Boarding the ISS
In collaboration with the Region of Quebec (Canada) and its representatives in Germany, Episode 1 „ADAPT“ of the award-winning production “SPACE EXPLORERES – The ISS Experience“ had its German premiere at Hamburg Planetarium, January 14th, featuring a live conversation Hamburg-Montreal of planetarium director Thomas Kraupe with Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques and Olivier Hernandez, director of Planetarium Montreal. All four episodes had been filmed entirely on board the International Space Station (ISS) using Felix & Paul Studios’ specialized 3D, 360-degree virtual reality Space Camera, Since the beginning of April, also Episode 2 „Advance“ is presented in Hamburg – as individual VR-Experience using Pico´s G2 4K-VR-Headsets in the planetariums so called „Pluto-SpaceLab“.
These innovative presentations are intended to jumpstart a longterm cooperation between Quebec and Hamburg and its planetariums in particular. They fit into the mission profiles – with both institutions focussing on our living Planet Earth in the vastness of the Universe.
Diving Deep
Since Hamburg Planetarium is situated in an old water tower, located in a city park, environmental themes and especially the „element“ water are core aspects of its programming. Hence, United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030, provides important narratives for new productions, which reflect our human past, the present and our future on this tiny planet earth.
Right on track with this, two newly produced shows focus with their storylines on our relation with the world’s oceans:
On February …THE JULES VERNE EXPERIENCE – 20.000 MILES BELOW THE SEA with U96 and Claude-Oliver Rudolph had its world premiere in Hamburg. The music project U96 cooperated with Planetarium Hamburg to create a unique immersive audiovisual Experience inspired by the visionary power of Jules Verne´s famous book “20,000 Miles Under the Sea” with an atmospheric mixture of techno sound and futuristic symphonic 3D-soundscapes. U96 became worldfamous with their sensational techno interpretation of the film song “The Boat“.
The role of Jules Verne is played by actor Steve Karier from Luxembourg. German actor, producer, screenwriter, and film director Claude-Oliver Rudolph plays Captain Nemo. Internationally, Claude is also well-known from Wolfgang Petersen´s movie „The Boat“ (1981) and as the villain alongside Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond movie “The World Is Not Enough“ (1999).
The acting scenes for this new show were greenscreen video shoots and were later carefully inserted into computer animated scenes, putting the actors virtually onboard of the Nautilus submarine. The resulting Fulldome show is a spectacular 60 minute long dive into never-before-heard and never-before-seen immersive worlds of fantasy – featuring innovative visuals, designed by the acclaimed Dutch fractal artist Julius Horsthuis.
Dubbed versions of the show in French, English and Spanish will be available soon for international distribution.
In addition, on March 23rd, Planetarium Hamburg hosted the 3D-World-Premiere of Softmachine´s THE LEGEND OF THE ENCHANTED REEF.
This fulldome film is a marvelous prequel of KALUOKA`HINA – THE ENCHANTED REEF, which also had its world premiere in Hamburg – 18 years ago. The beautiful original song, “Salt of the Ocean” (co-written by Producer/Director Dr. Peter Popp and Uwe Lukatsch) was performed live by Peter and his team during this event. The new show is an amazing achievement and visitors – young and old – love it and are amazed by the quality and impact of its fulldome stereoscopic 3D-effects.
Supporting Ukraine
To support planetarium producers and in order to highlight the creative work in war-torn Ukraine, Planetarium Hamburg recently acquired the licence from UMA production in Kiev for their award winning film VOYAGER – THE NEVERENDING JOURNEY. This impressive fulldome-production is presented in German, Englisch and in original Ukrainian language – with free admission! Instead – visitors are asked for donations, which will go directly to charities, helping kids and their families in Ukraine. In addition, refugees from Ukraine will have free admission to all planetarium shows in Hamburg, of which many in-house guideport-audiosystem also offer English audio tracks.