Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: IMAX movies format origination

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Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 01-25-2007, 01:00 PM:

Hope that doesn't sound like to much of a tease. What I'm looking for is a definitive source of what actual shooting formats that movies shown in IMAX originate in. Of course, I'm well aware that the big studio films are either 35mm, HD or animation re-rendered, but some of the museum IMAX films apparently aren't being shot in true IMAX anymore, either. I've seen some cleaqrly 35mm blow-ups that apparently didn't even go through DMR processing.

I wanted to introduce a friend to IMAX and am sepcifically looking at two that are playing at the Los Angeles (California Science Museum). Deep Sea 3-D and Hurricane on the Bayou (the publicity still for the latter definitely looks like an IMAX camera).

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-26-2007, 08:01 PM:

Yeah, it would be nice to know when a movie released for IMAX is actually shot in 15/70 format, or blown up from 8/70, or 35mm or freaking digital video (although the latter two are much more obvious).

I'm not sure if any of that could be covered in the Feature Info and Trailer Attachments forum. I don't see many IMAX releases being covered at all there.

Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 01-29-2007, 09:26 AM:

Any film format can be used to capture the footage, then blown up to 15/70. 35mm has been used on Roar, Human Body, All Access, and Our Country, to name a few. The Cameron films as well as Ocean Wonderland and Sharks 3D were filmed with digital 3D rigs. NSync and portions of Bugs were filmed in 8/70. And a portion of Thrill Ride was actually taken from a Cinerama film!

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 02-01-2007, 03:56 PM:

Everything I've read about "Deep Sea 3D" says that it was shot with the twin IMAX rig, except for the shot of the young whale at the end, which was supposedly shot in 16mm 2D. Expecting for a major increase in grain, I was surprised how good it looked compared to the rest of the movie (although it did look different). The faked 3D looked good too.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 02-02-2007, 07:12 PM:

I know others have already answered, but I'll expand a bit. You mentioned specifically:

quote: Paul Linfesty
museum IMAX films

Many of these are documentaries, some of which (by the nature of their subject matter) would require difficult to shoot &/or historical footage. Sometimes the filmmaker has to decide between a number of options: waiting to capture an event, shooting in a format other than 15/65, recreating it in studio, or going with some available footage that was not originally shot with the intention of being blown up to 15/70.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-02-2007, 11:27 PM:

Sure, it can be pretty difficult to film a lot of different types of subject matter in 15/70 IMAX. It takes some serious planning and technical expertise to pull off a lot of large format camera shots. Not everybody can manage it.

However, when one considers that a film crew was able to haul a 15/70 IMAX camera rig to the summit of Mount Everest (where some climbers from another group died a few days earlier), I can't be too awful sympathetic to the excuses of hardship many productions offer on why they had to shoot in smaller film formats or even on freaking digital video.
[Roll Eyes]

I don't expect an IMAX crew to be able to shoot 300fps slow-mo footage of hummingbirds hovering at a feeder in the early morning hours. But all this 35mm-to-DMR hokum is getting pretty silly. I think if a movie production really wants to show off something in 70mm they ought to originate the movie in the format. Try harder, Hollywood!

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 02-03-2007, 04:23 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
I think if a movie production really wants to show off something in 70mm they ought to originate the movie in the format.

Amen! Almost all movies I saw in 5 perf 70mm were blow-ups which looked nice, but only when I started seeing new 70's of 65mm originated footage did I start getting blown away!

Bobby is absolutley correct in not making excuses for shooting museum films in anything other than true large format. In addition to the Everest film, these cameras have gone deep in the sea as well as in space (shot by non-pros, too!) And the IMAX's I've seen in 35mm blow-ups at the museum were straight safari-type footage where format question shouldn't have even been part of the equation (except, of course, in the budget sense, which obviously was the only consideration used here). This can only help kill the format, as the wow! factor is definitely missing.

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 02-03-2007, 05:43 PM:

We just opened Hurricane On The Bayou and Roving Mars. And both films have the wow-factor. Beautiful, crisp, large format!

Posted by Chip Bartlett (Member # 4159) on 02-09-2007, 12:48 PM:

Other than the CGI footage and some news footage which is shown in a smaller onscreen frame all of Hurricane on the Bayou was shot in 15/70. I agree with what has been said for LF filmmakers There really is still no excuse for not shooting 15/70 other than shot length and cost. Some filmmakers would argue that shooting cetain subjects (like hummingbirds) in 15/70 is not practical, but large format film making is not about making pratical films and if they really wanted to get that shot in 15/70 they would have.

The 16mm stuff in Deep Sea 3D is some incredible footage, and they decided they wanted that scene in the film. With the cost of scanning, upresing/DMR, etc., I have heard that this scene cost rougly $500K to prepare for large format. They could have shot the scene in 15/70 for much less but they wanted to include this particular interplay with the diver and the whale. This scene would not have looked as good if it was not underwater, the digital effects guys were able to color film grain blue and do other background compositing for a pretty good looking shot.

FYI... The Alps which opens in about a month was also shot exclusively in 15/70 and has some of most incredible mountain clibing and aerial footage ever shot in 15/70 according to people at DKP 70mm who have probably seen it all. Think Everest with more vertical climbing and the ability to shoot the mountain tops with helicopter rigs. Good stuff for any IMAX fan.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 02-09-2007, 03:28 PM:

quote: Paul Linfesty
shot by non-pros

yeah ... rocket scientists

Posted by Cameron Glendinning (Member # 3516) on 02-09-2007, 05:47 PM:

quote:
as well as in space (shot by non-pros, too!)

The lack of gravity would make shooting IMAX pretty easy! The larger the film format, the more forgiving the exposure. The fisheye lenses have huge depth of field for focus, So no real need or chalange for the

quote: Jeremy Jorgenson
rocket scientists

Posted by Dan Suomi (Member # 2585) on 02-11-2007, 12:10 AM:

I quick fact about the whale at the end of Deep Sea. It was actually shot in 16mm when they were shooting Into the Deep, and to get it into Deep Sea it went through the DMR prosses. Toni Meyers told me that when she came to our premier of Deep Sea in Grand Rapids when I was working there.