IF YOU GO* What: Opening of “Wild Ocean 3D.”* When: Premiers noon today.* Where: Imax 3D Theatre, 201 Chestnut St.* Admission: $8.50 adults, $6 ages 3-12.* Phone: 266-4629.* Venue Web site: www.tnaqua.com.* Related links at fyi.timesfreepress.com.SHOW TIMESNote: Show times subject to change after March 18.* Friday-Saturday: noon, 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 p.m.* Sunday-Thursday: noon, 1, 3, 4 and 6 p.m.FAST FACTS ABOUT SARDINES* The name sardines is derived from the Italian island Sardinia.* Just like enormous baleen whales, sardines are filter feeders that dine on tiny plankton.* Sardine shoals off South Africa can reach sizes are large as 15 kilometers by 3 kilometers and a depth of 40 meters.
While filming a documentary of a massive underwater feeding frenzy, the last place you might expect danger to come from is above.
As “Wild Ocean 3D’s” director of underwater photography DJ Roller discovered, however, the ocean is an unpredictable place, top to bottom.
“As they broke apart, the bubbles (from the scuba system) could probably look like fish, (and) we’d have birds diving on our bubbles sometimes,” he said.
“These birds, the gannets, are really beautiful, but once they get underwater … they looked like giant rubber chickens. We would joke that, ‘We’re getting dive-bombed by rubber chickens.’ “
For “Wild Ocean,” which premieres at the Tennessee Aquarium’s Imax 3D Theater today, Roller spent two summers filming an annual migration of billions of sardines through the waters of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
The Imax experience brings the viewer face to face with the spectacle of shoals of sardines herded en masse by an entourage of predators. Some of these include dolphins, cape gannets, blacktip sharks and African penguins.
Thanks to the use of 3D technology pioneered by James Cameron in “Ghosts of the Abyss” and “Aliens of the Deep,” the film enmeshes the audience in the chaos, Roller said.
“Having shot it, when I see it in the theater, you really get a sense of what it was like to be underwater witnessing this huge natural event,” he said. “Yes, it’s 3D, so things come out at you, but it’s more like the screen disappears and you’re looking through a window into another world.”
Besides “Wild Ocean’s” dramatic underwater sequences, the film also focuses on the environmental issue of sustainability.
“Wild Ocean,” the Earthwatch Institute’s 2009 Film of the Year, balances both education and entertainment, Roller said.
“Unlike some films that can be heavy-handed with their environmental message, what’s nice about this film is that it’s not heavy-handed and you see what it is,” he said. “Hopefully, it gives people an idea of what we can all do to help protect the oceans.”