IMAX & Chris Nolan

[Phillip Stefani]

I came across the following article detailing how the VFX crew handled the IMAX footage from "The Dark Knight".
http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/the_dark_knight

Interesting point about their decision to scan at 5.6K instead of full 8.4K:

"An early test was the IMAX mini-movie of the opening bank heist released last fall, introducing the Joker and containing roughly six FX shots. Though completed at the full 8.4K resolution, the decision was, visually, there wasn’t really enough difference from 5.6K, so they down-res’d the remainder of the IMAX work."​

 

[Brian Robbins]

I've been reading this forum for a few years and this post is by far the best one I've ever read.



QUOTE=Satsuki Murashige;861874]Funny, it doesn't seem to have hindered Nolan/Pfister's creativity at all... I think they've both earned the right to use whatever camera they want.


Some of the greatest works of color cinematography were made with a refrigerator-sized camera with single-digit ASA film stocks. Other immortal works were made with handcranked cameras and uncoated lenses. Kinda makes me think we focus too much on the tools of the trade and not enough on the craft these days. My .02...[/QUOTE]

 

[Phillip Stefani]

I was browsing the twitter feed of Paul Franklin, head of VFX on "The Dark Knight Rises" (as well as the past several Nolan films). He reiterates the point about outputting IMAX footage at 5.6K vs. 8K and notes that 8K scans on CRT recorders present issues of their own...

Twitter thread below:

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 5:32 PM
@Filmbot we run various configs, for this show we're got 2x65mm IMAX. On Batman Begins we had 4x35mm synchronised VistaVision cameras.

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 5:38 PM
@Filmbot biggest tech problem with IMAX is previewing it at target res: there's no digital projector or screen that can handle it.

Alan Seawright (@alanseawright)
11/6/11 7:18 PM
@PaulJFranklin @filmbot What's your scan res? 8k?

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 7:29 PM
@alanseawright @filmbot Scan 8K but then output at 5.6K - the CRT-based recorders can do 8K, but it really isn't an improvement over 5.6K...

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 7:30 PM
@alanseawright @filmbot ...due to the fact that the dot size on the CRT is fixed, so it can actually make the final result *softer*

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 7:33 PM
@alanseawright @filmbot another issue with CRT film-out is that peak white levels are limited - lots of tweakage required to match laser

 

[Peter Dmitriyev]

in response to someone: looks like they're steadi-camming the imaxes just fine on batman set

 

[Will Steer]

I was browsing the twitter feed of Paul Franklin, head of VFX on "The Dark Knight Rises" (as well as the past several Nolan films). He reiterates the point about outputting IMAX footage at 5.6K vs. 8K and notes that 8K scans on CRT recorders present issues of their own...

Twitter thread below:

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 5:32 PM
@Filmbot we run various configs, for this show we're got 2x65mm IMAX. On Batman Begins we had 4x35mm synchronised VistaVision cameras.

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 5:38 PM
@Filmbot biggest tech problem with IMAX is previewing it at target res: there's no digital projector or screen that can handle it.

Alan Seawright (@alanseawright)
11/6/11 7:18 PM
@PaulJFranklin @filmbot What's your scan res? 8k?

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 7:29 PM
@alanseawright @filmbot Scan 8K but then output at 5.6K - the CRT-based recorders can do 8K, but it really isn't an improvement over 5.6K...

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 7:30 PM
@alanseawright @filmbot ...due to the fact that the dot size on the CRT is fixed, so it can actually make the final result *softer*

Paul Franklin (@PaulJFranklin)
11/6/11 7:33 PM
@alanseawright @filmbot another issue with CRT film-out is that peak white levels are limited - lots of tweakage required to match laser

What's interesting about their workflow is that as I recall all the NON-VFX Imax shots were never DI'd at all. Same for the non-VFX 35mm (though Imax themselves DMR'd that). Pfister looked at digital colour grading versus colour timing chemically and decided the he could do it faster chemically.

 

[Andrew Rieger]

The cameras are big, but they are not that big. There were blimped 35mm's in the old days bigger than that and Im pretty sure that the first 4K digi cam, the Dalsa Orgin, made that compact IMAX look like an Epic.