- Greece: Secrets of the Past (2006)
- Coral Reef Adventure (2003)

Greece: Secrets of the Past

Click image to enlarge

A sweeping archeological journey back in time, the film sets out on a quest to uncover the buried secrets of one of the world’s most enlightened societies—ancient Greece—that for 100 years, from approximately 500 BC to 400 BC, became the center of human thought and creativity and laid many of the foundations for the way we live today.

	How did the Greek empire of some 2,500 years ago flourish so fantastically?
	What was life like in the Golden Age of ancient Greece?
	And why did it suddenly fall?

Helping bring these questions into contemporary focus with her trademark wit and style is the film’s narrator, Greek-American Nia Vardalos, the writer and star of the runaway hit feature My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for which she received an Oscar® nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

At the heart of the film’s journey is Dr. Christos Doumas, an impassioned Greek archeologist who, inspired by his love of Greek culture, is working feverishly to piece together the puzzle of ancient Greece and better understand its influence on life today. Also playing a key role is Doumas’ friend and fellow scientist, Dr. George Vougioukalakis, a volcanologist studying the devastating explosion on the island of Santorini in 1646 BC, which changed life in the Aegean Sea forever.

Doumas weaves a compelling story about how archeology has unearthed the ways in which the early Greek’s rapid progress in science, politics, philosophy, sports and art in turn resulted in perhaps the greatest explosion in human advancement ever seen. Among the greatest gifts from ancient Greece is the powerful concept of democracy itself, which evolved in fifth century Athens. Other legacies the Greeks bestowed upon us include the creation of the Olympic Games, the imaginative Greek myths, the beginnings of modern theatre and entertainment, as well as the study of mathematics, physics, architecture, biology, zoology, politics and ethics, among other academic fields that have changed the world.

Technological Highlights:

Click image to enlarge

Although the camera crews’ adventuresome journeys to contemporary Greece provided compelling images of breathtaking ruins, archeological projects and oceanic vistas, the filmmakers wanted to go even further. They hoped to viscerally recreate an intimate, “virtual” experience of two key hallmarks of Greek history now lost to time: the brilliant sculptural beauty and democratic symbolism of the Parthenon before it was reduced to ruins; and the devastating volcanic explosion that blew an island to smithereens and buried a thriving culture under ash and rock on Santorini.

Especially spectacular in the history of IMAX® filmmaking, recreating the Parthenon as it hasn’t been seen in the last 2,000 years was a daunting undertaking. The building was once lavishly decorated and brightly painted, and contained a towering 42-foot-tall gold and ivory statue of the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, as well as other sculptures. The recreation became the most expensive, labor-intensive single CGI scene ever in a giant screen film.

The real-life eruption of the Santorini volcano was one of the largest in history, and certainly the most massive volcanic explosion in the last 10,000 years. In 1646 BC, pyroclastic flows—1,000-plus-degree avalanches of gas, rock, and lava that travel more than 100 miles per hour—knocked down, carried away, shattered, or burned every object they encountered. In order to simulate that ancient event, technicians melded computer-generated images with footage of recent, actual pyroclastic flows.

In addition, this crew took unprecedented aerial IMAX®-format photography, in which a camera was flown 15,000 feet above the Greek Isles. And high-tech modern archeology techniques such as ground-penetrating radar were used to locate undetected building walls buried deep beneath the ground.

Coral Reef Adventure (2003)

Click image to enlarge

Coral Reef Adventure follows the real-life expedition of two ocean explorers and underwater filmmakers, Howard and Michele Hall, on a daring 10-month journey to document some of the world’s largest, most beautiful and most endangered coral reefs. On their journey from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the majestic islands of Fiji and Tahiti and the mysterious Rangiroa atoll, the Halls meet with scientists and naturalists such as famed ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau and deep reef ichthyologist Richard Pyle, who are all part of a growing global effort to build a stronger understanding of these fragile and essential ecosystems.

Featuring songs written and recorded by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and narrated by Liam Neeson.

Film Firsts:

	First time a diver has taken an IMAX® camera down to 370 feet in the open ocean.
	106 miles of 15/70 film was shot—more than any other IMAX® theatre film.
	2,421 dives and 2,810 hours of underwater time were logged—more than any other IMAX® documentary.
	Five new fish species were discovered in Fiji during filmmaking.
	First time that IMAX® filmmakers are characters in an IMAX® documentary.
	At $10 million, the most expensive MacGillivray Freeman Film up to the time of that production.

Deep Dive Filming:

Click image to enlarge

Underwater cinematography is an extremely specialized art to begin with, often considered one of the most complex and perilous forms of filmmaking. The entire crew must be certified divers and all the film equipment—hi-tech cameras, underwater housings and lights—must be specially designed to withstand the crushing water pressure found at depth. Add to these challenges the IMAX® process. If audiences are meant to feel as if they are actually submerged deep in the ocean, filmmakers have to take the notoriously cumbersome IMAX® camera down deep.

This process included frequent dive computer failures, flooded cameras, imploding underwater lights, building modified housings that could withstand the pressure, and camera motors that literally could not push the film because of the pressure. Humans had special challenges, too. They used cutting-edge life support systems known as mixed-gas closed-circuit rebreathers which extended “bottom time.” They breathed exotic gas mixtures to help their bodies cope better with physiological changes.  Even with all of the safety measures and high-tech equipment, lead character and filmmaker Howard Hall developed “the bends” during the filming, spending time in a recompression chamber to recover.