{"id":235559,"date":"2012-04-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/fleet-science-center-premieres-new-imax-film\/"},"modified":"2012-04-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T07:00:00","slug":"fleet-science-center-premieres-new-imax-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/fleet-science-center-premieres-new-imax-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleet Science Center premieres new IMAX film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photography director Brad Ohlund discusses environmentalism, IMAX process<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fleet<\/a>
Brad Olhund filming on location. (Photo by Rob Walker\/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Anthony King | Downtown News<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center premiered its latest IMAX film, \u201cTo the Arctic,\u201d on Friday, April 20 in their newly renovated Heikoff Dome. Narrated by Meryl Streep, the documentary includes coverage of a mother polar bear and her twin cubs as they maneuver through the changing climate of the Arctic.<\/p>\n

The film focuses on the effects global warming has on animals. The polar bears, while only one aspect of the educational film, are the main draw.<\/p>\n

Director of Photography Brad Ohlund said the Polar Bears are \u201ca great device to use in telling this story because people can relate to them.\u201d Ohlund appeared at the Science Center for a pre-screening event on April 17 to introduce the film and answer questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fortunate in that we came across this mother and two cubs who seemed to not only not mind us being around, but actually appreciated us being around,\u201d Ohlund said. \u201cEven when we would get\u2026 close, she would hardly even take note of it. It allowed us to really get some really fantastic footage. We stayed with her and her two cubs for five days and witnessed some pretty amazing natural drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the Arctic\u201d is the latest production from MacGillivray Freeman Films, the company behind \u201cThe Living Sea,\u201d \u201cEverest,\u201d and \u201cDolphins,\u201d among others. \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to make a film about the Arctic for a long time,\u201d Director Greg MacGillivray said in a press release. \u201cIn 45 years of producing films, many of which have been about oceans or remote areas, I was still unprepared for what I found in the far North.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohlund attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif. and has worked in the large-format film industry for 25 years. He and MacGillivray went into production on \u201cTo the Arctic\u201d with a specific, environmental focus, Ohlund said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually started this film with environmental issues in mind. We don\u2019t want to be political, but we also won\u2019t steer clear of controversy,\u201d Ohlund said. \u201cNo matter what you think about climate change\u2026 the fact is that the Arctic region is being affected by changes in weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

The melting ice resulting from climate change adversely affects the polar bear population, Ohlund said. \u201cPolar bears live on the ice and if they don\u2019t have ice, they can\u2019t hunt,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they can\u2019t hunt, they can\u2019t continue to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohlund said both animals and people living in the Arctic feel global warming effects, and the purpose of the film was, in part, to introduce audiences to all aspects of the region without causing unnecessary damage. As a result, he said he was constantly aware of what the production crew was doing when on location.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a contradiction for us to be making a film which is trying to show people an environment and animals that we want them to care about, and not be caring about them ourselves as we\u2019re filming. We always try to be very respectful,\u201d Ohlund said.<\/p>\n

Filming for \u201cInto the Arctic\u201d took more than three years, with several month-long trips to the Arctic followed by two to three months in the United States. \u201cTypically what we\u2019ll do is we\u2019ll go out to a location\u2026 with a script, if not an outline, knowing what it is that we want to get. Then when we get there, we adjust according to the conditions that we run into,\u201d Ohlund said.<\/p>\n

Ohlund said his production team would then use the film captured on location to guide the next steps for the film, although as director of photography, he worked closely with MacGillivray to stay with the director\u2019s original vision for the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe director of photography performs a number of different functions,\u201d Ohlund said, including composing and lighting shots, deciding what appears in a scene and choosing how a shot will be accomplished.<\/p>\n

Calling IMAX the \u201cperfect medium to engage people,\u201d Ohlund said shots were the core of the film but also said they were difficult to get. \u201cThe IMAX format is a really challenging format. The cameras are really bulky and the magazines carry three minutes of film. There are so many shots we didn\u2019t get,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cWe always erred on the side of not disturbing the animals, even if it cost us the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInto the Arctic\u201d was especially difficult on the cameras, Ohlund said. They outfitted the cameras, film and batteries with weather protections because of the cold and wet conditions. While they occasionally used footage taken on digital cameras, Ohlund said the primary footage was taken on IMAX cameras.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these IMAX films, we try to introduce Hollywood-quality production value in a documentary so you\u2019re drawn more into the experience,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of our films have some sort of message in there. Our job is to inspire, to educate and to entertain but\u2026 we don\u2019t want people to feel like they\u2019re being preached to so we want to entertain them first.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography director Brad Ohlund discusses environmentalism, IMAX process By Anthony King | Downtown News The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center premiered its latest IMAX film, \u201cTo the Arctic,\u201d on Friday, April 20 in their newly renovated Heikoff Dome. Narrated by Meryl Streep, the documentary includes coverage of a mother polar bear and her twin cubs […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Fleet Science Center premieres new IMAX film","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}