CThe cinema has always been a place to see spectacle. Most theatrically released cinematic works, especially until the development of digital photography, used 35mm film stock to capture spectacular scenes and cinematic heroes. For a large part of its history, almost all films were shot using this 35mm film. Since then, most modern cinematic productions have used digital sensors instead of 35mm film stock. But film purists argue that film stock offers better resolution.
Standard film stock is a photochemical emulsion with a total width of 35mm, which records images passing vertically through the camera. Some portion of that frame width must be used to accommodate the sprocket holes, called perforations (or perfs if you prefer), that pass the film through the camera. A standard 35mm film stock has four perforations. As should be self-evident, a larger surface area on a piece of film will allow more photographic information to be captured. This was made possible through the use of 70mm film stock. Detailed image of the American West in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 film the big trail The use of 70mm film brought it to light. But it was only in the 1950s, when television began to draw audiences away from Hollywood, that the industry realized the benefit of making 70mm a major event.
In this period epics like were released Lawrence of Arabia And Sound of Music in the 1960s. These figures show how much of an impact the 70 mm format had in visual resolution and improved sound quality.
This was the period when Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr and William C. Shaw together developed IMAX.
What is IMAX?
IMAX is a motion picture film format. It involves high-resolution cameras, film formats, projectors, and the theatre’s production pipeline. Developed in Canada in the 1970s, IMAX seeks to give audiences an immersive movie-viewing experience with its large screens. The tall aspect ratio of an IMAX theatre screen is 1.43:1, meaning the width of the screen is 1.9 times the height of the screen. The screen size can be 18 by 24 metres, with the largest screen being in Leonberg, Germany, measuring 38.8 metres by 21 metres.
The IMAX negative frame size is 70×48 mm, which is about eight times the size that can be captured by traditional cinema film stock. The IMAX format uses 70 mm film run horizontally through the projector. In normal film projection theatres, 35 mm or 70 mm film is run vertically. Because of this horizontal orientation, the IMAX format creates images that can be shown up to 8.3 times the size of regular 35 mm film or 3.4 times larger than regular 70 mm film. The larger the surface area of ​​a piece of film, the more photographic information it contains. This means that an IMAX image carries more detail in the image.
IMAX cameras are noticeably larger and heavier than standard cinema cameras. This size is primarily due to the larger film format they use. This larger film size allows for higher resolution and clarity. Digital IMAX cameras, while smaller than their film counterparts, are still larger than most standard digital cinema cameras due to their advanced sensors and technology. The IMAX film format offers extremely high resolution compared to its 35mm counterpart. In fact, theorists estimate that the digital resolution of a standard 35mm film will be around 4k, while the resolution of a standard 70mm film will be around 8k. In comparison, the IMAX format is estimated to have a digital resolution equivalent to 18k.
As a capture and storage medium, film can last indefinitely. This means that when digital projection technology develops, future generations will be able to see even more of the detail hidden in the IMAX frame.
Big screen, big business
dark Knight It was the first major motion picture filmed with high-resolution IMAX cameras, and its billion-dollar box office success, as well as numerous award nominations for cinematography, solidified IMAX’s potential as a motion picture format. The success of Christopher Nolan’s other films, the dark Knight Rises, interstellar, Dunkirkand his most recent OppenheimerAll of which have used the IMAX format, making its commercial potential clear. It has also sparked interest from other filmmakers such as JJ Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Michael Bay (Transformers Revenge of the Fallen) and Damien Chazelle (first man) who also adopted the same format.
There is also a trend of upscaling traditionally shot films for projecting them on IMAX screens; improved sound quality and visual appearance are expected to enhance the viewing experience. In recent years, IMAX has also ventured into digital filmmaking with its own certified high-fidelity digital cameras that can be used to create IMAX-format films. The first film to use such a camera was captain america civil war After which many blockbuster movies came Top Gun Maverick simultaneously Dune Films were shot using this format. With films being converted to the IMAX format, it seems that the market is becoming saturated with this format. There is also concern that with such a huge stockpile of digital productions in their pipeline, the IMAX film format that solidified its position in the first place could become a thing of the past. However, there are filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler and others who continue to promote the IMAX film format.
The crown is heavy
Like all things in life, IMAX has its disadvantages.
The first and probably most obvious drawback is cost. IMAX film cameras are extremely expensive to rent. Along with the cost of purchasing and processing the amount of 65mm film that IMAX film runs horizontally, the cost is also quite high. The 15 perforations per frame pass through the camera gate 24 times per second, so over 300 feet of 70mm film is needed for every minute shot. IMAX cameras are also incredibly noisy because the 15 perforation film has to pass through the camera much faster than regular four perforation 35mm film. This makes it difficult to record synchronous audio and forces filmmakers to resort to automated dialogue replacement (ADR). This additional cost of dubbing dialogue is further increased by the heaviness of the IMAX cameras. The heavy cameras were not designed to be handheld, forcing filmmakers to use additional equipment such as dollies, cranes, tripods and other equipment to mount the cumbersome IMAX camera.
However, given its growing demand in tentpole films, IMAX has said it is working to improve the specifications of its camera technology. This will theoretically make their huge cameras more mobile and also reduce its mechanical noise. These technological developments, as well as the continued use of the format in the production pipelines of several major films, indicate that IMAX is here to stay.
