Large Format/"Premium" Theaters (IMAX 15/70, Digital IMAX, XD, ETX, RPX, etc.)

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Riddhi2011

Geoff, I think they were very conscious about adopting scope ratio when all the previous films were in flat formats. It kind of defeats the purpose to have a flat AR for IMAX again, when they want this movie to visually feel very different to the ones before. But time will tell if they prioritise the IMAX experience or just put out a blown-up version of the same scope ratio that everyone will see in regular cinemas. For example, look at 'The Last Jedi.' Even though they filmed partially with ALexa 65 and IMAX film cameras, there was no expanded framing.

Like I said, "if". So if there's no embiggened IMAX version then there's no embiggened IMAX version, but it doesn't mean that there isn't a shedload of image being left behind like with Last Jedi's 2.39 crop of those 15-perf IMAX shots. I'm just saying that it isn't some impossibility on JW2 because when you shoot flat a.k.a. sperical (I don't mean "flat" as in compositionally flat) then you shoot flat, what I mean is that if you're not going anamorphic 2.39 then by default you're exposing a taller picture area when shooting for spherical 2.39. And the Open Gate mode on the Alexas (which delivers that absolute 6560x3100 resolution on the 65) is thusly named for a reason, it's using every last pixel on the sensor so as to give people the flexibility to reframe. If people want more specificity during shooting then it's also got 1.78 (5120x2880) and 1.50 (4320x2880) crop modes.

[GLaDOS]

Originally Posted by Riddhi2011

I loved The Last Jedi! I found it to be quite a satisfactory experience. As far as I know, they filmed Chewbacca roasting a porg, on IMAX film. It'd be very odd to have that scene be in 1.43:1. They may have shot some other stuff on Skellig Michael on the IMAX film cameras as well. The aerial shot of the island certainly felt very IMAX-like to me.

I noticed that too (I feel like I've trained my eyes well enough to notice a particular source ). I would laugh my ass off if they actually blow the image to a full 1.43:1 at Chewie roasting the porg and left it at that.

That would be classic Rian Johnson trolling.

[Scorpion Soldier]

Originally Posted by Riddhi2011

I loved The Last Jedi! I found it to be quite a satisfactory experience. As far as I know, they filmed Chewbacca roasting a porg, on IMAX film. It'd be very odd to have that scene be in 1.43:1. They may have shot some other stuff on Skellig Michael on the IMAX film cameras as well. The aerial shot of the island certainly felt very IMAX-like to me.

There seemed to be plenty of IMAX material on Crait as well. Particularly the first shot of the planet and several shots of ground troops stood out to me in both Dolby Cinema and IMAX.

[Show spoiler]Particularly the shot of Poe sliding into the trench and several shots inside the trench look like they were definitely shot in the format.

[Geoff D]

There were some shots of Rey's face that looked incredibly clear with that kind of shallow of depth of field that large format is known for.

[GLaDOS]

Really makes you wonder how much Rian and DP Steve Yedlin shot in IMAX.

Though I think the Crait stuff were shot digitally, with sprinkles of 35mm in between. If not, shame they didn't blow it up to 1.43:1.

[Riddhi2011]

^ Not much. A few shots at most. Majority of TLJ was captured on 35mm anamorphic. I believe they also used anamorphic on the Alexa 65 for the Canto Bight casino interiors, as the featurette suggests. The Alexa 65 was also used for some nighttime shots, to get more shadow detail in the dark areas. Apparently digital sensors can capture more light during night, although my cinematographer-teacher says that's not true and film can perform well enough in the dark.

[UFAlien]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

did they update the sound system as well?? Supposedly Cinemark also upgraded all it's XD screens to implement Barco's laser projection systems which provide better brightness and color, was this the case as well?

Late late late! But yes they updated the sound systems to Auro 11.1, which is the standard for Cinemark XD. Presumably it's part of their deal with Barco, hence that crappy unsupported format instead of DTS:X or Dolby Atmos.

I couldn't tell you what kind of projector they have for certain.

As to the discussion on the Lockheed Martin IMAX screen - per Large Format Examiner the aspect ratio is 1.64:1, 75.5' wide by 46' high. If Dunkirk filled the screen then it was cropped.

[ITDEFX101]

Just came back from Maze Runner: The Death Cure IMAX...saw it of course in digital imax at a regal near my house. As always that theater ALWAYS masks off the lower part of the screen so you loose a few feet in the process. Anyways the entire movie had black bars on the left and right side of the image. There was no AR changes during the film...that's weird..Usually I see a shift in AR if the film was filmed in IMAX (justice league, transformers, Dunkirk), but this one stayed the same through it's entire running time.

Bottom line is that there wasn't anything that wowed me worth spending money on seeing it in IMAX.

[ManBeast]

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

Just came back from Maze Runner: The Death Cure IMAX...saw it of course in digital imax at a regal near my house. As always that theater ALWAYS masks off the lower part of the screen so you loose a few feet in the process. Anyways the entire movie had black bars on the left and right side of the image. There was no AR changes during the film...that's weird..Usually I see a shift in AR if the film was filmed in IMAX (justice league, transformers, Dunkirk), but this one stayed the same through it's entire running time.

Bottom line is that there wasn't anything that wowed me worth spending money on seeing it in IMAX.

I am guessing this is a scope screen if it has black bars on the side? IMBD say's the IMAX ratio is 1:78:1 so I would expect it to fill the screen.

[ITDEFX101]

Yes but I have seen that same projector fill the left and right sides of the screen, but that lower few feet is always blacked out.. I don't get it.

[xbs2034]

There were no switches because the entire film (even the Fox logo) was in the expanded ratio. I saw it in IMAX laser, so obviously did not fully fill the screen, but certainly was nice to have a lot more of it used, and really liked the IMAX version (though it was clearly composed with scope framing in mind).

The scope digital IMAX near me tends to just always fill the screen rather than use pillarboxing (I recall Riddick used pillarboxing there, but maybe they got complaints). Was done both with The Last Knight (and no aspect ratio switches and locked scope arguably is an improvement there) and American Made (a standard 1.85 title which they cropped to scope) when I saw them last year.

[ITDEFX101]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

There were no switches because the entire film (even the Fox logo) was in the expanded ratio. I saw it in IMAX laser, so obviously did not fully fill the screen, but certainly was nice to have a lot more of it used, and really liked the IMAX version (though it was clearly composed with scope framing in mind).

The scope digital IMAX near me tends to just always fill the screen rather than use pillarboxing (I recall Riddick used pillarboxing there, but maybe they got complaints). Was done both with The Last Knight (and no aspect ratio switches and locked scope arguably is an improvement there) and American Made (a standard 1.85 title which they cropped to scope) when I saw them last year.

I noticed that too on the logo and I was like huh?

[Riddhi2011]

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

...lower few feet is always blacked out.. I don't get it.

I saw that too when I went to see 'The Post' recently. I've seen it before as well. Why is the bottom portion masked off by black cloth? I can see the image bleed into the black area, so, the whole height is not getting projected. Why does this happen in digital projection. I mean, they are no longer using film gate masks to force an aspect ratio, like in the celluloid days. So, there shouldn't be any cropping in digital projection, but still it's there.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

As always that theater ALWAYS masks off the lower part of the screen so you loose a few feet in the process.

Did you tell them to tighten down the feet?

[ITDEFX101]

Originally Posted by Riddhi2011

I saw that too when I went to see 'The Post' recently. I've seen it before as well. Why is the bottom portion masked off by black cloth? I can see the image bleed into the black area, so, the whole height is not getting projected. Why does this happen in digital projection. I mean, they are no longer using film gate masks to force an aspect ratio, like in the celluloid days. So, there shouldn't be any cropping in digital projection, but still it's there.

I really think that Regal doesn't have a qualified projectionist that properly calibrates the movie prior to it's run. I saw 3 managers try to manually mask a screen with the black curtains just before Downsizing I think.

I understand there are VAR with these IMAX movies, but the theater should take the time to view the film and make sure it is properly set up for their screen before running it. So many times last year my particular Regal D-IMAX theater played the wrong IMAX movie, forgot to enable the second projector for 3d mode (hence why one lens on the glasses were dark and the other was clear) and so on.

[CelluloidPal]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

There were no switches because the entire film (even the Fox logo) was in the expanded ratio. I saw it in IMAX laser, so obviously did not fully fill the screen, but certainly was nice to have a lot more of it used, and really liked the IMAX version (though it was clearly composed with scope framing in mind).

The scope digital IMAX near me tends to just always fill the screen rather than use pillarboxing (I recall Riddick used pillarboxing there, but maybe they got complaints). Was done both with The Last Knight (and no aspect ratio switches and locked scope arguably is an improvement there) and American Made (a standard 1.85 title which they cropped to scope) when I saw them last year.

They cropped American Made in scope for IMAX?

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

I really think that Regal doesn't have a qualified projectionist that properly calibrates the movie prior to it's run. I saw 3 managers try to manually mask a screen with the black curtains just before Downsizing I think.

I understand there are VAR with these IMAX movies, but the theater should take the time to view the film and make sure it is properly set up for their screen before running it. So many times last year my particular Regal D-IMAX theater played the wrong IMAX movie, forgot to enable the second projector for 3d mode (hence why one lens on the glasses were dark and the other was clear) and so on.

In terms of VAR with IMAX, it works differently at the one in Silver Spring.
At that IMAX screen, any scope film has the one giant pillarbox above the screen while filling up the bottom half of the screen.

As for their masking on regular screen, it's a different story.

[Riddhi2011]

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

I really think that Regal doesn't have a qualified projectionist that properly calibrates the movie prior to it's run. I saw 3 managers try to manually mask a screen with the black curtains just before Downsizing I think.

I saw 'The Post' on a regular scope screen but still a thin area at the bottom was masked off by some black material that was supposedly serving as a border. The image was still being cut-off by that border, because it was semi-transparent and I could see the image being projected beyond the black area.

[CelluloidPal]

Originally Posted by Riddhi2011

I saw 'The Post' on a regular scope screen but still a thin area at the bottom was masked off by some black material that was supposedly serving as a border. The image was still being cut-off by that border, because it was semi-transparent and I could see the image being projected beyond the black area.

I thought The Post was 1.85:1.

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by CelluloidPal

They cropped American Made in scope for IMAX?



In terms of VAR with IMAX, it works differently at the one in Silver Spring.
At that IMAX screen, any scope film has the one giant pillarbox above the screen while filling up the bottom half of the screen.

As for their masking on regular screen, it's a different story.

At that screen (AMC Kips Bay) yes, though I imagine at other IMAXes it wasn't or at least very little (say 1.85 to 1.9).

I think when they did renovations in 2016 they decided to change their policy on how to present films. They stopped using masking on their regular screens (upstairs screens are scope, and the smaller downstairs ones are flat) and probably decided just to always fill the IMAX screen.

I first noticed the cropping with Alice Through the Looking Glass, and since with Inferno and American Made (at least the others didn't fit scope as badly as Alice, in Alice there were several shots with heads cut out of frame, as well as bottom half of subtitled dialogue cut out).

[CelluloidPal]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

At that screen (AMC Kips Bay) yes, though I imagine at other IMAXes it wasn't or at least very little (say 1.85 to 1.9).

I think when they did renovations in 2016 they decided to change their policy on how to present films. They stopped using masking on their regular screens (upstairs screens are scope, and the smaller downstairs ones are flat) and probably decided just to always fill the IMAX screen.

I first noticed the cropping with Alice Through the Looking Glass, and since with Inferno and American Made (at least the others didn't fit scope as badly as Alice, in Alice there were several shots with heads cut out of frame, as well as bottom half of subtitled dialogue cut out).

This is why if I ever have to go to that theater, I check on Fandango to see which screen the movie's playing on. I know about seven of the screens that are masking scope films properly otherwise I go to another theater that does mask their films as they should.