IMAX: Space Station

[LunarOrbit]

Has anyone else seen IMAX: Space Station? It was filmed by astronauts before the Columbia accident (and narrated by some guy named Tom Cruise).

It just came out on DVD this week, so of course I bought it. The movie is great, but I bet it looked 100 times better on the big screen. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that it seemed really short. It is only 47 minutes long, but I guess it is difficult to film in space, especially since IMAX cameras can only hold 8 minutes worth of film at a time.

The DVD also has a few extra features. My favourite is the tour of the space station, including the Soyuz that was docked to it. I think that was the first good look I've had at the whole thing, and I'm sure it showed more of the Soyuz than I have seen before.

[evancise]

Filming the IMAX 3D was a huge endeavour that consumed a vast amount of crew time.  That said, the movie turned out spectacularly, IMO.  I've seen it in 3D on the IMAX screen and it's just amazing.  I doubt the 2D version on the small screen does it justice.  I also got to see a lot of the raw footage in IMAX 3D, which was really cool to see the various takes.  I hope some of the outakes made it into the DVD.  The crews all enjoyed filming the movie, but I think Expedition 2 took the cake - they had a lot of fun doing it as well.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, I recommend the movie - and if you can see it in IMAX 3D, it's definitely worth it!!

[LunarOrbit]

It definately looked like they enjoyed making the movie. I got a good laugh out of the scene where one of the crews is transfering supplies from the shuttle to the ISS. Someone in the shuttle throws a cargo bag to an astronaut in the docking module, who then passes it on to someone else inside the ISS. Suddenly a female astronaut gets tossed between the shuttle and ISS and the narrator says "and every so often we send them a woman".

[Satanic Mechanic]

I have seen the non-3D version of the movie in Spokane.  I know they are playing the 3D version over in Seattle and Calgary.

[LunarOrbit]

I was happy to find that this 2D version isn't distorted the way my two other IMAX DVD's are. I have "Magic of Flight" and "Hail Columbia!" and they both have some fish-eye distortion.

[spacecat27]

One of these days, I hope to get up to the visitor's center at the Cape when I don't have a function to attend or friends to tour around.... so that I have time to kill to sit through the IMAX films.  If I remember right, they have a double IMAX theater there so there are always two different shows going on.  They may present shortened versions to cater to the tourist crowd, but would still be cool to see!

[Jirnsum]

I saw the movie three times: once at the IMAX here in The Hague, once in Huntsville, and once 3D in Washington DC. The 3D version is definitely more impressive 

[Count Zero]

My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that it seemed really short. It is only 47 minutes long, but I guess it is difficult to film in space, especially since IMAX cameras can only hold 8 minutes worth of film at a time.

Similarly, the film reels in the theaters can only hold so much film.  There's the matter of physical size in the projection booth, and also how big a reel the projectionist can safely lift.  47 minutes is about the limit.

There are longer IMAX movies.  "Rolling Stone:  At the Max" used two reels, and had an intermission in the middle.  These days, some IMAX theaters have two projectors (which is how standard movie theaters work), but the limited reel size still cause restrictions.  The IMAX version of "Apollo 13" had several scenes trimmed to get it down to two reels.