Cosmic Zoom

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Cosmic Zoom
Directed byRobert Verrall
Produced byJoe Koenig
Robert Verrall
CinematographyTony Ianzelo
James Wilson
Wayne Trickett
Raymond Dumas
Edited byKarl Duplessis (sound)
Music byPierre F. Brault
Distributed byNational Film Board of Canada
Release date
  • October 2, 1968 (1968-10-02)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Cosmic Zoom is a 1968 short film directed by Robert Verrall and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.[1] It depicts the relative size of everything in the universe in an 8-minute sequence using animation and animation camera shots. All drawings by Eva Szasz.[2][3]

Synopsis

The film starts with an aerial image of a boy rowing with his dog in a boat on the

planets of the Solar System, the Milky Way and out into the far reaches of the then known universe. The process is then reversed, and the view zooms back through space to Earth, returning to the boy on the boat. It then zooms in to the back of the boy's hand, where a mosquito is resting. It zooms into the insect's proboscis and on into the microscopic world, concluding at the level of an atomic nucleus
. It then zooms back out to the original view of the boy on the boat.

Inspiration and follow ups

The film was based on the 1957 essay "Cosmic View" by Kees Boeke. The 1968 short film Powers of Ten (updated in 1977) used the same idea and techniques, as did the 1996 IMAX film Cosmic Voyage.[4]

Release

Cosmic Zoom was one of seven NFB animated shorts acquired by the

UK it was shown at least twice as a segment of the children's TV magazine programme Blue Peter.[citation needed
]

Awards

See also

  • Cosmic Eye, a similar film
  • Earth's location in the universe

References

  1. ^ "Cosmic Zoom". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  2. ^ "Cosmic Zoom". www.nfb.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 17 January 2024. Link to film, see film credits.
  3. ^ "IMDB". www.imdb.com. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 17 January 2024. Entry for Eva Szasz.
  4. .
  5. ^ Ohayon, Albert (June 8, 2012). "What on Earth: Science fiction satire at its funniest". NFB.ca Blog. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
  6. ^ "Cosmic Zoom". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 8 February 2023.

External links