American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 57

Photos by Marsha Ivins and Bill Ingalls, courtesy of NASA and Imax Corp.

I

n 1990, Imax released Blue Planet, a
pioneering film that offered an astronaut's view of Earth as seen from
space. Directed by Ben Burtt, that
film "came about from seeing all the
great shots of Earth that came from the
first Imax space film, The Dream is Alive,
which was Imax's first movie that was
actually shot in space," recalls director of
photography James Neihouse, ASC.
Neihouse shared cinematography duties
on Blue Planet with David Douglas, and
he's been involved in each of Imax's
space-bound projects since The Dream
Is Alive - including the latest, A
Beautiful Planet, which reteamed him
with filmmaker Toni Myers.
Myers had written Blue Planet,
went on to direct Hubble 3D - on
which Neihouse again served as
cinematographer (AC April '10) - and
directed A Beautiful Planet. Neihouse
recalls, "When Leonardo DiCaprio came
in to record his voice-over for Hubble 3D,
he told Toni Myers that he had loved Blue
Planet and that we should make another
film like that today. We decided it was
time to have another look at the Earth
from space. What impact would we see a
quarter of a century [after Blue Planet],
with seven billion people on the planet?"
Astronauts
aboard
the
International Space Station (ISS)

Opposite: Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts capture images of Earth,
creating a heightened awareness of the planet and humanity's impact on it in the feature A
Beautiful Planet. This page, top: NASA Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore captures footage
while on a spacewalk to repair the exterior of the ISS. Bottom, from left: Cinematographer James
Neihouse, ASC; writer/director Toni Myers; and Wilmore during an Imax camera-training session.

captured the views presented in A
Beautiful Planet. Neihouse enthuses, "In
the night shots, you can tell where the
human populations are from the city
lights. The whole 'boot' of Italy is one solid
band of lights; you can see a ribbon of light
down the Nile, through the darkness of
Northern Africa. You can see North and
South Korea - Seoul is very heavily lit,
one of the brightest [places] in the world,
and the north side of the border is just
www.theasc.com

totally black apart from [Pyongyang].
The oppression of North Korea is
painfully apparent from space. The same
thing with the border between Pakistan
and India - you can see where it falls
from space.
"We look at the Chesapeake Bay,"
he continues, "which was so polluted in
the Seventies that no one would eat
anything from it, but now it's one of our
success stories; today the bay is thriving.
June 2016

57


http://www.theasc.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2016

Contents
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - Intro
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - Contents
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 4
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 5
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 6
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 7
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 8
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 9
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 10
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 11
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 12
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 13
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 14
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 15
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 16
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 17
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 18
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 19
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 20
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 21
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 22
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 23
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 24
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 25
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 26
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 27
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 28
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 29
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 30
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 31
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 32
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 33
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 34
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 35
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 36
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 37
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 38
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 39
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 40
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 41
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 42
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 43
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 44
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 45
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 46
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 47
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 48
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 49
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 50
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 51
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 52
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 53
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 54
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 55
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 56
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 57
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 58
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 59
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 60
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 61
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 62
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 63
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 64
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 65
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 66
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 67
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 68
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 69
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 70
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 71
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 72
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 73
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 74
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American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 76
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 77
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 78
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 79
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 80
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 81
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 82
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 83
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 84
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 85
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 86
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 87
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 88
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American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 120
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - June 2016 - Cover4
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