Fulldome Festival 2013 Zeiss Planetarium Jena

Posted by on Jun 11, 2013 in Fulldome, Vortex | No Comments

Zeiss Planetarium

This was my first time at the fulldome festival in Jena, my first time in the oldest planetarium in the world and my first time experiencing the delights of the famous festival sausage.

Vortex won a Janus Award for best spatial sound, which me and Rene went up to collect. Flavio couldn’t make it to the festival and Silvio didn’t make it to the gala, but the award is testament to the amazing work they both did on the track and mixing.

Rene Rodigast and Aaron Bradbury with a Janus Award for Best Spatial Sound on Vortex

Rene and I… With our shiny Janus.

The sound set up in the dome is immense. There are something like 30 descreet channels of audio and 60 or so speakers around and above the dome. Currently there are only a handful of places in the world that can play spatial sound. I have a feeling this number will grow dramatically.

Overall the festival was great. Full of creative folk. All huddled together in this 360 degree Art Deco time capsule. All drinking beer, all eating sausage.

 

Check out the official festival photos here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.591472970883703.1073741831.216689971695340&type=1

Other than the sausages, I have made a list of the tastiest fulldome bites from the festival. These are the films I want to watch again… They all had something quite immersively special about them.

Von Furcht und Freiheit – Moritz Degen & Saniel Weik
A haunting short exploring the inner psyche. The camera work and cutting achieves something no other fulldome film ever has. Not only visually was it great, the sound design was masterful too.

Schrödingers Birds – Jochen Isensee
A stunning short around a mobile of wooden birds set to the reflective tones of Olafur Arnalds. The composition of the frame… something special.

The Five Step Model of Villém Flusser – Julia Wiesner
A fascinating piece from the director of 217, the winner of Fulldome UK 2012. It’s a kind of visual-word-play. Diagrams and photos are beautifully animated to a lecture by an elderly Villem Flusser. https://vimeo.com/53870400

In the Name of the King – Karim Eich & Livius Pápay
A brilliantly animated short in the style of a james bond title sequence. Guns, cards, chips, bullets, silhouettes, cigarettes and women.

Six Mil Antennas – Johnny Ranger
For saying it had the most live action footage in the festival, it was probably the most abstract of all. It really took you to another plane of existence. Somewhere between the mind realms of Alexander McQueen and Shinya Tsukamoto.

Dream to Fly – Copernicus Science Centre
This may be an educational piece about the history of aviation but the thing that set it apart from everything else was the domeography. The shots were all composed to help drive the story and draw you in to the stunning scenes. One moment you’re gently gliding with a hot air balloon, the next you’re tumbling through the skies inside a fighter plane.

There was also some great talks from Ed Lantz, Dan Neafus, Jeff Merkel and Sonke Hahn.

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