Beautiful Planet - film review
The Milky Way contains billions of stars and planets, but Earth is to us the most beautiful. The thin skin of our atmosphere protects us from many space hazards, but can't protect life on Earth from human-made hazards. Toni Meyers's new film A Beautiful Planet 3D says only we can do that.
The film makers
The team behind the film has previously brought space to the IMAX screen in Space Station 3D and Hubble 3D. Toni Meyers wrote, directed and produced. The music was composed by Micky Erbe and Maribeth Solomon. Jennifer Lawrence narrated.
Once again James Neihouse directed the photography. He's an award-winning cinematographer who's trained over 150 astronauts to use IMAX cameras to film in space. When she was an astronaut, Marsha Ivins was on three space shuttle missions in which such filming took place. For A Beautiful Planet 3D she served as a consultant and coordinator of astronaut activities in Houston.
Several films in one
There are three major themes in the film.
1. A superb simulation takes us through our Galaxy.
If challenged to describe the re-creation of the Milky Way in one word, I think I'd just give up on the superlative adjectives and go for “Wow!” The Advanced Visualization Lab of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications produced it. Toni Meyers had asked them for something that would be beautiful and inspiring, yet scientifically accurate. One of the designers explained that every star was based on “real astronomical data – not CGI – this is not made-up stuff.”
2. Join the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS)
Marsha Ivins says that the film is “as close as you can come to the experience of being in space,” and that other astronauts have agreed.
Everyone has to exercise at least two and a half hours a day to keep their muscles from deteriorating and their bones from losing calcium. We learn about how to maintain hygiene in space and the delights of watching Earth from the cupola, an observation window.
I wondered if the hardest part of a space walk mightn't be getting in and out of the suit. In a very funny scene the other two crew members assisted the space walker out of the suit, though I suspect it could have been done with just one helper.
Even though I'm not a coffee drinker, I was taken with the Italian ISSpresso, an Italian machine for making espresso on the space station. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was obviously delighted to try it out and drank it from a “zero-gravity cup”.
3. Earth-watching
If you like to try to get a window seat on a plane, you can easily imagine why astronauts on the ISS like looking at Earth. The Milky Way was fascinating and life on the space station engaging, but the scenes of Earth on the enormous screen are breathtaking.
The most startling image for me was part of the Earth at night. On the eastern coast of the Asian continent, South Korea looked like an island. It's brightly illuminated, but is surrounded by darkness. Some of that is, of course, sea. However the rest is North Korea, almost completely dark, even though its population is about the same as that of the south.
Interestingly, past IMAX films weren't able to show low-light scenes. However A Beautiful Planet wasn't shot with an IMAX camera. New camera technology meant they could use digital cameras with no special modification. Digital cameras have a larger dynamic range than those using film, so they could captured the cities at night, aurorae and lightning.
The message
Toni Meyers said that she made the film with the “hope [of inspiring] a new generation to appreciate their world . . . and to go out and work together.” Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (unscripted) took up the spaceship Earth theme, which is especially convincing when you see the planet from space. She compared the way the crew of a spacecraft needed to look after each other and the ship to people on the planet doing the same.
Worth seeing?
I'll get my little quibbles out of the way first. There are lots of things happening, so you only have time to get interested before dashing off to the next curiosity. We whiz through everything in 45 minutes, so I guess it's just hang on to your seat and join the ride.
A little warning here. When the new crew first arrives on the ISS and is experiencing free fall, the giant screen and 3D made it so realistic I felt a bit queasy. Close your eyes if that happens!
The music composed for the film was fine, but I felt that some of the other music they used seemed to trivialize the action. I guess someone thought it was cute. Jennifer Lawrence is a superb actress, but I found her a bit bland as a narrator.
Yet in answer to my question, yes, it's worth seeing, and it works for adults and children. The film is spectacular and concerned without peddling gloom and doom. In promotes the positive view that we can do something to protect our home.
Education
For educational purposes you could link the film to environmental studies, geography, and astronomy and space. The website has activity guides that can be downloaded as PDFs. These include activities that apply science, art, design, problem-solving, working together and other skills. I do wonder if there is time for any of them in the test-driven education systems, but they might be an inspiration for science fair projects, cross-curricular activities, or end-of-term projects.
A Beautiful World website:
It contains a trailer, some interviews and the educator's guide: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Note: I paid the admission fee out of my own funds.
The film makers
The team behind the film has previously brought space to the IMAX screen in Space Station 3D and Hubble 3D. Toni Meyers wrote, directed and produced. The music was composed by Micky Erbe and Maribeth Solomon. Jennifer Lawrence narrated.
Once again James Neihouse directed the photography. He's an award-winning cinematographer who's trained over 150 astronauts to use IMAX cameras to film in space. When she was an astronaut, Marsha Ivins was on three space shuttle missions in which such filming took place. For A Beautiful Planet 3D she served as a consultant and coordinator of astronaut activities in Houston.
Several films in one
There are three major themes in the film.
1. A superb simulation takes us through our Galaxy.
If challenged to describe the re-creation of the Milky Way in one word, I think I'd just give up on the superlative adjectives and go for “Wow!” The Advanced Visualization Lab of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications produced it. Toni Meyers had asked them for something that would be beautiful and inspiring, yet scientifically accurate. One of the designers explained that every star was based on “real astronomical data – not CGI – this is not made-up stuff.”
2. Join the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS)
Marsha Ivins says that the film is “as close as you can come to the experience of being in space,” and that other astronauts have agreed.
Everyone has to exercise at least two and a half hours a day to keep their muscles from deteriorating and their bones from losing calcium. We learn about how to maintain hygiene in space and the delights of watching Earth from the cupola, an observation window.
I wondered if the hardest part of a space walk mightn't be getting in and out of the suit. In a very funny scene the other two crew members assisted the space walker out of the suit, though I suspect it could have been done with just one helper.
Even though I'm not a coffee drinker, I was taken with the Italian ISSpresso, an Italian machine for making espresso on the space station. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was obviously delighted to try it out and drank it from a “zero-gravity cup”.
3. Earth-watching
If you like to try to get a window seat on a plane, you can easily imagine why astronauts on the ISS like looking at Earth. The Milky Way was fascinating and life on the space station engaging, but the scenes of Earth on the enormous screen are breathtaking.
The most startling image for me was part of the Earth at night. On the eastern coast of the Asian continent, South Korea looked like an island. It's brightly illuminated, but is surrounded by darkness. Some of that is, of course, sea. However the rest is North Korea, almost completely dark, even though its population is about the same as that of the south.
Interestingly, past IMAX films weren't able to show low-light scenes. However A Beautiful Planet wasn't shot with an IMAX camera. New camera technology meant they could use digital cameras with no special modification. Digital cameras have a larger dynamic range than those using film, so they could captured the cities at night, aurorae and lightning.
The message
Toni Meyers said that she made the film with the “hope [of inspiring] a new generation to appreciate their world . . . and to go out and work together.” Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (unscripted) took up the spaceship Earth theme, which is especially convincing when you see the planet from space. She compared the way the crew of a spacecraft needed to look after each other and the ship to people on the planet doing the same.
Worth seeing?
I'll get my little quibbles out of the way first. There are lots of things happening, so you only have time to get interested before dashing off to the next curiosity. We whiz through everything in 45 minutes, so I guess it's just hang on to your seat and join the ride.
A little warning here. When the new crew first arrives on the ISS and is experiencing free fall, the giant screen and 3D made it so realistic I felt a bit queasy. Close your eyes if that happens!
The music composed for the film was fine, but I felt that some of the other music they used seemed to trivialize the action. I guess someone thought it was cute. Jennifer Lawrence is a superb actress, but I found her a bit bland as a narrator.
Yet in answer to my question, yes, it's worth seeing, and it works for adults and children. The film is spectacular and concerned without peddling gloom and doom. In promotes the positive view that we can do something to protect our home.
Education
For educational purposes you could link the film to environmental studies, geography, and astronomy and space. The website has activity guides that can be downloaded as PDFs. These include activities that apply science, art, design, problem-solving, working together and other skills. I do wonder if there is time for any of them in the test-driven education systems, but they might be an inspiration for science fair projects, cross-curricular activities, or end-of-term projects.
A Beautiful World website:
It contains a trailer, some interviews and the educator's guide: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Note: I paid the admission fee out of my own funds.
You Should Also Read:
Hubble 3D - film review
Milky Way - Our Galaxy
Space Station 3D - film review
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