TY - JOUR TI - Large format and mediation of the natural world DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3JH3M7Z PY - 2010 AB - Large format films, specifically those associated with science centers, museums and historical sites, offer a visual experience that engages the viewer through an immersive, engaging response to the large images. Commonly referenced as IMAX® films, these films come closest to the total cinema posited by Bazin which would offer a complete representation of the world. The strict display requirement for these films has resulted in their association with institutional venues and implicates them in the dissemination of ideology and cultural knowledges. Through a multimethod critical cultural analysis of production (political economy), text (close reading combining a textual and shot by shot analyses), and audience response (content analysis) to the large format film Yellowstone, the research presented here asked, "How are nature, Yellowstone National Park, and the National Park System represented in this large format film?", "Where does the large format presentation of nature and the national parks fall in the continuum of representations of nature?", and "How are nature, the Yellowstone National Park, and the National Park System presented and constructed" in large format in consequence of the medium itself and through the medium's relationship as a "truth" format aligned with museums, science centers and historical sites? Analyzed through a consideration of the theories of ideology and the sublime, research pointed to the complicated relationship between director and funders in the construction of the film, with choices for content being driven by economic concerns for the public's response to the film. The film was shown to reflect the ideology of pristine America linked to the myths of Western expansion through its depiction of the myth of archetypal America. Due to the technological limitations of the medium which created a sublime experience, the viewer was positioned within an ideological space as separate and apart from nature, of knowing but not experiencing, of seeing but never fully understanding the natural world. By celebrating the power to dominate nature in the elimination of the connection to nature, Yellowstone represents an extension of the American technological sublime. KW - Communication, Information and Library Studies KW - Nature in motion pictures KW - Nature cinematography LA - eng ER -