American Cinematographer - August 1993 - 48

Postcavds: Touring the World in 360 Degrees
Iwerks'

600-pound, nine-camera 360 system
brings the world to Taejon.
by George Turner
of only seven people with a hun¬
dred cases of equipment. It was one
of those things where personalities
have to mesh because of proxim¬

ity."
The close-working group
included writer-director Craig

Bartlett, producer George Wiktor,
assistant

cameramen

Randy

Jonsson, Chuck Wheelan and Mark
Bosch, grip Dave Footman (known
as "Foots"),
production coordina¬
tor

Suzy Vanderbeek, and
Gary Louzon.

camera

technician

Don Iwerks, chief techni¬
cal officer/director/co-founder of
Iwerks Entertainment, the corpo¬
A young

Korean girl

uses a com¬

puter to communicate with her pen

pals from around the world. Her
pals reply via electronic "postcards" that depict life in their re¬
spective countries.
This, in brief, is the plot of
Postcards, which debuts at the Expo
'93 World's Fair in Taejon, Korea,
on
August 7. Upon this simple
storyline hang some of the most
complex photographic feats yet
seen in
special venue films, because
the "postcards" are gigantic 360degree movies that surround the
viewer. The exposition's theme is
"The Challenge of a New Road to
Development."
According to director of
photography Karl Herrmann,
"challenge" is the proper word to
describe this production, which
took him over much of the globe in
partnership with a sophisticated,
600-pound contrivance whose sys¬
tem includes nine crystal-con¬

Seville, AmeriFlora in Columbus,
NASA's Space Center Houston
Visitor Center, Disney's Epcot Cen¬

ter, the MGM-Disney Studio
and others.

Tour,

"I was involved with the
show from October to April,"
Herrmann recalled after

principal
photography wrapped. "We
started in

Iwerks 360 Camera

Seoul, Korea, then went
to Paris; Botswana, South Africa;
back to the States; up to the Buga¬

scribed

boos

trolled 35mm
as

cameras.

"an

This is the

System, de¬
electronically syn¬

chronized, 35mm, nine-camera sys¬
tem."
Herrmann, who was
schooled in architecture and engi¬
neering, began as a still photogra¬

46

pher before entering the motion
picture field. He was a visual effects
cameraman on
Alligator, One from
the Heart, The Right Stuff, E. T. and
Tucker, and operative cameraman
on The Rocketeer.
Among many
difficult assignments, the tall
outdoorsman has filmed climbing
expeditions in the Himalayas.
BRC Imagination Arts,
which produced the 12-minute film
sponsored by Korean Air, is an old
hand at special venue production,
having made shows for three of the
top five pavilions at Expo '86 in
Vancouver and for Expo '92 in

American

Cinematographer

near the Alberta-British Co¬
lumbia border; to Bali, where we
had incredible rainstorms; to Rio de

rate creators

of the camera, offered

simplified explanation of how the
system works:
a

"The nine Arri 35-3s are
mounted vertically on a central col¬
umn

into

with each

an

pointing
individually adjustable first
camera

surface mirror to achieve the effect
of all nine cameras shooting from
the same nodal point, creating a full

360-degree horizontal field of view.
"To obtain 360 degrees, 40
degrees per camera, each camera is
set to the Super 35 configuration,
with an aperture of .922" X .673",
and is fitted with

one

of ten match¬

ing 32mm Zeiss T2.1 lenses. One
complete spare camera setup is
used as a backup. Internal electron¬
ics provides power and interface
for camera synchronization, video

Janiero for Carnival; and finally to

tap power and video out, remote
aperture control, time lapse power

the Grand Canyon.

and control

August 1993

We were a crew

as

well

as

sync

indica-
American Cinematographer - August 1993

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