Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty Nine The Best Movies in IMAX
After filming "Interstellar", we will stop science fiction movies, unless subsequent special effects technology can allow a special effects team of more than 1,500 people to show an extremely real, vast space and aliens in about a year, compressing the movie cycle into two
Within a year, otherwise the cycle would be too long.
It runs through the entire film, not just one or two shots, nor does it repeat itself in a few backgrounds.
"Edge of Tomorrow" was actually shot on Earth, while "The Martian" only had special effects on the Martian ground and starry sky.
"Interstellar" also doesn't have too complicated special effects.
After finalizing the first draft, Tang An was not in a hurry to continue writing the script. There was still a key question before him.
Nolan originally shot using 70mm IMAX film. In the end, there are basically no movies in China that use 70mm film.
In fact, even if it is shot with 70mm film, there are only digital imax, ordinary digital, and 35mm film versions available in China.
As for 70mm film IMAX, there are only 5 screens in China in total.
There are almost no film imax in the world, and imax is promoting digital imax globally, which is cheaper.
The Huaguo giant screens developed by China Film Digital are also digital giant screens.
Even if we look around the world, less than 3% of movie theaters have 70mm film IMAX projection equipment.
No matter how good the filming is, it's all in vain because the screening conditions can't keep up.
However, there are still some differences between what was shot on 70mm film and what was shot on 35mm film, even if they are projected on digital max and giant screens.
After all, the quality of the film source is higher, so it will be somewhat better.
However, the playback equipment does not meet the requirements and cannot 100% display the effect of the movie.
How to weigh it, or use digital photography.
"The Martian" was shot using a 4k digital camera, and now it seems that the United States has developed a 6k digital camera.
What was shot on 35mm film was 4k, and after post-production it was almost 3.5k.
Even after shooting with a 4k camera, there is no 4k in post-production. Even if the post-production of "The Martian" is extremely detailed, it is only 3k, but ordinary viewers can hardly tell the difference.
After post-compression, the final film shot by a 6k digital camera can reach 4k, which is clearer than 35mm film.
However, there are not many 4K digital projection equipment in China, so it is still futile.
70mm film imax is the best choice, but there is no camera and there are only 5 in the world. Whether it can be rented is a problem.
Even with the same equipment and screen, the projection effect is different. It may be due to problems with the projector lens, light bulb, etc.
Not only do you need to consider the equipment, but also whether the film itself is suitable or not.
Different movies have different picture requirements. Most of "The Martian" was shot digitally, and some were shot on film.
There are too many questions, as well as the choice between 3D and 2D. Tang An cannot make these decisions alone. Today, we invited the Tiangong Yicai art director Xiao Yang, the crew's art director Ye Jintian, and the lighting and photography team leaders to come over at the meeting.
I did some research in the room.
Although there is no storyboard, everyone here is a professional, and after reading the entire first draft of the script, you can know the overall style of the movie.
Ye Jintian first said, "Dr. Tang, this film is set in the end of the world. The overall style of the picture in the early stage should be relatively gloomy. Even if you rent a 6k digital camera, the effect will not be much better than the effect of 35mm film."
Photographer Zhang Li nodded, "Lao Ye is right, there are still differences between digital images and analog images."
Tang An asked, "Is it possible to achieve similar effects by adjusting the overall ambient lighting and adjusting the light later?"
Xiao Yang shook his head, "Indoors, it will take a few more months to get close, but it's only close. But outdoors, it's almost impossible, unless all the exterior scenes are done in a studio with a blue screen."
"That excludes digital cameras."
Since it really didn't work, Tang An stopped worrying and made his decision immediately.
If you shoot a blockbuster like "Transformers", there will be almost no difference between digital and film.
Although the Martian ground in "The Martian" is all earthy yellow, in order to make the entire film give the audience a positive feeling and not make the audience feel pessimistic, the overall tone is relatively bright.
The post-apocalyptic background of "Interstellar" has a desolate exterior, and the overall tone is gray.
The image produced by a digital camera is a digital image, while the film is an analog image, just like the difference between an LCD TV and a large desktop color TV.
Desktop large color TVs have richer tones and are far more delicate than LCD TVs.
"As for film, I will go to Fox and Columbia to see if I can rent a 70mm Mimax camera. More than one-third of the shots will use 70mm film. Lao Zhang will have a hard time then."
The cost of "Interstellar" itself is not very high, and the use of 70mm film is within the affordable range.
Although the imax camera is extremely heavy, there will definitely be a lot of shoulder-resistant shooting in the movie, and he, the chief photographer, will definitely become one of the most tiring people on the crew.
But Zhang Li didn't care, it was all work.
Next came the issue of 3D and 2D. After unanimous discussion, we gave up on 3D shooting.
Just like the reason for choosing film, the current 3D technology is not very mature yet. There are many shots with dark light at the beginning. If 3D is used, the picture will be even darker.
Moreover, the original film is a full 170 minutes long, so some viewers may not be able to bear it and feel dizzy, so the gain outweighs the loss.
Even if Tang An compresses the plot, the reduction of 15 minutes is already the limit.
There are many examples in Hollywood where the film was too long and the producers forced the director to reduce the length, causing the film to fail.
The much-anticipated 2005 blockbuster "Kingdom" suffered a tragedy due to the intervention of Fox. This masterpiece of great director Ridley Scott was cut by Fox for 50 minutes.
The original film after Ridley Scott streamlined it was 192 minutes, but Fox cut it down to 144 minutes.
If 50 minutes were missing, the plot would be unwatchable and would be a waste.
Of course, we can’t blame Fox. No other studio would be able to allow the set to reach 192 minutes.
Ridley Scott can't fight Fox, even if he is one of the producers, his arm can't twist his thigh.
The "King Kong" filmed by Peter Jackson was also nearly 190 minutes long. In addition to being a producer, his wife was also a producer.
There is also a producer who is the screenwriter of the movie and the screenwriter of the "Lord of the Rings" series.
The producers are all part of Peter Jackson's group, so they can be so willful.
The same goes for Nolan. His wife is a professional producer. Otherwise, "Inception" and "The Dark Knight" could have been shot with 70mmimax?
The producers of "Inception" are Nolan and his wife.
70mm IMAX film is expensive to shoot, and the projection equipment is expensive. A 120-minute copy alone weighs 800 kilograms, and it costs 300,000 yuan to make a copy. Generally, projectionists need one month of professional training before they can screen.
So there is no real IMAX movie in the world so far.
"Inception", "The Dark Knight", "Transformers 2", and "Mission: Impossible 4" are the only four movies that were shot on 70mm imax film.
However, the duration of imax is only half an hour, half an hour, 15 minutes, and 15 minutes respectively.
"Avatar" is digital imax, and it was filmed with a digital camera and then converted into imax.
Nearly an hour of footage in "Interstellar" needed to be shot on 70mm film, and the rest could be shot on 35mm film.
Once successful, this will be one of the best IMAX movies in China and even the world.
Although there are only two in China, the Beijing Huaguo Science and Technology Museum and the Beijing Huaguo Film Museum, one is the Chongqing Science and Technology Museum, one is the Guangzhou Science Center, and one is the Dongguan Wanda International Cinema, a total of 5 IMAX film screens.
These five screens are at least 278 meters high, which is much better than those digital IMAX screens in their early 20s or even more than 10 meters high.
However, even if it is shown on an ordinary screen, with higher quality film sources, the effect will be far superior to ordinary movies.
Of course, it’s up to the person to plan the project, and everything depends on the results of the shooting. Everything will stop before the shooting is completed.
ps: It's a pity that this movie can't be watched on the film IMAX screen. When it was first released, there were only two IMAX film screens left in China, one in Beijing and Guangzhou, and the other three were replaced with digital screens. I wanted to watch it in Guangzhou