Cosmic Zoom

Cosmic Zoom
Cosmic Zoom
Directed by	Robert Verrall
Produced by	Joe Koenig; Robert Verrall
Cinematography	Tony Ianzelo; James Wilson; Wayne Trickett; Raymond Dumas
Edited by	Karl Duplessis (sound)
Music by	Pierre F. Brault
Distributed by	National Film Board of Canada
Release date	October 2, 1968;
Running time	8 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

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 Ottawa River. The movement then freezes and the view slowly zooms out, revealing more of the landscape all the time. The continuous zoom-out takes the viewer on a journey from Earth, past the Moon, 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 American Broadcasting Company, marking the first time NFB films had been sold to a major American television network. It aired on ABC in the fall of 1971 as part of the children's television show Curiosity Shop, executive produced by Chuck Jones.^[5] In the UK it was shown at least twice as a segment of the children's TV magazine programme Blue Peter.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

Ibero-American Documentary Film. Festival, Bilbao: Gold Medal, 1969
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, Trieste: Golden Seal of the City of Trieste, 1969
International Educational Film Festival, Tehran: Certificate of Merit, Scientific Films, 1969
International Exhibition of Scientific Film, Buenos Aires: Diploma of Honor, 1970
International Festival of Short Films, Philadelphia: Award for Exceptional Merit, 1970
UNIATEC International Technical Film Competition, Berlin: Award of Excellence 1972^[6]

References

^ "Cosmic Zoom". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
^ "Cosmic Zoom". www.nfb.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 17 January 2024. Link to film, see film credits.
^ "IMDB". www.imdb.com. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 17 January 2024. Entry for Eva Szasz.
^ Graber, Sheila (2009). Animation: A Handy Guide. A&C Black. p. 109. ISBN 978-1408102831.
^ 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.
^ "Cosmic Zoom". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 8 February 2023.

External links

Cosmic Zoom at IMDb
Watch Cosmic Zoom on the NFB website

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[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.

[Graber-4] Graber, Sheila (2009). Animation: A Handy Guide. A&C Black. p. 109. ISBN 978-1408102831.

[OhayonJune2012-5] 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.

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v t e Location of Earth
Included	Earth → Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Local Bubble → Gould Belt → Orion Arm → Milky Way → Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Local Hole → Observable universe → Universe Each arrow (→) may be read as "within" or "part of".
Related	Cosmic View (1957 book) To the Moon and Beyond (1964 film) Cosmic Zoom (1968 film) Powers of Ten (1968 and 1977 films) Cosmic Voyage (1996 documentary) Cosmic Eye (2012) History of the center of the Universe Order of magnitude Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex
Astronomy portal Space portal

v t e Orders of magnitude
Quantity	Acceleration Angular momentum Area Bit rate Charge Computing Current Data Density Energy / Energy density Entropy Force Frequency Illuminance Length Luminance Magnetic moment Magnetic field Mass Molarity Numbers Power Pressure Probability Radiation Sound pressure Specific heat capacity Speed Temperature Torque Time Voltage Volume
See also	Back-of-the-envelope calculation Best-selling electronic devices Fermi problem Powers of 10 and decades 10th 100th 1000000th Metric (SI) prefix Macroscopic scale Microscopic scale
Related	Astronomical system of units Earth's location in the Universe Cosmic View (1957 book) To the Moon and Beyond (1964 film) Cosmic Zoom (1968 film) Powers of Ten (1968 and 1977 films) Cosmic Voyage (1996 documentary) The Scale of the Universe (2010) Cosmic Eye (2012)
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