Based in Asia. Filming the World.

In 1815, Mt Tambora erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa Besar and the largest eruption in recorded history blew between 37 to 100 cubic miles of dust, ashes, and cinders into the atmosphere, generating a veil of volcanic dust that enveloped the globe. The dust cloud was so intense, parts of the Indonesian archipelago experienced total darkeness for three days.

The eruption killed an estimated 71,000 people, making it the most deadly eruption in human history and the combined activity of Tambora and two other volcanos at the same time created such a considerable climate change, that in 1816 planet earth literally suffered A Year Without Summer. In the northern hemisphere agricultural crops failed and livestock died, resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century

German producer Elmar Bartimae produced a documentary project for Discovery International that tells the story of this dramatic natural event. In August 2004 a professional camera team lead by Australian director/cameraman Chris Hooke, travelled to Indonesia and climbed Mt Tambora with vulcanologists Lew Abrams and Haraldur Sigurdsson from the University of Rhode Island.

Cinematographer Laurie K. Gilbert and pilot Marius Cloete of Air Bali, flew 350 kms from the island of Bali, to shoot critical helicopter aerial imagery of what is the deepest and one of the largest calderas of its kind in the world. The team also shot air to ground sequences of the vulcanologists exploring the rim and describing the eruption for the television audience.