IMAX: How do you know you're getting the real deal?

Blade Borge

Blade Borge

Well-known member
So Dark Knight Rises is coming up and I'm seeing it on my vacation. I want to see it in IMAX, and there is a theater that's showing it where I'm at (in IMAX) but I keep hearing about faux IMAX and IMAX lite. Is there a way to tell beforehand if that's what I'm getting into?

http://thegrandtheatre.com/imax/
 
Real IMAX theaters are built specifically for IMAX and project film as well as digital. The screen is massive and the seats are arranged at a very steep angle, steeper than a regular stadium theater. Not sure if there's any way to know other then stepping foot inside one or calling the theater. If it's projecting digitally, chances are its a fake IMAX as TDKR was shot on film and should project in that format if it's a real IMAX theater.
 
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Cool listing, too bad my theater isn't listed. Oh well. If I do see it there and it's fake, at least I'll know where to warn others. Thanks Batutta!
 
Well dad gum it. It didn't make it. Just might wait til we get back. Your help is invaluable. Thank you thank you!
 
Real Imax theaters have dome shaped screens that are a section of a sphere. Neo Imax theaters have conventional flat screens configured for the IMAX format. These days either can potentially show film or digital, but it is the seating arrangement and the dome screen that marks a true IMAX format theater.
 
Also, they blow 35mm and 65mm up to imax, but it wasn't actually "shot" in Imax. "Real" Imax (shot on an Imax camera) looks like this

Imaxcomparison.png
 
http://www.lfexaminer.com/WhySeeDarkKnightRisesInIMAXfilmTheater.htm

Why see The Dark Knight Rises in an IMAX 15/70 film theater?

Director Christopher Nolan shot about one hour of The Dark Knight Rises using IMAX 15-perf, 70mm film cameras, which expose a frame that is about ten times larger than a standard 35mm film frame. (See here for a comparison of film sizes.) The extra large frame captures much more information, permitting classic IMAX theaters to project sharp, clear images onto screens as large as 96 feet tall and 117 feet wide (29x36 meters).

GettyImages_120169547lr.jpg

Cinematographer Wally Pfister (left) and director Chris Nolan, shooting for ​
The Dark Knight Rises with the IMAX 15/70 camera. (Getty Images.)​
In addition to being much larger, the 15/70 frame also has a different shape, or aspect ratio, from standard movies. The ratio between the width and height is 4 to 3 or 1.33 to 1, often referred to simply as 1.33. This is also the ratio of standard-definition television.

Wide-screen TV has a ratio of 16:9, or 1.78, very close to the ratio of most current Hollywood films, which is 1.85, known within the industry as “flat.” The widest Hollywood ratio is generally known as “scope,” and is 2.4. On a screen 80 feet wide, the scope image is about 33.3 feet tall.

When images of one ratio are shown on a screen of a different ratio, either some portion of the screen will not be used, or some portion of the image will not be shown. In the old days, wide-screen movies shown on television were either shown “letterboxed,” with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, or “pan and scan,” in which the image filled the height of the screen, but the sides of the image were cut off.

This is the key to what happens when The Dark Knight Rises switches from conventional 35mm footage to 15/70: the letterboxed 35mm “scope” image will expand to fill the full height of the screen. This change will occur only in IMAX theaters, but not all IMAX theaters are created equal.

IMAXdigitalScope.gif



​
In the average classic IMAX film theater with a 60x80-foot (18x24-meter) screen, the image will expand from about 33 feet high to the full 60-foot height of the screen. The effect of this dramatic transformation is the reason that Nolan reportedly insisted that Warner Bros. make at least one hundred 15/70 prints of the film.

In IMAX digital theaters, whose average ratio is 1.75, this transition will be much less noticeable, expanding by about 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) at the top and bottom of the screen.
 
F--k. My theater's listed as "real" on the Google map, but isn't listed on the "projecting film" list. If an IMAX theater can play IMAX 3D, does that mean it projects digital?

-JMT
 
Michael Traven said:
F--k. My theater's listed as "real" on the Google map, but isn't listed on the "projecting film" list. If an IMAX theater can play IMAX 3D, does that mean it projects digital?

-JMT
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No it just means it has at least a digital projection, doesnt mean it can't have the real IMAX film projection as well:-)
 
Michael Traven said:
F--k. My theater's listed as "real" on the Google map, but isn't listed on the "projecting film" list. If an IMAX theater can play IMAX 3D, does that mean it projects digital?

-JMT
Click to expand...

My theater is listed the same way, but, I saw the 8 minute preview at my theater and it was film for sure so it's probably no cause for alarm.
 
Batutta said:
My theater is listed the same way, but, I saw the 8 minute preview at my theater and it was film for sure so it's probably no cause for alarm.
Click to expand...

Awesome. I think I'm going to go see Prometheus in IMAX 3D at that theater, and while I'm there, I'll ask if they plan to project it on film.
 
Michael Traven said:
Awesome. I think I'm going to go see Prometheus in IMAX 3D at that theater, and while I'm there, I'll ask if they plan to project it on film.
Click to expand...

I went to see Avatar in 3D at the Irvine IMAX screen. Much to my disappointment the viewing did not fill the screen, and i'm not talking about vertically. Not sure if whoever set it up was just completely retarded or if IMAX 3D is just projected that way since it's using the digital projectors, but there was a lot of empty space on both left and right sides. Now on a liemax screen, smaller theaters, I'm pretty sure it'll fill the entire screen but I haven't watched a 3D movie in liemax. However, I'm fairly confident that a liemax projection will be brighter than your alternative RealD 3d projection most theaters have based on projection specs alone.

I watched Prometheous in an Edwards RPX theater that uses RealD 3d and actually has dual projection system, and I felt that the brightness level was actually adequate. Much better than the single projector systems on many other screens. And then there's the consideration for the circular polarization Reald uses vs. linear IMAX uses.
 
George Tsai said:
I went to see Avatar in 3D at the Irvine IMAX screen. Much to my disappointment the viewing did not fill the screen, and i'm not talking about vertically. Not sure if whoever set it up was just completely retarded or if IMAX 3D is just projected that way since it's using the digital projectors, but there was a lot of empty space on both left and right sides.
Click to expand...

Avatar was deliberately projected this way. Cameron felt the full frame IMAX was too overwhelming, a decision I don't really agree with--

http://booncunian.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/avatar-imax-not-going-to-be-full-screen/
 
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