Movies In A Bubble

18-Apr-00

For years, filmmakers have talked about putting audiences ""inside"" a movie. Now iPIX Movies may actually do it. The new format, created by Oak Ridge-based iPIX Internet Pictures Corporation, puts viewers in the center of the action. Imagine being inside a moving car while the action of a movie is happening all around you. You can look ahead, to each side or behind you. You can look at the floor or the ceiling. When an iPIX Movie is shown on a computer video screen, the viewer can manipulate what part of the picture he or she sees by moving a mouse. However, when watching a movie through a pair of video goggles, the viewer can simply move his or her head to ""look around"" the moving picture. ""This is something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world,"" says Jim Phillips, iPIX Chief Executive Officer. Some of the most popular filmmakers in the country will be behind the format's launch to the general public. Last week, film directors/producers Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard announced they will oversee the exclusive introductory use of iPIX Movie technology on the new Web site www.Pop.com. The site will use broadband digital transmissions to let Web surfers view new short films, some of which will be shot in iPIX. As of yet, no date has been set for Pop.com to begin producing iPIX Movies. Web users are used to seeing iPIX photos, but only a few people have seen the two prototypes for iPIX Movies. The films feature an aerial trip through the Hawaiian Islands and a tour of New York City using helicopters, a double-decker bus, time-lapse photography and a stationary camera at Grand Central Station. The iPIX camera was invented by Steve Zimmerman in the early '90s. The original plan was for NASA to use the camera on a space station. The iPIX system is basically two bubble lenses, fit back to back, that record two 180-degree pictures on either a single frame of 35mm film or in a digital format. The film or digital information is then read by a computer that puts each half-image into a whole 360-degree image. The technology has already been embraced by hotels that want to give guests a chance to ""explore"" their future accommodations, car manufacturers who want to let potential buyers inside a car without having to go to a showroom and real-estate agents who can show houses on the Web. Sports Illustrated recently put iPIX photos of its swimsuit models on its Web site. And the uses as security cameras are obvious. ""Steve is a visionary as well as an inventor,"" says Phillips. ""When you listen to his vision, it's like you're going into a gold mine."" Although Zimmerman's initial idea was to put his cameras on a NASA space station, the movie aspect was also part of the vision. ""The idea was to be able to immerse yourself in an environment,"" says Zimmerman. He says he's been pushing for artists to pick up on the technology for a long time. ""Creative talent is what will make this amazing,"" says Zimmerman. ""Hollywood is all about magic anyway."" Scott Colthorp, owner of Atmosphere Pictures, is has been to date the only artist to date who has shot a to shoot motion picture film in the iPIX format. Colthorp says that for a creative artist, iPIX produces several challenges. For one thing, the filmmaker must go from having a passive audience that merely watches to one that actually manipulates the film. ""It's still linear, but it requires pro-activity,"" says Colthorp. He says another big hurdle is just getting the crew out of each shot. Colthorp ended up catching himself on film in several scenes in the New York travelogue. ""It changes the entire way that production works,"" says Colthorp. ""(The crew) has to have an escape route. Everyone has to get lost."" Sound engineers, lighting technicians, the director, the entire set would has have to be part of the scene. Colthorp likens it to the early days of sound films when microphones had to be hidden inside flowerpots or other items near to the actors. Colthorp envisions incredible virtual reality video game applications with the system, but he also believes it will work in the traditional narrative movie format. ""I really think it will leave its mark in the timeline of film,"" says Colthorp. Yet the more immediate uses of the format probably will be on Web sites. In addition to www.Pop.com, the Discovery Channel's Web site (www.Discovery.com) plans to use the format and will even offer live iPIX. ""I think if any application has the chance of the being the killer Internet app it's iPIX Movies,"" says John Hendricks, Discovery Channel founder and CEO and an iPIX board member and investor. Hendricks says the Discovery Web site will begin featuring ""Discovery V-There Adventures"" once more people are signed up to broadband Internet services (standard modem connections are too slow to handle the format). Hendricks envisions setting up a series of iPIX cameras in an exotic locale, such as Bangkok, Thailand, which would allow viewers to ""walk"" from photo bubble to photo bubble through the streets of the city. Permanent cameras would enable viewers to visit locations all over the world - live. Wonder what's going on at 2am in Moscow? Click on and look all around a street corner of the Russian capital. ""Then we'll have an archive of iPIX Movies - one million people could watch a movie at the same time and every one of them could be looking at something a little different. We could take you from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the ocean."" Hendricks says the company might produce V-There Adventures on DVD before adding iPIX Movies to the Discovery Channel Web site. DVDs, which are now taking off in the home video and computer market, can already hold all the information needed for an iPIX film. Zimmerman already has visions in his head. ""Imagine that you come home, sit in your zero-gravity chair, put on your headset and you're at the Santa Monica pier watching the sunset,"" says Zimmerman. In addition to professional films, Zimmerman envisions his creation being used by amateur filmmakers as well. ""If you filmed your wedding (in iPIX), you could look around and see absolutely everything,"" says Zimmerman. ""You can look over here and see your mom crying... see the minister... you'd be able to re-examine the entire thing. Everything would be there."" Source: KnoxNews.com

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