you completely. (Note to film students: In 360° shows, one can't cut to the close-up, then back for a reaction shot.)
And that's why we should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The technical rocket science that made it possible is invisible to the audience. Their concern has entirely to do with "what's going on?" and "where should my eyes be, now?"
Careful orchestration of action, sound and editing leads viewers through the show without generating confusion. Still, there are moments that are designed to overload the senses. At one point we spin the entire room!
To get the full impact of this frame, you must blow it up a bit over 46,655 times and wrap it into a circle.
Continuously in performance since it opened in 1994, it has won the Gold Cindy Award and the Silver Award from the Houston International Film Festival among others.
