•

ACINC

could participate, and not just select re­ rector responsible for selecting the im­ volve into the second film in the Earth­ by Ray Hartley gional representatives. ages and developing the format for pre­ watch Theater without having to leave sentation, as Robin Lecky, executive their seats. But a tragic accident in NEW DIMENSIONS producer and a Creative House partner, which a young girl was fatally injured Xpo 86, the International Exposi­ explains: has at least temporarily, stopped this. tion on Transportation and Com­ Norman Hay, Creative Director for the "The original tender called for an in­ The visitor moves to the second theatre Emunication which opened in Van­ pavilion, describes the overall com­ troduction to Canada for Canadians and on-foot. couver in May, has an estimated 50 munication and transport theme. "The visitors, something that would be posi­ theaters devoted to some form of idea was that we would no longer look tive, uplifting and people-oriented. AWESOME LANDSCAPE cinematic or audio-visual presentation. at Canada in a linear way, that is, coast­ Paul's concept was unique. Photo­ Omnimax, Showscan, lma.x 3D, Holog­ to-coast. We wanted to convey a new graphers were ' coordinated across the Terravision, the film shown in the raphy, Trimax - the list of new way of seeing Canada, one which would country. in small towns, big towns - Earthwatch Theater, is meant to intro­ techniques of imaging is long, varied, give Canadians a sense of joy and a north, south, east, west - on Canada's d\.lce the visitor to the physical dimen­ rich and diverse. sense of pride. All material (in the birthday. The presentation moves sions of Canada, emphasizing the Cana­ Soaring above the dark waters of Bur­ pavilion) is intended to develop this across the country geographically from dian experience in mastering the chal­ rard Inlet, the crisp, white sails of the notion of the 'new dimensions' of east to west, dawn to dusk, starting at lenges posed by our geography and cli­ Canada Pavilion are separated from the Canada." The idea of a "Canada of New 5:03 a.m. in St. John's, Newfoundland, mate. Produced by Claude Godbout of rest of Expo by Vancouver's downtown Dimensions" combined with the and ending in Victoria, B.C. with the Les Productions Prism a of Montreal, core. Hyped as "the largest pavilion "Canada in Motion, Canada in Touch" end-of-day cannon. This geographical and directed by Donald Brittain, the ever created for a world exposition," it themes of Expo to provide the basic movement however, is secondary to the film employs the Showscan technique is located within Canada Place, the per­ concerns from which the productions overall sense of celebration, of Cana­ developed by Douglas Trumbull. manent federal-government complex in the pavilion developed. dians participating in their country's Showscan uses 70mm Panavision film on Vancouver's inner harbour, that con­ The three introductory presenta­ birthday." and shoots and projects it at 60 frames tains, among other facilities, a cruise tions, viewed in sequence when enter­ The "sense of celebration" comes per second. The result is a film pro­ ship terminal and the new Pan Pacific ing the pavilion, are meant to give the through in the images selected by jected two and one-halftimes faster and Hotel. A variety of theaters, amphithea­ visitor a sense of Canada from three Smith. Beauty queens, farmers, tattooed four times brighter than usual onto a ters, presentations and displays intro­ perspectives: the People, the Limd, and men, businessmen, babies, and older curved screen that measures seven by duce the Expo visitor to Canada and the Future. The first of these, This Is people all mix and mingle in the varying 16 meters. "It has the quality of a slide highlight Canadian achievements in My Home, in the 500-seat Canada pastoral and urban landscapes which show in motion," says co-producer transportation and communication. . Celebration Theater, is an eight-minute open up on one or more of the 14 Uveillee. Five of the theaters show films three of audiovisual presentation produced by screens ringing the front of the theater. The film opens in the dark with the them forming a sequential introduction Creative House of Vancouver. Beginning in the clouds and sunrise of soundtrack preparing the audience: "To to the pavilion, and the other two pro­ As the audience lean or sit back St. John's and ending in fireworks made be here at all and to be joined to­ viding feature-length productions on against padded railings, 42 computer­ more real by strobe lights mount~d gether ...that is the miracle." As an image the two mmain themes of Expo. programmed projecters synchronize above the audience's heads, the produc­ of an enormous iceberg fills the screen, Bernard Leveillee, who acted as coor­ some 1,500 images onto 14 screens tionis stunning. Gibson's original song the soundtrack continues: "It began as dinating producer for the Canada Pavil­ while an original score by Vancouver's and score add to the uplifting feeling an awesome landscape, born in ion on two of the productions, explains Brian Gibson fills the semi-circular and the audience moves on to the sec­ fire ... carved in ice." The audience is that the intent was, as much as possible, theater. The 1,500 images were ond part of the introductory trilogy then taken on an eight-minute journey "to have producers from all of Canada selected from 30,000 shot by 33 photo­ with a lighter step, some of that Cana­ through time and space that gives a involved," so that the whole country graphers who travelled across Canada, dian sense of joy and pride that Hay breathtaking sense of the breadth and on asSignment, on Canada Day, July 1, called Canada's new dimension. diversity of the Canadian landscape and Ray Hartley is a Vancouver freelance 1985. Paul Smith, the man behind the Originally, the theater was designed the ways in which the people of Canada writer. original conc<:Pt, was the creative di- so that the audience would slowly re- have learned to live within it.

14/Cinema Canada - July I August 1986 • • SURVIVING WEAKNESS

After the introduction to the pavilion, visitors head for the Great Hall where a bast array of displays and exhibits beck­ Omnibus on, including the 108 video-monitor Vidiwall. Other viewing possibilities are the two feature presentations, The Taming of the Demons and Transi­ State of the art tions. Taming of the Demons is being shown in the new 273-seat Tele­ globe Theater. Paul Krivicky of computer graphics Cinematographer Leonidas Zourdoumis Applause Communications in Montreal, has captured images of snowfields, acted as producer/administrator for the oceans, forests, plains, and herds of project, which included both construc­ thundering bison to produce a sense of tion of the theater and production of he 30-second brightly colored ion digital calculations later, a com­ understanding the landscape faced by the film. Directed by Emil Radok, the animation of the Expo '86 fair­ puter-generated 30-second anima' early man, followed eventually by the founder of multi-screen audio-visual systems, this production uses nine rect­ Tground that you've seen ~nfold­ tion of the fairground was com­ pioneers and settlers. New ways of ing on your TV was actually com­ pleted. This computer-generated traverSing and transforming the country angular screens of varying sizes ar­ pleted when the Vancouver site was Expo includes 10 high resolution are shown developing until finally the ranged architecturally against one wall still a heap of mud, scaffolding and buildings ( the Canadian paviliOns voice of Marc Garneau informs us that of the theater, with a revolving circular construction debris. and major sponsor pavilions), the "It is a great honor to represent Canada hoop forming a sphere and the tenth Produced by Omnibus Computer Expo monorail, train, gondolas, bal­ in space." screen in the center of the walL Ten Graphics, and delivered to the adver­ loons, hot-air balloons, over 75 sepa­ The film ends by completing a full 35mm film projectors present the imag­ tising firm of Baker Lovick Ud in rate flags, kiosks, the Expo sign and circle, returning to the original images ery, while a nine-track. sound system October 1985, this television ad rep­ flag, booths, sidewalks, pools, plat­ of the land and animals where "always, provides the ambiant sound. The result resents the state of the art in com­ form, train tracks, sky mountainS and' the enduring mysteries, the wild horses is a 21-minute exploratory journey into puter-generated animation. mOre. Meanwhile, at the Vancouver of Sable Island ... running on through the the processes of communication. The key word to understanding construction site, work droned timeless landscape." Describing the production, Radok this technology is "art" (as in the ahead s19wly. The third of the three introductory comments that "We begin with the first manipulation of colors, motion, tex­ According to Rimer, the commer­ presentations is a multi-media produc­ communication, wWch is inside one's tures, lighting all within a com­ cial bas sold heavily in Canada and tion set in the New Frontiers Theater body, and go on to show how if man puter), says Omnibus (Toronto) throughout the United States. One of and highlights Canadian technological was the weakest being, he is the one exe-cuttve producer Ron Rimer. The ~e more saleable features of the achievements in sea and space. A com­ who has survived. artist has replaced the white­ finished product, he explains, is the bination of film, video and lighting ef­ "We show how communication has smocked computer technician and use of "matted in" windows within fects is mixed with actual models of developed with the basis of language­ the computer mouse has replaced the animated image in which live ac­ sunken ships, aquanauts descending writing, how different civilizations were the graphic artist's pencil . and air tion can be changed to appeal to spe­ from the ceiling in high-tech Newtsuits, founded through communication, and brush. cific market interests by running and astronauts attached to an enormous how man has created a society that is In order to reach a stage wbere a specific commercials within these Canadarm moving slowly across in front based on and directed by communica­ Los Angeles team of animators could windows. of the audience. While all this is taking tions." combine their talents with the three­ In tbe end, it took a team of 13 place around and in front of the viewer, Strongly influenced by the work of dbnensional image-capabilities of animators using five computers to do dual-screen video-monitors scattered S.M. Eisenstein, Radok creates a kind of the computer (imagination and the job the cost of whicb, Rimer says, throughout the theater (three visitors sculptural montage, a connected software) some interesting prelimi­ is in the six-digit dollar range. to a monitor) display footage taken in mosaic of images that run, not just se­ nary work bad to be completed in "Eventually it will be much space and from ocean vehicles, with quentially, but simultaneously, to create cooperation with the designers and cheaper to produce this work than text and graphic data attached. (If this in the mind of the viewer the kinds of 'planners of Expo. traditional ads," says Rimer, who sounds a little overwhelming, it is, espe· associations the director has intented. Three hundred architectural produced the full graphic for CBC cially after the previous two produc­ Symbolic representations move the au­ drawings of the unfinished site were among other projects currently seen tions. A second visit allows a deeper ap­ dience through time and space, provid­ secured by the Omnibus people. on television. preciation of Canada's extraordinary ing the linkage between image and idea. Photographs of models and buildings The Toronto-based Omnibus technolOgical accomplishments.) Brilliant slashes of lightning, streams under construcd.on were taken and Computer Graphics Ltd., with offices Directed and produced by G.5.M. De­ of molten lava, and massive ocean . long consultations were held abo~t in New York and L05 Angeles, is also sign Inc. of Montreal, with audio· visual waves move across the 10 screens in '. 'the cut and design of the finished involved in motion pi~ures, having production by Les Productions du Ver­ unison to give a sense of the primeval (actual) site. The OtnoihU$ proonc­ Created simulated images for the seau, the undersea and midspace film power and chaos of the world into /tiQn team retired to Los Angeles Star Trek series and a Paramount footage combines with the other­ which man was placed. Primitive dan­ ~b~eightw~ andoveroneb~ feature .film entitled Explorers. worldliness of the floating models to cers writhe to the pulsing rhythms of create a kind of high-tech theater. drums to communicate the magic and

t1l E (/) (t (/) c o ''6 :;) "0e ~

Bo .{::;a. • Earthwatch director Don Brittain, left, with Prisma producer Claude Godbout

July / August 1986 - Cinema Canada/15 • • mystery of early man's understanding of the world. Molten steel, formed into rigid shapes, is crushed to represent the coming of the industrial age. An enoml­ ous antenna reaches endlessly out into Canadian space to show the final frontier that man had to conquer. The totali ty of the experience is com­ rate' pleted by the soundtrack which ebbs and flows with the rhythms of the im­ family supper in the dining room, the ages being presented on the screen. At space capsule, the helicopter cabin times almost overpowering, it both Surrounded, are all stylized, pushed-out, unreal. complements and completes the fUm, by Canada On the other hand, a finished igloo forming an undulating harmony be­ director of stereoscopy. in conjunction with sunlight glinting through the tween what the audience sees and with Low. Their interest in the pos­ at Telecom snow-blocks (don't ask DOP Bob hears. sibilities of Imax 3D had developed in Expo Theatre Ennis how he lit that one!) was quite "I have never created an abstract an earlier collaboration at the Board, acctptable. The difference may have piece simply to show colors and shapes. but it took some convincing on their presentation something to do w ith the scale of ob­ I am primarily interested in the con­ part to gain access to two of the only jects we are similiar w ith. What tents. It is more difficult to take the au­ nine Imax cameras in existence to bring would it have been like to trundle dience down a road which leads some­ their ideas to fruition. Tony Ianzelo was into a man-made structure as big in where meaningful," Radok said before brought in as co-director and a produc­ ne of the requirements of a Dis­ scale as Roy Thompson Hall, or a the production was completed. The tion team was assembled. ney Circle-Vision 360 presenta­ potash silo at Esterhazy, or just a big, striking visual imagery of the mm com­ The fru it of their labours is a 21 -min­ Otion is that the audience must be cool, log-framed barn? bines with its background rhyt.l-tms to ute film which brings gasps of delight able to turn around to see behind But anyone can ~econd-guess and develop an understanding of the impor­ even from today's sophis.ticated audi­ them. The solution at Telecom 'S what-if a film after the answer print. tance of communication in man's ences. Described by Low as "a lyrical Expo 86 "Portrai ts of Canada" is Sinl­ Suffice to say that Producer-Director growth, develop ment and continual impression of modes of transportation ply to have everyone stand or lean Jeff Blyth has been making Circle-Vi· evolution. and communication in Canada," the film against the metal railings that divide sion 360 mms for Disney in all cor­ makes maximal use of the 3D format. In the circular room from the entrance ners of the world for some time and CINEM...'\ TIC MIRACLE the opening image, a branch appears to on one side to the exit on the other. certainly should know what works. reach out from the screen and waver The theatre holds up to 1,300. How ever, while nit-picking, I Transitions, an Imax SystemslNational above the heads of the people in the There is nothing wrong with might add the wish that w e could Film Board collaboration, is the second theater. The audience "al1hhs." As the standing, except that in three nota­ learn to know Canada without the feature presentation offered in the film carries them forward on a short ble high-speed travel shots you have benefit of narration. Christopher Canada Pavilion. The subject is trans­ junket through the history of transpor­ the sensation of standing while mov­ Plummer has the voice for it, but portation, the other side of the two tation and communication, Imax 3D, ing forward (or backward if you turn phrases like "uniquely Canadian" or themes of Expo. Shot in the new Imax under the careful guidance of Low, around) with nothing to hold onto. the final challenge-and-destiny senti­ 3D process, developed by the NFB in McNabb and Ianzelo, repeatedly works So you hurtle downhill and around a ments are much more eloquently conjunction with ImQuebec village as if stated with one shot of the ration, it is tile first of its kind in the moves magically off the screen and into seated (standing up?) on a racing Canadarm stretching out from the world. the theater, one is reminded of the bicycle. Or find yourself standing in NASA space shuttle. . lmax 3D involves the use of a Lumiere brothers' similiar experience a helicopter over a wheat field, and, The audio that lifts you out of your polarized system with two cameras with some of film's earliest viewers in a lat er, in a f1 0atplane taking off from a seat (or makes you stand taller) using 70mm film, two prints, two pro­ Paris cafe 90 years ago. When an egg northern lake. complements a very grand score by Jectors and an enormous 70 x 100' hovers above the heads of the audience, But Telecom's new national ode Leonard Rosenn1an with, of course, screen. To view the fIlm the audience then cracks suddenly into their collec­ (they encircled you first at Montreal all the advantages ofs urround sound wears special polarized glasses. Direc­ tive laps, the murmurs of enthralled ap­ in '67) is more than spectacle. The in a room with no opposing flat sur­ tor Colin Low describes the experience: preciation are testimony of the pleasure process is, of course, as good as faces to create pockets of confusion. "The right eye takes in the image from this new cinematic miracle offers. 35mm direct, no-keystoning projec­ And the portraits are strongly one projector, the left eye takes in the The fact that these fi ve productions tion can be; that is, crisp and b ril­ Canadian, in picture and in dialogue, im age from the other, and the two are are Canadian, made by Canadians, some liant. This !llilkes the Arctic . snow a comfortable balance of languages put together in the viewer's mind. " using technology developed in Canada scene and the mountain helicopter and accents_There are more th;ln 60 The mming of Transitions required seems of relatively little importance to alone ~orth the 20-minute stand. feature faces, and scores of back-up the development of a new and highly the thousands of viewers who see them The back- view is subtly less eye­ bodies, from bike racers to bal- . sophisticated camera assembly wherein every day. There is however something cat ching than the front in helping lerinas. two cameras were mounted perpen­ to be said for Norman Hay's thoughts on you orient the action, but, in a brief From the opening title to the final dicular to each other, with one camera the Canada Pavillion's overall theme - hoedown, with folks standing all credits, the time span did not not t11ming the subject directly and the to see Canada in a new way, "one which around a-fiddling and a-clapping, feel like 20 minutes, and that says a other camera indirectly through a two­ would give Canadians a sense of joy and you feel very much part of one big lot. way mirror mounted at a 45-degree a sense of pride." Canadian nationalist scene. Incidentally, what a 'medium for angle to the subject. The cinema­ sentiment has its paradoxes, but in an Exteriors and obviously spacious credits. Nine screens all working tographer viewed each shot remotely industry that so often has to struggle to interiors work well for movies 1n the furiously; beats the high-speed crawl through a special video camera/monitor maintain an identity and style of its own surround, less well for interiors that anyday_ - _ system. The technology behind the in the shadow of a larger and stronger . portray spaces of smaller dimen- filming was worked out by Ernest neighbour, a sense of joy and pride in its sions. The old-fashioned parlour, the .Keith Cutler • McNabb, director of photography and accomplishments definitely has a place. • • filmmakers the ExPO films Roy, a man of obviously native In­ ever. Certainly they're faster moving dian extraction who talks down to than any I've seen before. (Fortu­ A fUm fOr the (live) Karen while leaning on a rock nately,the 'angle of incline' for the Saskatchewan decorated with pictograph paintings. theatre seats is somewhat less pre­ This character, as a representative of Simply and unfortunately only a cipitous than that' in the Omnimax Expo, pavilion, the province'S native Indian heritage, stimulant: a commercial meant to Theatre, and so the sensation of mo" was, I take it, also intended as a sell Saskatchewan by positive associ­ tion, or rather, motion-sickness, is by Zale Dalen channing comment on the cos" ation with human warmth and family rather less alarming.) mopolitan genealogy of the young values. And one can't fault Dalen for Storywise, there's a cute, almost blonde girl playing Karen below the this, as the sponsors of the piece 'kids story' concept thrown over the screen (or maybe he was an uncle by didn't want anything as complicated basic travelogue form~, Young Zar­ marriage). In any case the message as real life up there on the scree_a. gon is a truant extra-terrestrial. He ~ s 'ptior to Zale Dalen's film, we are was clear: the Saskatchewan family Soap ads sell soap by depicting also a bauble" like vehicle. He and introduced to Saskatchewan in includes everyone. Including posi­ happy homes; they are not meant to his computer-buddy lQ. team up dry, simplistic tertns, Via lec­ tively everything (and everything be believed, and neither was this, with Molly (Vancouver's Fairuza tures, slides, and a brief film we learn positively) the film takes on a Beyond the silly, trite writing, the Balk, previously Dorothy in the 'OOs that the province is noted for ag­ slightly surreal aspect, A man film is well-made, Performances and version of The Wizard of Oz) in riculture, potash and fibre-optics, (Eddy?) abused a bull at a rodeo by directing show Dalen's usual good order to see "a place that has every­ Then we are ushered into the main trying to ride on it; it got very angry taste. A minor production quibble thing" - B.C, of course. They do the theatre. The Dalen film then coun· and chucked him off, There was a would be grandpa's post-syncing, as deluxe tour, froto cowboys in the tets these first impressions with a wedding. Eddy was seen canoeing, he was never quite "in", But I look Cariboo to the Parliament Buldings warm statement about the pro­ Brother Gary went fishing, And forward to something tougher and at night. And the Michael MercerlL.s. vince's people, their affection for Karen's friends, including Eddy, deeper from Zale Dalen - the kind of Strange script adds a few laughs. each other, and the land they love, were seen having a happy time in a statement for which he has shown Discovery was produded by Peter But it is difficult to review this as a pub while writing a postcard to her. such promise for in the past. O'Brian's Independent Pictures Inc. fllm, because it is also a perfor­ The fiImlperforrnance finally takes (The Grey Fox, My American mance piece, requiring the presence on a circular form. It begins with a Jad Barcus - Cousin). Vancouver's Circle Pro­ onstage, below:, the screen, of a romantic image; a pair of young lov­ ductions Ltd. contributed director young actress playing the part of ers, at sunset, by a stream aswarm Rob Turner. Douglas Trumbull, the "Karen", who exchanges dialogue with some kind of insect. I thOUght California-based filmmaker who in­ with the mega-sized characters on they might be blossoms or some­ vented the Showscan process repu­ the screen above her. The film could thing vegetable blowing in the wind, teilly arrived at the 60 frames second not stand on its own as a statement, but no, they were tIies (as a nearby 'optimal' film speed after mega-re­ and trying to watch both at once is lady with a loud voice informed us search. He strapped untold number disconcerting. I found the screen all). The film then culminates' in a of subjects into chairs, hooked them characters tended to win. family reuolon, with all characters up to bio-medical devices, then ran The film is a relentlessly positive present and all attendant warmth films by them in a sort of technical vision of a nunily. and they are all and love and good food And they all Discovery. Clockwork Orange in reverse. The there: grandpa, grandma, dad, mom, talk down to (live) Karen and tell a B.C. Pavilion "breakthrough" came with the dis­ friend Sandy, and boyfriend Eddy her how much they miss her. And covery that pulse and heart rate peak talking down to (Jive) Karen in front she ,talks back up to them and tells presentation at 60 frames/second - exactly 25 of us, te1ljng, her newS of home and them she misses them too. And while times faster than regular film projec­ how mucb tIley miss ber (she having they are up there having all that fun tion speed. taken this job at' faraway Expo). The she (live) dances sa

• Demons' nine rectangular screens and one spinning hoop form a sphere reflecting \ moving images from 10 35mm projectors • •

creative fUm community that exists tory Df transpDrtation in Canada across Canada. Expo. '86 is an oppor­ frDm the canoes of the vDyageurs to. Rainbow war. tunity to show massive Canadian and the trains of the spDnsDr. A shDt Df by Bob Rogers. fDreign audiences the range and grain being IDaded into. a train car is dialogue. The music score is SDme­ quality of films we make. But this is fDIIDwed by a humDrDus scene in a A Canadian Pacific what predictable, but fDr the greater not happening in the NWT Pavilion bakery. A later sequence has teddy­ bears on the assembly line instead of part, the optical effects and anima­ (Dr any Dthers I have been in). presentation tion mQre than make up for thiS in No. filmmaker was credited fDr the loaves Df bread. One of the beats terms of originality and quality of film; at the end only the productiDn leaves his place in line and magically prDduction_ company, Yellowknife Films, and floats above the heads Df the men Unfortunate that this originality their Petrocan SpDnsot were men­ keeping track Df productiDn and into ainbow War is a wonderfully does nDt extend to the relatiDnship tioned. That leads me to believe the outstretched hands Df the audi­ conceived and executed fantasy between the Red Princess and Yel­ there was no artistic directidn to' this ence. Many other scenes in the film Rabout the possibilities of univer­ lQW BDY, which was embarrassingly film. It certainly ShDWS. combine a warm sense Df humour sal love and peace inherent in a good seXist and unimaginative. with well thDUght-Dut images. There rapid-transit system. Produced and As an exhibition film, Rainbow Peg Campben - is a brief departure frDm the stated directed by Bob Rogers, this live-ac- War is refreshingly free of spDnsor­ theme into the realm of rDbotics. . tion allegory is told not in tongues, message and is part of the well-or­ With a look Df intense concentratiDn there is no spoken dialogue, but in a ganized and entertaining Canadian a woman manipulates an egg in the battie of colours, an attack of semi­ Pacific presentation at Expo. 86. flOgers of a mechanical arm while glDssDlalia in space with buckets of Transitions. others observe and take notes. Her paint as weapons. Haida Paul- by Colin Low concentration turns to disgust when Eaell Df me feuding kingdDms of the egg breaks and drips into the laps . Red, Blue and YellDW fears and de­ & Tony lanzelo. of the delighted audience. spises any cDIDur but its Dwn, which NBF/IMAX The animated portion Df the film is dDes nDt present much Df a prDblem The Emerging unlike anything I've ever seen- A until transportatiDn thrQugh space is satellite Drbiting the earth becDmes a invented by YellDw Boy (Gary North I In Search vDrtex Df blue lines that draw the Carre) who, undoubtedly inspired viewer into the center. This is' fol­ by LeDnardo Da Vinci's study of Balance. he Canada Pavilion offers a wide IDwed by a sequence in which a man ''Human Figure In A Circle", steps a Northwest range Df audio-visual fare that in­ in a floating chair in a swimming into his hula hDOp and magically Tcludes a multi-screen slide show, pool watches a TV suspended over blasts off to the Red KingdDm where Territories Pavilion a ShDwscan film, a wall of Video. the water. The shot is framed so that he lands at the feet of the Red Prin­ monitors, a superb multi-screen film the TV screen is nDt visible. The man cess (Saffron Henderson). They gaze presentation entitled The Taming of the De­ has a remote cDntrol device in his enraptured at Qne anDther, in a state ntrDduced as "a glimpse Df Dur mons, and TranSitions, the spec­ hand, a glass of champagne at his side Df wholesDme ecstasy unequalled people and DUr land" the to-mi­ tacular 3D !MAX film sponsDred by and a sateJlite dish in the back­ since Bambi met FIDwer the Skunk I nute montage film in the NDrth­ CN and produced by the NFB. ground He changes channels and He presents her with his yellow av­ west Territories Pavilion was a huge Transitions - should be Dn becDmes absDrbed in the image Dn iator scarf; she respDnds witil a red disappointment. Touted in the media everyDne's list of things nDt to be the screen. This allDWS the directDrs rose_ They are discovered by the Red as one of the best pavilions (I missed at Expo '86. to. cut between the image the man is Guard and he returns hDme in dis­ cDuldn't see why until I'd seen the Transitions marks me first time suPPDsedly watching and his reac­ grace. Dthers), and after waiting in line for that !MAX and 3D have been tiDn to. it. This leads to .one of the few Meanwhile, the Blue Kingdom, in­ an hDur, my expectatiDns ran high. brDught tDgether. If 3D has come shots mat is familiar to. viewers of 3D spired by their wDnderfully fDppish The result was a film that looked like and gDne Dver the years, most often films frDm the '50s. The man in the blue-knic:kered king (Simon Webb) it had been pulled Dut Qf a stock-shot as a gimmick to. lure Viewers back to. chair changes channels and finds has set fOrID in an armada of blue library - and a mediDcre Dne at that. the big screen, !MAX is nDW the himself in a fencing duel, and so. the bathtubs, armed with a cargo. of blue Grainy, banal images Df cute animals biggest of screens- audience finds itself threatened by a paint. The Red Kingdom's defence and flDwers intercut with modern The subject matter Df the film is fencer with a fDil pointing directly at system is an enDrmDUS red fire-hyd­ technDIDgy and Indian Dr Inuit the fair's theme, transpDrtatiDn and them. But the channel is changed rant which, like the trDjan hDrse, car­ people danCing and making merry cDmmunicatiDlL Directors Colin again and we are instead presented ries CDncealed warriors, brandishing, did nDt give much Df a sense of the Low and TDny IanzelD' have chDsen with an Oriental woman performing nDt spears, but paint brushes. NDrthwest TerritDries, thDUgh the to fDrego the use Df a narratDr, a a balancing act. The sequence al­ The YellDw Queen (Gillian excellent slide/tape show in. the next goDd choice since 3D IMAX is first ludes to me way cDmmunications Barber), a wicked take-Dff Qf Mar­ room did. and fDremost a visual spectacle tilat technologies can appear to deliver garet Thatcher, in black sparkle On the positive side, there was a has audiences reaching out to tDuch the wDtld to you in the comfort of lipstick, leads her assault of hula­ fascinating image Df twO. Inuit girls the image floating in front of them. your armchair. hDDp-riding stDrm trDDpers who. un­ writing on a graphics computer in Wim the visual experience so. new r came out Df the .t'Unl thinking that . leash a yeJIDw blimp dog Dn tile fire the Inuktituk language (or the mts· and exciting, having an audience pay the spectacle of 3D !MAX made hydrants. A vigDurous battle ensues, sionaries' visualizatiDn Df it) and hav­ attentiDn to. the theme of the film is more of an impression on people primary COIDurs splashing amDng the ing a very good time doing it. Also Df . nDt easy. than me story. It made me thidk of combattants until - leapin' lizards, interest was the fact that not a single The film begins with a visual his-- the fllin made by ·the Lumtete Sandy! - blue and yellow make word Df English was spDken, and no. brothers entitled Train Attlving At green, red and blue make purple, and whites were vtsible except fDr one The Station, a shot of a ttain doing multiculturalism wins Dut in a blaze mixed couple at a dance. Such obser­ just what the title says. When it was Df secDndary hues and tints as the vations were Dverwhelmed, hDW­ juSt shown in the tate. 18905 to combattants gleefully start rede­ ever, by the rest Df me images that ~ . peOple who ~ not experieQced ~ corating memselves and one we have seen far too often as CBC ~ marvels of cinema, many audience anDtiler. filler. co members ducked in their seats or at­ Rainbow War has the look of Most upsetting was the audience ~ tempted to get out of the way of the storybook illustration. The PDP-UP response: DDhs and ahhs and "Never arriving train With 3D IMAX, set and Parrish-like clDudscape are a seen a picture like that before, eh" Df . ~ cinema is new again - but since the delight to' the eye. A gentle sense Df "FDX!", "Musk Ox!" Films like this do. '" Lumierc~s, the audience has learned humour pervades thrDughDut, well a grDSS disservice to furtbering audi­ Z to stay seated and enjoy it. supported by

I . , . t 9 • •

"Then came colour and the anamorphic lens and we started to Emil Radok widen the image. We were so obsessed with expanding the image to reproduce more of reality that vis­ Inventing a new ual composition lost its values. In my first film in Cinemascope, I com­ posed completely differently, put­ language of cinema ting the action to the left or to the right to create a disequilibrium, a dynamism. Then, all of a sudden, a molecule and reconstruct it into create in space a single image which came Cinerama, where three projec­ another molecule: something be­ is a composite. In other words, it is tors projected one large image, and comes something else, a metamor­ like a building in which the images filmmakers fell upon effects where Emil Radok is the originator of phosis. Metamorphosis is the change are bricks. everything is described, and there is multi-screen cinema. He premiered of one kind of matter into another "Between the images I put empty a lot of information. It was so close the first multi-screen film for the . kind, . one meaning into another space. When you project a piece of to reality that we felt sick when the Czeboslovak Pavilion at the 1958 meaning, one reality into another re­ reality in empty space that is not sur­ camera moved. This was interesting; World's Fair in Brussels. With his ality I was profoundly attracted by rounded by a frame, your imagina­ the effects were sensory (i.e., physi­ brother Alfred, he also combined what the Cubists were doing. tion is severed You see nothing but cal and psychological)_ But to feel as film with theatre, touring with the "Secondly, there were the great this piece of reality. Whereas, if you if you are on a rollercoaster, as in Laterna Magika. Multi-screen films artists in cinema. Griffith, in his film project on a screen that is framed, be Cinerama and today with the Imax directed bY Emil Radok have been Intolerance, presented the · theme it only by black, you imagine what is and Omnimax films, is a powerful presented at Expo '67, the Epcot of human intolerance, comparing outside the screen. The Expres­ amusement for children, even for Centre and other expositions. His one era in history with another. This sionists showed, for example, a adults, but it is still only amuseme~t most recent work is The Taming of was already a basis for future visual clenched hand with a revolver, and and amusement for its own sake does the Demons, produced by Paul mosaics and composite images. And we imagined that it was a criminal's not really interest me. My goal is not Krivicky of Applause Communica­ Eisenstein, the great Russian direc­ hand or the hand of a desperate to show new visual effects, nor to tions for Teleglobe Canada and is tor, created a new rhythm, visualiz­ man about to kill himself. We even show new forms, but to find a new now showing at Expo '86 in Van­ ing reality in a way absolutely un­ imagined his body and his face. If we language, a new art that will speak couver: Radok emigratedfrom Czech­ heard of. Eisenstein's observation of freely suspend this piece of image in differently - not like a film, not like a oslovakia to Canada in 1968; he reality from all sides could be linked space, the senses and the brain signal painting, and not like architecture. lives in Montreal. Influenced by to Cubism. It was also a basis for you that it is really in space, that it is "I succeeded because when I com­ many factors in creating multi­ composite images. free; there is no frame, only volume. pose the image in such a way that screen cinema, Radok spoke to "So when I started working with You see it just like the clenched though you have 20 screens, 10 Cinema Canada about the ori­ images, I found that with collage we hand. screens, or three screens, there is re­ gins and the language of this other can grasp something of reality that "But if you put another hand in ally .only. one image in the human cinema. interests us and compose it and man­ another space you start to compare brain. H on each screen you show a ipulate it to create a new reality. I things. By themselves the hands are man standing up, this is not repeti­ discovered that I could constitute not logical, but if you project a rock tion; what you show is a symbol of a the image to destroy its reality. in the space in-between, a link is crowd. If you show the roofs of Photography takes a section of real­ created and you start to imagine houses, and you are composing in ity and shows it as it is, whereas I something that does not exist - that, many perspectives, the roofs form a 'W hen I started working in film, minimalize the theme within reality for example, this is a giant that has a plasticity, and if this plasticity is sup­ as ' a scriptwriter for feature fic- by taking a bit of reality, its details, rock in his hands. You see the human ported by the different depths of the tion films, I became aware that and filtering out all that is redundant. hands very far away holding the rock screens, you obtain a very interest­ cinema, i.e. the projected image, had For example, if I take a flower in na­ .and you start to feel the weight of ing and attractive image. At the same qualities that had not been ture and only photograph the petals, the rocl~ and the human physical time you realize what the roofs are, exploited. I wanted to marry cinema I create, by many images, a fantastic force holding it. You realize you are not many roofs but a symbol - of a with painting and even with ar­ flower that is impressive and lasting. creating a symbolic reality, a reality city. So you can create a symbolic chitecture. I wanted to find another "As I had been interested in ar­ that has semantics, that has meaning, language where reality is re­ means to work with the rhythms of chitecture, I began to compose this but is totally different, because it presented by images that are very sim­ images. reality, not only on a surface, but in shows human force. If, all of a sud­ ple and, at the same time, very "The Cubists were a great influ­ three dimensions. I conceived a sys­ den, an electrical charge ran be­ monumental. I think I am creating a ence; they analysed and destroyed tem that projects these pieces of re­ tween the two hands, you would see new language of cinema - that is to reality, then reconstructed it, creat­ ality in such a way that the reality has a symbol of man's ingenuity and say, a monumental cinema. ing a new reality. I had started my tension - as in Cubism. The separate realize that man can create many "I believe I have purified this new career as a mathematician and as a small pieces of reality have no mean­ forces and forms of energy. So this language of cinema in The Taming chemist. In chemistry, we take apart ing, but, together, we can start to begins to tell the history of man dif­ of the Demons. New means of pro­ ferently than does ordinary cinema. duction were required to realize this "It is not sufficient to exploit the work It would not have been possi- image just to show new graphics, , ble without my creative and techni­ new values of colour or perspective. cal collaborators especially, because Above all, this new way of seeing the production and creative aspects creates a new reality that shows were closely linked. To elaborate a ideas in a form not communicable in new aesthetic language is one thing, ordinary cinema. but to turn it into a reality is quite "I was not happy with the de­ another. The producer had a very velopment of cinema when I took complex undertaking: The Taming the first steps toward composite im­ of the Demons was organized al­ ages. Filmmakers were always using ways bearing in mind a sense of the techniques to enlarge reality. The creation of something new and capa­ first films were silent, then sound ble of novel work and organizational was added and cinema became more means to answer its unusual ·needs. the reproduction of reality. Aestheti­ These complex methods of work cally, the first sound films were a have no precedent in traditional step backward. Filmmakers had a lot cinema. of work to do to increase the quality "Finally, this project could not of films; they had to find another lan­ have been realized ifwe did not have guage, an audio-visual language. a sponsor that wanted to contribute Even today, you rarely find such ar­ something to culture." tistic, such strong films as the silent films of the E:X"Pressionist era. Stephen Reizes •

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