Frostbytes
www.frozensouth.com, www.antarcticimages.com. Visit YouTube to view some of Anthony's work (http://www.youtube.com/user/Antzarctica)
Bio Link
Anthony Powell is a Photographer (who specializes in time-lapse images) and Satellite Communications Tech who has spent many years working in Antarctica with his wife Christine.Currently working on editing together a feature length film about what it is like to spend a calendar "Year on Ice" made up mostly of unique time-lapse footage.
Photo Site:
Video Clips:
Antarctica: A Year On Ice
It's A Wrap!
"Antarctica: A Year On Ice" is now complete!
My voice over is recorded.
The picture grading is complete.
The titles and graphics are all in place.
The music has been composed, performed, and recorded.
The sound design is complete.
The final surround sound mix is done.
The film is ready for theatres.
A huge thanks to everyone involved in the production, everyone has been great to work with, so many talented individuals involved. Now it is on to film festival submissions and lots of publicity rounds for quite a while.
It looks and sounds fantastic on the big screen. Definitely let people know that the way to watch it is in a good movie theatre with a good sound system.
I'll announce screening venues as soon as I have them confirmed, but I can say now that the world premier will be part of the New Zealand International Film Festival in July.
Stay tuned for other venues and dates!
Voice over recording
In the picture grade suite at Park Road, getting the picture to look just right.
Live performance of the strings section for the music soundtrack
Recording the orchestral music
The film sound team together on the last day of mixing in the theatre at Park Road. These behind the scenes folk are the reason you should pay attention to all those names you see in the end credits.
Post Production Updates for "Antarctica: A Year on Ice"
We are well into post production of the theatrical cut now. The picture edit is locked at 91 minutes long. I managed to survive the trauma of slicing away nearly half an hour of footage from the rough cut with editor Simon Price. We also snuck a few new scenes in there too though.
So now Plan9 are busily composing some great music, Tim Prebble is busily making awesome noises, and Chris Todd is making us sound good.
Some really good news is that Park Road Post have come on board big time, and will be doing the final cinema color grade, 5.1 surround sound mix, and digital cinema projection output. Also the New Zealand Film Commission will be contributing to the final funding, which will allow that extra level of cinematic finish.
It seems a bit surreal sometimes going from being a guy wandering around the frozen wilderness breaking too many cameras, to having a feature film being finished off in one of the top facilities in the world.
The film has been confirmed for the New Zealand International Film Festival in July, and submissions have begun to some of the other international venues. I'll keep you posted on viewing opportunities as they are announced.
For media inquiries, email me at antzkiwi@gmail.com
Final Cinematic Polish, and Some Release Dates for A Year On Ice
Some significant updates on the status of the movie:
I'm going to be spending most of January with Simon Price to finish off the final edit on the film. The feedback we got from the preview screenings at the Ice Fest was great, and will help a lot with the final edit. From there Plan 9 and Tim Prebble will be doing their magic on the sound track with additional music work and sound design.
The final movie will be released as part of the New Zealand Film Festival in July, and will tour as part of that. It will be hitting the international film festival circuit for the second half of the year also.
In the US you will also have the chance later on to book the movie in your local theatre via Tugg.com. They work by you booking the movie yourself, then just making sure the minimum number of seats required for that venue are sold in advance. So for example if it is a 40 seat theatre, you may need to only get together 12 people to confirm the screening. As an added bonus, you get 5% of the door sales for helping promote the film. If you think you can fill a 200 seat venue, all the better. It will be a great way for Antarcticans to show the place off to friends and family. The exact timing of this is still to be sorted out, as some distributors and some of the bigger festivals require no prior screenings in the area before they will host it, so the specific dates aren't nailed down just yet, but I'll be sure to let you all know.
Thanks again to everyone for your support!
First Screening of A Year on Ice, and a TV Feature Story
We had the first screening of Antarctica: A Year On Ice, at the Ice Fest last week, and I am getting a lot of really great feedback. There is one more screening on October 2nd. If you are in the area tickets can be found here.
We are treating these showings as advanced preview test screenings, and gathering feedback to give the film a final tweak before going for a wider release next year. This means another few months of editing and sound work to bring it up to the best standard possible.
Plan 9 have done a fantastic job on the music, and Simon Price has been working hs magic on the screen story and editing. Also, some more great news is that Tim Prebble is keen to jump on board as sound designer/engineer to give it a full cinematic 5.1 sound mix.
I just appeared in a feature story on the TVNZ Sunday show, which was watched by about 1 million people locally, you can see it for yourself by clicking here. They did a great job, there are some great behind the scenes shots in there.
I donated a number of my photos to be used at the Ice Festival, this one of the Barne Glacier is being used as a backdrop for the Ice Skating Rink. It looks quite impressive on site printed out 5 meters tall.
Movie Editing and Scoring Underway!
Thanks to everyone for your fantastic support on Kickstater. We raised enough to cover the basics to get the film ready for advance preview screenings at the Ice Festival in September. I'll post screening dates as soon as we have things confirmed...
We are busily editing and scoring in Wellington right now.
Simon Price who is an editor and screenwriter is working on a re-edit to make the film flow really nicely.
Plan9 music are composing an original score.
I am very grateful to have these guys on board, they are all extremely talented and have worked on a lot of big productions over the years.
I did a TV interview the other day, here's a link to the broadcast. Skip forward to exactly the 10 minute mark to see the bit with me and Christine...
I also did a newspaper interview back in my home town. They did a quick video that shows off a little bit of my time-lapse motion control gear. Working in the extreme cold means keeping the equipment as simple as possible to make it reliable. You can read the article and watch that video here...
Once the Ice Fest is finished we will be working more on the film to give it a final polish before making it available for a wider release.
Any corporate sponsors out there we would love to hear form you!
Scott Base in late summer. Mount Erebus is in the background. Pressure ridges in the ice are from the ice shelf pushing the sea ice up against the land.
Year On Ice Trailer #2
Here's the second trailer for the film...
The kickstarter campaign is going well, there is a huge amount of support from the people who work in Antarctica, as they are finally getting a story told from their point of view, and what it is like for them to experience living there.
Here's the kickstarter video that shows a bit more...
Thanks again everyone for your support so far!
Every dollar raised will go towards paying for a better movie experience. We have the basic funding in place now to get the film finished with a stereo soundtrack. Now it's just a matter of just how much further it can go. Hiring in orchestral players, sound engineers, and doing a cinema grading is all very expensive, but well worth it in the end.
Head on over to the kickstarter page here...
"Antarctica: A Year On Ice" Feature Film
Pre-Orders are now available via Kickstarter!
We are getting pretty close to having the film ready for public screenings, still doing a bit of last minute editing, and integrating a lot more footage from this summer on the Ice.
The Christchurch Antarctic Festival or Icefest is starting in September. http://nzicefest.co.nz/
It is a pretty big event, I'm providing a lot of photos and other media to help them out, and will also be presenting at one of the planned talk shows.
We want to be able to have advance screenings of the movie available as part of the festival. In order to get the film ready in time, it is going to take some quick last minute work, so I have launched a kickstarter campaign for early sales of the film on DVD and BluRay to help cover the costs.
You can go directly to the kickstarter page to pre-order copies of the film, or support it in other ways. Just follow the link at the top of this post, or click on the link that appears at the end of the trailer below.
If you are unfamiliar with kickstarter, basically if the total funding goal is not reached in the time given, no money changes hands, you pay nothing, we get nothing. Only when the goal is reached or exceeded do you get billed (through Amazon) and only then do we get the money to finish the project, and you get the rewards once the project is finished. I'm aiming to have all the DVDs and BluRay discs shipped so you will have them in hand in time for Christmas next year.
Post-production costs are very expensive. There are lots of support options for you to help out, but basically the more money we have in advance, the better we can make the final film. Please help out if you can, and forward the links to anyone you think might be interested. Thanks in advance!
The first trailer is now available! Check it out below. Another trailer that is a bit more character focused should be ready in another couple of weeks.
Annual Supply Ship Time-Lapse Video
This year the National Science Foundation asked me to stay on at McMurdo to document the annual supply ship offload operation in time-lapse video.
Last winter was unseasonably warm, so the usual floating ice pier was unusable. A group of army engineers came down and installed a temporary floating pier so all the essential supplies could be unloaded.
Once everything is unloaded, the ship then takes any return cargo, and all the trash from the last year away to be processed.
Here's the video, best watched in hi-def and full-screen...
The video can also be downloaded here...
Mountain Tops
Been doing a lot of flying around in helicopters to the tops of mountains to install radio repeaters lately.
Here's a few pictures from some of the locations.
Me standing on 1882 peak above the Dry Valleys
Just a little down the hill from the last photo in an area I call The Catacombs
Near the summit of Mount Erebus, the southermost active volcano in the world.
This ice fumarole is basically a chimney of ice that has formed from the steam coming out of a volcanic vent
and freezing as it hits the cold air.
Looking back to Mount Erebus from the summit of Mount Terror
The radio repeater on the summit of Mount Terror
Looking across to the Royal Society Mountains from the summit of Mt Coates
On top of Minna Bluff
I have also been doing some interactive 360 degree panoramic shots of a lot of these areas. Open them with quicktime then click and drag on the picture to look around.
Here's the link...
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=f32c1f3f4fb6d9e5#cid=F32C1F3F4FB6D9E5&id=F32C1F3F4FB6D9E5%21631
Here's a few pictures from some of the locations.
Me standing on 1882 peak above the Dry Valleys
Just a little down the hill from the last photo in an area I call The Catacombs
Near the summit of Mount Erebus, the southermost active volcano in the world.
This ice fumarole is basically a chimney of ice that has formed from the steam coming out of a volcanic vent
and freezing as it hits the cold air.
Looking back to Mount Erebus from the summit of Mount Terror
The radio repeater on the summit of Mount Terror
Looking across to the Royal Society Mountains from the summit of Mt Coates
On top of Minna Bluff
I have also been doing some interactive 360 degree panoramic shots of a lot of these areas. Open them with quicktime then click and drag on the picture to look around.
Here's the link...
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=f32c1f3f4fb6d9e5#cid=F32C1F3F4FB6D9E5&id=F32C1F3F4FB6D9E5%21631
Penguins
A few emperor penguins have been hanging around on the Ice Shelf near the airfield for a while now molting...
Panorama of the three emperor penguins with the Royal Society Mountains in the background
Emperor patiently molting
Emperors and Mount Erebus
Pair of Emperors
And here's a couple of older adelie penguin shots, they have been hanging around Hut Point lately...
Another piece of local art, the Gargoyle on top of the fuel tank...
Panorama of the three emperor penguins with the Royal Society Mountains in the background
Emperor patiently molting
Emperors and Mount Erebus
Pair of Emperors
And here's a couple of older adelie penguin shots, they have been hanging around Hut Point lately...
Another piece of local art, the Gargoyle on top of the fuel tank...