In the tradition of VFX master Douglas Trumbull, who created comparable effects for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011), director Thomas Vanz captures the awe-inspiring beauty of the universe without resorting to any computer-generated imagery.
To the accompaniment of his own orchestral composition, Vanz evokes the vastness of the cosmos with slowly moving liquids, flowing inks and chemical solutions filmed at a macroscopic scale. Colorful formations unfurl across the heavens and organic abstractions arise out of the nothingness, suggesting distant nebulae, protoplanets and dying stars.
Operating at the intersection of art and science, Vanz makes the invisible visible, conjuring the majestic from the miniscule. By touching the sublime, these monumental visuals confront the audience with the fragility of human life within the immeasurable expanse of the universe.
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