The Virginian-Pilot
© January 16, 2015
VIRGINIA BEACH
Sarah Woo traveled from Maryland with her boyfriend specifically to walk through a tunnel where rays and reef fish swim overhead. But the unexpected highlight of their visit to the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center on Friday: spiraling 7 miles underwater, to the deepest part of the sea.
Woo, 21, and Seung Lee, 23, watched “Deepsea Challenge,” a documentary about James Cameron’s submarine expedition being shown in the aquarium’s newly refurbished 3-D theater.
Gone is the IMAX brand and large-format film. It’s now a digital experience branded National Geographic.
“It was very realistic; I felt I was a part of it,” Lee said.
Cameron, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. The film explains how he wanted to explore the sea since he was a child and built a “submarine” out of a box.
It follows Cameron’s preparations for a solo dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. The 40-minute film will be showing through March.
The Virginia Aquarium held a “film-cutting” ceremony Wednesday, where Deputy Director Cynthia Spanoulis talked about the switch from film to digital.
“Can you imagine having a film canister that’s the size of a Volkswagen Beetle,” she asked the audience of aquarium members and volunteers. “Now it’s the size of a jump drive.”
The change will save $325,000 a year, from maintenance and shipping costs to energy use, she said.
The theater was built in 1996 and has shown hundreds of 3-D and regular films, mostly nature-related. With the switch to digital, the aquarium has more options for its lineup.
“We can show any movie; we’re not beholden to IMAX,” Spanoulis said.
Renovations began after Labor Day. The silver screen was replaced with a white screen accommodating images 43 feet tall and 78 feet wide.
There are 261 cushy seats, with cup-holder armrests that can be raised for more room or hand-holding, and six handicapped-accessible spaces.
The new sound system is crisp – so much so that when Cameron climbs into the submarine and the hatch door closes, the contrast from nervous dialogue to sudden silence is thrilling.
“When they’re sound testing in the morning, my whole chest is just vibrating,” said Tammy Berkebile, who checked guest tickets Friday.
After the film, Woo and Lee chatted with other audience members about the theater renovations.
“I like the color of the floor,” said Sherie Coleman of Norfolk. “It’s different from all of the other blues. It’s like …”
“The sea,” Lee said. “The deep sea.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
At Virginia Aquarium, a big-screen debut
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