“Astronomy, as a science, took an early precedence, and those, whom at this day we account barbarians,
possessed a knowledge, at which we ought worthily to wonder and admire.”

- Reverend E. Duke, ‘DRUIDICAL TEMPLES OF WILTSHIRE’
- as cited by Julian Cope, ‘THE MODERN ANTIQUARIAN’ (1998)

ANCIENT SKIES will break new ground in the FullDome format, as it will be among the first productions to primarily utilise ‘real-world’ image capture for the bulk of the material.

This will combine with insert and full frame CGI animations and textures, still photography elements and backgrounds, high resolution video, archive photography and historical art in a multiple image environment.

This sample frame comprises an original fisheye image from a timelapse sequence
at Stonehenge, a reproduction of a drawing of the solar system by Copernicus, Turner’s 1828
impression of Stonehenge, a still from an interview with researcher Margaret Curtis, and an archive
photograph of the mysterious objects recovered at Skara Brae.

The dome will not necessarily always be filled with a single image, but utilised in a less-is-more approach, with a wide combination of imagery. This will serve to provide a sense of ‘antiquity’ as well as demonstrating cutting edge cinematography.

Sample frame comprises a background of Mossman’s 1867 engraving of a carved stone,
an archive 1910 photograph of Carnac, William Blake’s annotated drawing of Stonehenge from 1808,
a portrait of antiquarian William Stukeley, and a flat lens image of moonset at Callanish
from an original timelapse sequence.

The purpose of this approach is to create a richly layered film that will lend itself to repeated viewings, and be an experience that an audience will ‘feel’ as much as they will watch.

Motion controlled timelapse camera panning with the sunset at  Stenness in The Orkney Islands

For real-world image capture, long duration, night capable, high resolution, motion controlled timelapse kits are centred around CANON 5D Mk1 + 2 cameras, with NIKON and SIGMA true-circular 8mm fisheye lenses. High quality flat lenses will be used to shot both timelapse imagery, and 30fps 1920 x 1080p video for interviews.

True ‘feathered’ or ‘ramping’ motion control systems enable professional, perfectly smooth acceleration / deceleration of camera movements and can be programmed for any duration required.

Motion controlled timelapse camera tilting down over the
course of 5 hours to capture the moonset at Callanish in The Hebrides

Pan, tilt and a 12ft tracking system are available. Fully tested and utilised in temperature ranges of 1 to 30 degrees, on-location reliability is 95% and above.

		Lunar transit at Callanish as captured by motion controlled timelapse camera with fisheye lens

A dedicated production vehicle with live-in facilities, complete with high output solar panel and all-12v charging is also available, enabling long duration location shooting, with on-site image processing and rendering via laptop.

Shooting timelapse with 5D Mk1 cameras in RAW resolution at approx. 12mb per frame produces a pixel dimension of 4368 x 2912. Shooting with 5D Mk2 cameras at approx 22mb per frame yields a pixel dimension of 5616 x 3744.

Whilst the dimension for full circular fish eye frames falls just short of true 4k for dome projection. This image size remains amongst the highest in the world – 3.6k after minor cropping – for cost effective capture of material for the new generation of immersive theatres.

Static camera under stormy skies at Moel-Ty-Uchaf, Wales	Sunset at the Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Islands