in70mm.com Mission:
• To record the history of the large format movies and the 70mm cinemas
as remembered by the people who worked with the films. Both during
making and during running the films in projection rooms and as the
audience, looking at the curved screen.
•
in70mm.com, a unique internet based magazine, with articles about 70mm
cinemas, 70mm people, 70mm films, 70mm sound, 70mm film credits, 70mm
history and 70mm technology. Readers and fans of 70mm are always welcome
to contribute.
The Passing of Bill Shaw
William C. Shaw, one
of the founders of IMAX Corporation, died on Saturday,
August 31 at age 73. Shaw died in a Toronto hospital after
suffering complications from a heart attack. Shaw joined
Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor and Robert Kerr in 1968 to
design and develop the IMAX projection system.
The
Birth of IMAX By Diane Disse
The brainchild
of three gutsy people with a great idea
but no office
space, Imax Corporation
built a whole
new industry
that today sits
poised on the
threshold of fast
and explosive
changes.
The Basics of The
Rolling Loop IMAX Projector By Rene Sørensen
IMAX and IMAX Dome projectors
are the most advanced, highest precision and most powerful projectors ever built. The key
to their superior performance and reliability is the unique Rolling Loop film
movement system, used in no other projector. The Rolling Loop was invented by Ron Jones
from Australia.
The
worlds first Imax theatre By
Krys Jawlosewicz
Cinesphere's original Imax projector serial #001, which
is still used today, was the prototype used at Expo '70. The projector was
rebuilt in 1986 and upgraded to Imax HD, 48 frames per second (fps)
capability in 1990.
Imax Sound System By Rene Sørensen Most newer
IMAX films are now using the IMAX digital sound DDP designed by Sonics. DDP
is short for Digital Disc Playback. Sonics uses compact disc technology to
create the highest quality sound
delivery possible today. A
frequency response of 20 –
20.000 Hz is maintained over the
entire audio spectrum of ten
octaves.
An
Interview with Ron Fricke By The Big Frame
Working in the 35mm format, I was feeling that
there was something lacking. Once I saw the IMAX theater and saw the film, I realized
this is how it should be done.
"Sacred
Site", A short film in 65mm Omnimax By The Big Frame
The film focuses on the 1986 apparition of Halley's Comet over
central Australia. Set near the majestic Milky Way of the
southern night sky and contrasted by the spectacle of a total lunar eclipse.
The Lion King: The IMAX
Experience An Interview with Don Hahn By Bill Kallay My favorite
sequence in IMAX is when Mufasa's ghost shows up, Simba goes to the
reflecting pool, sees his reflection, and then all of the sudden, the
clouds form and Mufasa shows up. That's a stunning scene in IMAX. To see a six-story tall
apparition coming at you is very moving.
An
Interview With Roy
Conli, Producer of
"Treasure Planet" By Bill Kallay
I came to Disney in
1993 and worked on
the development of "The
Hunchback of Notre Dame" and was co-producer on that film. I went
to France to run the French unit, and then ended up staying for three
years running the French studio, where I worked on the production of "Hercules"
(1997) and "Tarzan" (1999). And then I came back here
five years ago to produce this film. And previous to that, I was in the
theatre.
An
Interview With Jim
Ward, V.P. of
Marketing, Lucasfilm,
Ltd. By Bill Kallay
Jedi Knights, Imperial Storm troopers and Tusken Raiders rejoiced this
past summer of 2002, when it was announced that "Star Wars:
Episode II-Attack of the Clones", would be released in the IMAX
format. For how many
years have fans of
the original
trilogy, and now
prequels, wished
upon the stars above
Skywalker Ranch for
the films to be
shown on the giant
IMAX screen?
Filming
of "Lewis and Clarke" in IMAX By Kurtis Burr One of the biggest challenges in doing an IMAX film
about "Lewis and Clark" is trying to capture the
incredible scenery they would have experienced almost 200
years ago.
Smithsonian
Shouldn't Destroy
the Natural History
Museum's IMAX
Theater By James Hyder
The Smithsonian
Institution's
National Museum of
Natural History in
Washington, DC, is
planning to close
its 18-year-old
Samuel C. Johnson
IMAX Theater on
Sept. 30. The plan
had not been
announced publicly
and only came to
light in mid-July,
when a group of
distinguished
giant-screen film
producers, led by
Jonathan Barker of
SK Films and Taran
Davies of Cosmic
Picture, published
an open letter
calling for the
decision to be
delayed or reversed.
Superior
Quartz Products Xenon Lamps for Large Format Projection By Dennis Losco Jr
Our family owned and operated company is passionate about what we do, hence
the 60th anniversary and because we share this enthusiasm with our staff,
they tend to stay! We understand the importance of reliability, nobody wants
lost shows due to lamp failures and we offer 1200 hours warranty for the
theatres peace of mind. Theatres who use our lamps enjoy these benefits. We
realize large format theatres are unique, so we have made it possible to
arrange payment plans to spread the costs.
Nolan's
"Dunkirk" will
feature over 100
minutes of IMAX
material
By
Tyler Purcell
Nolan's Dunkirk will
feature over 100
minutes of IMAX
material, according
to sources close to
the production. So
far almost all of
the still and video
images coming from
set are of the IMAX
camera, with only a
few brief moments
with the 5/70
Panavision cameras.
So far the
production has been
shooting on location
in France, close to
where the actual
rescue happened.
Goodbye
70mm IMAX Projector By Vaughan, McGregor and
van der Post
When IMAX opened at the NMeM in 1983, a little over 10 years after the IMAX
technology premiered in Japan, it was the first ever IMAX cinema in Europe
and contained Britain’s largest cinema screen. This summer we say goodbye to
the good old 70mm IMAX projector at Picturehouse at National Media Museum,
as it will be converted to digital and the cinema will be refurbished.
“Interstellar”
at the BFI IMAX in London
By Ulrich
Rostek
The IMAX sequences – grainless, razor sharp, and amazingly detailed, backed
up by that marvelous almost SENSURROUND -like sound – really gave me that
hyper realistic first person experience which I not even sensed with our
beloved Cinerama. This visual impression soon dragged me into the movie –
not leaving much brain capacity to think about the one or the other logical
disruption of the plot and the somewhat overloaded storyline.
Interstellaring
in London By Mark Lyndon
And yet, 70mm projection cannot be taken for granted. Even as
"Interstellar" is smashing a box office records and Hollywood film
directors are committing to 70mm principal photography and prints; there are
cinema chains that are removing, yes removing 70mm projection from their
houses. Who advises them, the captain of the Titanic?
"Interstellar"
Goes IMAX 70MM ...a page in
progress
This is a page in
progress with
stories about
Christopher Nolan's
new film "Intersellar",
which is being
released in IMAX
70mm by November
2014. The idea is to
update the page
regularly with
information about
IMAX cinemas showing
the film in 70mm,
bits and pieces,
links and stills as
they become
available. You - the
reader - is invited
to contribute with
information,
reviews, adverts etc
- anything you see
fit to share.
3D
IMAX 70mm heute Von Gerhard Witte In dem IMAX-Kino wurde der
Film "Avatar - Aufbruch nach Pandora" in einer deutschen
Version in klassischer 3D mit 2 x 15/70mm
Doppelprojektion im Polarisationsverfahren vorgeführt.
A review of "The Dark Knight" in IMAX By Ramon Lamarca Marques
Film contains several sequences shot in IMAX which hasn’t got any competitor who even approaches its quality.
Low Tech IMAX?
By Gord
Harris
We are working on a
research basis on
digital image
processing
techniques that
would indeed
"enhance" 35mm films
that are scanned,
manipulated to
decrease grain,
sharpened, etc and
then recorded back
out onto a large
15/65 negative using
film recorders. The
biggest advantage of
this approach is
that the large 15/70
print made from such
a digitally-produced
negative has a large
image area through
which we can pump
10X the light, and
is also much
steadier then simply
blowing up a 35mm
print bigger in a
projector.
LARGE FORMAT CINEMA ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
LFCA 2005 By Bill Kallay
“Large Format: Strategize and Thrive” was 2005’s theme.
Several times during the course of the three-day conference,
panels and sessions are held at different times of the day. LFCA 2004 By Bill Kallay There were a number of discussions about cinematography in large format,
funding and marketing at the conference. It was felt by some, as in other
LFCA Conferences, that the large format industry still has its work cut out
for itself in getting films into the public's eye.
LFCA 2003 By Bill Kallay “Re-purposing Film
for Large Format Presentation,” IMAX’s re-mastering efforts have given
the large format industry a small imprint on the commercial side of the
movie business. DMR is a computer program that can digitally blow-up 35mm
or HD footage into the 15/70. Grain is significantly reduced and the
overall picture quality is quite good.
2002 LFCA By Bill Kallay
Universal Studios, Imagine Entertainment and IMAX recently unveiled their plans to re-release the 1995 film,
"Apollo 13", in IMAX later this summer, re-titled as Apollo 13-The IMAX Experience. The film went through IMAX's proprietary software process,
DMR, to enlarge and de-grain the Super 35mm images for presentation on the IMAX screen. In addition, the 2.40:1 aspect ratio has been re-worked into 1.66:1.
LFCA
2001 By Bill Kallay
Outside of "Fantasia 2000", a number of both commercial and documentary
large format films have not done well at the box office. At
night, especially on weekends where attendance is at its
peak, the large format auditoriums have remained fairly
empty. As a result, many exhibitors have used the
auditoriums to show 35mm prints on the massive screens.
LFCA 2000
Despite the success of "Everest" and
Disney's "Fantasia 2000", some members of the Large Format Cinema
Association (LFCA) expressed varied opinions over the direction of the
large format industry. Was it better to aim in the direction of the
commercialization of large format films, or in the direction of tried
and true documentaries for the giant screen?
LFCA
1999 By Dan Sherlock In addition, the new emulsion/printing tests in 15/70 were shown.
Last year, it was possible to compare the same types of shots
photographed with the different kinds of emulsions from Kodak, including
variations such as pushing development by a stop. These tests had been
made directly from the camera negative in 15/70 to make it easier to see
the differences between emulsions.
ISTC 1996
By Rene Sørensen
The International
Space Theatre
Consortium recently
held its 18th
meeting in
Barcelona, Spain.
The 18th
International Space
Theatre Consortiums
conference was
hosted by IMAX Port
Well. The 440 seat
IMAX Port Well
Theatre is the first
theatre in the world
which is able to
show both IMAX Dome,
IMAX, IMAX 3D and
IMAX HD.
Euromax 1996 By Rene Sørensen The fifth annual Euromax meeting was held this year at the
magnificent Kinepolis cinema in the heart of Belgium. The Large Format
Filmmakers Symposium is arranged by the European association, Euromax,
to promote the issues surrounding large format film production and
distribution of IMAX and IMAX Dome films.
Euromax 2000
By Janet Wilson Euromax, the European association of the 15 perf/70mm film
industry is proud to announce that the 7th European Large Format
Filmmakers Symposium will take place at Futuroscope, Poitiers in France
from 4-7 March. Aimed at newcomers to the world of large format as well
as those with much experience, the Symposium will be devoted to issues
surrounding large format film production and distribution.
IMAX DMR
Batman
vs. Superman in 15/70 IMAX 70mm By Andrew Kotwicki The IMAX sequences themselves maintained Snyder's grainy aesthetic but
were significantly sharper and brighter than the rest of the movie and the
opening and closing sequences were stunning to behold. The biggest reason
fans should go out of their way to see this is for the titular fight between
Batman and Superman, which was shot and exhibited entirely in 70mm
The
First 70MM IMAX
Cinema in England By Thomas
Hauerslev
I went up to
Bradford to see
National Museum of
Photography, Film &
Television on a
1-day return trip by
train during a visit
to London. I had
read about this new
museum in Screen
International some
years before and it
came highly
recommended. I was
especially
interested to see
the IMAX cinema.
