Frostbytes

"Year On Ice" Feature Film Update

Anthony and Christine Powell — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:23:00 GMT

We are now off the Ice, taking a year off to work full-time on getting the "Year on Ice" feature film completed.
I'm at the stage now where I have finally finished rendering all my time-lapse footage from the last 7 years into usable footage from the over 1,000,000 individual photos taken.

In the process I have worn out several cameras, and broken plenty of equipment in the extreme cold.
Occasionally I have gone to recover a camera after leaving it out overnight, and found it tipped over and buried in a snow bank, or worse, face down, lens first in the rocks.
The end result is that I have gathered a lot of great footage. It will be something very unique, there are many sequences that have never been caught on film before.

I currently have a rough cut of just time-lapse footage alone that runs for about 90 minutes, but I plan on cutting about 30 minutes from this, then adding about 30 minutes of regular interviews and other fun footage. Enough to put everything into context for the viewer, but avoiding a running commentary so that people can enjoy the experience of what it is like to spend a year in Antarctica for themselves.

The film should be out later this year with a final total running time around 90 minutes.

Sun, Plane, People, Mail, Freshies, and Nacreous Clouds

Anthony and Christine Powell — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:39:00 GMT

The winfly plane flights have come and gone, bringing with them about 350 new people, mail, fresh fruit and veggies, old friends, and new cold and flu viruses to infect us toasty winter-over folk.
The return of the sun is helping to re-energize our T3 addled brains (see the blog entry from this time last year), and general station activities involve everyone getting ready for the start of the summer season at the end of the month.

The first Winfly C-17 plane emerges out of the fog on the runway

Passenger disembarking the plane into the -45 degree air

Transporting the passengers back to McMurdo across the Ice Shelf, our first view the sun in over 4 months as it
briefly skirts the horizon at noon.

Mount Erebus to the north casts a shadow across Mount Discovery to the south-west

Polar Stratospheric Clouds (Nacreous Clouds) in the upper atmosphere being illuminated by the sun below
the horizon. These clouds form when ozone-depleting gasses crystallize in the extreme cold, creating incredible
rainbow hues when the sun hits them.

Nacreous Cloud

Nacreous Cloud behind ice ridge

Nacreous Clouds above Mount Discovery in the twilight

Nacreous Clouds being illuminated by the moon

Moon set over Salient Peak

Aurora above one of the McMurdo fuel tanks. Not too long now and it will be too light at night to see auroras with
the return of the sun.

Moon rise

And lastly, here is a video clip I made up from about 400 individual photos I took last year showing what it is like to fly from Black Island, across the ice shelf, past the Pegasus Airfield and land at McMurdo.
To watch the Hi-Def version follow the link to vimeo...

Fly-Lapse from Anthony Powell on Vimeo.

Antarcrtica Winter Film Festival Winners

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:19:00 GMT

We ended up with a total of 33 films from 17 different Antarctic Stations
And the winners are...

Best 48Hr Film
Rothera (UK): The Quest of the Golden Roll

Best 48Hr Acting
Mawson (Australia): Mace Perfume

Best 48Hr Cinematography
Bellingshausen (Russia): One Day of Vladimir Fyodorovich's Life

Best 48Hr Screenplay:
Rothera (UK): The Quest of the Golden Roll

Best 48Hr Use of Required Elements
Rothera (UK): The Quest of the Golden Roll

Best Open Category Film
Macquarie Island (Australia): Eradication

Congratulations to everyone.
There were a lot of really great films this year, making it hard to choose.
We had a great time with them here, and hope you did too.

Have a look at the previous post for links to the films to see them for yourself

Aurora over the BFC building the other morning.

The sun is due to start rising today for the first time in 4 months. Yay.

Antarctic FIlm Festival Movies

Anthony and Christine Powell — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:18:00 GMT

Most the Antarctica bases that took part in the Film Festival had their screenings this weekend, and the votes are beginning to trickle in from all over the continent.
I'll update this entry when the winners are announced.

The films are available to download online at this link...
http://cid-f32c1f3f4fb6d9e5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Antarctic%20Movies
Note, not all videos are suitable for younger viewers!

For the 48-hour film making section, films had to be made in one weekend, and include
-A roll of toilet paper
-A comedy head piece
-The character of a "Temperamental Continental Chef"
-The line of dialogue "Do you want to buy a dog?"
-The sound of a can opening

Here's a couple of the 48-hour films that are available on youtube and vimeo...

This is the one that Christine & I did at McMurdo...

This is from the British Base Rothera...

And this is from Australia's Mawson Station...

This one is from the Russian Station Bellingshausen...

"One Day of Vladimir Fyodorovich's Life" from Olga Stefanova on Vimeo.

Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica 2009

Anthony and Christine Powell — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:01:00 GMT

It's that time of the year again for the Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica (or WIFFA for short).

It looks like we will probably have about double the number of entries we had last year.

So far we have the following stations taking part in the Film Festival:
McMurdo Station (US),

Scott Base (New Zealand),

South Pole (US)
Palmer Station (US),

Syowa Station (Japan),

Maitri (India)
Rothera (UK),

Jubany Station (Argentina),

Casey Station (Australia)
Troll Station (Norway),

Bird Island (UK),

Bellingshausen Station (Russia)
Halley Station (UK),

Neumayer (Germany)

The film festival is open to anyone wintering-over in Antarctic to enter.

There will be two categories of movies:

The Open Category:

Can be any film on any subject, but the total running time needs to be kept to about 5 minutes maximum

The 48 Hour Film Making Category:

This will take place over the first weekend in August

On Friday list of required items to be included in each film will be announced. These will be things like a line of dialogue, props to include, a character, a sound etc. Each of the bases that took part last year will pick one item each.

Competitors then have the weekend to make a film of up to 5 minutes in length, and begin uploading it on Monday for the other stations to view.

Voting will take place over the next week across the continent to decide the winners.

The films from last year can be found on line here...
http://cid-f32c1f3f4fb6d9e5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Antarctic%20Movies/2008%20Winter%20Antarcrtic%20Film%20Festival

This is the film 48Hr film I did back in 2006 that won best picture.
The required items were a bowl, and ice cream cone, a sleeping person, the sound of a phone, and the line "We've lost another one"...

Antarctica Twilight Stars and Auroras

Anthony and Christine Powell — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:20:00 GMT

The temperatures typically drop quite dramatically over the next month or so as we enter what is normally the coldest time of the year here.

In the mean time, we are starting to see signs of the sun returning. There is quite a glow to the north in the middle of the day now, and many of the stars overhead disappear for an hour or two at noon.

It is just over a month before the sun actually rises again for us.

Last night a group of us went out in a Pisten Bully to take some photos at Castle Rock...

The Pisten Bully parked at the base of Castle Rock, and other photographers setting up cameras

Castle Rock and stars

Shot taken from a time-lapse sequence I did. Mount Erebus with a small aurora behind it, and red steam being lit up by the lava in the crater at it's peak

Back at McMurdo, the satellite dome on the hill back-lit by the northern noon glow

This is an older photo I just found that I didn't realize I had. Looking south, auroras in the sky, with the lights of the Pegasus Airfield out on the Ice Shelf. The runway will be getting rebuilt very shortly in preparation for Winfly.

Moon dog: the halo around the moon caused by ice crystals in the air

Mid Winter in Antarctica

Anthony and Christine Powell — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:32:00 GMT

We are past mid-winter now.

Mid-winter day is the premiere holiday in Antarctica. The various stations will send greetings to each other to celebrate the middle of the “longest night.”

Special mid-winter dinner celebrations were held at Scott Base and McMurdo, in which the chefs went all out to put on a suitable feast.

We have finally had a few good aurora displays. I filled up about 60Gigs of hard drive space with photos in one afternoon when I was out at Black Island.

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks…

The fancy table layouts for mid-winter dinner at McMurdo Station.

The crowd gathering for the feast

Ice crystals in the air at McMurdo after mid-winter dinner creates the illusion of the
floodlights pointing straight up in the air.

Moon over Observation Hill, McMurdo Station.
The cross on top is the memorial marker to Robert Scott and his men.

The Milky Way in the sky above the Black Island Satellite Station. This is a shot from
the start of a time-lapse sequence to capture the galaxy moving across the sky...

A few minutes later an aurora display took place in the middle of the sequence, when
I would have actually preferred dark skies. But the auroras looked pretty good too.

The smaller satellite dish radome at Black Island lit up from inside, with an aurora
in the background.
The streaks of light in the sky are satellites passing overhead.

That's me, standing on the helicopter landing pad at Black Island (helicopters do not
fly here in winter). I stood still there for about 10 minutes to get a time-lapse photo
sequence of the aurora with me in it.

Looking north after lunch. The lights of McMurdo can be seen at the base of Mt Erebus.
The glow in the sky is from a combination of the sun and the moon behind a cloud just
to the right of Erebus. An aurora is also on the right of the picture.

Moon and auroras over Ross Island, as seen from Black Island

Looking up the microwave tower at Black Island, a composit shot of the stars moving
over a period of a couple of hours.
Notice how celestial south pole is only slightly offset from the top of the tower.
The green bits in the sky are frm some auroras that passed through.

Ice crystals growing on the windows at Black Island.

Photo Catch Up

Anthony and Christine Powell — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:43:00 GMT

Not too much out of the ordinary going on.
The sun has gone, and won't be back until the end of August.
We had a lot of snow in town after the storms a couple of weeks ago.

The storms were pretty average for down here, but over at Black Island there was a wind gust of 193 knots, that's about 222 mph, only 9 mph lower than the highest wind speed ever officially recorded on the planet on Mount Washington back in 1936.
We regularly have bigger storms out there, but most the time the wind gauges have not been working as they don't last long down here.

Here's a few general catch-up photos...

Looking out from Hut Point across McMurdo Sound in the last of the daylight

Wind whipping up snow off the hills behind McMurdo in the twilight

ANZAC Day dawn service at Scott Base (like Memorial Day in the US).
At this time of the year we don't actually have a "Dawn", as the sun does not rise, so we just do it in the morning.

Driving to Black Island in the blowing snow and the noon twilight

Solar Panels that were ripped off the roof at Black Island in the 222mph wind.
The rest of the facility was not damaged. It was built to last.

Snow that has worked it's way into the Bunk House at Black Island during the storm.
All this snow came in through the cracks in the window seals. There are a couple of armchairs and a diesel preway heater on the right of the picture under the snow.

Long exposure photo of the Black Island Satellite Station

The Milky Way as seen from Black Island. The green in the sky is from some faint auroras

Back at McMurdo, digging hard-packed snow out of the engine compartment after the storm.

Digging vehicles out of the snow next to the Gym entrance.

The back door to building 159 where I work

TV and entertainment unit that was dug out of the snow that got into Hut 10 that I have been asked to look at to see if it will still work.

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Aurora Photography Exposure Guide:
Here's an exposure guide I put together for folks down here to figure out how to take their own aurora photos.
For those of you living in the northern or southern extremes of the planet, it could come in handy...

Star Trails

Anthony and Christine Powell — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:15:00 GMT

We have had a lot of stormy weather here lately, so when I was stuck inside the other night I thought I'd run some of my time-lapse star sequences through a photo-stacking application to see how they looked.
Here's a few results from stacking a couple of hundred photos together each time so the stars become streaks in the sky...

Looking up the communications tower at Black Island.
Note how the celestial South Pole is only just slightly away from being directly up.

Wide angle shot of one of the dorm buildings at McMurdo, with a small green aurora overhead

View of McMurdo Station form out on the sea ice. The extra-bright streak on the left is from the moon.

Bust of Admiral Byrd with the American flag on the left moving about in the wind

Antarctic Ice Shelf Melt

Anthony and Christine Powell — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:38:00 GMT

The last plane left about 5 weeks ago now. There are 153 people at McMurdo, and 26 at Scott Base for the winter.
The sun is actually rising and setting at this time of the year, but the days are getting shorter by about 15 minutes each day. In 3 weeks from now the sun will go down, and we will not see it for another 4 months.

We have been running into a lot of problems this year with badly melted ice out on the Ross Ice Shelf between here and Black Island.
This makes it very hard for me to do my job here in the winter. Because we have no helicopters available, it means we have to drive across the ice shelf to get to our satellite earth station at Black Island to do any work required. While I can control all the equipment remotely, sooner or later hands-on work is required to keep things running smoothly.
We have been trying for the last couple of weeks to get there, but have had to turn back because the ice shelf melted out so badly this summer. It is the worst I have seen it in the last 10 years.
We will be heading out again next week to see if we can get through on an alternative route.

Here's a few photos from my last trip out...

Sunrise on our last trip out to try and find a safe route to Black Island, looking north towards Mt Erebus.

Looking south-west towards Mt Discovery.
The exposed deeper blue ice (on the right of the picture) often still has water pockets not far below the surface at this time of the year due to a glass-house type effect from the sun over summer. It is one of the things we need to be wary of, and will drill down through the ice to check the thickness in any doubtful spots before driving on it.

Raised up volcano shaped domes like this form when water pockets below the surface re-freeze, forcing the ice up.
Notice the noon sun is only a few degrees above the horizon now.

Driving into some of the melted-out ice fields, and it only got worse from here on out, so we had to turn back.
Even the Pisten Bullies cannot drive up chest-high walls of rock-solid ice.

Back on the Ice

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:21:00 GMT

I'm back on the Ice again after another uneventful flight south.
Ambient temperatures are sitting in the general region of -18C / 0F this time of the year.

The last plane flight out before the start of winter is in a couple of days from now, along with the first sunset in 4 months.

The other day I had an interview appear on CNN, here it is here...

Getting Ready To Head South Again

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:15:00 GMT

It’s that time of the year now.
After far too brief a time off (it always seems that way), it’s time to head south again for me very soon.

Passengers getting ready to fly south at the Christchurch International Antarctic Center.

Christine just got down there a few days ago to assist with the arrival and unload of the annual supply ship. (She is in the crowd in the above photo somewhere).

The vast bulk of the annual supples are brought in on the ship, and all the trash from the last year is shipped out. We have very strict environmental protocols, so basically anything that is brought down is shipped out again.

This is a time-lapse clip I did back in 2006 of the ship being offloaded over a few days in the 24 hour sunlight...

I’m due down there in a couple of weeks, not long before the last plane leaves at the end of the summer season. From then our only contact with the outside world for the next 7 months will be electronic. No plane flights in or out.

It will be my 9^th winter-over, and Christine’s 8^th.

I’ll be spending pretty much every spare moment editing together the "Year on Ice" feature film.

It should be an interesting process working back and forth with the guys at Plan 9 to develop the soundtrack as we go. Check out their website here: http://www.plan9music.co.nz/

We are looking at getting the film ready for release early next year.

Thawing Out

Anthony and Christine Powell — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:02:00 GMT

We are both off the Ice now, adjusting back to the world of unusual things like liquid water, flowers, green growing things, small furry animals, crowds, children, fresh food, advertising, rampant consumerism, and of course viruses.
The day after I got back I caught the flu, one of the worst cases I have ever had. Your immune system tends to get depressed on the Ice over the winter with no new viruses to fight. I was pretty much bed ridden for a week, but starting to come right again now.
Here's a couple of airplane snaps from the trip north...

Unloading the southbound cargo from the C-17 before the flight north

Flight Crew preparing for the northbound flight

Inside the C-17 on the flight north. Most the cargo is southbound at this time of the year, so there is space for people to stretch out when heading north.

Last view of the Antarctic mainland before heading out over the pack ice then open ocean.

Ice Caves and 24 Hour Sunlight

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:05:00 GMT

The sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day now, and won't set for another 4 months.
For some reason I find it is actually easier to adjust to 24 hour darkness than it is to 24 hour sunshine.
There is something just plain weird about stepping outside in the middle of the night and having to put on sunglasses.

I am finally due to be getting out of here November 10th for some much needed time off in the real world, Christine will be following a few days later.

In the mean time, last weekend we joined in a trip up the coast to Cape Evans in some Delta trucks to have a look at the newly formed ice caves in the Erebus Ice Tongue Glacier...

Delta dragging a sled of emergency survival equipment across the frozen sea ice.
Later this summer this will be open sea water here.

Christine and I down inside an ice cave

Climbing back out into the light

Outside the cave looking back towards the sun and the Delta parked on the sea ice

Alas the Deltas don't like soft snow and get stuck very easily. This one had to be dug out about 6 times on the way back to town.

McMurdo Station as seen from a recent helicopter trip to Black Island.
Mount Erebus is smoking in the distance in the background.

T3 Syndrome

Anthony and Christine Powell — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:06:00 GMT

Summer is here. Today the temperature is only about -10C / 14F.

A week from now the sun will be above the horizon 24 hours a day.

The station population is up to around 800 people now.

It's a lot for my toasty winter-over brain to deal with, but the sunlight and activity is starting to relieve the typical T3 symptoms.

Polar T3 syndrome is an unusual thing that typically affects people who spend the winter down here the hardest.

It is thought to be caused by a combination of things, lack of sunlight, lack of new stimulus, low vitamin D levels, and T3 hormone being diverted from the brain to the muscles.

Common symptoms are fatigue, short term memory loss, zoning out with a 1000 mile stare, or forgetting every day things.

It's something you just get used to and typically have a laugh about. It also means that you have to be very well organized and write everything down, or there is no way you will remember to do something.

Thankfully the effects are only temporary, and go away once you get a bit of time off the Ice.

In the recent interviews I have been doing with people for the Year on Ice movie I'm making, I've been getting them to give examples of how it affects them.

Here's a few examples people have given me:

-Constantly forgetting appointments, meetings, and social functions.

-Walking into the next room to grab a tool you need to do a job you are working on, when you get there you have absolutely no idea what you went there for.

-Suddenly forgetting the name of someone you have known well for years.

-Forgetting common random words halfway through a sentence and having to stop to remember what the word was.

-Trying to remember which day of the week comes first, Wednesday or Thursday.

-Forgetting the phone number of the house you have lived in all your life.

-Forgetting the name of every day objects like the salt shaker on the dinner table.

-Forgetting which key opens the office door you unlock every morning at work.

Consequently people typically become less articulate.

Another often-wintered couple, Tom and Lynn along with Christine & myself have had people comment to us quite often about how we seem to communicate by grunts and pointing. When it comes right down to it, it is amazing how little articulation is actually required to communicate.

Here's a couple of still photos from recent time-lapse film sequences...

Crescent Moon setting over the Royal Society Ranges

Nacreous Clouds in the sky behind one of the small satellite dish enclosures

End of Winter Start of Summer

Anthony and Christine Powell — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:33:00 GMT

The Winfly plane flights came and went a couple of weeks ago, now everyone is ramping up for the first flights of summer which were supposed to start happen this week.
So far the weather has prevented any more planes from getting in, which means there is now a backlog of 4 flights worth of people waiting in Christchurch, taking up a lot of the available motel space in the city.

Once all the new people do actually start to make it down here things start to get really hectic. The station population will increase about 4 fold, and the summer research programs really get underway.

Most the winter-over staff will head north to warmer climates over the next couple of weeks, but Christine & I will be here until the start of November.

I had changed a bit since she last saw me at the start of winter...

Da Plane Da Plane

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:58:00 GMT

The first plane after winter has arrived.
It brought with it new people, mail, fresh fruit and vegetables, and of course most importantly my darling wife.

It tends to be a time of sensory overload for the winter staff, seeing unfamiliar faces, and some old faces back again.
The new people look really strange with their tanned skin. After getting used to seeing nothing but pale winter staff for so long, the new people look orange to us, as though someone has turned the saturation up too high on the TV.
Eating a fresh banana is like mana from heaven. Your body is craving the fresh fruit after going without for so long. Of course, not being used to it, it makes for lots of grumbly tummies afterward too.

The other bad thing about this time of year is typically new cold and flu viruses will be introduced by the new folk.
Living in close quarters with so many people typically means they spread very fast too.
Over the winter all the cold and flu viruses had burned out, so our immune systems have not had much to work on. Any new viruses tend to hit us quite hard.
Hopefully the new policy this year of requiring everyone to have a flu shot will relieve most of that this time around.

The sun is up for 8 hours a day now. It's still taking a while to get used to seeing the sun in the sky again.

Return of the Sun

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:20:00 GMT

Yesterday I finally got to see the sun again for the first time in just over 4 months.
It rose last week, but because of Mount Erebus being in the way to the north, you can't see it unless you get out of town just yet.
It is up for a few hours a day now.
In another 3 weeks it will be above the horizon 12 hours a day, 4 weeks later and it will be above the horizon 24 hours a day, not setting again until late February.
This is what it looked like at just after 1.00pm in the afternoon...

48 Hour Film Festival Winners

Anthony and Christine Powell — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:04:00 GMT

The votes for the Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica were tallied, and this is the result...

Best Film: Tied for first Place
Rothera (UK) FNG
Neumayer (Germany) Neumayer Nemesis

Best Acting:
Casey (Australia) -Don't leave Home

Best Cinematography:
Rothera (UK) FNG

Best Screenplay:
Casey (Australia) -Don't leave Home

Best Use of Required Elements:
Casey (Australia) -Don't leave Home

See the links in the previous posts for where you can watch the films.

Nacreous or Polar Stratospheric Clouds

Anthony and Christine Powell — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:45:00 GMT

Here's another couple of photos of the Antarctic Nacreous Clouds from today at Black Island...

They are most impressive to see in real life. It looks like the whole northern sky is on fire.
Regular photos really do not do them justice.
I took a whole lot of High Dynamic Range shots, but they will have to wait until I get back to McMurdo to be processed.