To capture a big country, it helps to have a big screen.And if that screen covers the domed roof of a gigantic igloo, showing live action scenes from across Canada at 360 degrees, you’ll get a sense of what it might look like if you were trampled by a herd of caribou.The 20-minute film, called Horizon, has been entertaining viewers for the past four days in an inflated red igloo set up in Regent Park. Sunday is the last day for free screenings before it’s taken on a seven-city tour of Ontario, an August showing in Mexico and a later stop in Beijing.“It’s a celebration of the land and our relationship to it,” says executive producer and project co-founder, Joanne Loton, referring to the 90 scenes filmed in every Canadian province and territory.“I often describe it as Planet Earth meets Cirque du Soleil,” she adds, referring to the BBC nature series and the Montreal-based entertainment company.It’s also a groundbreaking technical achievement that took 18 months to produce and brought together volunteer specialists from coast to coast.Special rigs were designed to hold cameras. Multiple cameras were used to shoot each scene and then “stitched” together, in some 3,000 hours of post-production work, by 360-degree technicians at Toronto’s Red Lab Digital company. The igloo dome and screen was designed by Cirque du Soleil alumni Guy St-Amour.“We feel like we’re pushing the boundaries of what we’re doing in the industry,” says Loton, 38, who was inspired by the cinematic legacy of the 70 mm IMAX film technology that caused a sensation at Montreal’s Expo 67.The result, in ultra crisp 9K resolution, is a spectacular roller coaster of people and nature, including Bhangra dancers at the Vancouver Public Library, Parkour acrobats at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, hip hop dancers in an Ontario forest, Inuit throat singers in Ottawa, figure skaters on a frozen la ...
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