Tapping Into Your Creativity Essay, Research Paper

TAPPING INTO YOUR CREATIVITY

Sharon Magnuson

Strategies for Success

Jille Neiman

June 19,2000

For the ?Tapping into Your Creativity? assignment I chose to go to the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul. At the museum I saw the Omni Theatre presentation of Dolphins.

The Omnitheatre presentation of Dolphins was probably one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen. It was not only incredible due to the content of the movie. It was also incredible because of the way that it was presented. When I first went into the theatre I commented to the woman sitting next to me that we probably were not in the greatest seats due to the fact the screen was way above us. I thought I would be craning my neck the whole show.

Then it happened. The screen actually began to move. It was rotating down like the face guard of an astronaut?s helmet and encircling us. The whole process took five minutes only lending to the feel that you were experiencing something out of science fiction even more.

The story of the screen is an experience in it self and led me to find out more about these theatres:

The movie Dolphins I saw is produced and exhibited on the world’s most advanced film format. Imax Corporation and Iwerks Entertainment manufacture 15 perforation/70mm (15/70) film projection systems currently installed at approximately 200 giant screen theatres internationally.

IMAX? motion picture systems, invented and developed by Imax Corporation, display images of unsurpassed size, clarity and impact. The images are enhanced by a superb specially-designed six-channel, multi-speaker sound system and projected onto giant rectangular screens, up to eight stories high and, in the case of IMAX Dome? theatres, onto domes as large as 27metres (88′- 5″) in diameter.

The 15/70 image is 10 times larger than a conventional 35mm frame and three times bigger than a standard 70mm frame. The sheer size of a 15/70 film frame, combined with the unique IMAX? or iWERKS?projection technology, is the key to the extraordinary sharpness and clarity of Dolphins and other MacGillivray Freeman films.

Sound is critical to the IMAX Experience?. The IMAX six-channel, high fidelity motion picture sound system, with sub-bass, is manufactured by Sonics Associates Inc., a world leader in sound system design. The Sonics Proportional Point Source Loudspeaker system, specifically designed for IMAX theatres, eliminates variations in volume and sound quality over the theatre seating area. This allows all members of the audience to experience superb sound quality regardless of where they may be seated.

IMAX projectors are the most advanced, highest precision and most powerful projectors ever built. The key to their superior performance and reliability is the unique “Rolling Loop” film movement. The Rolling Loop advances the film horizontally in a smooth, wave-like motion. During projection, each frame is positioned on fixed registration pins and the film is held firmly against the rear element of the lens by a vacuum. As a result, the picture and focus steadiness are far above normal projection standards and provide outstanding image clarity.

The IMAX system has its roots in EXPO ?67 in Montreal, Canada where multi-screen films were the hit of the fair. A small group of Canadian filmmakers/ entrepreneurs (Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor and Robert Kerr), who had made some of those popular films, decided to design a new system using a single, powerful projector, rather than the cumbersome multiple projectors used at that time. The result: the IMAX motion picture projection system, which would revolutionize giant-screen cinema. IMAX technology premiered at the Fuji Pavilion, EXPO ?70 in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX projection system was installed at Ontario Place’s Cinesphere in Toronto in 1971. OMNIMAX? debuted at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre in San Diego in 1973.

Imax leases IMAX motion picture projection systems to specially designed theatres worldwide. As of April 1999, 185 permanent theatres operate in 25 countries. There is a backlog of more than 80 theatres scheduled to open in 15 different countries during the next few years.

There are approximately 150 films in the medium film library. Educational and entertaining, these films take viewers where they are unable to go: to explore the hidden secrets of natural wonders like Mt. Everest, the inside of an atom or the magic of space.

After ?contact? the movie began. The movie presented many issues to the audience. The movie portrayed how dolphins have much to teach us about our world, and how scientists everywhere are watching and listening. Scientists are discovering where the many kinds of dolphins live and travel; how dolphin families and societies form; how these marine mammals communicate with one another; and sadly, how humans adversely affect their health and mortality. The film was a window into an incredibly complex realm where dolphins are just one citizen of a magnificent water kingdom. The film Dolphins inspires me to look at the ocean and its inhabitants with new eyes — eyes that reflect my best self and that someday mirror a healthy ocean.

The music in this film was also very moving. It features a soundtrack with music from Grammy Award?-winning singer and songwriter Sting. The music seemed very ethnic, I would say South American. This is a soundtrack that I plan on purchasing and listening to again and again.

As I watched and saw the trailers for the movies previously mentioned, I thought what an incredible life the director and producer of these films must lead. The sites that they see and the experiences that are out there to have. I would love to swim with the dolphins. I learned in the movie that in the United States it is illegal to swim with Dolphins, however you can go to the Bahamas and swim with them legally.

It made me once again wish that I could either live-forever or at least have about twenty careers in my lifetime.