FOOTPRINTS

In 2000, NOAA created Science On a Sphere (SOS) to show data sets in their inherently spherical nature. Since then,  SOS has become a popular installation in museums, science centers, universities and research facilities world-wide.  In 2006, the Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center received the eighth SOS in the world, and recognized the unique opportunity it presented to showcase NASA's science missions. 

And so Footprints, the first spherical film of its kind, was born. In only 16 minutes, Footprints moves from Earth, through our solar system and into the universe beyond. In anticipation of future projection capabilities, the film was authored in 4K.  It's a cutting edge movie….but without actual edges.   No frame left or right.  Top or bottom?  More like north and south.  And everyone in the audience needs to experience the same movie, even though the experience itself could be different. 

This is the nature of a spherical filmmaking.  Truthfully, it's very hard to….get your head around. So much so that Time Magazine awarded Footprints with a Best Invention of Year Award! Very cool. 

Verglas Media is proud to provide an opportunity to present Footprints on the web.  While at NASA, Victoria developed and implemented the editing techniques used to create spherical films for SOS, and has been growing and perfecting them ever since. As two dimential motion graphics seemed to take on a third dimension,  she came up with unique compositional solutions make it happen.  Working closely with NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) to create the stars of the show, the data viz itself, Michael Starobin wrote and directed the film. The film was narrated by Richard Foucheux and features an original score by Andre Gribou.