THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609280039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROY A. BAHLS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 88 lines
MANKIND HAS always pondered its place in this seemingly endless universe.
In the beginning, there was the wide-eyed fascination of the nightly canopy of twinkling lights and the miniature world at one's feet.
Over time, the fascination has remained, but now astronomers study massive superclusters of galaxies at the outer reaches of the cosmos while physicists examine the smallest known particles of matter - quarks.
Filmmaker Bayley Silleck's IMAX movie ``Cosmic Voyage'' dives into both those worlds.
``There are two ends of the universe,'' Silleck said. ``We are part of this vast continuity of nature, which goes from the infinitesimally small to the amazingly gigantic.''
The 35 minute, $6 1/2 million, five-story-high film, narrated by actor Morgan Freeman, opens Tuesday at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton.
``It's about time that IMAX and the universe got together,'' Silleck said. ``Every effect is magnified. You can really only do some of these effects on the gigantic IMAX screen.''
Viewers get a sometimes dizzying light show as they journey through time and space witnessing galaxies colliding, the cataclysmic explosion known as the Big Bang and the miniature world of a DNA molecule.
Silleck, who wrote, directed and co-produced the movie, based it on a Dutch school book, ``Cosmic View - The Universe in 40 Jumps.''
``We take off on our cosmic voyage from St. Marks Square in Venice,'' Silleck said, ``and pull back by powers of 10. It's like going up through a tunnel of circles. Each time you see a circle you are 10 times farther from Venice.
``We see our Earth as part of a solar system and the star that we rotate around as just one among many. We keep backing up and see that we live out in the sort of suburbs of a pinwheel of stars called the Milky Way. Then that galaxy is part of a cluster of galaxies, and then a cluster of galaxies is part of a supercluster and so on.''
From there, its back to Earth, where viewers find themselves in the microscopic world of a drop of water.
``We find a tiny little colony of paramecia,'' Silleck said, ``and go into its body and through its DNA. We are revealing smaller and smaller worlds this time. In the molecule of DNA we find a single atom, and in that atom we find that it's made up of protons and neutrons. Even the unbelievably small protons and neutrons are made up of things called quarks.''
The film took two years to complete and was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institutions' National Air and Space Museum, the Motorola Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
Silleck remembers when he showed the final product to his team of experts.
``It kind of freaked the scientists out when they saw it on the gigantic screen,'' he said. ``They had never seen science simulations quite that dramatic before with the music of a 90-piece orchestra playing.''
The more than 15 minutes of original IMAX computer animation is the most found in any IMAX film.
``When we started,'' Silleck said, ``some of the things weren't even possible. I don't know what we would have done if the technology hadn't advanced as we were preparing the film.''
Pixar Animation Studios, which produced the movie ``Toy Story,'' helped create the animation sequences.
The live-action sequences took Silleck to Greece, Italy, Holland, Arizona, Utah and Hawaii.
``We were even shooting in the volcanos of Hawaii to simulate the early Earth,'' he said.
For Silleck, the grand scale of the cosmos has much to teach mankind.
``We are very concerned with our petty squabbles here on Earth,'' he said. ``But really, we live in a vast universe where our own petty quarrels and squabbles are rather insignificant. I think we've just got to think in larger terms and some of our own problems will be put into context that way.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
Smithsonian Institution
Motorola Foundation
GRAPHIC
WANT TO GO?
What: ``Cosmic Voyage,'' an IMAX film
When: Opens Tuesday Continues through June 12, 1997.
Where: Virginia Air and Space Center/Hampton Roads History Center,
600 Settlers Landing Road, Hampton. Call: 727-0900 for showing
times.
ALSO AT THE AIR AND SPACE CENTER:
``Electric Space: Bolts, Jolts and Volts From the Sun,'' 3,800
square-foot hands-on exhibit that examines the effects of ``space
weather'' on technology and the solar wind's ability to create the
Earth's greatest light show, the polar aurora. Continues through
Jan. 7. by CNB