MAN: Okay, stand by everyone.
I'm ready to go.
Camera's rolling.
Action!
Camera's rolling.
Action!
That looked good.
NARRATOR: For the first time in history,
a team of IMAX filmmakers led by Greg MacGillivray
was given the opportunity to capture the grandeur
and ancient beauty of a country long shrouded in mystery
to the Western World-- Saudi Arabia.
A group of Saudis approached the filmmakers
to make a movie that would introduce the world
to the Saudi Arabian people
and show them where the country has been and where it's going.
The film needed to answer the common questions
about this region of the world-- the history, culture
and religion of the Arabian Peninsula.
The goal was to make a film that would introduce the West
to Arabia and increase appreciation for it.
Despite remarkable technological advances
and large-scale urban development of the region
during the 20th century,
Saudi Arabia is currently home to only one movie theater.
This project was the first film about Saudi Arabia,
shot in Saudi Arabia to capture the majesty
of the desert kingdom.
Even the most famous film that takes place in the region,
'Lawrence of Arabia,' was actually shot in Morocco and Jordan.
The MacGillivray Freeman film crew found themselves
facing new technical challenges posed by the Arabian Desert--
heavy winds, blistering heat and of course sand.
Sand's in everything, in my ear, in my nose, in my gape.
We're constantly in cleaning mode.
This camera is cleaner than my house.
The most challenging thing is,
I think, being in the desert under the Sun.
Getting rid of tire tracks and footprints.
It's always hard when it,
there is a sandstorm and we have to hide behind the tents
and we have to coordinate with camels
and to keep the Bedus calm in this environment.
[singing in Arabic]
MAN: Action!
NARRATOR: Having never seen a film crew
or equipment of this scope, the Arabian locals were intrigued
by the large operation and the sheer size of the equipment.
MAN: Roll camera.
Action!
NARRATOR: The Muslim Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca,
is by far the most populous annual event in the world,
but it had never before been captured on film
to this degree or magnitude.
Capturing the Hajj was both a technical
and physical challenge--filming amongst three million people
assembled for the largest spiritual gathering anywhere.
One camera position was on top of a 30-story building
that was still under construction.
It focused down into the center of the Grand Mosque
and the Kaaba, the sacred structure
at the center of the holiest site in all of Islam.
The crew was perched on the edge of the building,
with the camera facing down at very steep angles.
Any misstep or dropping even the smallest object
would have been disastrous.
Utilizing a state-of-the-art camera package
weighing over 1,000 lbs,
the film crew took their journey of exploration underwater.
One of the most important elements
of the Arabian Peninsula is the Red Sea.
The filmmakers wanted to capture not only its beauty
but its importance to the development of Arabian culture.
That was amazing.
-You liked it? -Yeah.
This is the first time at 90 feet, huh?
-Okay, how did you find it? -It's good.
-Easy to breathe in that depth? -Yeah, it's easy to breathe.
Okay, that's great.
Congratulations you've become a certified diver.
Thank you.
NARRATOR: MacGillivray Freeman launched an underwater shoot
with Howard Hall,
the world's premier underwater photographer and filmmaker.
Traveling by barge, the crew used a crane
to lift the camera and the housing in and out of the water.
They spent every day for three weeks at a new location,
discovering strewn across the seafloor ancient artifacts
that haven't been touched for hundreds of years.
MAN: Here comes Peter.
Yeah, I got this nice little hickey all around my face.
I think I've really-‑
this is the first time to see a camera on that big size
and four professional guys that take care of it, you know,
so amazing to watch them doing that job, you know.
NARRATOR: From the sea to the air,
the helicopter footage the MacGillivray Freeman team shot
over Arabia's cities and desert was the first aerial photography
ever filmed of the country
using the gyro-stabilized SpaceCam technology.
TECHNICIAN: This is a Bell 212.
We're installed on this helicopter
because it's one of the only helicopters available
here in Saudi Arabia that will accept the system
and that can be organized to do the filming.
We have the SpaceCam on the front and with the R.A.M.S. arm,
which is the "roll augmented mounting system,"
we end up with about a 300 lbs weight at that point.
That has to be counterweighted so that we maintain balance.
NARRATOR: Far from the coast is the silent city of Madain Saleh.
Here, the ancient Royal Tombs of Petra
have existed for thousands of years.
These Roman pillars, carved from solid sandstone
some 2,000 years ago, dot the high desert terrain.
We are about to film a scene where we light up 1,000 candles.
MAN: Hey, camera's ready, guys.
Tony, hold the air please.
Grab the bucket.
NARRATOR: Those appearing in the scene were not actors,
but real people.
Even historic recreations of the Nabataean Kingdom
of 2,000 years ago, featured ordinary Arabs,
portraying people who lived millennia earlier.
With hopes of ushering a spark of interest and consciousness
to populations largely unfamiliar
with the Arabian lifestyle,
the MacGillivray Freeman crew
capture a snapshot of Saudi life.
In doing so, they have created what will be for many,
the first strand of appreciation and curiosity
between two not-so-distant lands.