>Select Batman ‘Dark Knight’ Scenes Shot In Imax Messin’ With Our Widescreen Brains: Cool!
A frame from the Imax camera on “Dark Knight”
We fools are game for just about anything Imax ever since watching the Imax film “Flyers” at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC 25 years ago in the first Imax theater in the world. There was nothing like having to turn my head back and forth, as a little tyke, to see everything in a breathtaking experience that was the closest thing to flying like a superhero I could imagine at the time. Since then, Imax films are a big business, bringing the company hundreds of millions of dollars per year as the novelty of the format has a clear, loyal audience (Warners’ “300″ set an attendance record at Imax theaters in its opening weekend in March.) So, without further adieu and if you haven’t heard by now, director Christopher Nolan has made an inventive decision to film four sequences of “The Dark Knight” with Imax cameras. The next installment of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Batman franchise, scheduled for a July 18, 2008, day-and-date theatrical release with Imax theaters. Will mixing up the formats be annoying or friggin’ cool?
Although it is not unusual for 35mm-lensed features to be remastered to screen in Imax theaters, “Dark Knight” is the first major feature to be even partially shot using Imax cameras. These sequences will be combined with the rest of the film — lensed in 35mm — to produce the final product. The marriage of footage filmed with IMAX and 35mm cameras in the final feature will have a major impact on the audience’s viewing experience, whether seeing “The Dark Knight†in an IMAX or traditional theatre. When the scenes shot on IMAX cameras are shown in IMAX theatres, the aspect ratio will morph to 1.43 to 1, expanding the image to fill the entire screen and magnifying the overall effect, both literally and figuratively.
In traditional theaters, the goal is that the Imax-lensed sequences “would jump off screens … and give patrons an experience they haven’t seen in 35mm presentations,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution.
Following many months of testing, the first of the Imax-lensed scenes, including a prologue that introduces the Joker (Heath Ledger), was shot in Chicago last month, several weeks in advance of the actual start of principal photography. Additional scenes will be filmed with Imax cameras during the course of production.
Shooting with the Imax camera on set of “Dark Knight”
Nolan said in a generically prepared statement to the press, “In continuing the story of such a great icon, I’m thrilled to be able to expand the scope of the film, not just in terms of its story, but in giving Batman and the Joker the largest possible canvas on which to face off. No existing technology compares with the Imax format in terms of its ability to throw the audience into the action, and we’re very proud and excited to use this technology in a way that no one has before.”
Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, added that the application “will allow our crystal-clear images, 14,000 watts of digital surround sound, and screens up to eight stories tall to give Batman fans the most immersive cinematic experience in the world.” He praised Nolan’s vision, and the Warners/Imax relationship; he estimates that Warners has released roughly 20 Imax films to date. Next month, the studio will release “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in Imax, with the final 20 minutes of the film screening in stereoscopic 3-D (check out our 3-D NASA story).
Fellman expects at least three additional Imax releases from Warners to debut between the release of “Order of the Phoenix” and “Dark Knight.” This would include a sequel — currently in production — to “Deep Sea 3-D.”
“Dark Knight” is not the first film to mix up formats. MGM’s “Brainstorm” switched off between 35mm and 70mm and three aspect ratios of 1.85:1, 2.35:1 (35mm lensed anamorphic) and 2.20:1. Now the film failed at the boxoffice, but who cares, director Douglas Trumbull broke new ground artistically well before Imax began converting Hollywood films to their super-sized formats.
What does all this mean for the widescreen presentations of a hybrid 35mm/Imax film on video? You guessed it; probably the same pissed-off attitude the folks in Peoria have when there are black bars on the top and bottom of their TV screen in a letterbox version of a video. Only now it’ll be messing with the aspect ratio of the entire film in its widescreen video presentation and we purists will have to, perhaps, sedate ourselves as we screen and project the film on our carefully-built, expensive home theater systems. Gee, thanks a lot Chris Nolan and WB (I can’t wait!)
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