Queen St IMAX

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PaulZA

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#86207 3-Jul-2011 17:47

Hi, I just got back from seeing Transformers 3 at the IMAX, and I was really impressed with the of the IMAX system. However the movie that we saw today, never used the entire screen, it used maybe most of the screen, but the was a fair amount of the screen at the top which they never used. It was really dissapointing, becuase the movie would have been so much better, if they had used the whole screen.

Has anyone noticed this, and why don't they use the whole screen when showing a movie at the imax?

Looking forward to getting some responses.

Thanks

sbiddle

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#488862 3-Jul-2011 18:24

IMAX is a 1.44:1 aspect ratio. This is different from normal 16:9 TV (1.78:1) and regular movies for cinemas which are 2.35:1

The reason is exactly the same as why all Blu Ray and DVD's don't fill a 16:9 TV - if they did it'd be because the left and right was centre cut (chopped off) to fill the screen.

old3eyes

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#488869 3-Jul-2011 18:45

It's got a great sound system hasn't it..

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PaulZA

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#488874 3-Jul-2011 18:50

sbiddle: IMAX is a 1.44:1 aspect ratio. This is different from normal 16:9 TV (1.78:1) and regular movies for cinemas which are 2.35:1

The reason is exactly the same as why all Blu Ray and DVD's don't fill a 16:9 TV - if they did it'd be because the left and right was centre cut (chopped off) to fill the screen.

Thanks for the reply, I understand better now, but why then do they add all that extra room on on the screen then, why not just make the screen so that a 1,44:1 aspect ratio fills it completely? Do they use the imax screen for other purposes that take up the whole screen?

Having such a big screen, where quite a decent chunk is never used just seems such a waste in space.

Jarno

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#488928 3-Jul-2011 21:43

That theatre was originally built to show actual IMAX movies. But that lasted only a few years as there wasn't enough interest in it. So they converted it to show regular movies, keeping the big screen and sound system.

PaulZA

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#488932 3-Jul-2011 21:54

Jarno: That theatre was originally built to show actual IMAX movies. But that lasted only a few years as there wasn't enough interest in it. So they converted it to show regular movies, keeping the big screen and sound system.

So you are telling me, that they are using a standard movie projector (35mm) and projecting the image onto the big screen. Pretty big for a 35mm. Can it still be used to play normal IMAX (70mm) movies?

Linuxluver

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#488936 3-Jul-2011 22:07

PaulZA:
Jarno: That theatre was originally built to show actual IMAX movies. But that lasted only a few years as there wasn't enough interest in it. So they converted it to show regular movies, keeping the big screen and sound system.

So you are telling me, that they are using a standard movie projector (35mm) and projecting the image onto the big screen. Pretty big for a 35mm. Can it still be used to play normal IMAX (70mm) movies?

IMAX is a specific format. They do show some IMAX movies there, but the majority are big-screen versions of the usual Hollywood fare.

Basically....Hollywood don't do IMAX.

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old3eyes

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#489025 4-Jul-2011 08:46

PaulZA:
Jarno: That theatre was originally built to show actual IMAX movies. But that lasted only a few years as there wasn't enough interest in it. So they converted it to show regular movies, keeping the big screen and sound system.

So you are telling me, that they are using a standard movie projector (35mm) and projecting the image onto the big screen. Pretty big for a 35mm. Can it still be used to play normal IMAX (70mm) movies?

Yep they do. When they do that they change the name of the presentation from Imax to Megascreen. Allot of Imax these days in digital Imax rather than the traditional 70mm horizontal format..

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Old3eyes

lchiu7

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#489267 4-Jul-2011 16:58

old3eyes:
PaulZA:
Jarno: That theatre was originally built to show actual IMAX movies. But that lasted only a few years as there wasn't enough interest in it. So they converted it to show regular movies, keeping the big screen and sound system.

So you are telling me, that they are using a standard movie projector (35mm) and projecting the image onto the big screen. Pretty big for a 35mm. Can it still be used to play normal IMAX (70mm) movies?

Yep they do. When they do that they change the name of the presentation from Imax to Megascreen. Allot of Imax these days in digital Imax rather than the traditional 70mm horizontal format..

A good example of a recent Hollywood blockbuster filmed partially and screened in Imax was The Dark Knight.

The director convinced the studios to allow him to film much of the action stuff in IMAX and the rest in 35mm. If you saw the movie in IMAX then the picture would occasionally fill the entire screen and then when it wasn't IMAX, it would be the regular 2.25:1 aspect ratio.

My understanding from reading something in the American Cinematographer magazine that for regular screening the IMAX film (which is 70mm shot horizontally) was scanned at 8K and recomposed for regular scope presentation.

The BD preserves the two aspect ratios sort of in that the IMAX scenes are shown 16:9 whereas the other ones are shown 2.25:1.

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Rollux

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#489285 4-Jul-2011 17:55

lchiu7:
A good example of a recent Hollywood blockbuster filmed partially and screened in Imax was The Dark Knight.

The director convinced the studios to allow him to film much of the action stuff in IMAX and the rest in 35mm. If you saw the movie in IMAX then the picture would occasionally fill the entire screen and then when it wasn't IMAX, it would be the regular 2.25:1 aspect ratio.

My understanding from reading something in the American Cinematographer magazine that for regular screening the IMAX film (which is 70mm shot horizontally) was scanned at 8K and recomposed for regular scope presentation.

The BD preserves the two aspect ratios sort of in that the IMAX scenes are shown 16:9 whereas the other ones are shown 2.25:1.

I always wondered why TDK seemed to flick between full screen and letterbox on BR. Now I know!

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#489572 5-Jul-2011 10:43

The problem is they dont seem to use any top black masking, if did have it and drop it the image would be masked perfectly and you wouldnt notice the smaller image.

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Jaxson

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#489637 5-Jul-2011 13:09

PaulZA: why then do they add all that extra room on on the screen then, why not just make the screen so that a 1,44:1 aspect ratio fills it completely?

This looks to have been answered, but basically Imax is a big (fat) square of a screen shape and you're trying to put a rectangle movie in it. To make it fit left to right means a lot of area that's not used up the top.

Most movies are rectangular so you'll have to deal with it, unless
a) you 'zoom' in on the centre of the screen and forget the bits on the sides. This gives you big screen but you're missing roughly half the actual image, or
b) you watch a movie made for imax, but this is pretty rare in Hollywood terms.

The Dark Knight (and a transformers 2 edition I believe) had sections that were filmed for this and looked amazing. For normal cinema release they went the opposite way and cropped this giant square image down to a rectangular one.

Anyway, the discussion is essentially about black bars back from the analogue days where TV's were square ish and viewing widescreen movies drove some people insane because there were big black bars top and bottom. http://www.dtg.org.uk/consumer/widescreen.html

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lchiu7

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#490112 6-Jul-2011 15:32

If you want to read all the gory details how TDK was filmed and prepped for regular 35mm projection from the mixture of standard 35mm film and 65mm IMAX check this artilce out

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/July2008/TheDarkKnight/page5.php

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