Coral Reef IMAX® Film Released on Blu-ray Disc
Coral Reef Adventure follows the real-life expedition of two ocean explorers and underwater filmmakers, Howard and Michele Hall, on a daring ten-month journey to document some of the world's largest, most beautiful, and most endangered coral reefs.
On their journey from Australia's Great Barrier Reef to the majestic islands of Fiji and Tahiti, and the mysterious Rangiroa atoll, the Halls meet with scientists and naturalists such as famed ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau and deep reef ichthyologist Richard Pyle, who are all part of a growing global effort to build a stronger understanding of these fragile and essential ecosystems.
Film Firsts
• First time a diver has taken an IMAX® camera down to 370 feet in the open ocean.
• 106 miles of 15/70 film was shot—more than any other IMAX® theater film.
• 2,421 dives and 2,810 hours of underwater time were logged—more than any other IMAX® documentary
• Five new fish species were discovered in Fiji during filmmaking.
• First time that IMAX® filmmakers are characters in an IMAX® documentary.
• At $10 million, the most expensive MacGillivray Freeman Film up to the time of that production.
Deep Dive Filming
Underwater cinematography is an extremely specialized art to begin with, often considered one of the most complex and perilous forms of filmmaking. The entire crew must be certified divers and all the film equipment—hi-tech cameras, underwater housings, and lights—must be specially designed to withstand the crushing water pressure found at depth. Add to these challenges the IMAX® process. If audiences are meant to feel as if they are actually submerged deep in the ocean, filmmakers have to take the notoriously cumbersome IMAX® camera down deep.
This process included frequent dive-computer failures, flooded cameras, imploding underwater lights, building modified housings that could withstand the pressure, and camera motors that literally could not push the film because of the pressure. Humans had special challenges, too. They used cutting-edge life-support systems known as mixed-gas closed-circuit rebreathers that extended "bottom time." They breathed exotic gas mixtures to help their bodies cope better with physiological changes. Even with all of the safety measures and high-tech equipment, lead character and filmmaker Howard Hall developed "the bends" during the filming, spending time in a recompression chamber to recover.
CORAL RSS Feeds
As part of the interactive features availabe on the Blu-ray disc version of Coral Reef Adventure, viewers will be able to access CORAL's RSS feeds via the Internet using their Blu-ray device to get real-time updates on CORAL news stories, press releases, and other information.
Coral Reef Adventure is availabe nationwide in both Blu-ray and regular DVD formats where Blu-ray and other discs are sold.