The Dark Knight

[Tom Lowe]

To me, the big question right now is: what is the fate of 70mm IMAX projection?

 

When Dark Knight came out, I thought, "great!", this will really lead to more success for IMAX and probably whole features shot on IMAX.

 

But after reading about the bizarre small-screen "4K" digital plans and schemes the IMAX corporation seems to be hatching, I have to wonder if they are even interested anymore in their core business of huge screens and 70mm film projection? :(

[David Mullen ASC]

To me, the big question right now is: what is the fate of 70mm IMAX projection?

 

Well, for now, when I saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in IMAX, there were trailers for quite a number of movies coming out in IMAX prints - the next Harry Potter film, the Star Trek movie, some computer-animated thing called Monsters vs. Aliens...

 

A bigger question for me is what is happening with IMAX origination?

[Tom Lowe]

Well, for now, when I saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in IMAX, there were trailers for quite a number of movies coming out in IMAX prints - the next Harry Potter film, the Star Trek movie, some computer-animated thing called Monsters vs. Aliens...

 

A bigger question for me is what is happening with IMAX origination?

 

That's kind of what I'm getting at. I'm guessing these 35mm movies won't be DMR'd and printed out on 70mm once they get their little "4K" system going. And then what? What will the 70mm projectors be doing?

 

Are 70mm IMAX films even being shot anymore? I have not seen one at the Edwards Spectrum IMAX in ages. It's all "Kung Fu Panda Imax Experience" stuff.

 

And what if Red's 9K Medium-format cameras actually do work out well... how would that kind of resolution be displayed on IMAX big screens? I guess they could make 70mm prints, but that would be kind of odd.

 

IMO, IMAX would be smart to build a true 4K projector system for 35mm movies, but they should really invest the time and money to build an 8K IMAX digital projector. That's something they could really bring to the table, IMO. Maybe even work closely with Red or Arri or Sony to make a real digital IMAX camera. That's something everyone could get excited about.

[Jason Debus]

I haven't read anything yet that says IMAX is replacing their film projection systems with digital. If you look at their website it appears to be simply another IMAX projection system like IMAX 3D:

 

IMAX - Products & Services, Projection Equipment

 

As far as IMAX film camera origination, the big Hollywood action films seem to be taking a cue from the Dark Knight:

 

Tentpole directors see Imax in future - 'Dark Knight' starts growing trend in Hollywood

Michael Bay to shoot select scenes of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with IMAX cameras

[Michel Hafner]

The IMAX shots seem marginally better-looking than the 35mm anamorphic shots on the Blu-Ray disc -- it all looks very nice actually, and you can spot the IMAX shots easily because they are full-frame 16x9 HD, whereas the rest is letterboxed to 2.40.

I found the IMAX shots on the BD to be far better looking than the 35mm parts. Not so much because of the additional detail but because they looked less processed and digital. The 35mm parts look way too electronic to me (frequent white halos/ringing around high contrast edges, pasty skin, an overprocessed digital look I don't like at all). That from a 3.5m wide screen in 1080p. I liked the 2K cinema version on DLP much more for the 35mm parts.

[Mei Lewis]

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Edited December 4, 2009 by Mei Lewis