Graeme Ferguson
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Ontario Place - home of IMAX Ferguson: It's a film about what it's hke film in Cinesphere? to join the circus, to be a Ferguson: Not for the pubhc. We'll Graeme performer in the circus. The film is pro probably be doing our pre duced and directed by my partner views there. It's the only existing theatre Roman Kroitor, and will probably be Ferguson called "This Way to the Big Show." where we can look at an IMAX film. Ques: Will IMAX be part of all world Ques: Did he use actors in the fUm? — by Shelby M. Gregory and Phyllis Expos to come? Wilson. Ferguson: No, he used only circus per Ferguson: There is an Expo taking place sonnel. Roman took the cam Graeme Ferguson is the Director- in Spokane in 1974, and the era right into the circus, and filmed Cameraman-Producer of "North of United States PaviUon will feature an during actual performances. It was very Superior". He is also president of Multi- IMAX theatre. Screen Corporation Limited, located in difficult because they could only get Gait-Cambridge, Ontario (developers of about two or three shots in any one Ques: Are they paying for the produc IMAX). performance. tion of a film? Ques: Was this filmed with the standard Ferguson: Yes, Paramount Pictures is Ques: What have you been doing since IMAX camera? producing, and Roman and I North of Superior? are involved. Ferguson: Yes, John Spotton was the Ferguson: We're just finishing a film for cameraman. Eldon Rathburn, Ques: Is it a feature film? Ringhng Brothers and Bar- who did the music for Labyrinth, is num and Bailey. They are building a new Ferguson: It's about a 20-minute film, doing the score. It's to open around rather like "North of Super theme park called "Circus World" near Christmas of this year. Orlando Florida, in the vicinity of Walt ior", but about the environment. The Disney World. One of the main attrac Ques: Did you shoot any footage for whole of Expo '74 is on the same theme, tions at Circus World is to be an IMAX the circus film? the environment. It's a small Expo, not anything like the one in Montreal; it's theatre, like the one at Ontario Place, Ferguson: Yes, I shot the African but with a bigger screen. more hke the one in San Antonio in sequence on elephants in 1968. There will be a Canadian Pavilion, Ques: What is the film about, is it a their natural habitat. a Japanese one, and also a Soviet circus film? Ques: WiU there be a chance to see this Pavilion. Also, some industrial exhibits. 34 Cinema Canada Ques: Is it credible to consider a film in "2001", there is no questidn will be. Each film we do, we learn a IMAX more than 40 minutes in that it was better for having been done httle more about each IMAX fihn. As we length, and what kind of format would in 70 mm than 35 mm. I think that that go along, each film will look less and less it have? particular film would have been even hke conventional films, and IMAX will Ferguson: Sure, we are hoping to do one better if it had been done In IMAX. develop its own particular style. But, IMAX was not available at that called "Genesis", which is to Ques: Are you getting away from things time. There are certain subjects that be about the creation of the universe, hke the effect of depth perception just because of their visual splendour but we have not been able to get the in nature, and getting into other situa are suitable for IMAX. Personally, I feel financing for it. We had planned it tions and effects with IMAX? originally as a co-production with the that quite a variety of subjects would be Soviet Union. enhanced by the use of IMAX. It isn't Ferguson: One of the things we felt we just a bigger movie, IMAX is a new form could get away from, by going Ques: Has Multiscreen approached the of motion picture. This was our feehng to the larger screen, was the linear form CFDC for money in the past? when we conceived the idea of IMAX of story telhng which has dominated Ferguson: No, we have talked with them originally; that we were inventing a new motion pictures through their history. a few times about projects in film form which would have its own In the Multi-Screen films at the Expos general but we've never gone to them creative rules. Just as when sound came in 1967 and 1970, filmmakers began with a specific request. in the grammar of the silent film was to make films that were a httle less replaced by a new type of filmmaking. Unear in their form. One of the most Ques: Are they sympathetic to the de All filmmaking: shooting, editing, every interesting was Michel Brault's film for velopment of IMAX itself as a thing changed at that point. When color the Canadian Pavihon at Expo '67. It was new concept in film, or are they staying came in, again the way the filmmaker a two-screen film in which he told a away from investments of that kind? went about making film changed. story very creatively in two different, Ferguson: I suppose we won't reaUy but parallel time frames. I think all the know until we put a concrete When we did the Multi-Screen films people working in Multi-Screen found proposal to them and see if they approve for Expo '67, we shot the films dif new things hke that possible. Now IMAX the funding. My impression is that they ferently, we edited them differently, the provides a screen that is larger and more are sympathetic. audience looked at them differently. flexible than any of the PavUions at With IMAX, it's not just a quantitative Expo '67. One can use it for multi-image Ques: As a filmmaker, do you think change in the size of the screen, it's a as we did with "Tiger Child", or with that the IMAX system could en qualitative change in how a movie tells a single image as in "North of Superior". hance certain aspects of the story within its story. Our feehng from the very be The single image won't be the same kind, a feature film? What considerations do ginning was that IMAX, hke sound and it has a lot more elements, it isn't com you have to make? colour, would change filmmaking. I think posed the same way as the traditional Ferguson: If you look at a film hke we are just now learning what the change single image. There are a lot more things Inside the projection room Cinema Canada 35 Graeme Ferguson going on in the frame. One can choreo Ques: You mean you are standing inside They designed the IMAX lens for Ontario graph elements within the picture instead a movie? Place too. of by editing them one after another. In Ferguson: Yes. We opened the first of Ques: What's the essential difference be conventional moviemaking this is not these in San Diego this spring. tween IMAX and Omnimax? possible. It's in a new type of planetarium called Ques: Who else is working with IMAX? a "Space Theatre." Its seating is some Ferguson: IMAX uses a very, very large what hke Ontario Place, in that the seats screen; as large as one can Ferguson: Dave MacKay has done a new are banked and all face one direction. make it. The picture around on it is film for Ontario Place. Also Two films were made for the opening geometrically correct. A straight line Chris Chapman has just finished filming of the theatre. appears as a straight line. Omnimax uses the volcanic eruption in Iceland. This a fish-eye system, and projects a picture will make a short film of about seven or One of the films is a space trip, on the inside of a dome so that all lines eight minutes long. "Voyage to the Outer Planets", and the second is a short documentary on Hawaii appear as curved hues. Ques: How did he film it? directed by Roger Tilton, and photo Ques: What were the problems of creat graphed by Barry Gordon. Roger and ing Cinesphere within Ontario Ferguson: He was right down in there Barry have started to make another Place, and with Ontario Place itself? with the IMAX camera. He Omnimax film, and are shooting it in even had the front leg of his tripod the South-Western United States. Omni Ferguson: I can't think of any really burned off by lava. There are also two max is a different medium, it's not really serious problems. The prob films made in an associated medium the same thing as IMAX. lem would have been if Ontario Place hadn't come along. We had at that point, which we've developed called "Omni- Ques: What was the progression in the after Expo '67, invented the idea of a max". It is a dome show in which the development of these systems? picture is projected on the inside of a theatre with a very large screen. We were dome theatre. Ferguson: We conceived of IMAX first, able to put one into Osaka '70, but we but once we had the IMAX had no way to build one in North Ques: Is it the same projection space as projector built it was fairly simple to America.