With digital, you do have the advantage of having an absolutely rock steady image because there's no projector gate, no perforations, no film weaving through a machine. And there's no dust and no scratching.
— Greg MacGillivray
In a normal movie, the director controls what you look at. The shots don't last very long because you're getting the audience to look at specific things. An IMAX shot, on the other hand, can be twenty or thirty seconds long.
The ocean is our planet's life support system, yet in my travels and at home, I've seen its degradation firsthand.
I've been using the power of the IMAX medium, with its gigantic screens and supervivid pictures, to get people to fall in love with the ocean.
At first, the tornado is nearly invisible. Against the sky, it's white on white.
Marine scientists predict that by 2050 there will be no more large fish left in the ocean if we don't change our relationship with the sea.
Film has far more color shades. It's called 'bit depth' in digital terms. And most bit depth in digital is about twelve, but film bit depth can be twenty to thirty. And so you just have more shades of yellow and red and oranges and everything.
'Hollywood Don't Surf!' is really about how Hollywood's superficial view of surfing culture has influenced popular culture and the story of what happened when real surfers tried to change that.
My goal is that after seeing 'Grand Canyon,' every person in the audience will go home knowing they have to conserve water: even something as simple as installing a low-flow toilet or showerhead, or turning off the faucet while they're brushing their teeth.
I love the ocean; growing up around Laguna Beach, I spent my summers surfing, diving, and snorkeling.
We have new tools that can give the audience a sense of not only being there, which is the key element in an IMAX film, but also seeing things in a way that they won't see on television or in feature films.
Grain isn't structured like a screen door that you're looking through, but pixels are. Film-based grain is just all over the place, one frame totally different from the next. So your edges are coolly sharp and have a different feeling, an organic feeling rather than this mechanic feeling you get with digital.
Satisfying myself is the point in filmmaking, in my mind.
What's happening on the Colorado River is happening all over the world. The water is overused, overdammed, and it's polluted in some places.
Flying through a hurricane is the most fearsome shaking you will ever get. Everything has to be tied down in the airplane. And the IMAX camera has to be rock-steady through all this. We had to design special mounts on the left and right sides of the cabin and in the cockpit to hold the cameras.
Not only have I made films about the subject, but I've largely funded them on my own, so I'm fully committed to doing whatever I can to change the audience's respect and appreciation for the ocean. In 100 years I want whales, dolphins and sharks to still be around, and the ocean to be a healthier place.
