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Topic: Star Wars: The Force Awakens 70mm IMAX
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Jason Smith
Master Film Handler
Posts: 358
From: Tohoku, Japan
Registered: Oct 2015
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posted January 11, 2016 11:39 PM
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Jason, there was only one chase scene using full-frame Imax 15/70 negatives, at least that I caught. The rest should have been from a 1.85:1 digital internegative at 2K resolution. Was that apparent to you?
Bill, to be honest when I watched the chase scene I was so caught up in the moment,I failed to notice. The IMAX theater I saw Star Wars at had a dome screen that put the viewer very close to the action. The one thing i do remember was the footage of the chase scene was very vibrant.
Here`s a picture to give you an idea of what the theater looked like. For the scenes that were not filmed on 70mm IMAX cameras, the footage only covered half of the screen. Here`s a diagram of the theater to give you an idea of what it looked like.
quote:
It must have been great to see inside the projection room Jason! From where I was sitting I could hear the projector's shutter clicking during the very quiet moments, but that's as close as I got!
Jamie, it was really cool seeing a 70mm IMAX projectionist at work. At one point after they finished rewinding the film, the film leader dropped onto the floor. Even though I was about ten meters away, I could clearly read STAR WARS EPISODE VII written out on the leader.
It seems like the only 70mm IMAX projectors are in science and history museums around the world. I was told by the theater that that Episode 7 would probably be the last feature film they would ever show.
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David M. Ballew
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 113
From: Burbank, CA USA
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted January 18, 2016 04:59 PM
My family and I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The presentation was outstanding, big and bright and clear. Others in my party are nowhere near as enthusiastic about 3-D as I am, but they raved about how lovely it looked and how very little eyestrain they experienced. In my view, it's a very, very good 3-D conversion, maybe one of the best.
With regards to IMAX Dome 3-D, I wonder if the spherical shape of the screen impedes cancelation in the left- and right-eye images. In other words, I wonder if the shape of the screen contributes to ghosting or crosstalk, where faint traces of the left image bleed through the glasses into one's right eye, and vice versa, spoiling the stereoscopic effect. Ghosting is one of the great bugbears of stereo projection, and I can only imagine that an unusual screen shape would only exacerbate it.
With regards to 70mm IMAX generally, I suspect several factors went into the decision to release the film in 2-D 15/70 only. If it was considered a hardship for one lab to create 22 15/70 prints in one month, as reported, then imagine creating 44 prints, which is what they would be doing for two-strip 3-D. And of course this would also mean double the financial expense. If the powers that be did not anticipate that 3-D would add substantially to box office revenue in those venues with full-on 15/70 projection, then it only makes sense that they would leave 3-D to the digital cinemas, which can handle stereo much more easily.
I find the film itself very entertaining; although the ticket prices were higher than I'm used to, taking my family to see it was money well spent. SLIGHT SPOILER: Some have criticized the film for being derivative of earlier installments, but I think a calculated decision was made to echo plot movements from episodes four, five and six to demonstrate to Star Wars fans that, going forward, Abrams and Disney intend to hew to the spirit of those films and avoid the perceived missteps of episodes one, two and three. That's how I see it.
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