BIG FILMS, BIG STORIES 1 STUDYGUIDE ENTERTAINMENT THAT ILLUMINATES THE IMAX DIFFERENCE real world. When you look at an object each eye sees a slightly different view MAX is the largest and most and our brain fuses these together into exciting film format in the world. a single 3D image. IWith crystal clear images, ten times larger than traditional cinema format, The two lenses on the IMAX® 3D the IMAX experience draws you in camera roughly match the distance with pictures so real you want to touch between our eyes and so each lens them, so powerful you can feel them. ‘’sees’’ a slightly different view. The images are photographed onto two The screens in IMAX Theatres are separate rolls of film—corresponding the biggest in the world. Up to eight to a right eye and left eye image storeys high, they fill the whole field —which run simultaneously through of human vision. Made of stretched vinyl, coated with a reflective silver DID YOU KNOW? paint, they are stretched taut over a The IMAX Theatre in Sydney scaffold frame. With thousands of has the world’s largest 2D IMAX small perforations they allow sound screen. The IMAX Theatre in from speakers positioned behind the Melbourne has the largest 3D screen to play their key role in the total screen image. surround sound system. Sydney screen: 29m x 36m Melbourne screen: 26m x 31m THE THIRD DIMENSION Sound is critical to the IMAX If your idea of a 3D film is a pair of experience. The film soundtracks ISSUE 34 ISSUE 34 cheap cardboard glasses with green are delivered through a mighty and red cellophane for lenses it’s time 15,000 watt digital surround ® AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION to think again. IMAX 3D is state-of- sound system. The IMAX six the-art technology which takes the channel, high fidelity, motion 3D film experience in a whole new picture sound system with sub direction. bass plays off three separate CDs each carrying two tracks. 3D technology is based on human vision. It mimics the way we see the 2 FROM TOP: IMAX 2D CAMERA; IMAX 3D CAMERA; HOW 3D POLARISED GLASSES WORK 3 definition and clarity of the huge film frames. These huge film frames are the key to an IMAX experience. Three times larger than traditional 70mm frames, they have pushed the quality of motion picture images to new heights (quite literally). 8/70 and 15/70. 8/70 films are set up vertically with eight perforations Conventional films are shot on 35mm per frame, while 15/70 film is set up film. Large format films are shot on horizontally with fifteen perforations two main varieties of 70mm film: per frame. The basis of the IMAX system is a 3D DID YOU KNOW? camera negative that is 65mm wide The basic technology for (or high in IMAX terms since the the camera. These two films are then ‘stereoscopic cinema’ has been film runs transversely) and travels at alternately projected in the theatre. around for more than a century. The shutters on the projector alternate When French movie theatre between left and right images ninety- pioneers Auguste Lumiere and six times per second. Lois Lumiere screened what is believed to be the first publicly Since the beginning of large film shown 3D movie, a short black- technology in the early 1970s, half a and-white film called ‘L’Arrivee billion people throughout the world have du Train’. The film showed a enjoyed a large format film experience. locomotive appearing to steam ISSUE 34 ISSUE 34 right through the screen, which by JUST HOW BIG IS BIG? some accounts was too realistic AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION for early movie audiences who IMAX is the largest film format in fled from their seats! The first existence; ten times larger than 3D Hollywood film, a melodrama standard 35mm format. Large called ‘Bwana Devil’ was format films can only be projected produced in 1952, prompting a successfully onto the huge IMAX wave of films. screen because of the amazing high ABOVE LEFT: 3D THEATRE ABOVE RIGHT: THE IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE RIGHT: FILM COMPARISON TOP- 35MM FILM. CENTRE- 5 PERF/70MM 2 FILM BOTTOM: 15 PERF/70MM FILM. 3 3D DID YOU KNOW? The 15,000 watt IMAX lamp is exceptionally bright. (Some say that it is so bright that it could be 1.71m per second! Each border has advancing the fi lm horizontally in a seen with the naked eye from the fi fteen perforations and each frame smooth, wave-like motion. International Space Station!) The of fi lm image measures 70 x 50mm heat generated by these lamps is – a ratio of 1.4 to 1. This provides an During projection, each frame is so intense they need to be water- image that is almost ten times the positioned on a fi xed registration point cooled; they are made of quartz area but rather more square than the and the fi lm is held fi rmly against the and fi lled with pressurised xenon Panavision 2.35 to 1 frame. rear element of the lens by a vacuum. gas which can be very dangerous, This ensures that the screen image and and in extreme cases can explode A reel of IMAX fi lm is generally over steadiness exceed normal standards, with incredible force. a metre in diameter, weighs about providing outstanding image clarity. 80kg and is lifted onto the projection platters with a fork lift. The rolling-loop system was invented by Australian engineer Ron Jones. It idea was to move the fi lm across the THE ROLLING LOOP began in 1969 when Jones delivered projector’s gate in a series of waves. a paper on his revolutionary ‘rolling- The fi lm perforations were to be used To project such large fi lms, IMAX have loop’ projector. Instead of the to guide each fi lm frame onto fi xed built powerful, high precision projectors mechanical pull-down claw that had registration pins for its moment of with a unique ‘Rolling Loop’ fi lm been around since Edison’s time, illumination, rather than pulling the movement. This rolling loop movement or the improved but still ‘violent’ fi lm intermittently. The wave shape is crucial to reliable projection and Maltese Cross movement that moved is formed by air pressure, with each provides superior performance by the fi lm in a stop-go motion, Jones’ frame held against the rear of the lens by a vacuum. This provides the amazing image steadiness. IMAX was fi rst shown publicly at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka. Ron Jones ISSUE 34 ISSUE 34 has since died, but his invention lives on in the 70mm IMAX motion picture AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION format. IMAX CORPORATION Based in Canada, IMAX® Corporation is a leading manufacturer of large 4 LEFT: INSIDE THE IMAX PROJECTION BOOTH 5 format theatre systems, cameras and projectors for what is generically known as the large format industry. IMAX produces and distributes many large format film titles, however most have been produced by independent producers, including filmmakers in Australia. For more information on IMAX® Corporation, visit www.imax.com NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE IMAX INDUSTRY IMAX has recently moved into producing films in different genres and with new technology. Digital Technology Technology has advanced to the point where large format films can be now TOP-BOTTOM: DISNEY’S LION KING WAS be shot using high definition digital ENLARGED AND ENHANCED FOR THE GIANT SCREEN USING NEW OMR TECHNOLOGY; technology. TITANIC 3D: GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS; YOUNG BLACK STALLION Director James Cameron was one of the first to use this digital approach with Director Simon Wincer and in the film Titanic 3D: Ghosts of the Cinematographer Reed Smoot: Abyss with excellent results. Using HD digital enabled Cameron greater Shooting on large format did require flexibility in capturing images in a certain amount of adaptation on the challenging situations (ie. the bottom part of the filmmakers. ‘Large format of the Atlantic Ocean, 4km down!). is incredibly challenging,’ says Simon Wincer. ‘The composition is quite Digitial technology has also been used different because the camera sees to ‘blow up’ traditional 35mm films to such a huge area and it’s very hard to the giant screen and is known within the isolate characters in dialogue scenes, large format industry as DMR (or digital Episode II Attack of the Clones, Matrix therefore, you have to stage it in a re-mastering). II and III, with many more to come. slightly more theatrical way.’ The IMAX DMR technology scans a Live Action Drama Made For To a large extent Wincer had to trust 35mm film frame digitally, enhances it, The Giant Screen director of photography Reed Smoot, and enlarges it to 70mm. The quality a veteran large format filmmaker, when of the film can be improved through Young Black Stallion is the first Disney it came to the positioning of shots ISSUE 34 ISSUE 34 this digital process, thus enabling film produced specifically for the giant because of the subject movement projection onto giant IMAX screens. IMAX screen. Unlike most IMAX films, within the frame. ‘It is difficult to AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION The image re-mastering process takes which are documentaries, Young capture intimacy on large format about 14 weeks for a feature length Black Stallion is a live-action children’s because the screen is so large’, says film, at a cost of about US$4 million. adventure story, featuring a dramatic Smoot. ‘The challenge is to combine script and a cast of actors.