PRODUCTION FILMMAKING and CINEMATOGRAPHY REELS
ALPES AZUR
MERCANTOUR
International Dark Sky Reserve
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Nocturnal biodiversity, including a 360° firefly sequence — a world first in fulldome.
With immersive 360° cinematography at its finest and entirely shot in live action, this short film showcases the Alpes Azur Mercantour International Dark Sky Reserve, located in the south of France.
In addition to highlighting the region’s natural beauty and its local community, the film reveals an exceptional richness of nocturnal biodiversity.
Filmed in 6K, Rec.2020, 14/12 bit, the production is ready for the most advanced LED and video dome theaters.
We developed several custom setups and innovative production techniques to capture certain shots—some of which have never been seen before in a dome.
ONE SKY
Feature Version
Award-winning movie One Sky is a collection of beautiful short films about constellations, astronomical instruments and scientific knowledge from various cultures around the world. Each chapter is presented in an original and engaging way with its own artistic style featuring the work of international artists.
Trailer
TOTAL
Excerpt from short film Total.
At six minutes long and without narration, Total delivers raw emotion and powerful immersion, launching a quest for the total eclipse where anticipation reaches its peak.
Total recreates the unique experience of observing a total solar eclipse. Seeing the sky darken and being under daytime stars is a deeply moving experience that leaves no one indifferent. It’s one of nature's most beautiful and emotional spectacles.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
Diversity scene
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
This scene is a good example of the innovative and fulldome cinematography of Sébastien Gauthier. Everything you see is from live-action footage, including all the animals and plants. No synthetic computer imagery is involved until the time code 05:10 where the story evolves into space.
Many custom-made dollies, camera controllers, underwater housings and lenses had to be made to accomplish those shots. All made at the Sébastien Gauthier 360 Productions workshop.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
Mauna Kea scene
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
Most of this scene was filmed on the Mauna Kea summit on Big Island, Hawai’i at an altitude of 4200 m. The sequence shows very innovative filming inside the Gemini North observatory using complex dolly movements and vertical traveling.
It also shows very high resolution timelapses filmed during the day and the night. There is a shot with a 360°, multicamera “holy grail” time-lapse, a very precise and difficult technique to capture the transition from day to night in one single shot. Sébastien Gauthier 360 Productions is the world leader in this technique that has numerous applications for planetariums.
The shot to illustrate the glow from a star is made from real live-action footage filmed with the 1.60m telescope at the Mount-Megantic Observatory in Canada.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
HABITABLE ZONE SCENE
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
An example of a well-made immersive CG scene and a well-written voice-over to explain the habitable zone and the spectroscopic method to study exoplanets’ atmospheres.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
Green Bank radio telescope
and Milky way pull out scene
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
To capture the spectacular Green Bank 100m radio telescope, Sébastien Gauthier developed a custom stabilization gimbal and a “steadycam” style harness to make handheld traveling around and into the giant dish. Using field of views up to 360° x 235° the live-action shots are truly immersive and shows the site in a very unique way.
In the second part, the CG sequences slowly reveal the enormous distances between stars and ultimately between galaxies. The mysterious and contemplative mood in the scene shows very well the challenges of communicating with potential alien worlds.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
Complexity scene
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
A very moving scene from Exo, meant to reveal a living microcosm that is both strange and wondrous. This sequence took several days of editing and music rewriting to find the perfect balance between emotion, wonder, and awe.
Filmed in the North Atlantic and off the coast of Japan, the plankton and microorganisms were collected from the sea, filmed under a microscope mounted on a gimbal to compensate for the boat’s pitching, and then released back into the ocean.
The microscopic footage was then carefully composited in a spherical format to create a highly immersive effect with maximum emotional impact.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
Exoplanet Transit scene
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
Another example of a well-made immersive CG scene and a well-written voice-over, this time to illustrate the transit method. Note the delicate and beautiful 3D particles work to illustrate the gas giant’s loss of atmosphere into space.
EXO
ARE WE ALONE
Closing scene
Excerpt from award-winning movie Exo, are we alone
AURŌRAE
Ancestors scene
Excerpt from Aurōrae.
Sébastien Gauthier often likes to present a contemporary face to different astronomical cultural stories. This current and often urban vision allows visitors to bring the story to life.
AURŌRAE
Yellowknife Dusk scene
Excerpt from Aurōrae.
Example of a Holy Grail timelapse: a smooth transition from day to night. SG360 Studio is a pioneer and leader in this highly challenging technique — even more so when using a multi-camera 360° rig in extreme cold conditions.
AURŌRAE
Earth’s Magnetosphere scene
Excerpt from Aurōrae.
In this magnificent scene from Aurōrae, the Earth's magnetosphere is presented with gentleness, delicacy and majesty. Very precise camera movement and elegant sound design make the scene a hit.
AURŌRAE
Coronal Mass Ejection scene
Excerpt from Aurōrae.
Here, a coronal mass ejection hits the magnetosphere. Everything is first said very clearly by sound and image without any words. Once the action is complete, a short and effective concluding text follows.
This shows an example of good writing and good directing where the visual content, the music, the sound effects and the voice-over are juxtaposed in a delicate and ordered manner in such a way that the scene is beautiful, clear, emotional and educational.
ONE DAY…
ON MARS
Impact scene
Excerpt from One Day… on Mars.
Very nice work of lighting, textures and camera movement. Here, the meteorite bombardment of Mars is shown in sound.
TEMPO
Montreal’s Place d’Armes scene
Voiceless excerpt from Tempo.
Tempo is a film about time and the connection between humans and the sky. The viewer is transported into the story from a LIDAR scan of the Place d'Armes in downtown Montreal, a highly innovative technique at the time, followed by a 12 hours very complex night-to-day-to-night Holy Grail timelapse, filmed in the heart of the city amid thousands of passersby.
PLUTO
CHRONICLES OF AN EX-PLANET
Pluto Telescope scene
Voiceless excerpt from Pluto: Chronicles of an ex-planet
In preparation for the historical fly by of New Horizon over Pluto and its moon Charon on July 14, 2015, we decided to make a film about Pluto; the scientific and the human journey that lead to its discovery.
In this multi-shot scene, filmed in Arizona, the wide field of view shot from Sedona is establishing Arizona. The following scene reveals the magnificent Lowell observatory and the famous “Pluto” telescope used by Clyde Tombaugh to discover Pluto in 1930.
Sébastien Gauthier and his team are one of the few to have made immersive fulldome footage in this historical building. For the production of the film in 2015, the wooden dome was open to the sky for the first time since a long time resulting in those spectacular shots of the telescope.
WORLDS
OF ICE
Making-Of
Excerpt from the Worlds of Ice making-of.
This documentary shows the work of Sébastien Gauthier 360 Studio providing custom solutions for filming complex immersive images in a very low temperature situation.