"Apollo 11" Documentary

[JayUtah]

But if memory serves, the footage I saw in the Doc the "smudge" was on the right of the ship. Maybe they reversed the film.

They did not.  This clip appears in Apollo 11 exactly in the orientation seen in the YouTube link.  Perhaps your recollection is spotty.  No pun intended.

[onebigmonkey]

And of course there were photographs as well:

[apollo16uvc]

There's no guarantee it will be available digitized for download.  The producers obtained the source footage as the original dupe masters -- i.e., film.  You may have to contact NASA's photo archive contractor to obtain similar footage.

I asked at which resolution the film was scanned, and if it will be avaible. Got the following reply:

"Yes, all of the 65mm Panavision film that was scanned at 8K will be turned back over to the National Archives, to allow other filmmakers the chance to use this material, too. And there may still be more to come from our team... stay tuned."

And 65mm Panavision does indeed have that much resolving power. Especially with cine-quality lenses.

[JayUtah]

That's exciting.  I don't think Apollo photography has received this much love since Michael Light.

[LunarOrbit]

I just discovered that the Apollo 11 documentary is now available on DVD/blu-ray and from streaming services like the Google Play store and iTunes.

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk

[ka9q]

Not likely, as the television connection required a lot of effort from the crew and even more effort from the MSFN operators.  Because the MSFN was not permanently configured for television -- they had to lease lines that were ordinarily given over to commercial use -- it was not common to have impromptu transmissions.  Further, the ascent and rendezvous was considered one of the most critical operations of the flight.  It's not a time when people would be mucking about with the television camera.  The Maurer cameras, however, could be mounted in windows and left alone.  For example, the terminal approach phase of the LM, which was depicted in the film, is actually at artificial speed because it was taken at 6 frames per second by the CM DAC mounted in a window.  The filmmakers seems to have converted it at the 24-30 fps rate.  Because if you play it back at natural speed, it's really boring.

I'd love to go back to the moon just so we could all experience it properly, with modern digital cameras and communications. Except for the Hasselblads, none of the Apollo photography holds a candle to what can be easily done today with modern digital cameras, in real time.

[JayUtah]

Stereo, high frame rate, high resolution.  Stereo is important; much of the contour of the lunar surface is lost in single-lens photography.

[ka9q]

Stereo, high frame rate, high resolution.  Stereo is important; much of the contour of the lunar surface is lost in single-lens photography.

Yes. A few stereo photographs of the lunar surface go a long way toward explaining why shadows appear as they do.

[PDI-11]

In case someone has not seen this documentary yet, CNN will start airing it on June 23. https://www.cnncreativemarketing.com/project/apollo11/

Maybe if you sit close to the TV and turn the sound way up, it will be (almost) as good as in the theater. 

I told my wife that I plan to record it and watch it every night before going to sleep.

[Apollo 957]

Saw it at our local IMAX on Friday. Some wonderful stuff that I hadn't seen before, and a presentation that brought a whole new light to stuff that I had; for instance...

The monstrosity of a vehicle that rumbled and crawled the Saturn V from the VAB to launch pad. The feeling of endless climbing as the astronauts ascended the launch tower toward the CM. Seeing the Hassleblad stills from the EVAs at an incredible size, with an absolute bucketload of detail.... etc etc. 

Loved it.

[Zakalwe]

I agree with all of the above. Opening with the crawler was a masterstroke.
Wonderful movie, great soundtrack...the 90 minutes fly-by.


Also, keep an eye out for this, releasing the week after next

Armstrong https://g.co/kgs/YxY5gz

[Donnie B.]

I noticed one thing that seemed odd to me (just was reminded of it when I saw it again on CNN).

During the burns (TLI, LOI, etc.) a display showed the spacecraft's speed, illustrating the change due to the burn.  But when the crew reported engine cutoff, the speed continued to change for several more seconds before leveling off.

Was that an error in the video production, or did the engines (S-IVB and/or SM) continue to provide some thrust for a short time after cutoff?

[ka9q]

Large engines do take some time to shut down, but I don't know if the duration depicted is accurate or what triggered the callouts (e.g., the shutdown command to the engine, or the subsequent decay in chamber pressure.)

[Kiwi]

I just discovered that the Apollo 11 documentary is now available on DVD/blu-ray and from streaming services like the Google Play store and iTunes.

It's been a long time for some of us in the SW Pacific.

I never noticed this movie being advertised at my nearest movie theatres, 40 km away, but today (16 December 2019) I found a Blu-ray of it for NZ$25.00, so had to have it.

On watching the previews and trailers online, it appeared that the movie camera in this film that filmed the crew walking to the carrier van after suiting-up (there was another movie camera present), was the one that didn't catch a very important historical detail: The large, brown paper bag that Mike Collins was carrying below his right hand, and held his present for "the Fuhrer of the launch pad", Guenter Wendt. It was a plaque with a mounted but unstuffed seven-inch-long fish, which, by that time, probably smelled pretty bad, because Mike was apparently unaware that mounted fish had to be stuffed first, before being given away as presents.

[Count Zero]

On watching the previews and trailers online, it appeared that the movie camera in this film that filmed the crew walking to the carrier van after suiting-up (there was another movie camera present), was the one that didn't catch a very important historical detail: The large, brown paper bag that Mike Collins was carrying below his right hand, and held his present for "the Fuhrer of the launch pad", Guenter Wendt. It was a plaque with a mounted but unstuffed seven-inch-long fish, which, by that time, probably smelled pretty bad, because Mike was apparently unaware that mounted fish had to be stuffed first, before being given away as presents.

I was looking for it when I saw it in the theater, and saw it just as they were climbing into the van.  In a blink-and-you-missed it moment, you can see the astronauts in the white room (just prior to ingressing the spacecraft).  Wendt is laughing and holding up the plaque, though we can only see the back of it.