Cosmic Zoom

Last updated
Cosmic Zoom
Directed by Robert Verrall
Produced by Joe Koenig
Robert Verrall
Cinematography Tony Ianzelo
James Wilson
Wayne Trickett
Raymond Dumas
Edited byKarl Duplessis (sound)
Music by Pierre F. Brault
Distributed by National Film Board of Canada
Release date
  • October 2, 1968 (1968-10-02)
Running time
8 minutes
Country Canada
LanguageEnglish

Cosmic Zoom is a 1968 short film directed by Robert Verrall and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. [1] It depicts the relative size of everything in the universe in an 8-minute sequence using animation and animation camera shots. All drawings by Eva Szasz. [2] [3]

Contents

Synopsis

The film starts with an aerial image of a boy rowing with his dog in a boat on the Ottawa River. The movement then freezes and the view slowly zooms out, revealing more of the landscape all the time. The continuous zoom-out takes the viewer on a journey from Earth, past the Moon, the planets of the Solar System, the Milky Way and out into the far reaches of the then known universe. The process is then reversed, and the view zooms back through space to Earth, returning to the boy on the boat. It then zooms in to the back of the boy's hand, where a mosquito is resting. It zooms into the insect's proboscis and on into the microscopic world, concluding at the level of an atomic nucleus. It then zooms back out to the original view of the boy on the boat.

Inspiration and follow ups

The film was based on the 1957 essay "Cosmic View" by Kees Boeke. The 1968 short film Powers of Ten (updated in 1977) used the same idea and techniques, as did the 1996 IMAX film Cosmic Voyage . [4]

Release

Cosmic Zoom was one of seven NFB animated shorts acquired by the American Broadcasting Company, marking the first time NFB films had been sold to a major American television network. It aired on ABC in the fall of 1971 as part of the children's television show Curiosity Shop , executive produced by Chuck Jones. [5] In the UK it was shown at least twice as a segment of the children's TV magazine programme Blue Peter.[ citation needed ]

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman McLaren</span> Scottish Canadian animator (1914–1987)

William Norman McLaren, LL. D. was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films.

Roman Kroitor was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as a pioneer of Cinéma vérité, as the co-founder of IMAX, and as the creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic 3D animation system. He was also the original inspiration for The Force. His prodigious output garnered numerous awards, including two BAFTA Awards, three Cannes Film Festival awards, and two Oscar nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Larkin</span> Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor

Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking (1968) and the acclaimed Street Musique (1972). He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Rubbo</span>

Michael Dattilo Rubbo is an Australian documentarian/filmmaker.

Don Owen was a Canadian film director, writer and producer who spent most of his career with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). His films Nobody Waved Good-bye and The Ernie Game are regarded as two of the most significant English Canadian films of the 1960s.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes is a 1968 Canadian short film produced by the National Film Board of Canada and directed by Bill Mason. It won the 1971 BAFTA Award for Best Specialised Film.

Colin Archibald Low was a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was known as a pioneer, one of Canada's most important filmmakers, and was regularly referred to as "the gentleman genius". His numerous honors include five BAFTA awards, eight Cannes Film Festival awards, and six Academy Award nominations.

<i>Walking</i> (1968 film) 1968 Canadian film

Walking is a 1968 Canadian animated short film directed and produced by Ryan Larkin for the National Film Board of Canada, composed of animated vignettes of how different people walk.

Hugh O'Connor was a Canadian director and producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). His best- known film is the ground-breaking In the Labyrinth (1967), but his promising career ended shortly after that film's release when he was murdered while filming in Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Munro (filmmaker)</span> Canadian animator, filmmaker and actor

Grant Munro LL. D. was a Canadian animator, filmmaker and actor. In 1952, he co-starred with Jean-Paul Ladouceur in Norman McLaren's Neighbours. His film, Christmas Cracker, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Potterton</span> British-Canadian animator and director (1931–2022)

Gerald Potterton was a Canadian director, animator, producer and writer. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine.

Evelyn Lambart was a Canadian animator and film director with the National Film Board of Canada, known for her independent work, and for her collaborations with Norman McLaren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Daly (filmmaker)</span> Canadian film producer, film editor and film director

Thomas Cullen Daly was a Canadian film producer, film editor and film director, who was the head of Studio B at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Nahanni is a 1962 short documentary from the National Film Board of Canada directed by Donald Wilder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Koenig</span> Canadian entrepreneur (born 1930)

Joseph (Joe) Koenig is a Canadian filmmaker and entrepreneur who was the founder and president of Electronics Workbench.

John Spotton C.S.C. was a Canadian filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada.

John Kemeny was a Hungarian-Canadian film producer whom the Toronto Star called "the forgotten giant of Canadian film history and...the most successful producer in Canadian history." His production credits include The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Atlantic City, and Quest for Fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Kish</span> Hungarian-Canadian documentarian/filmmaker (1937–2015)

Albert Kish was a Canadian documentarian/filmmaker.

Robert Verrall is a Canadian animator, director and film producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 to 1987. Over the course of his career, his films garnered a BAFTA Award, prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and six Academy Award nominations.

John Howe was a Canadian director, producer, and composer with the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his films Do Not Fold, Staple, Spindle or Mutilate and Why Rock the Boat?, and for his handling of the NFB’s 1969 Austerity Crisis.

References

  1. ↑ "Cosmic Zoom". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  2. ↑ "Cosmic Zoom". www.nfb.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 17 January 2024. Link to film, see film credits.
  3. ↑ "IMDB". www.imdb.com. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 17 January 2024. Entry for Eva Szasz.
  4. ↑ Graber, Sheila (2009). Animation: A Handy Guide. A&C Black. p. 109. ISBN   978-1408102831.
  5. ↑ Ohayon, Albert (June 8, 2012). "What on Earth: Science fiction satire at its funniest". NFB.ca Blog. National Film Board of Canada . Retrieved June 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Cosmic Zoom". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 8 February 2023.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.