The opening sequence of Cirque du Soleil™ Journey of Man featuring the ancient Japanese art form of Taïko, is actually the only scene shot on a set. Constructed out of sculpted Styrofoam, the Taïko Drummers’ cave was not shot inside a remote mountain range but inside a warehouse in Las Vegas. According to Co-Producers, Antoine Compin and Charis Horton, the 30 by 40-foot cave was made in different sections and the various pieces were placed on a raised stage with eight turntables underneath to maneuver the set. "We shot on a set because we could not move the Taïko drums out into the elements, they are fragile and tuned very finely," says Horton. The Taïko Drummers play at Mystère™ in Las Vegas. The filmmakers had only two days to rehearse and shoot the scenes since the performers and equipment were only available on two days of the week. "Since we could only film the Taïko performers the two days out of the week that there are no shows scheduled, we could not take time out to move the performers and equipment to a remote shoot. So instead, we shot the scenes in a warehouse in Las Vegas and we put the drums on a flatbed trailer and moved them to the warehouse at night," says Compin. However, throughout most of the film, the performers were faced with the challenge of performing their acts out of the protective setting of the big top or fixed theater and in the unpredictable environment of the great outdoors. The filmmakers shot in just about every type of location imaginable, from underwater, in the desert, to being suspended in mid-air. It was necessary to find a body of water that was 85 degrees for the Synchronized Swimmers to perform. "For the underwater scenes, we originally tried to find tanks so that we could have more controlled shooting conditions, but there are a limited number of tanks in the world and we could not find one large enough to suit our purposes. So we realized that we had to shoot outside and there are only a few places in the world where the water temperature was suitable to shoot in December," remarks Producer Peter Wagg. Although they shot in the Bahamas, it was still not an easy task in December. "We had to create new temperatures for the swimmers because the highest temperature we could get at that time of year was 65 degrees. To keep them warm, we had to create special suits and put weights within all the costumes because of the buoyancy factor of the saltwater," adds Wagg. Before the shoot began, the swimmers rehearsed at the underwater stage at "O"™ at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Never having swam in open water, the swimmers were brought in to the Bahamas early to get acclimated to swimming in the ocean where they were filmed in 30 feet of water. During the shoot, the underwater crew consisted of director Keith Melton, three camera operators, three to four gaffers and grips, seven underwater swimmers, and two to three support divers. The support divers were there to assist the swimmers, two of the support divers held large air tanks that had four umbilical regulators attached to it. There was also a support crew in boat on water that contained a generator and another that held a bank of state-of-the-art underwater lights. The underwater team developed a system of hand signals to communicate with each other. From behind the camera, Melton used a horn to alert the crew and the performers as to when filming was to begin. The IMAX® Solido camera was encased inside a huge metal bubble, suspended by a crane and then dropped from a boat into the water. A series of weights attached to the camera enables the camera to maintain a balance while it floats in the water guided by the operator and his assistant. Shooting underwater was very time-consuming. Since each film load contains only enough film to shoot for three minutes, the crew had to repeat the process of lowering the camera into the water and placing it into position, shooting the scene, taking the camera back to the crane, raise it out of the water, lift it onto the boat, remove the film, clean the camera, reload more film, close and seal the camera, drop it back into the water, and move it back into position to shoot the rest of the scene. While the film was being reloaded, the underwater crew took advantage of this time to get out of the water and warm up. Turnaround time between each shot was approximately one hour!

For the Bungee scenes, we move out of the water and into the air, suspended from the giant redwoods of Big Basin State Park, in Boulder Creek, California. "In the live show, the Bungees perform in a controlled environment on a set under a big top or theater. By taking them outdoors, we were able to take advantage of the beautiful greens and earthtones of the redwoods and contrast those colors with the bright yellows of the costumes. In the theater, the spectator does not have the opportunity to see up close the fabulous detail that goes into all the costumes," says Wagg.

The Bungee scenes were the first ones shot for the film outdoors. Having good weather was extremely crucial to get the location work off to a timely start. The shoot had to coincide with the availability of the performers; they had only five days to shoot the film before beginning the Asia-Pacific Tour of the show Saltimbanco™ .

Besides a concern for the weather, the filmmakers had to make sure that there was sufficient light for the forest shoot. Within the dense redwoods there was very little sunlight and a 3D film requires a lot of light to increase the depth of field.

The filmmakers therefore had to bring in a large lighting package that was two to three times the size used for a typical feature film. "We had so many trucks, electrical generators, and cranes, along with miles of cable running along the road that cut into the forest to our shooting location, we nicknamed the passageway ‘Iron Alley,’" says Wagg.

With so much equipment in the confined space of the forest, the filmmakers had to exercise caution to make sure that none of it appeared in the film. "There is a rectangular rig suspended from the trees that holds a circular sky pan for lighting. We turned it off when we filmed upwards, but it was still visible. We digitally eliminated the sky pan in that scene so that when the audience looks up through the trees they will only see the sky," says Melton.

The filmmakers used the redwoods to create a gigantization of the world from a child’s-eye point of view and utilized the Iwerks 8/70 rig to enhance this effect in 3D. The Iwerks 8-perforation/70mm camera allowed the filmmakers to vary the interoccular setting. Interoccular is the perspective created by the distance between two lenses. Adjusting the interoccular distance between two lenses can cause an image to appear in miniature or enormous.

The average distance between a human's eyes is about 2 1/2" apart. The twin 3D-camera lenses are therefore set at about the same distance to create 3D images in a normal perspective. To illustrate the effect of changing the interoccular distance, director Keith Melton says "imagine if you were a giant, your eyes would be further apart and the world would appear smaller to you, if you were a mouse your eyes would be closer together and the world would look much larger." By using this effect, Melton was able to make the redwood forest and its inhabitants, the Palmiers, Giant Stork and Double Face, appear larger than life.

To film the Cube Man sequence, the production headed to Valley of Fire State Park in the Nevada desert. Shot in December and at night, the weather was a constant problem during the filming of the scene. The crew faced extreme weather conditions, from very high winds to a very low wind chill factor and even a snowstorm. Meanwhile, Mikhail, the performer, had to shoot the scene wearing very little clothing.

The flame that sets the cube on fire at the climax of the Cube Man performance was enhanced in post-production to make the night scene even more powerful. "The scenes were shot at night because the spinning cube does not look very dramatic in full daylight against a bright blue sky. But in the dark, the scene becomes magical with the lights flickering off the metallic cube," says Wagg.

"We specifically shot the Cube Man sequence in the desert because we liked the monumental bizarre shapes and the deep rich earthtones against which Mikhail, the Cube Man, flies with a red cape. It was an attempt to go with a color scheme that would complement the setting and be very theatrical by nature," adds Melton.

 

The Statue Act was filmed at a Renaissance-style garden reflecting pool located at a private estate called Green Gables in San Mateo, California. "I found Green Gables in a book that I had of old gardens, so we sent the location manager up there to find the house and the people to see if they would let us shoot there," says Horton.

When the filmmakers arrived at Green Gables, they drained all the water out of the pool, scrubbed it clean and then refilled it with water and black dye. The dye was added to the water to give it a more reflective and dramatic look. They built a lily pad platform in the middle and placed camera tracks under water so that the camera could easily be maneuvered around the Statue Act, while a crane was placed off to the side of the pool to use for aerial shots.

The Statue Act was filmed on a delicate lily pad in a pond as a visual metaphor for the sturdiness of marriage conveying harmony, balance, strength and union.

Budget was not the only factor in being able to film on location; the geographical choices were dictated by the availability of the performers. Some locations proved to be more difficult to determine than others. The one filming location that became difficult to find was for the Banquine. Since the Banquine were in Washington D.C. at the time, touring with the show Quidam™ the production elected for a site that was on or near the East Coast.

"Our location scout contacted all the film commissions across the United States. We were sent photographs from the Cleveland Film Commission of a concert hall in Cleveland. The marble lobby looked fantastic. It was not the Palace of Versailles look that I envisioned originally, but the moment I saw it I thought it was fantastic as well as being practical!" says Wagg.

Compin and Horton note that Severance Hall, home to the Cleveland Orchestra, had the unique distinction of being one of the few opulent buildings in the United States and the world with an unobstructed forty-foot high ceiling. The producers needed to find a place with an extremely high ceiling for the Banquine to perform their four-high acrobatic formations.

Several other notable locations were considered for the Banquine including the Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island. These locations ultimately proved unsuitable, particularly as chandeliers would have gotten in the way!

Filming at Severance Hall presented itself with its own dilemma of coordinating the production of the film with performances of the resident Cleveland Orchestra. The orchestra was performing some nights during the week while the crew was shooting during the day, so they had to break down all the equipment before the public arrived for the performances at night. Additionally, it was not an easy task of keeping the lights out of view from the wide lens of the IMAX® camera, as there were a large number of lighting units needed to light the high-ceiling lobby.

For the finale of the film, the filmmakers watered down the street in front of the Brandenberg Gate to give it a more visually dramatic look, befitting such a powerful symbol. The rebirth of the center of Berlin and the opening of the historic gateway is used to symbolize the hope and a new beginning.

Behind the gate, a computer-generated sun rises. "It becomes a really beautiful magical sunrise, it is a new dawn against the very barren monument of the Brandenberg Gate," says Melton. As the scene closes, the camera tilts up and looks into the stars, flying into the aurora borealis were the film began. "The story comes full circle, literally, to convey that the journey continues. It is meant to be visually more surreal than real, something very uplifting, dramatic and bold. It serves as a bookend to the show," adds Melton.