Show Listings
Vortex Immersive Cinema
Come experience the magic of 360-degree fulldome movies! This premiere Immersive Cinema series takes place in the Vortex Dome located in downtown Los Angeles at Los Angeles Center Studios. This was a special engagement that ran from November 4th to November 12th culminating in a special presentation of Bella Gaia performed live by classically trained violinist Kenji Williams.
We would like to thank all of the guests who attended our special limited engagement Immersive Cinema Series. We are currently planning future showings and will be announcing them soon so please check back for more details.
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BELLA GAIA (BEAUTIFUL EARTH) *SPECIAL LIMITED ENGAGEMENT LIVE PERFORMANCE*: Bella Gaia is a ‘Living Atlas’ multimedia journey of our world, and expresses the deeply moving beauty of planet Earth as seen through the eyes of astronauts by successfully simulating space flight. Collaborating with NASA, BELLA GAIA is a new immersive theater experience, a portal for an audience to develop a deeper connection and empathy with our planet Earth. Created by award winning director and classically trained violinist Kenji Williams, BELLA GAIA features a 45 minute live performance by Kenji with orbiting visualizations of Earth from space.
From fires in the Amazon basin to time-lapse images of the Arctic ice melt, the stunning orbital imagery created by SCISS’ Uniview software and NASA, provides an exquisite simulation of the astronaut’s view from space. Multicultural experiences are also part of BELLA GAIA, through earthbound journeys from exotic Japanese temples to Egyptian pyramids, featuring a footage from the Laya project.
The vision of BELLA GAIA is to bring the power of art, technology, space science, and real scientific data visualizations together, into a context that is both entertaining and educational, fused with a common goal of raising the awareness and appreciation of our home planet. BELLA GAIA can actually visually display how we humans are affecting the planet, and how each element affects the other, allowing the audience to easily understand the delicate interconnected balance of our planet.
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REALM OF LIGHT / Adamas: The latest full dome feature produced by Softmachine. With its stunning special effects, this entirely 3D animated full dome production is designed in any aspect for the immersive theater – a completely new dimension of filmed visualisation.
The film tells in breathtaking pictures the story of the genesis and the evolution of the universe and our world - from the big bang until today. A philosophical approach to the origins of space and our life.
The film was commissioned by an Indian company based in Mumbai and won the Domefest Award 2007 in the USA. REALM OF LIGHT / Adamas was also honored with the Best Immersion Award at the European Immersive Film Festival (Portugal, 2009) and the Excellence Award at the Fulldome Festival in Jena –Germany, 2009.
The world premiere of REALM OF LIGHT / Adamas took place at Hamburg´s Planetarium on June 30th, 2009.
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VOICES IN THE DARK: Enter a magical world. Dare to believe your eyes. Nothing here is just what it seems at first glance: a postcard as a portal to a lost city, tarot cards which come to life or floating ballet dancers in virtual worlds. A symphony of sounds, pictures and emotions takes you away to a mysterious universe.
Mike Batt has, together with Terry Rudat and Mindgames Productions, gathered a team of superb, creative 3D designers, illustrators, dancers and video artists to visualise his epic musical work in spectacular visual worlds. The spectator sets out on a breathtaking journey through a magic, audiovisual universe which is created in and through Mike Batt´s music. Voices in the Dark takes you to completely new audiovisual dimensions and surprises the spectator to the very last.
VOICES IN THE DARK is an ambitious project which Mike Batt himself described as a “music-video-art-film installation” after the screening of the first sequences. It seems like everybody has a hard time expressing this work in words. What is new in comparison to earlier projects for the planetarium dome is the almost playful exploration of the visual possibilities for 360° video. Here, HD Realfilm meets 3D animation, 2D drawings and music. It seems that the planetarium sky is populated by floating ballet dancers and diving models here.
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TALES OF THE MAYA SKIES: Immerse yourself in the beauty of Chichén Itzá, Mexico, the “seventh wonder of the modern world.” Listen to the story of the ancient Maya civilization. Experience Tales of the Maya Skies.
With unprecedented realism Tales of the Maya Skies immerses us in Maya science, art and mythology, using full dome digital technology to transport us back into the world of the Maya.
Grammy Award winner and Oscar nominee, Lila Downs, narrates, as Tales of the Maya Skies brings us back to the ancient jungles of Mexico, where the Maya built cities and temples aligned to movements of the Sun, Moon and planets. Over many years they observed and documented astronomical events with great accuracy.
The Maya made sense of an ever-changing world by observing, recording and predicting natural events such as solstices, solar eclipses, weather patterns, and planetary movements. These observations, in combination with a sophisticated mathematical system, allowed them to develop a precise calendar system; their measurements of the length of the solar year were more accurate than measurements the Europeans used as the basis of the Gregorian calendar. The Maya also predicted eclipses, were able to forecast seasonal change and developed the concept of mathematical zero, enabling them to predict events into the future.
Tales of the Maya Skies weaves together this rich combination of science, culture, and legend, immersing viewers in the sounds and sights of an ancient way of life.
Produced by Chabot Space & Science Center, Tales of the Maya Skies inspires and educates through its description of the Maya’s accurate astronomical achievements and how astronomy connected them to the Universe.
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DOMEFEST RETROSPECTIVE: A 50-minute reel of the best of DomeFest from the first five years (2004-08). Includes some celebrated works and shows some of the progress and directions in the fulldome & immersive cinema medium since 'the early years.' Produced in partnership with the Adelaide Film Festival with the support of the Australian Network for Art & Science.
DomeFest is dedicated to advancing the understanding, use and purpose of ‘fulldome’ storytelling and techniques. “Fulldome” is a powerful new medium that provides large-format immersive experiences via digital technologies presented on a hemispheric screen normally associated with planetariums. No longer “limited” to the cosmos, fulldome is “exploding the frame” (thanks, Ben) of what a planetarium dome theater can be.
DomeFest is an international exposition of the best and most innovative works done for “fulldome” theaters. Our goal is to advance understanding and support experimentation in a new medium that has roots in the astronomy education. We’re looking for the best in astronomy productions, but also works that depart from that subject and tradition. We’re looking for art, entertainment, humor, experimental works/processes, depictions of nature and fantasy, efforts in creating virtual environments—whatever you’ve been making that’s outside the pale of whatever you consider normal, traditional or status quo.
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SEVEN WONDERS: Turn back the pages of time and witness the ancient wonders of the world as they have not been seen for thousands of years. We will investigate the theories of how these wonders were created and get a glimpse of some of the universe's greatest wonders.
Seven Wonders is narrated by British actor Sean Bean, who played Boromir in the feature film trilogy Lord of the Rings.
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ZULA PATROL DOUBLE FEATURE: From the far reaches of outer space, from the bright orange planet Zula, comes the Zula Patrol! Based on the #1-rated NBC Saturday Morning TV series “The Zula Patrol”.
Episode 1: "Down to Earth" - While on a routine fossil-hunting expedition, The Zula Patrol turns up evidence that the villainous Deliria Delight has been travelling back in time to Earth’s prehistoric past to illegally dump her company’s toxic trash. The Zula Patrollers must find and catch her, before her actions cause catastrophic consequences. In the process, our heroes learn all about the formation and development of Earth, and the life forms who call it home.
Episode 2: "Under the Weather" - Join The Zula Patrol on an exciting expedition across the sky. When the nefarious Dark Truder steals the weather from the Solar System planets, The Zula Patrol goes after him, discovering both terrestrial and planetary weather along the way. Suit up and get ready to learn with The Zula Patrol!
The Zula Patrol: Under the Weather is one of the top-performing digital dome shows of its genre. Currently in distribution to more than 60 theaters since its launch at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, Under the Weather is designed for children ages 4-9 and their families. Like the TV series (also airing on qubo, Telemundo, ION and PBS nationwide), it supports many national and state science education standards.