How do you make a compelling movie about engineers?

“Dream Big” could easily be the motto for Laguna Beach’s MacGillivray Freeman Films.

Instead, the declaration is the title of the latest movie by one of the world’s foremost IMAX documentary filmmakers.

For a company known for its long line of very, very big screen movies about the natural world — from the depths of the ocean to the top of Mt. Everest — “Dream Big” is a bit of a departure. It is a story about the world’s greatest engineering wonders and how a young generation of engineers is working to make the world a better place.

“There’s plenty of films about detectives or doctors but not engineers,” said company co-founder and director Greg MacGillivray about the film, made in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“It’s something our country does better than others because we don’t fear failure. The culture here is more of a risk-taking culture. Historians will say it’s because we are a land of immigrants. I think that’s why we’ve always been good at inventing.”

Greg’s son Shaun, who served as producer of the movie (which opens in Los Angeles and San Diego Feb. 17), says it also was the most difficult film for the company to make, including six months of editing.

“Two thousand years of engineering into a 40-minute film was tough,” Shaun said. “But it worked primarily through telling inspiring stories.”

There is Turkish-American engineer Menzer Pehlivan, who fixed on her’s life passion when an earthquake nearly wiped out her home town; Avery Bang, who chose to introduce modern bridges to undeveloped countries; British engineer Steve Burrows, who combines the Old World with the new in San Francisco; and Angelica Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant who led a group of underdog Phoenix high school students to win a NASA-sponsored robotics competition over the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, a story that drew national attention.

As part of the educational outreach of the film, engineers went to schools to speak directly to kids in 50 cities across the country.

And the need for science and technology talent is great. Various sources say 2.4-million STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — jobs are expected to be unfilled by 2018, and black and Latinos currently make up only a small percentage of that workforce.

The company began work on the film three years ago, and though Greg clearly indicates it was “a joy to make,” he admitted with a chuckle, “Frankly, I thought we’d never get it done.”

Part of the challenge for the MacGillivrays was making a film about engineers compelling at a human level while also giving it the imagery that IMAX films are built on.

The first step was finding the people to build the story around. The key, Shaun said, was months of “research, research, research.”

But as Greg pointed out, “We do ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and not ‘Terms of Endearment.’ Our films provide a sense of wonder, not intimate character dramas. I think storytelling is pivotal in all filmmaking, but my job is to make it pivotal with the big visuals. We focused on places that were uniquely beautiful.”

To get the big visuals took lots of planning and, in the case of China’s Great Wall, lots of patience.

A lengthy permitting process was only the first hurdle.

“All the restrictions,” Greg said. “Not only air quality, but where and when you can put up your camera. You have to budget for that when shooting there or India. You end up sometimes deciding not to do it and go to places that are easier. You use your experience and roll the dice.

“If the value is really high, there are ways to do it. It took over six months of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars to shoot at the Great Wall.”

But Greg believes it’s all part of the risk and reward inherent in filmmaking. Something he learned early on. Something that actually drew him to making movies in the first place.

“It’s a bit of risk-taking that you end up kind of craving,” he said. “You get used to it. I got used to it as a teenager making surf movies. You have to know what you can control, and what’s not in your control, you can work around.”

As the end of production on “Dream Big” neared, the MacGillivrays spent a day in Santa Barbara recording Oscar winner Jeff Bridges’ narration.

That was especially fun, they said

“I’ve always loved his voice,” Shaun said.

Greg, knew exactly what he wanted from Bridges during the four-hour recording session.

“What I was going for with him is his playful personality,” Greg said. “He is so capable of so many things. It’s like working with a kid.

“I said to him, imagine you’re telling this story to your grandson, who is sitting two feet away. You’re pausing to tell it with a certain amount of drama, but also talking about the possibilities of life. He got it immediately.”

Shawn Price is a contributor to Times Community News.