NEW FILM COMING FROM EXPLORATION PLACE
Coming this summer to the largest dome theatre in Kansas, Exploration Place recently achieved their Kickstarter goal for “Kansas: An Immersive Flyover of America’s Heartland.”
“Thanks to the swift and enthusiastic backing of so many supporters, we’ve already met our original goal for this Kickstarter campaign, more than two weeks before our deadline, and we are buzzing with excitement!” the science museum wrote on their Kickstarter page.
The film will feature an eagle-eye view of sweeping prairie vistas, buffalo herds, wild horses, urban skylines, Kansas landmarks and much more, all captured by Wichita-based Drone-tography. Co-founder Jeremy Miller is a UAS pilot shooting aerial photography and videography. You may have seen his soaring landscapes and cityscapes on Facebook and Instagram, in one of five local retail stores, or in the Garvey Building gallery.
“It all started as a hobbyist with a drone. Soon it became so much more,” Miller said on his website.
Providing a lush audio soundtrack is Wichita recording artist Trevor Stewart, a regular at venues around town and the Walnut Valley Festival. According to his website bio, early influences included “The Beatles, Trinidad, Tchaikovsky, Santana and bossa nova,” and he built his musical career in that same eclectic spirit, creating a fresh synthesis of classical, jazz, new age and rock. Stewart got his start playing the piano at the age of 8, then expanded to the viola and eventually discovered the Chapman Stick, a 12-stringed instrument resembling a long fret board with electronic pickup, played like the piano with all 10 fingers. Its unique sound has been compared to a bass, guitar, harp or lute.
Trevor describes himself as “one of the very few ‘stickists’ residing in Kansas.”
Shaping a masterful narrative from all this footage and audio is filmmaker Nate Jones, multimedia specialist at Exploration Place. The Belle Plaine native has created almost 20 film shorts that have appeared in film festivals across the country, including Wichita’s own Tallgrass Film Festival. Last Halloween he completed a one-person horror short called “Junk Drawer.”
On their Kickstarter page Exploration Place describes this cinematic venture as “writing a love letter to Kansas.” It will be a love letter funded by donations primarily from Kansans, and hand-crafted by Wichitans.
It will be Kansas as you’ve never seen it before.
Kansas: An Immersive Flyover of America’s Heartland
The film is estimated to screen this August. Keep an eye out for ticket information at exploration.org/kansas-dome-film or follow Exploration Place on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.