{"id":9557,"date":"2014-09-03T16:48:27","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T20:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9557"},"modified":"2014-09-03T16:48:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T20:48:41","slug":"betamax-to-fly-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9557","title":{"rendered":"Beta: To Fly! (1976)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ToFly_Beta_cvr_s\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Smithsonian<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0NTSC<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Documentary \/ IMAX<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Brisk chronicle of Man’s quest to become airborne, and ultimately soar into space after conquering Earth’s own celestial realm.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 27 minute IMAX film (funded by Du Pont\u2019s Conoco) was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to play at their National Air and Space Museum to celebrate America\u2019s Bicentennial. Premiering July 1, 1976, \u201cthe longest-running and most universally popular film of its kind ever produced\u201d has been reportedly seen by 150 million people (or so says the videotape\u2019s ad copy).<\/p>\n

Directors Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray honed their skills as cinematographers, especially surfing documentaries, and To Fly!<\/strong> is filled with elegantly composed images which trace Man\u2019s journey from the \u2018horizontal world\u2019 to the more liberating \u2018vertical world,\u2019 enabled by flight.<\/p>\n

From balloon to planes and ultimately spacecraft, the duo\u2019s film is still quite impressive on the small screen, especially shots where the camera of cinematographer Brad Ohlund swoops over and around landscapes, filling the screen with the textures of rapids and crop fields, and dizzying white swirls of barnstorming biplanes.<\/p>\n

A few edits seem a little rough, and the dialogue and performances in the early scenes involving a balloonist ascending and gliding over his naturally splendiferous state are quite awful, but the visuals take over once the narrative jumps to the barnstorming era, and the directors have fun strapping the IMAX camera in front of a locomotive, plane, or behind aeronautical showmasters the Blue Angels<\/a>. The wide angle shots of their formations, dispersing in separate streams are quite magnificent, and Bernardo Segall\u2019s score ties the film\u2019s segments together with elegant orchestrations of his thematic material.<\/p>\n

The sound mix for the dialogue scenes is a bit rudimentary, but the sound design becomes more elaborate (and directional) in later scenes, especially during the montages involving split-screens, mosaics, and the blast-off of a NASA rocket. Segall\u2019s music for the film\u2019s closing scenes around Earth\u2019s orbit and beyond is quite haunting, and the renderings of the planets as a futuristic craft glides by the camera holds up fairly well.<\/p>\n

To Fly! <\/strong>reportedly ran for years at the museum, and was eventually released on videotape in 1985 \u2013 a rarity for any IMAX production.<\/p>\n

Co-director Greg MacGillivray was twice nominated for an Oscar for the short documentaries The Living Sea <\/strong><\/a>(1995) and Dolphins!<\/strong><\/a> (2000). Jim Freeman also directed Above San Francisco<\/strong> (1973) and The Magic Rolling Board <\/strong>(1976), and also served as co-cinematographer on the Oscar-winning short Sentinels of Silence<\/strong><\/a> (1971) and Douglas Hickox\u2019 Sky Riders<\/strong> (1976).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0—\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This 27 minute IMAX film (funded by Du Pont\u2019s Conoco) was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to play at their National Air and Space Museum to celebrate America\u2019s Bicentennial. Premiering July 1, 1976, \u201cthe longest-running and most universally popular film of its kind ever produced\u201d has been reportedly seen by 150 million people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2990,2991,2989,54,2988,2987,2986],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2u9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9591,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9557\/revisions\/9591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}