What Is IMAX? | Is This Best Movie Theatre?

 Defining IMAX

Before going into deep, start with quick defination

IMAX is a company that has its own line of high-resolution cameras, film formats, projectors, and theaters. Its name often refers to the film format and the experience of watching the film. The differences between a regular movie theater auditorium basically boils down to the size of the screen and the auditorium itself. 

Additionally, IMAX tends to use speakers behind the screen and adjust their stadium seating to always be facing the taller screen face-first, no matter where a patron is seated. Finally, IMAX provides the highest quality imagery available, especially in the case of their physical 70mm film prints.

Characteristics Of IMAX

1.Massive film stock, cameras, and projectors.

2.Heavy and noisy cameras.

3.12k resolution.

4.Film runs through the camera and projector horizontally instead of vertically.

5.Screens multiple stories in height.

Early Days

IMAX was originally founded as Multiscreen Corporation before changing its name to a made up word that the founders created to sum up their ultimate goal: maximum image.

Canadian filmmakers Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and engineer William Shaw, sought to create a new type of large format filmmaking. They were inspired by the making of In the Labyrinth for Expo '67 in Montreal, and earlier film formats like VistaVision, 

With a straightforward single-projector and single-camera setup, the company started producing short films that were shown at exhibitions, such as Tiger Child — the first IMAX film — at Expo ‘70 in Osaka, Japan.

Expo ‘74 in Spokane, Washington was the debut of the first IMAX theater that was not affiliated with any other movie theater company, thus making it an independent venue.

Prior to the 21st century, IMAX cinemas were essentially relegated to being their own stand-alone auditoriums or part of a museum. Some of these theaters have a dome-shaped screen, while others are, for lack of a better word, square.

The standard screen size in these purpose-built theaters are on average 72 x 53 feet, which is multiple stories high. IMAX screen sizes are therefore well known and recognized for being much taller than they are wide, with a unique IMAX aspect ratio of 1.43:1.

Since the company had to create new technology to realize its vision, innovation was the natural next step. IMAX 70mm film stock is known as 15/70 because, unlike traditional 70mm film, with five perforations (those holes you always see on physical celluloid), IMAX film stock has a whopping 15 perforations at the top and bottom of the strip.

This massive film stock is shot vertically on large but noisy cameras that can only ever shoot between 30 seconds to two minutes of 12k resolution footage at a time. This is the main reason that films shot on traditional IMAX film stock are often under an hour in length; non-IMAX films that incorporate the traditional film stock also don’t often shoot more than an hour of footage.

With large film stock and cameras come large projectors, which have their own unique way of projecting the film stock vertically. These projectors use a unique xenon arc lamp that is extremely sensitive and must be handled with extreme care. 

The auditoriums that project IMAX films are also large, with a unique style of stadium seating that emphasizes having the audience directly face the screen at all times.

INTO THE MAINSTREAM

For the first few decades of IMAX, almost every single film they made was documentary in nature and could only be seen at purpose-built theaters. Whether it was space exploration or climbing Mount Everest, these films were very much spectacle-driven but also education focused. Additionally, many were in 3D, providing audiences with even more ways to become immersed in the film.

In the 1990s, IMAX started making some features that were more entertainment oriented, the first of which was Stones at the Max (1991), a concert film covering The Rolling Stones. T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous (1998) was a 3D film that combined a fun adventure with some education about dinosaurs, while Michael Jordan to the Max (2000) highlighted the famous basketball player.

The turning point was when Disney decided to make an exclusive engagement out of Fantasia 2000, which meant having it play exclusively at IMAX theaters from January 1st to April 30th, 2000.

This was a big deal: not only was it the first fully-animated feature in IMAX, but it was the first full-length feature in the format, period. 

While Disney did their best, IMAX originally didn't believe it could retrofit traditional films onto its large format screens. This all changed with the creation of DMR (Digital Media Remastering), which involves remastering non-IMAX films for exhibition on IMAX screens. 

Starting with re-releases of Apollo 13 (1995) and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), it soon became more common for certain blockbuster films to get the same treatment.

While not every movie in the 2000s was getting the DMR treatment, a few notable films, such as the Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions (2003), Spider-Man 2 and 3 (2004/2007), several Harry Potter films (2004-2011), Batman Begins (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). The Dark Knight was also the first mainstream film to be partially shot with 70mm IMAX cameras, with other films doing the same afterward.

Local IMAX

2008 saw the release of a new digital IMAX projector system that allowed films to be easily shown in more common multiplexes, albeit within their own custom made auditoriums. With a new 1.90:1 aspect ratio, cinemas could show films in 2D or 3D, along with the power of the newer IMAX with Laser projection system. 

However, many multiplexes, even those that use IMAX with Laser, are lower resolution than the traditional format with a reduced screen size.

Indeed, even for certain cons, placing a rendition of IMAX into multiplexes spread the word about the brand more all over the planet. And keeping in mind that the screens couldn't be a few stories high, they were as yet greater than each and every screen at the film they are housed in.

A couple of years after the fact, IMAX delivered their most memorable computerized cameras, which could be utilized on more business blockbuster creations. While the quality wasn't 12k, it was as yet significant and considered the movies to be displayed in their full computerized IMAX perspective proportion.

As of late, more movies have utilized these advanced cameras, with Marvel motion pictures like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame being totally shot with the Arri Alexa IMAX computerized camera. They would proceed to be two of the greatest netting motion pictures ever.

Certain movie producers turned out to be exceptionally connected with the brand during this time, most prominently Christopher Nolan, who loves actual celluloid such a lot of that he shot a large portion of Dunkirk with IMAX 65mm film stock and the remainder of it on ordinary 65mm film stock.

While Nolan is a remarkable stalwart for IMAX and actual celluloid, he has carried it into the standard in a manner different movie producers had not earlier. That, yet he did it with significant deliveries, for example, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, and the all around referenced Dunkirk.

In the event that you knew about Nolan's coordinating style, you know he's a "major" movie producer — huge thoughts, enormous spending plan, large show.