Page 11 - My FlipBook

But even if he had been successful in securing support for the movie

back in the early 2000s, the film equipment then was huge and awkward—
even more so than it is today. (imax film magazines are the largest in the
world, because the film is twice the size of traditional movie film—70
millimeters instead of 35 millimeters—to capture the quality needed for

the imax screen.) “The cameras were very big, heavy and loud,” Ian says,
referring to the equipment available twenty years ago. “I just couldn’t see
how we could possibly film wildlife in a non-invasive manner—the bears
would run for the hills once those big old cameras started up.”

Fast forward to 2014, when the Great Bear Rainforest was slowly
becoming recognized as one of the planet’s natural wonders. One after-
noon, Ian met with Kyle Washington, who was interested in learning more
about Pacific Wild’s work. Over lunch, Kyle told Ian how excited his chil-

dren had been after seeing an imax film. The conversation soon turned
to the opportunity to make an imax film of the Great Bear Rainforest as
a way to raise awareness of this important piece of the world—and Kyle
agreed.

By the time Kyle and his family came on board, smaller and quieter
digital cameras that could deliver imax-quality images were becoming
available. Ian and his crew were able to field-test some brand-new digital
technology in making the movie. “In order to capture elusive, rarely docu-

mented wildlife behavior, it meant being quiet and somewhat mobile in A mother grizzly and her yearling cub.
the field,” Ian says. “It was super exciting that the technology had finally
caught up.”

DID YOU KNOW?
Putting the Great Bear Rainforest imax together
was a huge job, not just on the ground but also in
the editing room. Think about it: three years of
filming and recording the awe-inspiring wildlife
and landscapes of this coast, from the underwater
world and across the vast rainforest archipelago
to the very tops of the Coast Mountain range.
Add to that the deep human history in this part of
the world…and it all had to be jammed into forty-one
minutes—the standard length of an imax film.

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