Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: question about Imax Films

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Posted by John Rizzo (Member # 1289) on 07-31-2018, 05:11 PM:

were all of the IMAX Specialty Films filmed in 65/15 perf or were some shot in standard 65mm 5 perf and blown up?

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 07-31-2018, 08:25 PM:

I remember seeing a documentary on African lions years ago at the Science Center that was blown up from Super 35mm. Considering the source, it looked pretty good. But the next show we viewed looked buttery smooth and clear by comparison - no surprise.

I've never seen an Imax doc with the 2.20:1 aspect ratio of 5/65, so I'd suspect the answer is "no." And lots of them have the amazing clarity expected of 15/65, and is certainly the case with the lions' share of docs which came from the MacGillivarys.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-31-2018, 09:17 PM:

8-perf 65mm is another common acquisition format for 15/70....

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 07-31-2018, 11:29 PM:

Another thought about the MacGillivray-Freeman team: if IMDB is to be trusted (which is a gamble), many of their films in the past 15 years have used a digital intermediate at 8K, 6K, and even as low as 4K, and as you'd expect, digital acquisition is becoming more common as well, even if output to 15/70 for presentation. That's really not all that amazing.

Anyone remember the flawless image clarity of Fricke's "Chronos?" Now THAT was Imax.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-01-2018, 01:41 AM:

Born to be Wild (2011) is partly shot on the prototype IMAX 3D digital camera and if you're watching it in a real IMAX theater, projected on film, you can clearly see what scenes it concerns.

Other documentaries, like Space Station (2002) regularly use non-IMAX footage to fill in little gaps.