The Dark Knight Concerns about the imax scenes...

[DrawingBlanks]

Okay, so everybody knows that about four scenes of TDK, including the prologue, have been filmed in imax. Something that's been worrying me though is this:
In the behind-the-scenes featurette on the imax website, the one guy mentions that the aspect ratio for the imax cameras is taller than it is wide. So does this mean that when watching the film in the regular cinema, that the film will just arbitrarily change from widescreen format to not widescreen and then back again during those scenes!?! If not, then will the scenes be edited for regular theatres and have the tops and bottoms of those scenes chopped off!?!? I really hope my complete ignorance of imax and film technology is just causing me unneccessary grief...

 

[Rando Aces]

they may have just had 2 cameras side by side. i dont know. im sticking with what i said.

 

[Alixyveth]

I have this question, too...

 

[Kevincomplete]

seriously, i really think it makes sense that the "height" of IMAX can be considered "extra" for the IMAX screen only. When seen in the regular format, tops and bottom "cut off" -- I think we'll find the quality of the IMAX film experience without the size and height. That's what is revolutionary about this hybrid filming experience... switching formats in the middle of a movie would be unprofessional. No no. I have confidence that they made this work for a reason.

 

[Riven]

I'm pretty sure it'll work out, but isn't anyone enough up to speed on this technology to give us a sort of conclusive answer?

 

[Indrid Cold]

Even though the clip is in IMAX format, it can be reduced to match a regular 35MM print without losing any detail.

 

[andybond]

I'm sure that they shot the film with the wider 35mm aspect ratio in mind as well as the taller IMAX. If you've ever seen a monitor on set on a behind the scenes feature you'll notice they have these boxes with some of the image outside the box. This is so they'll have an idea of what it looks like with the final matte on it. There's a few of these boxes so they can compose the shot for a wider film aspect ratio or taller TV or even taller IMAX ratio. So they'll crop the top and the bottom of huge IMAX image (aspect ratio: 1.34:1) down to 2.35:1.

In IMAX you might have times where there are scenes that take up the whole screen (i.e. the scene shot in IMAX format) and the rest in the wider ratio. But i don't think that'll be as distracting as it sounds cause the screen is so effin' big.

IMAX is 10000 x 7000 pixels. Where High-definition (sort of the digital equivalent to 35mm) is 1920 x 1080 pixels. So the transfer to 35mm will technically lose resolution it'll still look as good as any other part of the film. Cause the IMAX source footage is of a ridiculous high quality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Imaxcomparison.png

Look up aspect ratio on wikipedia. A lot of info there.

They're not dumb enough to let it ruin the experience of watching either way. No one's face is going to be stretched. Nothing important is gonna get cropped out. Problems like these are bush league, film school worries and filmmakers are compulsive perfectionists. They won't let something like that slide.

I'm sure everything will be aesthetically pleasing and if anything the IMAX version will have the two different aspect ratios. The only thing you'll probably notice is how much better IMAX looks at full resolution.

 

[Alixyveth]

Awesome first post - welcome to the Hype and thanks for the info!

 

[mfm1019]

From http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3idf612c96b4705db46dad5b1ae5e81eae:

"The prologue is one of the scenes photographed in the 70mm Imax format. The rest of the film was lensed in 35mm and will be remastered to the Imax format for release in Imax theaters. In those theaters, the 70mm-lensed sequences will fill the screen and the 35mm-lensed scenes will appear letterboxed. (In traditional theaters, the aspect ratio will remain the same, though some expect that audiences might see a shift in image quality.)"

So yes, in normal theaters, the top and bottom of the IMAX scenes will be cut off, but the movie will stay widescreen the whole time. In IMAX theaters, the majority of the movie will be widescreen, but the IMAX scenes will expand.

What I'm wondering is how this is all gonna work once the movie comes out on DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/whatever. I'm guessing it'll be like the version released in traditional theaters, and we'll just lose the top and bottom of the IMAX scenes.

 

[Alixyveth]

Thanks for the info, mfm!