A little IMAX education
April 19th 2008 09:04
The Issue
Do you have a memorable moment from all the films you saw that changed your life somehow? If you think about the answer for this question, you will probably come up with a yes. The change can be minuscule, or something big, but movies do have an effect on us. IMAX movies try to utilize this fact as a tool of education.
Why IMAX? As it exists for almost 40 years, it's hard to say anything new about it, but let's try to separate the essence. It's pretty obvious actually, right in front of us, so to say. A huge screen that engulfs you, with powerful audio, and for the last one or two decades, the 3D that takes you even further down the rabbit hole. Popular among adults and children, this kind of impression can easily plant the seed in minds. Young minds are more fertile of course, and if the right consonance is there, any movie experience can be the source of that seed. IMAX just magnifies the visual and audio factors of this.
What about the content then? Documentaries, nature films, entertaining but educational themes. These make the majority of IMAX films, and although they are not the best docus overall, the presentation boosts their power to the sky. The influence of these was, and is in the visuals and the sound, an approach you might call shallow, but be honest: have you ever become a little child when you saw something amazing on the really-big screen?
In this first decade of the 21st century a profile shift can be seen in IMAX. More and more feature films are converted or made directly to the 70mm format, pure entertainment conquers more ground. Documentaries are still made of course, and you can't help but think about: is there a drastic change ahead in this department as well? Two concepts: digital and 3D. These may be the tools of change.
As you may know the conventional IMAX camera is a clumsy beast, and for decades it limited the filmmakers in the creative process. There is no official word about a new digital IMAX camera, but the first public IMAX DIGITAL projector is up ahead this summer, 3D has it's new renaissance and HD Digital cameras evolve almost every day. Well actually there is an official word on digital IMAX cameras, let me quote Mike Hendriks, Director of Camera Operations from IMAX corporation:
"At this point in time IMAX does not rent digital cameras to film production companies producing large format films. All IMAX owned cameras run 65mm negative film horizontally with each film frame being 15 perforations in length. That said, many 3rd party production companies have used digital cameras to capture images for IMAX released films (see James Cameron) however at this point in time IMAX does not feel the quality of digital cameras is sufficient enough to warrant adding such to our inventory of IMAX cameras."
It would be foolish to think that there is not a single research running somewhere right now to construct an IMAX worthy digital camera. We will see in the couple of years, but the point is that with the digital format, the mammoth of a camera that is IMAX will become an elegant gazelle, and the liberation of IMAX filmmakers will be a step closer. These cameras will still be expensive, but at least they won't need heavy and costly celluloid to feed them. Liberated working conditions and a less expensive equipment in the long term will result in a much larger talent pool, and more complex documentary and entertainment filmmaking.
Imagine the scenario where the spectacle of large format (or should I say HD?) and 3D teams up with content and depth of quality films. I say that will be the time when real education can move in the screening hall. Not to mention a new level of movie magic, but that is another story.
Link to the official IMAX educational page
Do you have a memorable moment from all the films you saw that changed your life somehow? If you think about the answer for this question, you will probably come up with a yes. The change can be minuscule, or something big, but movies do have an effect on us. IMAX movies try to utilize this fact as a tool of education.
IMAX 3D as children experience it
Why IMAX? As it exists for almost 40 years, it's hard to say anything new about it, but let's try to separate the essence. It's pretty obvious actually, right in front of us, so to say. A huge screen that engulfs you, with powerful audio, and for the last one or two decades, the 3D that takes you even further down the rabbit hole. Popular among adults and children, this kind of impression can easily plant the seed in minds. Young minds are more fertile of course, and if the right consonance is there, any movie experience can be the source of that seed. IMAX just magnifies the visual and audio factors of this.
Sample of an educational material in Hungarian
What about the content then? Documentaries, nature films, entertaining but educational themes. These make the majority of IMAX films, and although they are not the best docus overall, the presentation boosts their power to the sky. The influence of these was, and is in the visuals and the sound, an approach you might call shallow, but be honest: have you ever become a little child when you saw something amazing on the really-big screen?
In this first decade of the 21st century a profile shift can be seen in IMAX. More and more feature films are converted or made directly to the 70mm format, pure entertainment conquers more ground. Documentaries are still made of course, and you can't help but think about: is there a drastic change ahead in this department as well? Two concepts: digital and 3D. These may be the tools of change.
Just try to steadicam with THIS!
As you may know the conventional IMAX camera is a clumsy beast, and for decades it limited the filmmakers in the creative process. There is no official word about a new digital IMAX camera, but the first public IMAX DIGITAL projector is up ahead this summer, 3D has it's new renaissance and HD Digital cameras evolve almost every day. Well actually there is an official word on digital IMAX cameras, let me quote Mike Hendriks, Director of Camera Operations from IMAX corporation:
"At this point in time IMAX does not rent digital cameras to film production companies producing large format films. All IMAX owned cameras run 65mm negative film horizontally with each film frame being 15 perforations in length. That said, many 3rd party production companies have used digital cameras to capture images for IMAX released films (see James Cameron) however at this point in time IMAX does not feel the quality of digital cameras is sufficient enough to warrant adding such to our inventory of IMAX cameras."
It would be foolish to think that there is not a single research running somewhere right now to construct an IMAX worthy digital camera. We will see in the couple of years, but the point is that with the digital format, the mammoth of a camera that is IMAX will become an elegant gazelle, and the liberation of IMAX filmmakers will be a step closer. These cameras will still be expensive, but at least they won't need heavy and costly celluloid to feed them. Liberated working conditions and a less expensive equipment in the long term will result in a much larger talent pool, and more complex documentary and entertainment filmmaking.
Imagine the scenario where the spectacle of large format (or should I say HD?) and 3D teams up with content and depth of quality films. I say that will be the time when real education can move in the screening hall. Not to mention a new level of movie magic, but that is another story.
Link to the official IMAX educational page
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