"The Grand Canyon." "A masterpiece of nature formed by 6 million years of erosion and seismic upheaval." "A chasm over 270 miles long and one mile deep." "So epic, its wonder and majesty have never been successfully recorded until now." "Using IMAX -the most advanced motion picture system in existence" "Academy Award winning director Kieth Merrill has captured the grandeur of the canyon as never before." "The scope of the production required the largest film crew ever assembled in the Grand Canyon." "They will film for 78 days, in some of the National Park's most remote locations." "To record the canyon's natural beauty on film," "Merrill called on veteran cinema photographer Reed Smoot to serve as director of photography." "When Kieth first called me about this project, as he put it, it was an opportunity to use the world's largest motion picture format in one of the world's largest locations, the Grand Canyon." "The exciting thing is that you know that if you're getting maybe just even one or two really great shots a day, that there is an awful lot to choose from." "The scenery now is on a grand scale." "The walls of the canyon are 2,500 feet above us." "One would imagine the walls have been carved with a grand design and purpose and always we wonder what we shall find tomorrow." "Determined to capture the beauty of the environment without relying solely on pictures," "Merrill focused his script on mankind's presence in the canyon." "Native Americans were enlisted to portray the area's earliest known human inhabitants." "Costumes, props and sets were accurately reproduced to bring to the screen an authentic recreation." "The fragile human history of Grand Canyon begins 4,000 years ago." "Their beginnings are lost in time." "Only the shadow of their lives and superstitions are left to whisper of their homes along the rim." "We know them only as "the gatherers"." "Although experienced in conventional 35mm film production, the film-makers had to re-educate themselves to the unique requirements of the IMAX format." "Essential to the film-making team was David Douglas, one of the world's leading authorities on the IMAX film system." "The difference with IMAX is that we try to fill the field of view completely, with the image." "So that you have no terms of references except to the screen and the pictures on the screen." "There hasn't been much that we haven't tried to do." "That's always the best attitude, and the way to get the best pictures." "We selectively direct the audience's attention in 35mm to your face, or to your boot, or to your wrist... but in IMAX the close-up of your face, the wrist and your boot, is one shot." "That's the big challenge if you're trying to communicate dramatic ideas involving people and stories which we have done, telling the human history of the canyon." "It can be extremely challenging." "Less than 50 years after Columbus discovered America," "Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas and a small band of Spanish explorers traveled north in search of the fabled lost cities of gold." "The year is 1540." "Filming an area few tourists ever reach proved to be a test of endurance." "The normally routine task of setting the camera into position often became the most complicated effort of the day." "In a sense we were going through those definitive moments, were everything comes together at once." "And we wanted to put that camera in places that people had never seen before." "And consequently, just the logistics, the sheer logistics down on the river of packing in some of the side canyons was enormous." "Basically when we would haul into a canyon we would have a minimum of 8 backpacks weighting on the average of 60 pounds." "And a number of times it became necessary to use ropes and to line the backpacks up the canyon walls." "That took a great deal of planning and decisiveness." "But the objective is to be at the right place at the right time and just get lucky." "And I think we did that a lot." "The sun is coming across this way..." "What happens to that wall at say 4 o'clock, that big red wall?" "It will be bright so then it will bounce a lot of light into the lower pool." "How much clear sky have we got?" "A lot." "Alright, lets shoot." "The canyon challenges and then defies man's passion to capture and communicate." "No picture or word, no brush or palette, no lens or paint can extend the wonder of Grand Canyon beyond itself." "The Grand Canyon is home to over 70 species of mammals." "250 varieties of birds... 25 types of reptiles... and 5 amphibian species." "But for the film-makers, obtaining the cooperation of a few select creatures was no simple task." "It doesn't like the noise its coming back." "At that point, what you can do is that you could go..." "You know, you could go scrambling over here." "And go bam!" "And stop!" "And we could actually cut with a different angle..." "And then you can turn around..." "And just go on." "Send in the cat!" "Cat!" "On one hand, it's story telling." "It's a different format but you're still basically communicating ideas visually." "But from a practical, and a logistical standpoint on a day to day basis, it's extremely different because of the size of the equipment makes it very cumbersome and you have to learn to design the shots and the visual" "sequences within the context of the audience's reactions." "Tyrell?" "What?" "Are you sure this here's the right river?" "You betcha." "Only one break-away raft was available." "Making retakes impossible." "So two IMAX cameras were used to film the stunt." "Reed Smoot behind a massive 800mm lens and David Douglas at a second camera position." "Ye-haa!" "This ain't the right river." "Several weeks into the production came the greatest challenge of all." "The retelling of Major John Wesley Powell's 1859 expedition down the Colorado river." "Reproductions of the wood boat used by Powell, were specially constructed to appear authentic on film and proved river-worthy even in the most fierce rapids." "Professional river guides were recruited to play the members of Powell's brave band." "And along with the crew, completely remove themselves from civilization for 21 days." "Using Powell's actual journal entries as a guide, the film-makers traced the explorer's path into the most remote and hidden areas of the canyon." "The journal it self became a key element in the retelling of the adventure." "Tomorrow we start our way down the great unknown." "We have an unknown distance to run, an unknown river to explore." "It is with anxiety and misgiving that we enter the canyon below." "What falls there be, we know not." "What walls beset the canyon, we know not." "What rapids or dangers or treacherous disaster awaits us, we know not." "But press on, God willing!" "Like Powell's men, the film-crew found the river to be the most unpredictable and potentially dangerous segment of the film." "We got pinned in a boil against the wall with the boat, the three of us... and we're going around and around." "The first and second time wasn't too bad." "But after the sixth or seventh time around, and getting sucked down several times, and being in there right against the rocks with the boat, it got pretty scary." "Falls!" "Falls!" "Grab the line on the other side!" "Hurry!" "Hurry!" "To film dramatic point-of-view perspectives of treacherous whitewater, the IMAX camera was placed in a watertight housing and a device called a "spinning window" was placed in front of the camera to prevent water droplets from forming on the lens." "Once assembled, a river raft was transformed into a floating camera platform." "Because of the format's effect on the audience, one has to be relatively conservative about moving the camera, understanding the effect that the movement is going to have on the audience." "Alright!" "To showcase the canyon's awesome size and give audiences a never before seen perspective, the film-makers mounted the IMAX camera in the open door of a Bell helicopter." "Strapped securely to the aircraft," "David Douglas operated the camera." "The canyon has no need of man, but mankind may face a moment in eternity when he may have a fundamental need to experience the character and timeless perspective that makes this such a wondrous place." "And as we struggle to comprehend, we may discover a consciousness of our own immortality." "A vague and distant sense of the divine." "Making us one with each other and uniting us in peace with the infinite." "When you begin to commune with the canyon as we have, in quest of the hidden secrets, which is the name of our film, we've gone into the side-canyons, we've been in the sanctuaries, where very few people ever go," "we've been down the river a couple of times, we've flown it in helicopters, in areas which basically very, very few people ever go, or ever get." "And the results of all of that, for me, have been a real reverence and a real appreciation and a real kinship." "For about 95% of the people that visit the Grand Canyon, who only see the south rim, the film will be an extraordinary extension of there experience."