Pretty as it is , 70 mm picture has been deemed too expensive for inject Hollywood production . So this is how IMAX preps finished motion picture for the up close and personal demand of IMAX .
( Left , 35 millimeter reel . Right , IMAX reel . )
Before we move on , let ’s excuse IMAX picture show . Technically , it ’s a 70 mm standard that — unlike the 70 mm that was popular back in the day with big movies like Lawrence of Arabia — has been turned sideways on the celluloid . So while typical 70 millimeter motion picture film runs vertically and direct up 5 perforations on the film strip , IMAX run horizontally and takes up 15 perforation . Yes , that means that the IMAX 70 millimeter monetary standard is three meter bigger than normal 70 mm and nine times bigger than 35 mm .
Now do you know why we ’ve been make such a big deal about it ?
Kodak estimates their 35 mm film stock to lead at an equivalent of 6 K digital declaration — that ’s 2 K better than the famous 4 K Red One photographic camera . As Kodak make IMAX film out of the same ink / material that they make 35 mm film , to scale , you’re able to argue that IMAX reaches a theoretical equivalent of 18 K digital , or 252 megapixels . In genuine program , even an expert we talked to within IMAX doubt if the viewer can see 18 K fancy , estimating that 12 K might be a more accurate supposition .
IMAX film is — decidedly — far more telling than any other criterion on the block , analog or digital . So how the heck can IMAX claim they can take a normal 35 mm flick , like Star Trek , and play it on IMAX screens ?
To be fair , this insanely mellow resolution 70 millimeter film format is only used in the huge loose - standing IMAX theaters found in museum and park throughout the world . As you might recall from our previous story on IMAX “ retrofitting ” in multiplexes , IMAX ’s digital acoustic projection system used in those theaters isa mere 3 K or 4 K in resolution . There ’s definitely a double criterion , and though it ’s still an telling theater experience , it ’s not the same and you have the right to find a routine ripped off if you ’re expecting a 70 millimeter print .
https://gizmodo.com/cineplexes-getting-imax-but-is-it-imax-or-conspiracy-5250625
But regardless of the film ’s address , it is have a bun in the oven through roughly the same process known as DMR ( which , enigmatically , stands for “ digital re - mastering ” ) , which come out with a digital encoding of a standard 35 mm Hollywood film , and ends with a remastered , ( unremarkably ) higher - resolution digital formatting for multiplexes , and a crowd of reels of remastered dotty - high - resolution 70 millimeter plastic film for the honest IMAX theatre of operations .
During my day at IMAX HQ , I kept referring to the physical process as “ uprezzing”—the same mundane miracle that allows DVD to toy on HDTVs . But every time I used this term , it was met with a shiver from product personnel . After seeing their process , I still think “ uprezzing ” conniption , but blowing up a picture show ’s closure require a spate of tweaking and art , so I can appreciate their reaction a bit more .
When IMAX converted Apollo 13 , the first 35 mm movie to be converted to IMAX , the whole process took three months . Now , a squad of about 20 digital creative person can commute a picture in three week with the help of a muscular render farm .
rootage picture show mostly arrives at IMAX pre - digitalise in either 2 K ( 2048×1080 ) or 4 K ( 4096×2160 ) resolution . In the case of the Dark Knight , some footage reached 5.6 K and even 8K. It go away IMAX at anywhere from 4 K to 8 super C answer , sharpen with moving-picture show grain reduce .
The staff views the motion-picture show while psychoanalyze general vogue like firing and coloring in a picture show . Each movie has a certain overall look , and then each scene ( exterior dark , interior day , spaceship orb planet , etc . ) has a certain particular lighting and color of its own , so they note all of the overarching trends — the key to each setting type — and then they tailor uprezzing ( or just round ) algorithms to take them into chronicle . The algorithms are unique to the flick but the result , after all the conscientious customization , is a passably automate hit - the - render - release - get - an - IMAX - film video - scaling process .
Well , almost . About 80 % of the motion-picture show ’s skeleton come out of the automate physical process looking groovy . It ’s the remain 20 % that ’s the literal bitch . Sometimes the procedure arranges pixels in ways that bring forth unforeseen rarity in the picture . These tainted frames are either place back through the render farm again with tweaked preferences , or they are situate by hand .
I watched a fellow member of the IMAX squad screen a clip from Night at the Museum 2 in which Owen Wilson is green screen in front of a pile of grit . He had just a few frames of the film looped on his monitor , less than a second of substantial textile , and they looked okay by my story . ( Our apologies for a deficiency of pictures , but acquiring studio apartment rights to images has rise difficult . )
Of naturally , this was a 20 - inch show , and the moving picture would play on a cover … a bit larger than that .
So the film analyst advocate me to look closer , at which pointedness I noticed an glory of softness around Wilson ’s figure , killing the texture of the George Sand . With a keypress , the screen crack to the same frames in the 35 millimetre , which looked fine . The automatize uprez process had highlighted some of the intentionally hide seams of the special effects .
That footage was sent back to the artists to limit by hand , as are a lot of the 10,000 to 20,000 frames of film IMAX cognitive operation during a day of DMR employment .
That ’s just the artistic side , which happens for both the multiplex digital IMAX and the 70 millimeter film IMAX — there ’s also the delicate matter of assembling all this film properly back into one cock-a-hoop strip for the the true IMAX theater of operations and their picture projectors .
IMAX reels and 35 mm reel do n’t line up in a convenient 1 - to-1 ratio . Because the film is physically bigger , there are almost five IMAX reels for every Virginia reel of 35 mm . Not only do they have to verify every single undercut from one Virginia reel to the next is still , they have to verify everything ride out in the right order , a Brobdingnagian pain in the ass , specially when just a few frames are being fixed at a time .
The cinema part of the process culminates in a scene - by - fit depth psychology of the 70 mm dailies—172,800 frames for a 2 - hour movie — viewed on a lightbox with the 35 mm motion-picture show right beside the IMAX uprez . If the in - and - out points are the same , things are broadly all right . If not … it ’s gon na be a farsighted night .
But even with all this earnest work of artists and video ace , will that original 35 mm content look better when either upscaled or just cleaned ? I ’m going to say yes , not because I ’ve had the opportunity to analyze a pre- and post - DMR cinema with my own eyes , but because a stupefying amount of the stave ’s endeavor are simply to do away with movie texture . And while , to me , that ’s a sin to do for archival film return or 1080p Blu - ray transfers , I can infer the necessary wickedness when a movie is expanded to epical proportions and the audience is forced to sit in ridiculously close proximity to the screen . Nobody pays to see comedo the size of it of a household , specially on Ben Stiller .
Besides , regular IMAX movies shot on IMAX 70 millimetre film are always going to look well . Anyone who ’s ever used Photoshop knows there ’s no way that digitally flesh out an image will ever look as expert as an already - large image in its native resolution . Parts of The Dark Knight were shot for IMAX , and I ’ve seen that footage on lawful 70 mm IMAX projection . I ’ve also see plenty of 35 mm pic ( like Star Trek ) up on the IMAX screenland , projected from a 70 mm film mark , after DMR . There is utterly no comparison . Star Trek is fun to watch on a big screen . The Dark Knight is so ridiculously elaborate that your nous can barely process it .
As much as I can admire IMAX ’s DMR mental process and the really staggering amount of endeavor going into digital sweetening , this does beg one query of Hollywood : You ’ve got one C of billion for endowment and merchandising , but you do n’t have enough cash to grease one’s palms a truckload of 70 mm film and lot with tricky cameras ? I find that voiceless to believe .
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