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Summit Challenge - National Park 360À

When the executives at the Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria) asked us to make a 360À film to

play in their state-of-the-art panorama theater that they were going to build, we had no idea of the

challenges that lay ahead. This was our first 360À film and what followed was an incredible two-

year journey that profoundly challenged us physically, mentally, technologically and financially as we

pushed the cinematic and technological boundaries of panoramic filmmaking under extremely

difficult climatic and geographical conditions.

The concept of director Michael Schlamberger for the film was to create a one-of-a-kind

experience by transporting people to unique areas of the Hohe Tauern mountain region where

only a few mountaineers and nature enthusiasts ventured. We wanted viewers to experience the

forces of nature throughout the changing seasons and feel as though they were personally

exploring the mountain, thereby gaining an appreciation of natureÊs struggle for survival in the

extreme. And finally, we wanted the audience to experience magical moments from the summit of

the Grossglockner, AustriaÊs highest peak, as they gazed across majestic panoramas of mountain

wilderness.

A New 360À Camera

To film in the mountains, the camera had to be lightweight and as compact as possible so that it

could be carried to remote locations over difficult terrain. It had to be rugged enough to

withstand all kinds of weather, and it had to be easy to set up and break down, not only for

convenience, but also for our safety. This flexibility would allow us to quickly respond to the

unpredictable mountain weather conditions that could turn dangerous without warning. We

explored existing cameras, but what was available was unable to capture our vision in the quality

we needed. So we decided that we had no option but to develop our own camera, which would

enable us to record very high quality raw data.

Our team began busily sourcing camera parts: sensors, microchips, wires, connectors, lenses,

recording devices, hard drives and more. After many design iterations, we settled on an octagonal

rig that looked like the offspring of a Dalek from Dr. Who.

Eight small rectangular cameras, no bigger than a TV remote, pointed upwards into eight 45-

degree angled mirrors that crowned the rim. In the lower section, an AJA Sync generator sat

beneath the cameras as well as control electronics for the synchronized iris motors on all 8 lenses.

Neatly bundled wires from the cameras and a control signal cable led into an auxiliary recording

unit - a large, yet portable, watertight hard case packed with technology comprising of a timecode

generator, 8 SDI audio embedders, which we used to embed an SMPTE Timecode track onto an

audio channel, 8 Blackmagic Shuttle SSD Recorders capable of 2K RAW capture and 2 video multi-

viewer-processors, routing the eight camera images to 2 HDSDI outputs on demand.

A third unit (tucked securely inside a pelican case) housed 2 large HD control monitors, a small

laptop running the camera control software ,a custom control panel and additional electronics.

Four standard-14.4-Volt V-mount batteries provided sufficient power for several hours in the field.

Surround sound was an important element in the film and required our soundman Martin

Rohrmoser to come up with something special to record natural sounds. Taking up the challenge,

he rigged a boom pole with four microphones facing in all directions and hooked them to an

external recorder, which recorded in quadraphonic stereo via a mixer. It worked like a charm

from the start, unlike the camera, which underwent testing for almost a year, during which a

multitude of diverse and often interconnected technical problems made themselves apparent.

Parallax and camera calibration issues, focusing and image distortion, synchronous f-stop

adjustment to name a few, challenged us constantly. We also struggled with the overwhelming

data rates, which were eating up the hard drives at 1 Gigabyte per minute.

New Rules of Filmmaking

Location 360À cinematography in itself poses some unique creative and technical challenges that

required us to think with great ingenuity. With only a horizontal wide-angle surround view to

work with meant that the exact choice of camera position was the only, and therefore the most

important, composition tool. We had to forget the classical 180° principle and traditional rules of

filmmaking that allows for the freedom in choice of lenses, focal length and framing, and develop

new ways of looking at images and locations. Essentially, we had to invent new rules and concepts

that worked in the 360-degree mountain realm.

With the audience standing in the middle of the action and with the film exceeding the human

visual range of 160°, we had to devise a technique to ensure a coherent narrative. Historically,

pioneers of the 360À film world, such as Walt DisneyÊs Circle-Vision 360À in the 1950s and 60s,

produced films that contained highly dynamic sequences, which caused the audience to lose their

equilibrium or suffer from motion sickness. Their solution was to provide railings in their theaters

for the audience to hold on to. Our solution was to refine our camera movements within the

image sequences, thereby creating a visual dynamic that enhanced the experience, but did not

interfere with the viewersÊ equilibrium.

Retrofitted dolly tracks and a 20-foot jib arm, enabled us to create beautiful, slow camera

movements, and joined our armament of „must have‰ gadgets. We also constructed a lightweight

raft to float down rivers. It was an ingenious simple modular design made from two household

plastic drainage pipes, 10 feet in length and 6 inches in diameter, fixed on either side of a platform

big enough to hold the camera, recording unit, and cluster of car batteries.

Meanwhile, Back at the Studio

Under the assumption that we would resolve all our problems, the post-production team took

our test footage, and put the editing hard and software to the test. It required much patience and

a Zen-like approach as the mass of accumulated terabytes were transferred, and a multi-phase

workflow was established covering ingestion, codec conversions, on and offline editing. The

finishing phase involved a complicated process of „stitching‰ the images together into one seamless

image, color grading and final mixing of the soundtrack.

Production Schedule, Location, Equipment and Crew

After almost a year of designing, building and testing the camera, most of the technical issues had

been resolved and we were ready to start production.

As mountain weather can change without warning, and accurate weather forecasts are limited to a

few days at best, our selection of location and trip duration were influenced, if not dictated, by

weather conditions and the time of year. Our shooting schedule, which allowed for 80 days total,

needed to be flexible.

With only a few days of advance warning available from weather reports, teams of varying sizes

were quickly assembled according to the location. The gear, packed neatly into carrying cases,

weighed in at 100 (up to 250) kilograms (not including food and water, or climbing and camping

gear) and a skeleton crew of three to five were able to tackle some of the lower to mid-mountain

regions, where we concentrated on landscape scenes and set up dolly and jib shots in the forests,

and floated our raft in rivers and lakes. With limited space on the raft platform and a slight

steering issue, Mario Cater, the camera operator, ended up spending at least 22 hours physically in

the freezing glacier meltwater rivers!

Traveling higher, our team grew from six to ten as we filmed spectacular, thundering waterfalls

and deep gorges, and even went underwater with the camera in whitewater rapids (yes, we built

an underwater housing unit on the basis of a household cooking pot, a fire hose and other unlikely

things). Additional mountain climbing experts supervised our expedition to the glaciers. Tethered

together by ropes and wearing crampons, we navigated across the craggy icy surface and rappelled

into deep crevasses.

Careful location scouting was instrumental. Not only did we have to evaluate every detail of the

360À landscape itself, but we also had to monitor the full range of lighting conditions at every

moment of the day so as not to exceed the contrast range of the camera.

Aerials

Returning from our first aerial shoot of the Grossglockner, the helicopter hovered with precision

above the landing area that was normally a parking lot for skiers on the Kitzsteinhorn. Gently

swaying below it on a 30-meter rope was a long torpedo shaped tube with a rudder and attached

to its undercarriage was a gyrostabilizer and our 360À camera. The two-man ground crew lined up

a U-shaped cradle beneath it as dust and debris, kicked up by the helicopter's powerful rotors,

flew violently around us. The camera was inched down until it sat safely in the cradle. A two-hour

flight that had taken four weeks of planning and organization, and much of the day to get the

camera flight-ready, was over. Or so we thought. That night the footage was backed up and

reviewed. At breakfast Mario, who had been up all night checking the footage, broke the bad news

that black specks, possibly from dust and debris on the lenses and mirrors, were visible all over

the footage making it unusable. It was back to the drawing board. Our hearts sank and our five-

hour drive home was consumed with disbelief.

Weeks later, we figured out the actual problem: loose tiny metal particles originating from within

each cameraÊs housing had become statically charged in flight and attached themselves to the

sensors. The cameras were disassembled and thoroughly cleaned, and we were able to fly again –

successfully.

The Summit

On a freezing, crystal clear October night, a helicopter whisked us up to the summit. After setting

up the camera, we began to shoot the star-filled skies until dawn and captured the glorious,

warming sunrise. After a long day shooting panoramas, followed by a few hours sleep, our camera

started rolling again to capture the sunset. That night we had again one of the clearest night skies,

and although scheduled to depart, we pulled an all-nighter to film another breathtaking nightscape

time-lapse sequence.

Each trip typically lasted about two to six days and required an enormous amount of physical

endurance to carry our equipment, film in well-below zero-Celsius temperatures inside crevasses

and ice caves, and go underwater in a turbulent white-water stream. Needless to say, constant

vigilance was needed to ensure dust-free lenses, sensors and mirrors and concentration required

to operate all the technology, while filming under difficult conditions. Teamwork and organization

were key to the successful outcome.

Editing, Music and Sound Design

Since there was no way to preview the film in its true 360À format, all the post-production was

done in 2-D with eight images collated on to one flat screen. Our expert (Zen) editing team, led

by Omer Sacic, did their magic on the Petabytes of media with ingestion, codec conversion, on and

offline editing, and color grading, while composer, Christian Kardeis, composed a surround

soundtrack to the miniature preview film. With music and sound effects playing an important role

in the 360° realm, it had to be carefully designed to create suspense as well as direct the viewerÊs

attention to certain areas of action through use of acoustic stimuli. Not an easy feat when working

in a two-dimensional studio environment. The sound mix contained over 500 tracks of music,

location sound and countless effects. The final music mix could only be undertaken in the 360°

panorama theater.

The Final Days

With the film finally edited we were ready to launch into the final phase. Time was running out

and there was still much to do.

Geoff Kleindorfer was first up, and over the next three weeks he used special software to „stitch‰

each of the eight camera angle together into one large seamless image. Once done, it took almost

ten days straight for the powerful computers to render the film, setting our delivery schedule into

mayhem - and us into overdrive.

To save time, we had to give Peter Moritz, the sound mixer, a roughly stitched and ungraded film

to be able to start with the final mix in the theater. Simultaneously, our colorist, Willi Willinger,

started working his magic color grading. Scene after scene and panel after panel, he manipulated

the colors from each camera angle to exactly match one another. After a marathon 72-hour color

grading session, and another 10 hours of rendering, we finally had a 14K master file.

As soon as we arrived at the Mittersill National Park Center, after a 4-hour drive from Graz, we

unloaded all our computer gear and hard drives and took possession of the tech-control center.

Over the next three days the projection system was prepared and color calibrated and the master

file transferred to the media server, where it was further processed by software that would

distribute the picture between the nine projectors.

Peter Moritz, who had been waiting for this moment since day one, plugged into the 10.2

surround sound system and began to EQ and master the soundtrack. He estimated that he needed

seven days. We were down to the wire. There was no room for error.

The 14.5-Million Pixel Screen System

The filmmaking team and technicians climbed the gently winding ramp and joined the executives

from the National Park Center and journalists who were gathered on the theaterÊs central circular

observation deck, which can hold up to 70 people. This was the moment of truth. During the next

14-minutes, two years of creativity and innovations by a small army of remarkable people was

going to be under intense scrutiny. The lights dimmed and we fell silent as the magic of the images

and sound engulfed us on the massive 170ft (52m) x 13ft (4m) cylindrical screen. We had been

transported once again to the great mountain outdoors and we were able to wander around the

deck to explore images that piqued our interest. The powerful computers ensured that a seamless

360-degree panoramic view was maintained at all times. The soundtrack, with its inspiring music

and subtle natural sounds and sound effects, directed our attention from one side to the other. It

truly sounded amazing through the ten speakers, arranged in a circular and a Z-shaped cluster

accompanied by a powerful sub-bass system. The architectural precision of the theater's

observation deck and height of the screen were a masterpiece in construction, and as we looked

down on the panoramic mountain wilderness that surrounded us we felt as though we were back

on the summit. We remembered the freezing temperatures we had filmed in, but best of all we

got to relive the magical moments that we had captured at sunrise and sunset.

The picture faded. The room remained silent - partly in awe of our achievements and partly due to

the audio-visual experience that we had just witnessed. The house lights turned on and a cheer of

relief and pride echoed in the theater as everyone congratulated each other.

This was not the only 360À theater ever built, nor was it the first panorama film ever made. Raoul

Grimoin-Sanson began in France with his Cinéorama, patented in 1897, and Walt DisneyÊs Circle-

Vision 360À made a big splash in 1955. And now, in 2013 it was our turn with the world premier

of our 360À film that was to take place in Mittersill, Austria, in one of the latest, and most

technologically advanced Panorama 360À theaters in the world.

Our achievement is a testament to our pioneer predecessors and their vision of the future. The

technological challenges they faced and the principals of cinematography and editing they

developed became a legacy for us to continue to build upon. We are fortunate to live in an age

where technology is relatively affordable and available, and which allows us to explore and push

the boundaries of our chosen profession and passion - filmmaking.

Now that "Summit Challenge - National Park 360À" is behind us, we look ahead to our ultimate

challenge: to keep exploring, to keep pushing the boundaries of filmmaking in our quest for

producing quality films, and hopefully, along the way, inspiring others to do the same.

Inside view 360° theater

Shooting in high mountains regions

360° camera with control and recording unit

Expedition to the glacier with Jib

Shooting with lightweight raft

Quadraphonic sound recording

Finalmix in the 360° theatre in Mittersill

360° theatre Nationalparkzentrum Mittersill, Austria

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director Michael Schlamberger

360° Camera

Cinematography Mario Cater

Astro-Timelapse Camera Christoph Malin

Additional Camera Alfred Zacharias, Thomas Höll

Camera System Development

Design & Construction Mario Cater

Workflow Consultant Oliver Kunz

Electronics Consultant Christoph Freidhöfer

Indiecam Camera Support Raphael Barth, Matthias Schellander, Martin Reinhart

Technical Consultant Martin Burger

Post Production

Editor Omer Sacic

Panorama Stitching Geoffrey Kleindorfer

Color Grading Willi Willinger, Raimund Sivetz

Technical Supervisor Herbert Fischer

Music

Music Coordinator Peter Moritz

Composers Christian Kardeis, Fred Jaklitsch

Vocals Zabine, Fred Jaklitsch

Steirische Harmonika Jürgen Leitner

Hackbrett Sigi Lemmerer

360° Surround Mix

Sound Editor Martin Rohrmoser

Sound Mixer Peter Moritz

Video and Media Technology pro.media

Concept Gert Oswald

Implementation Boris Waschnig-Theuermann

Production

Production Manager Anita Pfeffinger

Producer Rita Schlamberger

A production of

in association with for

LINKS

Short trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCJOFrWhW5Y

Opening Event 360° theatre: http://sciencevision.at/index.php?id=360&L=2

Behind 360: http://sciencevision.at/index.php?id=359&L=2