It's been eight years since we last updated this blog (all three of us are now fathers!), but I wanted to share some information I recently learned about Journey Through Time, the time machine presentation that used to be in the Viola MacMillan Mineral Gallery (1992-200?) at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
Image courtesy Scott Weber
Journey Through Time was a 14-minute audiovisual show (presented alternately in English and French), with two screens and lots of moving spotlights, taking the audience on a tour of earth's geologic history. The show, created by the now-defunct company VISTA Collaborative Arts, was narrated by an unseen scientist and the ship's computer, and a robot called T-1 (seen above) frequently appeared on the secondary monitor, usually causing problems. The premise was that the time machine was invented to help date rocks (its proper name was the TMRDL, or Time Machine Rock Dating Laboratory), and this was demonstrated using six geologic specimens.
Image courtesy Scott Weber
In an unusual choice, the six rocks talked, and each had a distinct personality. To the best of my recollection, they were:
- "Gramps," a very old rock, who spoke with the voice of an old man
- a meteorite, older than the moon, who spoke like a Vegas crooner
- a sedimentary rock containing an ammonite fossil, who spoke with a German accent
- a volcanic rock (pumice?), who just made baby giggles because it was so young
- a piece of lava formed by an underwater volcano, who I think spoke like a valley girl
- a crystal of some kind, but I don't remember its voice or personality
An excerpt from the Spring 1993 newsletter of the Friends of Mineralogy, Pennsylvania Chapter.
I absolutely loved Journey Through Time, and it fueled a great deal of my imaginative play as a child. When I pretended to travel back in time -- which I did a lot -- my model of what time travel looked like wasn't Doctor Who or Back to the Future; it was this exhibit.
I am determined to one day obtain a copy of the video, and to share it here. While I haven't succeeded yet (the museum is looking!), I did manage to get in touch with one of the time machine's creators, Randal Ormston, who shared a bunch of information with me. He also got in touch with his former partner, Scott Weber, on my behalf, and obtained the images that you see in this post.
With Randal's permission, I am sharing his words here, edited for clarity.
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VISTA Collaborative Arts was my partner Scott Weber and I, and we did
immersive storytelling projects worldwide for 30 years.
Immersive experiences at museums are very expensive. The last one we did, BOOM! at the Britannia Mine Museum outside of Vancouver, was $3 million. But we won the academy award of our industry for that educational show, the Thea Award of the Themed Entertainment Association in LA. Many of the same members as the Oscars and Emmys also do these experiences… Disney, Universal Parks. Spielberg and Canadian James Cameron are members for example.
I lived in northern Canada and when we got TV, the
Disneyland show (in B&W) captivated me. At age 9 I knew everything
about the planned Disneyland Park before anyone else knew it was a
thing. I knew that the buildings were built like movie set scale. 7/8
height for the first floor and then recedingly shorter heights for the
“forced perspective” to get the guests to feel tall and important in
that environment. It was the first immersive experience park. Crafting
immersive experiences became my professional quest.
I
think we created the Time Machine experience in 1992.
Not
sure who suggested the time machine idea… might have been me since we
are using talking rocks! I was the writer, creative director and
producer; my partner was co-producer and directed the video elements.
The
Museum asked for an animatronic character but their budget was not
realistic. At the time we had created a three arm robot for another
project in Japan and were in the process of programming it. I replied
with a proposal to do the project that was more than double their
budget. We obviously got the job. I asked why they chose us when all
other submissions I assume would have respected their budget. The
response was “Because you do bizarre things!”
We
did a video in Hollywood of our robot for Japan where it did movements
programmed to my script. We used that on the video screen. The voices
for the rocks were all on separate audio tracks. The show control was
programmed for all audio, video, lighting and two languages.
As producers we
choose from a list of colleagues that have expertise in many areas:
digital animation, cel animation, sound design, show control, editors,
software designers, as well as many different hardware suppliers from
flight simulators to 70mm cameras, RED cameras, drones, etc.
Vancouver is second to only Hollywood from a wide array of talent in
the film and video business. It is the province’s #2 industry.
Your memory is better than mine for the rock personalities. I
just remember the crafting of personalities as it was a way to
underline the physical characteristics of each one.
At
the time I just recovered from a bad ankle sprain so in the set for
the Time Machine we deposited a first aid kit and my crutches.
We no longer have that video as it was owned by the museum; they may have the master copy. It
will be on SONY Betamax Pro. If they have the show it will be on
laserdisc.
You aren’t the first person to tell
Scott and I that our immersive experiences at Museums or World EXPOs
changed how they experience life or see the world. Thanks for that opportunity for me to go down memory lane!!
VISTA Arts (without the collaborative element) is just me now with a different creative focus. Scott is an instructor in directing at one of the universities in Vancouver.
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Thank you so much, Randal and Scott! And dear readers, if you have any photos, or footage, or memories of the time machine, please let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy Scott Weber
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