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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: IMAX DMR Aspect Ratio Question
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 09-02-2014 08:05 AM
DMR conversions are a way of bastardizing what was an exceptional film format in order to keep a company afloat that was doomed if it remained unable to present Hollywood fare. 35mm conversions are NOT IMAX film, they are VIDEO recorded ONTO IMAX film format. You are not watching what the 15/70 format was noted for, i.e., its exceptional resolution. If you think DMR titles which are nothing more than a blow-up from a much lower resolution 35mm film format onto 15/70 film (and only onto part of the 15/70 geography) was a great experience, you really should see real IMAX films. It is like night and day. Now that they have digital projectors, it's just silly to run DMR converted 35mm film -- just run the damn thing as a DLP and keep everything in the digital realm and stop dicking around trying to bamboozel the public with smoke and mirrors that they are watching IMAX of old. Although I am sure IMAX carefully marketed those screenings as the "IMAX Experience," to lure in the unsuspecting -- another indication that IMAX has lost its soul.
As for the aspect ratio of converted 35mm Hollywood titles, IMAX can do whatever they want with the aspect ratio in the conversion. They can lop off the sides so they get more image on the screen so it's less obvious that they are presenting a scope aspect ratio on a nearly square screen that was NEVER INTENDED for a scope format.
Nobody is in the booth raising and lowering the lens; where do they get this stuff from?
Point-source surrounds was a way of doing surrounds in early 6 channel setups; I read in an white paper by THX in the SMPTE journal, that the early THX specs addressed the point-source surround as a valid configuration; in fact, the tone of that article sounded like it was the prefered way of doing 6 channel surround. That was quickly abandoned in favor of multiple side speaker setups, maybe because it simply was easier to mount many small speaker boxes than to beheamoths in each corner of the smaller multiplex rooms. And given the move today to even more speaker locations with systems like Atmos, the IMAX setup will soon be out classed as a premiere sound configuration. Without major changes, the can't certainly won't be able to do Atmos.
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John French
Film Handler
Posts: 11
From: Worcester, MA, USA
Registered: Jul 2014
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posted 09-02-2014 01:17 PM
quote: Frank Angel
35mm conversions are NOT IMAX film, they are VIDEO recorded ONTO IMAX film format. You are not watching what the 15/70 format was noted for, i.e., its exceptional resolution. If you think DMR titles which are nothing more than a blow-up from a much lower resolution 35mm film format onto 15/70 film (and only onto part of the 15/70 geography) was a great experience, you really should see real IMAX films.
I have seen real IMAX films (documentaries), as well as DMR films (entirely shot on 35mm or digital and printed on IMAX film). In this case I'm talking about The Dark Knight, which is a combination of the two: about 40 minutes of the film was shot with IMAX cameras and does demonstrate the capabilities of IMAX quite nicely (although my original question was specifically about the portions of the film not shot with IMAX cameras).
quote: Frank Angel
Nobody is in the booth raising and lowering the lens; where do they get this stuff from?
I heard this directly from the projectionist at the Museum of Science in Boston. He even showed me a little area set into the side of the theatre where an attendant would sit, watching the screen for any problems (since in a dome theater, the booth is below the audience and has no way to actually see the screen). He also showed me the piece of glass (not the actual projection lens, but a curved piece of glass which I believe was somewhere in the area of the film gate) which moves up and down to remove dust. I am not sure exactly how it works or what it is for, but it definitely exists. It may have been explained to me poorly.
Edit: From Wikipedia:
quote:
The "field flattener" flattens the image field. The [field flattener] lens is twice the height of the film and connects to a pneumatic piston so it can be moved up or down while the projector is running. This way, if a piece of dust comes off the film and sticks to the lens, the projectionist can switch to the clean side of the lens at the push of a button. The lens also has "wiper bars" made of a felt or brush-like material which can wipe dust off the lens as it moves up or down.
This is consistent with what I was told and shown by the projectionist.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 09-03-2014 06:41 PM
quote: Dick Vaughan
Channel 6, screen top centre channel, is not the commonly used narration channel on documentaries. Channel 3, screen centre channel, is the one used for most narration.
Well, I guess it was still at the discretion of the sound mixer and maybe "commonly" is the wrong word here and "often" would be more fitting. I've seen quite a few of those documentaries and for example Born to Be Wild, uses this channel for most of the narration, at least in both the Dutch and German dubbed versions. The dialogue obviously primarily uses the center channel.
And sure, it's also used for effects. The usage in normal IMAX presentations isn't very clear though, but it's quite obvious in OMNIMAX/IMAX Dome, probably because this channel is practically over the head of the audience in this configuration.
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