Why you should see 'Interstellar' in 70MM IMAX

In a few days, Christopher Nolan's new epic 'Interstellar' comes out, and there has been a big push to see the film in 70MM IMAX film. Very few theatres are equipped in IMAX, and as Nolan's film was shot with 70MM IMAX film cameras, it's important to see the film the way the director intended. Which leads to my experience getting tickets to see it in IMAX:

The Colossus theatre in Vaughan is an amazing place: it's shaped like a flying saucer when you see it, and was one of the few theatres in Ontario to show film in IMAX when it was built. The IMAX screen is about 4 stories tall, it's simply massive when you see it, and looks like a giant square. I had the great fortune to see Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises' in 70MM IMAX at the Colossus, and it was probably one of the best experiences watching a movie I have ever seen. It's also the closest IMAX theatre where I live, so when tickets for 'Interstellar' came out, I immediately ordered tickets to see it in IMAX. However, the downside that I soon discovered, is that they switched to a digital IMAX projector, and here's why that is a problem.

First some technical background stuff, complete with a handy picture guide to help explain (click here to get a better idea of the differences: Click Here)  IMAX film is an aspect ratio of 1.43:1, or pretty close to a square. Films like 'Interstellar' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' are filmed in IMAX for the big scenes, and also widescreen 2.35:1 ratio for other scenes. When you see it on an IMAX screen, the IMAX footage expands to fill the entire screen, giving the scene an epic feel and scope that the director wants you to have. Now, when it comes to Digital IMAX projectors, they project in an aspect ratio of 1.9:1, so more than 2.35:1, but less than the full image picture. In the picture below, you can see that with a 1.9:1 ratio, you are missing about 25% of the IMAX frame, so really you aren't getting the true directors vision of how the shots and the scene are supposed to look. It's similar to when VHS tapes were full screen back in the day, they cropped the image to fill the TV screen, so you miss a lot of information in the image. On a 70MM screen, such as the one at the Colossus theatre, the Digital IMAX would still have black bars on the top and bottom of screen, instead of filling the huge square. Another interesting thing is that for films like 'The Dark Knight', and 'The Dark Knight Rises' (both shot in 2.35 and in IMAX film) on Blu-ray tries to recreate the IMAX experience by having those IMAX scenes film expand to fit your TV, giving you more information on the top and bottom, the aspect ratio for this is 1.78:1. So basically, if 'Interstellar' gets the same recreation on Blu-ray (which it more than likely will), you will be getting more information in the frame than you would seeing the film in a Digital IMAX theatre.



Now, why would IMAX theatres use Digital IMAX for this film when it should be seen in 70MM? Really the most logical reason is money: 70MM IMAX prints can cost approx $15,000 each, when Digital 'prints' on a hard drive costs only a couple hundred dollars. Now, in terms of quality, it can be argued that IMAX digital projectors are somewhat brighter and have a better contrast than most typical digital projectors (that the film will be projected for in the majority of theatres), however in terms of resolution and quality, they don't produce anything close to 70MM IMAX film. The great thing is that the films website also provides some much needed information regarding the various formats you can see the movie, including Digital and 70MM IMAX projections Right Here. So make sure you get your money's worth (IMAX tickets in general are about $20 each) and see the film the way Christopher Nolan intended you to see it: On 70MM IMAX. There are two theatres in Ontario that are showing it this way, at the Scotiabank Toronto & IMAX theatre in Toronto, and the Coliseum Mississauga & IMAX in Mississauga. Here is the complete list of theatres showing the film in 70MM IMAX in Canada and the United States (thanks to the films website): Click Here

Special thanks to IMAX for responding to my technical questions, and to James Hyder of LF Examiner (for more fun information about IMAX and other Large Format production, distribution, and exhibition, check out there website at: http://www.lfexaminer.com/)



EDIT: So after seeing 'Interstellar' in Digital IMAX, here's my thoughts: 1. The film is fucking awesome. You may need to see it twice to fully understand it (that's not a complaint). The Digital IMAX image was... not the best. The image wasn't as sharp as I was hoping (sorta like watching a DVD compared to a Blu ray: still a good image, but DVD  isn't as sharp and detailed as a Blu ray image. The same goes for Digital IMAX vs 70MM IMAX presentations). The fine details were missing, which sadly since I don't have the ability to watch the movie on film, I don't know if that's a product of the way the film was shot, or the projection. The screen looks like it was cropped from it's 70MM IMAX screen, they may have cut off the top of the screen using fabric and adjusted the projection so the Digital IMAX still looked like it filled the screen for it's IMAX shot footage without creating any letterboxing. On some of the IMAX shots however you could tell that there was part of the image missing due to the cropping.