While IMAX theaters have been around since 2002, it wasn’t until 2008 when a film shot scenes natively on IMAX cameras when The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan decided to shoot some of the wide-angle skyline shots of Batman and Gotham City/Chicago. The 70mm IMAX print showed a level of quality and detail that truly separated The Dark Knight‘s cinematography from other films… even if the aspect ratio had to change to fully showcase the scenes properly.
However, with film stock slowly dying out as theaters begin to make the transition to utilizing fully digital projectors, it seems that the short-lived excursion into 70mm prints are dying out with Nolan’s next film, Interstellar. Christopher Nolan fan site Nolan Fans, with translations from Cines Argentinos, goes deep into the quality of 70mm IMAX screens vs. normal IMAX screens. As the 70mm IMAX screen theaters begin to be phased out for traditional IMAX screens (less than 5% IMAX theaters have 70mm IMAX screens), IMAX theaters will begin to implement a new 4K laser which projects to have the same amount of pixels as 70mm screens. Of course, digital projection will never be as clear or high in quality as traditional film stock.
Now, this might not mean much to the average moviegoer, but for those interested in photography/cinematography, it’s a bit of a bittersweet loss as we say goodbye to films shot on such high quality film stock. Of course, if the 4k projection system proves to be as powerful as it claims to be, the loss won’t be too bad.
[via Nolan Fans, via Cines Argentinos] (Thanks to Max for the tip.)