IMAX and Blu-Ray

Maybe some of the more technical minded folks here can answer this. First of all I have Dark Knight in blu-ray and LOVED the picture quality of the IMAX scenes during this film, it was almost a bit of a letdown when the movie switched to the standard film stock.

So my question is with some of the newer releases filmed entirely in IMAX (is Star Trek one of these?) will we start to see blu-rays entirely shot with the more detailed IMAX film? Does blu-ray have enough space to fit an entire IMAX film (maybe 2+ hours) onto one disc? Sorry if my question is a bit vague...

Were those filmed all in IMAX? I thought that you couldn't do most scenes in IMAX b/c the cameras were so loud they drowned out the dialog. I thought I read something about that when Dark Knight was out. Someone in the know will answer soon Im sure.

From my understanding filming in IMAX is more expensive and then you have to convert the video to something else I believe.

So cost is a factor but I'm not sure how much for a feature length film.

"star trek" was not shot with IMAX at all. at imdb.com, you can see how a movie was shot under the "technical specs" button for each movie or tv show.

actually, the IMAX film projector itself gets so hot that you can't have an IMAX movie running more than 5o-60 minutes, which is why IMAX documentaries were usually less than an hour.

when they show hollywood features such as "the dark knight", "transformers 2", and "harry potter 6" that have some sequences shot in the IMAX format, they do one of two things:
1) switch between an IMAX projector and a regular 35mm projector depending on the sequences (IMAX or not)
2) use a digital projector for the whole movie, which sucks because even 4K does not have the "resolution" of IMAX film. this is especially bad when a movie is blown up to such a huge size.

if you're interested in movies that were shown in IMAX and are now available on blu-ray, just search for "IMAX Blu-ray" at amazon.com. however, be advised that the aspect ratio will have changed from roughly 1.44:1 to 1.78:1 so that they fill up the whole 16:9 width. this is the new "pan-&-scan", when people lop off the tops and bottoms of movies to fit a wider aspect ratio.

(they actually did this a long time ago when cinemascope was introduced. revival versions of "casablanca" and "gone with the wind" lopped off people's heads and feet when the movies were cropped to show off how awesome widescreen was!!!)

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[Post edited by posters5 on Jul 17, 2009 - CDT 4:28 PM]

Cool! Thanks for the info!

I'm not aware of the current tech specifics for IMAX cameras, but back in the 1990s, they indicated how difficult it was to film some of those IMAX documentaries on whales, sharks, etc. They indicated that the IMAX camera stock had a limit of just 3 to 4 minutes!, before the film "ran out" and you would have to reload the camera with new stock.

Obviously, it wasn't a shock to hear producers complain that some of the best animal "action" scenes were hard to capture on film due to events happening beyond the capacity of the film stock to record it. They had to use more than one camera sometimes (expensive), and compensate so that one camera would begin filming when the other camera had used up it's 3-4 minute reel.

Over and over they did this... to capture the best images as possible, always hoping the animals provided their best moments when the cameras were rolling!

-JOE- (Love Hendrix!)

It's not that different with normal cameras running on 35mm.

A Standard 35mm filmcan offers you approx. 4 minutes before it rolls out.

They are big not because the technology is old, but because 65mm is a huge surface. You need to have a 65mm gate, u need the film magazine to be 65mm wide... etc etc. There are specific lenses for it too since the depth of field is massive.