Aug 21 2009
Behind the scenes of Contact: The Movie
By Kate Hennessy
After a fortuitous encounter at the Eureka Awards dinner on Tuesday, Professor Bryan M. Gaensler leapt on a brilliant opportunity. But first: watch this.
Physics professor Gaensler had a tutorial scheduled the next day about the challenges of portraying science and astronomy in film. He planned to use 1996 movie ‘Contact‘ (starring Jodie Foster) as his primary example.
Over dinner, however, Gaensler discovered that the gentleman to his left was none other than ’space artist’ Jon Lomberg.
From 1995-1997 Lomberg worked on the Warner Brothers film as Astronomical Visual Consultant. He designed and story-boarded many of the film’s astronomical animation sequences, including the famed three-minute zoom out from Earth that opens the movie (here again on QuietTube) – the very sequence Gaensler planned to show students the next day.
Sensibly, Gaensler’s first question to Lomberg was “What are you doing at noon tomorrow?”
Since he was between speaking engagements on Wednesday. Lomberg agreed to Gaensler’s invitation that he conduct the tutorial.
Behind the scenes of Contact: The Movie
Lomberg opens his talk explaining the circumstances around his involvement in Contact. The movie was, of course, based on the 1985 book by Carl Sagan. Lomberg was Sagan’s principal artistic collaborator for around 25 years.
He discusses the inspiration behind the novel and Sagan’s interest in using radio communication to contact, or be contacted by, extra terrestrial life-forms.
By this time, the Physics students display none of that student ’slump’ I remember so well from my Uni days. They are listening keenly: realising their luck at hearing about the topic directly from the source.
And, of course, they probably know it is only a matter of time (and space) before WORMHOLES are raised…
You may be getting the idea that compromises to scientific accuracy are pretty common in movie-making. With Sagan and Lomberg involved, however, Contact is far from the biggest culprit …
While “spot-the-astronomical-anomaly” can be a frustrating sport for those who know better, Lomberg explains how easily errors can creep into movies with so many people involved in the chain of command.
And in the wider scheme of making a compelling and visually spectacular movie, smaller technical errors don’t always necessarily matter.
Gaensler then chips in.
In what must be the second most famous clip from Contact (first: the intro, third: the wormhole), Jodie Foster hears the first contact from the Vega star at the Very Large Array radio observatory in New Mexico.
She hears the signal (second only to that sound in ‘Close Encounters’ right?) and leaps into her car, screaming instructions to the guys back at base to move the antennas.
But she screams the instructions on a walkie talkie – something Gaensler assures the class would be completely forbidden at an observatory. The radio antenna are so sensitive that no apparatus with even the slightest signal is allowed anywhere within a large radius.
“They were very careful to ensure all batteries in the walkie-talkies were removed on set,” Gaensler says.
But movies are not the only medium to mis-represent reality in a quest to communicate the wonders of our universe, Lomberg points out.
The swirling, psychedelic colours often seen in images taken by the Hubble Telescope do not necessarily depict the “pale and ghostly” nebulas they’re labelled as. (See ‘What happens to your blood in space?’ for more insider details on the Hubble, from a NASA astronaut.)
The vertical relief of the canyons on Mars is also commonly over-exaggerated in pictures we see.
“Most aspects of astronomy are either too bright to look at or too faint to see,” says Lomberg.
“Hence art being a good medium to communicate it, as you can better balance accuracy versus visual appeal.”
Lomberg wraps up his “lesson” by mentioning the work of real-life SETI astronomer, Jill Tarter, who has searched for extra-terrestrial life for many years but has not found anything.
“The reason there are so few SETI astronomers is that they may finish an entire distinguished professional career without finding anything,” says Lomberg.
Tarter (recently in Australia visiting the Parkes radio telescope) won a Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) prize in February this year for her life-long work searching for cosmic company. She was granted one wish by TED in support of her passion:
“I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company.”
You can follow Jill’s blog here. Better, why not visit Hello From Earth and record your own message to the lifeforms that may exist on Gliese 581d?
And be sure to come along to see Jon Lomberg speak tonight, special guest at Ultimo Science Festival’s ‘Big Night of Science‘!
I was one of those students in this tut and let me say it was fantastic to have Jon speak to us about his influences and generally space industry.
Very fun tut I do say… Now how can make them all like that?
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