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Production
Wildlife
The Lost World of Venezuela
The Lost City of Tikal
New York's Water
The film took two years to make.
Principal photography took 29 weeks.
The film was shot in Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Guatemala, Canada,
California, Alaska, and New York State.
The budget was 5.7 million U.S. dollars.
If all the rolls of film shot were lined up, they would total 47 miles
of 70mm film.
A full-length 40-minute IMAX film weighs 225 pounds and needs two
to three people to carry it.
The IMAX camera used in Venezuela was the same one that went to the
top of Mount Everest for the IMAX film Everest.
The camera, with tripod and magazines, weighs approximately 110 pounds.
Not to be confused with a black panther, the black jaguar was considered
the most sacred animal by the Mayans.
The jaguar has no natural predator and is the largest of all cats
in the Americas, often weighing up to 300 pounds.
Of the many species shown in the film, several are on the Endangered
Species List, including the giant anteater, the South American tapir
and the sea otter.
Sea otter populations along the California coast once exceeded 20,000
before overhunting reduced their numbers to just over 2,000. In 1977,
the State of California declared the sea otter an endangered species.
As a result, it is now protected under California law.
The tepuis (meaning "table mountains" in the Pemón Indian
language) are the only mountains of their kind, and are found in southern
Venezuela, northern Brazil and western Guyana.
The mountains shown in the film are found in Venezuela's Canaima National
Park, the sixth-largest national park in the world, covering an area
of 3,000,000 hectares.
The mountains in Canaima National Park are the oldest rock formations
in the world's geochronology. Dating from the Precambrian period,
they were probably formed between 1.5 and 2 billion years ago.
Mount Roraima is arguably the tallest of the tepuis, standing
at 10,000 feet.
It took four helicopters and three days to establish base camp on
Mount Roraima. Bad weather and downdrafts made it nearly impossible
to land the four tons of heavy equipment.
Angel Falls is the world's highest waterfall, falling from a height
of 997 meters.
Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance was one of the few productions
ever granted permission to film on Auyán-tepui, above Angel
Falls.
The base camp at the foot of Angel Falls was so isolated that the
crew had to charter its own planes to get there—there are no
roads in this part of Venezuela. From the airstrip, it took a full
day by boat-through three sets of rapids—to reach the base camp.
Tikal is located in the middle of Tikal National Park in northern
Guatemala—a wildlife preserve covering 222 square miles. It was
the first park of its kind in Central America. Over 285 species of
birds, jaguars, pumas, hummingbirds, deer, and many more endangered
and rare wildlife live there.
Maps of the city have revealed over 2,500 separate constructions,
including temples, palaces, ceremonial shrines, plazas and residences,
but 80% still remains unexcavated.
Tikal is the largest of the Maya cities, dating back to before 600
AD. Scientists have found evidence that around 869 AD, construction
slowed, marking the beginning of the city's decline.
Tikal means "the place where the spirit voices are heard." Mayan people
believe that the spirits of their ancestors haunt the abandoned temples
and palaces.
The highest temple in Tikal—at over 65 meters—is Temple
IV, "Temple of the Two Headed Snake." It was the tallest structure
in all the Americas until the mid-19th century, when the dome was
placed on top of the Washington Capitol Building.
Seeking a rainstorm for the introductory sequence at the lost city
of Tikal in Guatemala, the crew chose to film in July, during the
wet season. Heavy rains helped achieve director Bayley Silleck's vision,
but made it impossible for equipment trucks carrying generators to
climb the steep hills leading to many temples.
New York City's water supply system is one of the largest surface
storage and supply systems in the world, covering nearly 2,000 square
miles.
The water supply system has a combined storage capacity of 550 billion
gallons, provided by 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes. The
lakes deliver, on average, 1.3 billion gallons of high-quality water
daily. The water moves through a distribution system that consists
of a 6,000 mile grid of water mains, to the approximately 8 million
residents of New York City and 1 million residents of Westchester,
Ulster, and Orange counties.
The Ashokan Reservoir is situated about 80 miles north of NYC. It
is 12 miles long, 190 feet deep, and has the capacity to hold up to
123 billion gallons of water.
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