NOEL ARCHAMBAULT- in Memoriam

Noel Archambault, stereographic cinematographer for IMAX 3D was killed in a plane accident in the Galapagos Islands while filming scenes for 'Galapagos - The Enchanted Voyage', a upcoming IMAX 3D film.

The news story in VARIETY, from July 2/98, contains the first comprehensive announcement of this tragic accident.

As a gentle and wonderfully creative individual, he will be missed by all of us who were touched by his presence and creative intelligence.

Memorial Services were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on July 8, 1998.

A scholarship fund has been set up at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, Canada), where Noel studied film and created a student stereoscopic-3D film that led to his beginnings in IMAX 3D stereography. In Noel Archambault's memory, donations can be made to the SFU scholarship fund. The donours receive a tax receipt and Noel's family is notified of the donation (not the amount) and who made it.

Donations should be sent to:

Noel Archambault Scholarship Fund

Simon Fraser University - Development Office

8888 University Drive, Burnaby, B.C., CANADA V5A 1S6






Imax cameraman dies in crash

By Eric J. Olson

July 2, 1998

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Tragedy has struck filming of "Galapagos: The Enchanted Voyage," an Imax 3-D movie being produced for the Smithsonian.

Noel Archambault, the film's camera operator/stereographer, was killed in an ultralight aircraft crash along with the pilot, William Raisner Jr., while shooting in the Galapagos Islands, according to the film's production company, Mandalay Media Arts.

The two men went missing Friday while filming aerial shots over one of the islands' volcanoes.

After a six-day search in the remote archipelago that involved local townspeople, the film crew, the scientific expedition crew, chartered aircraft and the Ecuadorian air force, their bodies were recovered Wednesday on the island of Isla Isabella, the largest and least inhabited of the Galapagos.

The men were found at an elevation of 3,000 feet on Cerro Azul, one of the two most active volcanoes in the archipelago.

Archambault, an expert and pioneer in the large-format 3-D process, has worked on every Imax 3-D film made to date.

The Canadian most recently served as stereographer/camera operator on the upcoming Imax 3-D film "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous," and as additional photographer/stereographer on Sony's new Imax 3-D release, "Mark Twain's America."

His d.p. and camera operator credits additionally include "The Imax Nutcracker", "Into the Deep" and "Across the Sea of Time."

Raisner, 50, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was a retired Air Force pilot and a veteran ultralight pilot. This was his third trip to the Galapagos for filming projects.

Mandalay is "assessing the impact (of the accident) on production," according to Barry Clark, co-chairman of Mandalay Media Arts and executive producer on "Galapagos."

Clark said they are trying to determine "how quickly or if (at all) to go forward (with production)."