IMAX A Beautiful Planet Review by Hag
Exclusively in IMAX cinemas 27/5/16 (U) 4 Stars
Parent View:
This is easily one of my favourite documentaries I’ve ever seen. If I was to personally mark it out of five stars I would have easily given it top marks. Its visually beautiful to watch on the huge IMAX screen, the ideal length for kidz to enjoy and wonderfully educational in a really fun way. I’ve been lucky enough to see ‘A Beautiful Planet’ three times and could watch it over and over again. As family documentaries go its perfection and really good fun – Highly Recommended!!
IMAX A Beautiful Planet – Hag & Con chat with Toni Myers about Directing in Space, Dentistry and Real Aliens in the film
How do you Direct a film in space if you’re not in space? Con age 9
That’s a really good question and here’s what we do. We train the astronaut crews before they launch how to be film Directors and film makers. They’ve steady received some elementary training on cameras – how to push the buttons and they know about focusing, that kind of thing. What our astronaut trainer – James Neilhouse who’s also our Director of photography – he teaches them the rules of IMAX film making. There are some general loose rules. And all about framing and that kind of thing. But we also teach them how to record sound, how to light scenes in the interior, how to Direct their crew mates in scenes that are inside the space station. We also encourage their suggestions for things they would like to do that would be good ideas and I tell them about the content side of film making. You know – don’t shoot a shot that’s nine minutes long because it’s not gonna make it in the film.
They love that, because a lot of their training for their real jobs up there – which we can’t interfere with. They do this all in their spare time – but a lot of them love it because it’s not as dry as a lot of the training. And they have to absorb an enormous amount of detail. But..oh… Making a movie sounds like fun!
So they really go for it and the best thing we do at the end of those training sessions we have them shoot their own movie and they have to do everything. They have to put up the lights, do the sound recording, place the microphone, Direct their fellow crew mates in the scene and then we put it up on an IMAX screen and we make them look at it. If you can imagine your home movies 60 feet by 80 feet – if the focus penny hasn’t dropped it sure does then!
That’s the best learning tool in the world. All three of our principle Astronauts have ambitions in film making.
You filmed a beautiful planet in space – what was the most mesmerising and surprising thing you learned from making the film? Hag age 11
The most mesmerising for me I really really enjoyed the space walking scene in that film. We’ve done many space walks in IMAX but never with little go pro cameras that are just hanging off people’s wrists. I love that because it conveys the confusion the astronauts are talking about while they’re in space walks. And how easy it is to get lost on the outside of the station. Of course there you are with just your fishing line tying you to the station and I love the feeling that gives you. It’s kind of sick making – it’s mesmerising because it’s so dangerous. I like that – it was a first for me.
But I never tire of looking at the earth either. It’s always always got something new to see. But the more you see this movie – the more you see on the inside.
I found two ALIENS in a scene. Two aliens that are sitting there inside the space station. An orange one and a blue one that I’d never seen there before. They’re on the film. I’m not gonna tell you where – you’ll have to find them.
Actually it was James Neilhouse that pointed them out. They’re on the floor of the module – that’s as much as I’m gonna tell you.
In space they recycle wee – what do you recycle? Con age 9
On earth? OK – what I recycle on earth is anything that’s made of glass. Anything that’s an allowable recyclable plastic. All paper goods. We have a very advanced recycling system in Toronto Canada where I live. So you separate your garbage very carefully where I live. You put your biodegradable in one pile and all those other materials in several others. I think we do quite a good job of recycling.
The thing about recycling is if you think oh well you can’t achieve it all and nobody does anything – then it will never get done. But every little bit helps. That’s the communal get together and make a start.
Have you ever tried space food and if you could create your own space food what would it be and what would it taste like? Hag age 11
That’s a really interesting question because in the olden days of space what they used to do at the time of our flight – was they had to squeeze their food out of toothpaste tubes. Now days it’s a lot more sophisticated. So it’s pretty much like the food they have to eat on Earth. The only problem is anything that’s a wet food has to be re-hydrated when you get it up there so it’s either freeze dried or something like that in pouches. It’s got to be contained.
But they use a microwave just like we do on Earth to heat things up. And you certainly would not want – you have to have the pouches because you wouldn’t want spaghetti sauce coming at you in a great big blob from the other end of the lab into your face would you?!
It’s gotten a lot better and now also the astronauts are allowed to take special treats from their family. So that would be things they know they like especially – whether it’s M&M’s or whatever it is. And food does sometimes does get away. We’ve had instances where they’ve found a biscuit three months later down behind a vent. You’ve got to be kind of careful.
And different nationalities take different foods. Their taste buds are different. I know the Cosmonauts really like certain fish and they tend to send their food like that up in tins and cans – which the United States don’t do. And you get crossovers where they share.
Samantha in the movie was very much into a healthy diet so she had stuff that other astronauts like Kymiya who eats vegetable wouldn’t touch with s barge pole.
What would be the best and worst thing for you if you went into space? Con age 9
The best thing would certainly be the view. The second best or on an even keel would be floating in zero gravity of course. I’ve had dreams about that – I’ve had zero G dreams that seem perfectly natural for me to be floating around in the space station. So that’s a big benefit.
The worst thing would be – I wouldn’t want to worry about being sick for instance. I mean just sick in anyway – you have to be pretty for. And of course they check you out before you go. So you really shouldn’t have to worry that you’re appendix is gonna blow up or anything. They’d be looking for that before you launch.
The worst thing is something that goes wrong that you take for granted you can fix on Earth easily – but you can’t necessarily in space. For instance Terry Virts – one of our astronauts while he was up there actually did a filling in a tooth of one of his crew mates. They lost a filling and it floated out of his mouth and away. Of course you can’t leave that exposed. And it was a weekend so he called down to the NASA surgeon and couldn’t find anybody because they were all gone for the weekend. So he called a Dentist friend of his – a neighbor or somebody he knew who talked him through it. So he repaired his mates tooth.
I would not want a toothache in space!
What similarities are there between living in space and living on earth? Con age 9
I think the similarities that you find are zirconium rhythm which means – the time that we sleep and the time that we’re active. Every body – BODY – meaning your physical body, you have to have some at rest time. Just as you do on Earth – in space you do need to eight hours of sleep at night because every day is just packed. So those astronauts, six days a week go to work – just like we don on Earth.
So that’s the second thing – they wake up, they have time for brushing their teeth and having a dry type of shower. But then after they have breakfast they go to work and they work all day. They take a lunch break and go back to work.
Those things are very similar because there’s a lot to do on the space station. Maintaining it, the systems need attention all the time to make sure they’re in good working order. And then you go to sleep at night and you have to fuel your body – so you have to eat three good meals a day. So it’s pretty much like life on Earth. Every minute of the schedule is time lined.
Hag and Con’s question sheet signed by Toni Myer!!!
