The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Watched this last night during Bat-fever. I'm sure the whole transfer looks great but MAN do those Imax scenes make the rest of the movie look like garbage by comparison.

Are you sure it isn't the quality of the movie that makes it garbage?

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

Are you sure it isn't the quality of the movie that makes it garbage?

I love the film and its user rating average is super high on IMDB and elsewhere. People need to stop acting like the consensus on this movie is negative. You get the eye roll sir!!!

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I love the film and its user rating average is super high on IMDB and elsewhere. People need to stop acting like the consensus on this movie is negative. You get the eye roll sir!!!

I was being sort of sarcastic. I personally hate it but I said it as a joke.

[Mr. Forest]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Watched this last night during Bat-fever. I'm sure the whole transfer looks great but MAN do those Imax scenes make the rest of the movie look like garbage by comparison.

I noticed this issue for myself when I watched TDKR on Tuesday. Thankfully the movie is as good as it is.

[Early Memphis]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

Are you sure it isn't the quality of the movie that makes it garbage?

...

[ArrestedDevelopment]

I wouldn't say it's garbage. It was disappointing and Nolan set the bar high with TDK so it was definitely a challenge to come out on top.

[Will.]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Watched this last night during Bat-fever. I'm sure the whole transfer looks great but MAN do those Imax scenes make the rest of the movie look like garbage by comparison.

Interstellar has the same problem. You get spoiled by the Imax and then you have to go back to the 35mm

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

I got the Digibook at FYE for $6.99 over the weekend. For those looking for one yet. Though you have to buy something to get it at that price.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Watched this last night during Bat-fever. I'm sure the whole transfer looks great but MAN do those Imax scenes make the rest of the movie look like garbage by comparison.

That's Nolan for you. If his anamorphic 35mm stuff doesn't look like it's got a layer of Vaseline on the lens then he thinks he's doing it wrong. The lack of resolution in the 35mm shots was downright painful in 15/70 IMAX.

[Tech-UK]

It cannot solely be down to how it was shot, but the process of which Nolan prefers his films to be transferred?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Tech-UK

It cannot solely be down to how it was shot, but the process of which Nolan prefers his films to be transferred?

It's a bit of both. He really does prefer to shoot anamorphic soft as shit, and because it then doesn't go through all the sharpening trickery of a DI (having been timed photochemically) nor come directly from the negative (the timed IP is the basis of all the positive records that we see, even the DCP) that only compounds the issue.

[edit] Even 6K scans of the timed 35mm stuff for TDKR (which was used for the 15/70 filmout for IMAX) aren't enough to rescue the detail because the damage has already been done. [edit the second] It so won't surprise me if the 2K-sourced 35mm anamorphic scenes in BvS look far better blown up to 15/70 than Nolan's stuff.

I find it so ironic that this champion of film is so determined to make his 35mm stuff look as dull and muddy as possible.

[imsounoriginal]

Whatever Nolan's 35mm process is, it doesn't seem to have affected Inception or Interstellar. Perhaps the quality of 35mm treatment in TDKR is indicative of the overall lack of effort the movie received?

[Geoff D]

I think Interstellar's 35mm is just as soft as TDKR's, perhaps even softer because they were shooting it on custom lenses designed to work best in the cramped confines of the spaceship cabins.

Inception is better but there's a fair bit of 5/65 snuck in there (for which the ratio doesn't change) so that movie's got a ringer.

[imsounoriginal]

The odd shot here and there in Interstellar is soft (and there's that hair) but for the vast majority of it the 35mm content was aces to my eyes. Inception I know there was some VistaVision (yes?) in there, particularly in the snow sequences IIRC, but even beyond that the movie never looked less than great. (And clearly the Academy didn't seem to mind.)

Perhaps it's the inherent darkness and grunginess that comes with shooting Gotham City in TDKR that makes it looks so gross. Just a poor color palette in general for that movie, and Pittsburgh has never been the most photogenic city anyway (although Jack Reacher worked wonders with it, also on 35mm).

[Geoff D]

Interstellar also used 8/35 for the model shots, TDKR also used 8/35 as a substitute in some of the 'IMAX' scenes. Inception employed 5-perf 65mm as the 'specialist' taking format in place of 15-perf IMAX, though it probably used some 8/35 too, yeah.

[edit]As long as there's enough light around then Interstellar looks okay, but as soon as it starts getting a bit darker the detail drops off horrifically, and the really thin blacks in certain shots don't help matters (because contrast also aids with perception of sharpness). And they seemed to shoot the movie wide open which gave the focus pullers a thankless task, so I just don't think the 35mm stuff is in any way pretty, and TDKR had much the same malady IMO.

[edit part deux] And I get that's his 'look', right, it just tickles me that one of film's biggest proponents is its own worst enemy when it comes to objectively good looking PQ.

[imsounoriginal]

Nolan is a film advocate, but 35mm almost seems like a necessary evil for him. Not like he hasn't been steadily increasing the amount of large-format shooting in his movies post-Dark Knight and is prepping a movie that will supposedly be completely shot in either 65mm and/or 15/70mm. (Have you seen the DGA Q&A he hosted for Tarantino and H8? Gushing on about the beauty of UP70 and getting people back into theaters, etc.)

[Geoff D]

Indeed, both him and QT have been involved in making 5/65 more of a thing in recent years (Interstellar's 70mm run also required some refurbishment of venues prior to QT's bigger 70mm rollout for H8) so if that's now become his 'standard' taking format as appears to be the case with Dunkirk then I won't complain.

[imsounoriginal]

Yup. Just wish QT was as embracing of home video/Blu-ray as Nolan has been

[Geoff D]

^ I can't edit the above post so I'll just mention PTA shooting on 65mm too.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

^ I can't edit the above post so I'll just mention PTA shooting on 65mm too.

Click on the post number and then edit that way.
I run into the same problem with "first page" posts.