How To Build A 70mm IMAX Film - STAR WARS
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- čas přidán 19. 02. 2016
- Go behind the scenes of an IMAX projection booth and learn how projectionists splice 70mm film reels together. This particular film is Star Wars Episode VII.
Originally seen in the Star Wars Opening Night film, this is a much shorter version that focuses on the building of the film itself and not the opening night festivities.
Filmed at the San Jose IMAX theater.
Created by John Ruddock.
High Orbit Media
www.high-orbit-media.com
@highorbitmedia - Zábava
Thats one enormous film reel..
Imagine the only thing keeping the whole movie together is a small piece of tape
I can almost smell the popcorn and also want a nice cold beverage 😋
Few years back i was helping on a presentation at a local cinema, my role was just to control a laptop connected upto a Barco 4K projector. But the real enjoyment for me was being up in the projection booth while a 35mm print was shown. Including getting to see a projector switch during a show (no large spool system at this cinema) and chatting to the projectionist. Who whenever there was a very very subtle change in the sound of the projector knew exactly what was causing it and if something needed adjusting, oiling etc.
so sad imo that with all the large cinemas using RealD digital projectors now (at least thats whats standard where i live) that the art of projectionists is vanishing.
You're right. It's definitely disappearing. The theater this was shot at is converting to digital this year to...
The original plan for Star Wars episode IX was to shoot it all on 65mm film, back when Colin Trevorrow was directing. Not sure if JJ is going to follow through on this but I would love to see it happen and for the film to get a wide 70mm film release.
He's not shooting all of it in 65mm just select scenes but the movie is being shot in 35mm and both 8 perf and 15 perf 65mm
Sadly he didn't.
so amazing to watch!
True IMAX uses a second 'projector' that has 35mm film that contains 6 channels of optical sound information.
Care to elaborate on that?
This was told to me by a buddy that worked at an IMAX theater in Iowa. He said it's a standard 35mm film, but instead of being used to store pictures it holds six optical audio tracks that are read by an optical reader on a second 'projector'. Apparently that's how it used to be done and now the vast majority of IMAX theaters have a digital audio track played off of a hard drive that is syncned up to the 70mm film stock. He always insisted that the optical audio sounded better and called it 'true' IMAX.
That is interesting. I knew sound was kept separate but was not aware it was stored on 35mm film. Good knowledge.
Yes, sounds about right, IMAX tech is not that modern, and before BluRay and DVDs I recall 35mm film was used for sound in my local IMAX theater
@@HighOrbitMediaVideos I have some pictures for you if you like. Made in the projectionbooth of Fleet Science center in San Diego. It was then called (1980) Reuben H. Fleet Theatre and Science Center. Not so long ago that was the oldest, still running Omnimax projector in the world. It has one on a picture. Btw... thats me standing next to it
i love watching movies because they are a great stuff to see and hear.
Wtf? 😆
Interesting and satisfying!
I once used a regular dvd of a movie (not a bluray) to perform a test-run on a CP2000 2K projector. The whole purpose of the test-run was to see whether or not the dvd's SD quality would be an issue for the average moviegoer audience, and guess what ... no one ever knew it was a regular dvd that they were watching and there was no complaints. Everyone walked out happy and it was a successful night at the movie theater. Good times, good times.
I would love to see how a regular bluray looks in a cinema screen.
@@fastica : That was my second plan, but I was eventually "phased out" of the job, as well as my other guys who I supervised, once the projectors became fully automated -- we basically got bullied out of our jobs. It was terrible.
Anyhow, the dvd's SD quality looked like a new 35mm film-print on the big screen. It took some time to tweek the image so it would fit the screen properly. I had to create customized buttons on the TPC in order to select either FLAT or SCOPE aspect ratios. I ran a optical cable from the dvd player to the dolby sound-rack for 5.1 surround sound and it worked perfectly. Again, the audience had no idea they were watching a regular dvd and it still makes me chuckle when I think about it. Ah, I miss those days so much.
I remember Source Two splicers - the best in the business ;)
No way! I took a field trip to that theater in 5th grade and saw a documentary there.
Ha! Don't tell me that's the last time you were there.
High Orbit Media It was in 2011
Ah. Well then I may been the guy that told you, "Now when you go inside be quiet! Your movie has already started!"
Imagine already with Tenet, Can’t wait to see it in 70mm IMAX
So, you basically take the first reel, find the end, splice the end, remove the first reel, take the second reel, then splice it together.
Thought they split long form movies between multiple platters rather than store all 1200lbs on a single platter. Can't believe they replaced that projector with only 4k. The memory of 12k film only exists in lion memory.
Wow. I now understand why they named it Maximum Image.
nice a Dome. Was also in a Dome.
So you mean to tell me that you fit that entire film onto a single IMAX platter. How in the world did you and your team accomplish that?!?
Super
With no top part to the reels, how do you make sure the film stays evenly wound?
This song is on intro mate
Do not forget to scan the film negative front and back !!! So it turns out 2 frames with different focus, where objects standing next to each other will have +1 object in focus and + remove micro scratches, and if we differentiate 1 frame scanned from two sides, you can get an absolutely clean frame, like with digital cameras!
LoTR has imax?
Am I the only one that is thinking of what Brad Pitt did when he 'spliced' the film in Fight Club? Imagine doing that in Imax...
Big p*nis, 😂
was an easy job, but don't miss the making up a film
Sadly we never had a slicer ( /\/\/\/\/\/\ fiormed cutting) für the 35mm cinema hehe, sure the put together parts would been running better thru the projector, like in the imax
wow
sexi film
so when the footage is brought to a computer ... how does the video editor convert it to imax quality or 70mm quality?
@The Pikachu Brothers so it's a software issued by imax
It remembers me to the times, where you get a computer software on 20 floppy disks.
How does the projectionist know where to splice the film reel? Are there markers to give an indication?
Dumb question, but would it be possible for the film to be packaged and sent in a single platter-size reel? I'm sure there's obvious reasons for not doing that, such as weight and stress on the film, but it is at all feasible?
Good question. They actually can be shipped on one giant reel and it happens frequently. There are specially made boxes for shipping finished films like the ones in the video. Of the films we play at our theater, most of them are 45-50 minute documentaries, so most boxes made for shipping are built for that size film. I've never seen a box made for a feature length film like Interstellar. But we often will send a film we're done playing to another theater so they can show it.
Maybe feasible for 45-50 minute docs. For full length movies, not feasible in the least.
Once it gets wider than a standard shipping pallet, it becomes exponentially more expensive to ship. What you can do it split it up into 3 smaller platters that fit within pallet diemnsions.
That means imax audio is only 4.7gb in size?
I actually don't know the answer to that. I assume so unless those DVDs can hold much more that 4.7gb. But I would bet the audio is compressed quite a bit to fit.
Didnt know that imax would just use a dvd for the audio, maybe it was a high capacity ones or blu ray because 4.7gb wouldnt be enough to fit dolby atmos inside. Ty btw :)
High Orbit Media no compression of any kind was ever used....three dvds were run in sample accurate sync
So how much data can one of those DVDs hold?
+High Orbit Media 4.7GB max. Blu-ray discs can hold up to 128GB.
this is real cinema,digital is only a hd video for home.
The Only Star Wars movies I saw on IMAX were Attack of the Clones and The Force Awakens.
I've seen documentaries on a dome theater before, but I can't image an actual movie on one. Quite motion sickness inducing I bet! Also, what happens to the movies once they are no longer being played?
Just like build up, the film is broken back down onto their individual reels and shipped back via distribution companies.
for these silent imax films, they should just get actors and a piano player to perform the audio live, instead of using a dvd. :) hehe
Just like the 1910s to 1920s
How many times will an average film run through the projector? What happens with film after it has run its course in the cinema? Is it destroyed?
I think a typical run is between 700-1200 times. That's mainly because of the length of the contract to show one, not necessarily because the film is wearing out. But once a film is done, yes it is destroyed. We shoved one into a trash compactor once and it broke the compactor. Super strong film. It's now cut up and recycled I think.
@@HighOrbitMediaVideos IMAX: the Nokia 3310 of 21st century.
So each of this reel is sent to over 4000 theatres across world or are they made in their country after receiving the copy
There aren't 4000 70mm theaters in the world. I think there's less than 20 actually. They're typically sent in several boxes of small reels and then are built at the theater.
Can you tell me will the digital projector be permanently suspended in the air (exept for maintaince) or will it have to come down after each show like when you had film?
I think the digital one will only come down for maintenance.
Maintenance = lamp replacement. Those Xenons have not changed.
With standard 70mm film the 65m for the film while the other 5mm is the soundtrack
No its reference for the dvd to sync. There is no audio on 70mm
Hi silly question but you show a film being spliced together, what happens when the print has to be returned to the film owner. As the film weight now is so heavy, I would imagine the process in reverse ?
It would get sent back built. Only reason we would cut it up would be to dispose of it.
@@HighOrbitMediaVideos Why would someone dispose of such thing? I bet something like that would be worth quite a bit on ebay...
@@londonnight937 True. I honestly don't know what happened to all that stuff.
35mm films are broken back down onto 2000' reels and sent back to the film depot. Why would a 70mm print be any different?
wonder what happens if one of the reels missing or wrong labeled and only one day to opening? cancel the show?
These reels get sent to us well in advance so it would be hard to imagine getting to the day before opening and still missing reels. But yes, if that did happen, we would cancel.
Now, I wonder, what if somebody used such long 70mm film to print on each frame black and white dots to represent the binary data of a huge data stream, say, the backups of 500 GB laptop HDD/SSD drives? How much capacity in Petabytes one such long film can have?
It would be more worthwhile for data storage to make it into magnetic tape
Funny enough you DID hit on how magnetic storage works its just the "dots" are areas that are either magnetized or not magnetized
When we say 70mm film, are we talking about the height of the frame, or the width of the frame?
Height probably
15/70 IMAX FILM NOTHING ELSE COMES CLOSE = 18K DIGITAL QUALITY.
Film is shit, and can't compare even to 6k, not to mention 8k digital.
The issue (beyond the fact that there's no "correct" way to equate digital resolution and film resolution) is that the actual resolution and picture quality of a given reel of film will depend on the speed (ISO) of the stock, how well it was shot, how well it was printed, how many copies away from the original negative it is, how old it is and how heavily it's been used, etc. The advantage to digital is its relative consistency, but under optimal conditions the general consensus is that 35mm film requires at least a 4K scan to fully capture its detail without artifacts. An 8K scan of 15/70mm IMAX film would certainly fall short of capturing all the detail.
tl;dr: film CAN be shit, but when it's done correctly it certainly isn't.
That's not how it works. Arri Alexa doesn't even shoot 4K yet it's one of the best cinema cameras on the planet.
@@gr3473 you're wrong. Film silver particles are so small that they can hold incredible detail. 7cm film is so high quality detail you need to scan it in 16+ K.
AMC Metreon sucked, only digital IMAX version was available.
Are digital movies 8k? And 70mm is about equal to 12k, correct? So 70mm should be obsolete once we get to 12k?
I've read it's more equivalent to 18K.
@@HighOrbitMediaVideos I saw that too. But I also saw "while 70mm film has the equivalent of 18,000 lines of digital resolution (more like 12,000 in reality)". Whatever that means.
I feel like 18,000 lines is reality.
Movie Games Digital movies are typically only showed at 2 to 4K.
Now if you trimmed this just a little bit better, you could’ve fit this video on one single reel!
Vistavision and Todd AO have a child, Imax
ok? but how dues he know where to start the splice film?
If you ever get to see film up close, you can see where the reels start and stop.
At each head and tail of a reel you leave 1 frame of the scene. Tail of reel 1 is spliced to the head of reel 2. Etc.
App. 3 1/2 minute reels of Star Wars 7? Just imagine how many changeovers that’ll take, yet some people will feel bad for the tired projectionist.
Very intersection video. I can see why it might be more cost effective to use a digital projection system but pixels are artificial. For those that have a budget for film and dedication to the workflow film is the only way to go. Digital does have its place for a few things.
2:30
"quality"... right....
Is IMAX automatically 3D, or if not, what's the difference between the two?
No way. 3D requires two of everything. Two film prints for 2 projectors for each eye. Much cheaper for 3D to be digital.
High Orbit Media Haha that would be something and a lot of work! Two IMAX projectors keeping in sync!
@@moow950 that is not an issue syncing has been around for decades, i could sync any two machines in my 8 plex without issue.
@@moow950 They actually integrate both projectors into a single machine. It's got two lamps, and the film transport rotor has two levels that each holds a separate film print. They physically can't get out of sync, as long as they're synced properly during threading.
Adam Ahmed OK, but so much could go wrong and it’s so much hassle. Digital is way better in that respect than film.
9 miles long! Damn.
It takes about 30-40 minutes at most to build up a 35mm feature on a platter. So I simply do not believe it takes 2 days to build up a 70mm feature. I would estimate 60-90 minutes.
Mike, each reel of IMAX 70 is ONLY 3 MINUTES. So there are 6-7 IMAX REELS to ONE REEL of 35mm or 70mm 5 perf. You do the math. So yes, it can take 2 days to build up a print in IMAX.
That looks tedious AF. I would have a hard time staying awake putting that together!
At 0:50 I thought SURELY they don’t splice the reels together with SCISSORS. Luckily, I am wrong.
They normally trim the excess off but then part of the splicing machine has a blade like a paper cutting lade that precisely trims the film when they need it.
I'll take the kind of huge curved panoramic image that was once produced by 70MM Ultra Panavision ( considered as single lense Cinerama )over the huge Imax rectangle any day . Why don't they get with the program and create a kind of Imax Ultra Panavision for gigantic wide curved screens ............THAT would ROCK ! ! !
steve gaines No IMAX is better Because the images is bigger and taller. More Square aspect ratios are more inmersive, Cinema just change it because they didnt want the same aspect ratio as TV. A Lot of Imax Movies example The Dark Knight are framed for Cinemascope 2.39 but In Imax they give you more information above and it looks like kind of Virtual Reality.
Did you ever see 2001 :A Space Odyssey when it first opened up in cinerama or the first few ultra panavision cinerama presentations at the Cinerama Dome during it's first few years ? That's the kind of deeply curved panoramic peripheral vision immersive quality I'm referring to . I don't see , with the kind of Imax digital technology available today why they can't create that kind of panoramic splendor on an even grander scale than ever before .
The thing is, IMAX is about a BIGGER picture, not wider.
2.7:1 may look amazing on a big movie theatre screen but is a headache to watch on a TV, which is why people don't do it anymore.
Isn’t that Omnivision?
They have to use massive rolls of film because the employes would always invite their friends to IMAX after hours to play video games. :)
Kind of pointless since most of the movie was shot on 35mm
Even still, 70mm does provide quite the uptick in detail and much more vibrant colours.
Scott Baldwin How is that possible? You can’t extract more detail from a 35mm negative than there is available . Blowing it up to 70mm doesn’t give a higher resolution of the source.
@@moow950 70mm is shot on 70 mm so if it needs to be 35mm the 70mm is down scaled to 35mm.
Ok, why go through all this shit when you can convert the movie uncompressed digitally? Play that movie through a dedicated Hard-drive.
Because 70mm is equivalent to 18K digital. Absolute clarity.
The only limit you have with uncompressed resolution is the Hard Drive space. It would be like ripping a cd into an uncompressed WAV file. Yeah it’s big; but I’d have more options with an uncompressed video file that would give me the same resolution. Far cheaper, far quicker, and less space to utilize.
IMAX IS FLAT... just like earth
Disney star wars is dead #ripstarwars
went to go see this movie at the tech museum and it was a huge fucking disappointment