Harry Potter 6 with new IMAX 3D footage

today I saw an announcement that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HarryPotter6) will be running with 25 minutes of IMAX footage.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/feed.asp?NID=23296

of course, that's really cool and all that good stuff, but a lot of people don't know what that really means and because I got a few emails asking, I'm gonna explain it in the most non-technical way I can.

first of all: yes, movies in theaters are still on film, 35mm film (there are a growing number of digital theaters, but for the most part it's emulsion running through sprockets on reels in the projection booth.

IMAX film is the biggest film format of them all -- the frame size is almost TEN TIMES the size of a 35mm film frame. when people come to visit my booth, I compare the two to show just what I mean. "IMAX" literally stands for "IMAGE MAXIMUM."

when an announcement like today's is made, what they're really saying is the traditional movie is being transfered to IMAX 70mm, and something called a DMR print is being made. "DMR" is IMAX's term for the digital remastering process where a 35mm negative, print, or digital source is essentially "upres'ed" to the IMAX 15/70 film format. (*of course, most digital sources, if they know from the start that it'll end up in IMAX there maybe no upres'ing needed.)

this is different from what Christopher Nolan did for THE DARK KNIGHT -- Nolan had realized or had the foresight that an IMAX print would be made, and so, shot his 35 minutes of footage with IMAX CAMERAS. but the rest of the movie was shot on 35mm and upres'ed.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/16-07/ff_darknight
http://www.filmwad.com/nolan-to-shoot-i-dark-knight-i-in-imax-format-2642-p.html

anyone who caught The Dark Knight in it's IMAX version knows that there are entire sequences that suddenly and dramatically "GO WIDE" and the image is even more stunning and breathtaking. this is the difference between film that's been converted and footage specifically shot in IMAX.

then of course, there's IMAX 3D, which means, two entire prints of film running with either dual projectors, or with an "over-under" system that ran the right eye and left eye of each print. this is costly, cumbersome and creates twice as many problems when problems arise. most recently BEOWULF was in IMAX 3D and it was stunning.

on the horizon and in the near future comes yet another format: IMAX is stepping into the DIGITAL 3D environment.

just two weeks ago, I attended the Giant Screen Cinema Association convention where I saw, among other things, the demo of the new IMAX DIGITAL system. there were a few issues with this, but on the whole, the system looked FANTASTIC. was it the shape of traditional, "classical" IMAX movies? no. but it was higher res than any HD image available, it could handle HIGH CONTRASTS (which is a huge issue between digital video and film) and the image was sharp (for the most part). where it also excelled was with 3D. it handled the 3D better than any RealD or other digital 3D system out there, and to my eye (and many others in attendance) was better looking than 3D on film.

what does this all mean for the public? hopefully, continued trips to the theater. I can't help but get giddy about the whole thing. I usually get criticized for my enthusiasm (because nobody can believe I like my job this much) but bigger picture, better sound, and continued 'A' level content.

frankly, I think nothing's cooler.