The dome film “HIRUKO”, which was shot by the Entaniya Fisheye HAL200, was screened.
I watched the film at a preview before the screening.
Live action dome video work
The screening was held at a planetarium on the second floor of Galaxy City in Nishi Arai, Adachi-ku, Tokyo.
As you know, the purpose of a planetarium is to experience the starry sky and it is equipped with a huge dome-shaped screen to represent the celestial sphere.
Due to resolution issues, CG content is the main content to be projected on planetariums.
In recent years, due to advances in filming equipment, live-action images are increasingly being used in planetariums.
At the same time, video creators are producing video works that are intended to be screened on dome screens.
The dome film “HIRUKO” is also a live-action film and was shot using the Entaniya Fisheye HAL200 ultra-wide-angle fisheye lens.
The era of live-action dome footage has arrived!
Speaking of equipment, the dome image is projected on a very large screen, so the resolution of the image is necessary.
Therefore, the performance of the equipment (lenses and cameras) is also important.
In fact, Entaniya has been getting a lot of consultations from planetarium companies about fisheye lenses for some time now.
But due to resolution and performance issues, including the camera, it was never used.
However, over the past few years, camera equipment has evolved significantly, and the development of high-performance fisheye lenses that are compatible with large format cameras has made it possible to capture images that can withstand projection on large screens.
Entaniya Fisheye is increasingly being used in live-action dome video productions as well.
The live-action dome video work “HIRUKO”.
I knew that the Entaniya Fisheye HAL was used in a live-action dome film, but I had never seen a film actually shot in the dome before.
The theme of the work is “physicality.
Double
The Entaniya Fisheye HAL 200 was also used in the film [Double] by Mr. Iida, the director of HIRUKO.
This is a work of art with the themes of “physicality” and “butoh”, so if you do a quick research on “physicality” and “butoh” beforehand, you may be able to enjoy the work in a more in-depth way.
It’s not the kind of entertaining work that you’d see in a Hollywood movie, but it’s an experience of sharing art expression in a planetarium.
In addition to the staging that made the most of the characteristics of the dome images, the beauty of the black, white, and red-based images, the vividness of the visual expression, the pauses, and the movements of the actors were all very inspiring or thought-provoking.
The Possibility of Dome Images
As I wrote at the beginning of this article, planetariums are generally used to watch images of the starry sky and celestial bodies, so it is generally understood that a planetarium is a place to watch images of the starry sky.
It’s hard to imagine a space or facility for viewing video works, but I was struck by its potential as a facility for viewing video works in the same way as a movie theater.
The current situation is that live-action dome images have not yet gained the civil rights that movies have.
But I thought that if there were more movies that were premised on dome video, it would be a lot more fun than the average flat screen movie.
After the premiere, there was a talk session with director Masashige Iida and Kazuko Mogami, the original dancer who starred in the film.
In the director’s words, “In a flat screen cinema, you try to concentrate on the screen by shutting out the information (noise and shadows) around you in order to immerse yourself in the work. But in the case of dome images, there is a difference in the experience of sharing the space with the people who are there.
If it’s a dome image, the noise and shadows are acceptable.
When I heard those words, I realized that, “Indeed, in the case of dome images, I don’t care about the surrounding noise and shadows.
For example, when you go to see a fireworks display, you don’t mind the crowds around you. Rather, it is necessary to have noises and shadows to enhance the mood to immerse yourself in the fireworks. In reality, you are sharing a space with a lot of people, and the same experience can be achieved with dome images.
A planetarium is not a minor, outdated facility, but can actually be considered a futuristic one.
