THE IMAX PHENOMENON

IMAX first appeared with the film, TIGER CHILD, at Expo '70, in Osaka, Japan. The impact of the process lead to the introduction of special IMAX cinemas around the world.

The system uses the same 65mm camera negative designed for the 70mm process, but it travels through the camera and projector horizontally. Like 35mm horizontal format, VistaVision, it enables you to expose a much bigger negative on the same width of film. The IMAX frame is 15 perforations wide, producing an image 3 times larger than 65/70mm, and is therefore potentially 3 times the quality. But unlike 70mm, IMAX is not a wide-screen process. Its shape is 1 : 1.33, a throw back to the silent film days, and similar to present day television and 16mm. But it is without a doubt, big screen. The screens in IMAX cinemas are typically 5 or 6 stories high. With screens so big, the idea of widescreen loses all meaning. The IMAX image, although squarish in proportions, is so immense, that it stretches beyond normal human peripheral vision. And the quality is so pristine, it is a decidedly engulfing, virtual-reality experience.

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IMAX has several technological offspring. OMNIMAX (now called IMAX Dome) which premiered in 1973, with, GARDEN ISLE. IMAX Dome (OMNIMAX) is identical to IMAX, but photographed with an extremely wide-angle lens, and projected onto a concave dome screen up to 30 meters in diameter, instead of a flat one. The IMAX DOME cinemas are physically very different to IMAX cinemas, but in practice, the two formats are largely interchangeable. IMAX DOME prints play IMAX theatres, and IMAX prints, with or without optical conversion for the concave, play IMAX DOME theatres. There are, however, artistic differences in shooting for flat and concave screens.

There is also IMAX 3D, unveiled at Expo '86. It is a flat screen process, where the audience views the film through polarized glasses. And the very latest IMAX Solido technology, with 3-D images projected on a wide-field dome. The images extend in front, above, and to the sides of the viewers, when viewed with IMAX E3D cordless, electronic Liquid Crystal Shutter Glasses. IMAX Solido may very well be the most awesome motion picture of all time. Its full impact on world audiences is yet to be realized. Sony has built a new IMAX Solido complex in New York. Sony Studios is producing several 3-D films. Significantly, it is the first time in many years where a major studio has aligned itself with a non-standard film format for theatrical release.

Finally there is IMAX HD. This new format is filmed and projected at 48 f.p.s., to reduce strobing, and providing greater clarity of detail. It is particularly well suited to filming IMAX Simulator Rides and other special-effects ride films.

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Not unlike the old Cinerama, IMAX's success has been through the presentation of documentaries and travelogues, almost exclusively, until just recently. It has long been thought that the format was not suitable for making narrative, dramatic films. Indeed, the medium itself does seem to overpower the story being told. But all this is changing.

The renowned special-effects wizard, Douglas Trumbull, and king of special-venue and "ride films", has aligned himself with IMAX. Trumbull now believes today's audiences are ready for theatrical films in the IMAX process. His company, Trumbull Company, Inc., recently merged with Toronto based IMAX Corporation, and Douglas Trumbull was named vice-chairman of IMAX and president of its new subsidiary, Ridefilm Corporation. Trumbull predicts, "I believe movies will have to become more spectacular and immersive. The new market is dramatic entertainment films." However, he has a major qualification to this statement. A new generation of giant screen movies can't last as long as normal feature films. He says, "My rule of thumb is that as you increase the power of the medium, which is a very sensory experience, human beings seem to want the time frame of immersion in that experience to be shortened. Very few successful IMAX films are longer than 40 minutes. When you're looking at the big screen with a hugh density of information, you just don't want to watch it for as long as a regular feature film. There is some kind of inverse ratio between immersive impact and length."

If Trumbull is right about IMAX's suitability for narrative, dramatic films, there could be a new, bigger format, for the production of theatrical films in the future. This would mean 70mm would have a companion in the big-screen market. Together, they have the potential to hold digital television and digital "cinema" at bay.

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As of June 1995, there are 125 permanent IMAX theatres operating in 20 countries worldwide, with another 13 permanent theatres scheduled to open in 1995. The breakdown of existing theatres is 60 IMAX, 52 IMAX Dome, 11 IMAX 3D, and 2 IMAX Solido. The above breakdown includes theatres which house more than one IMAX technology, such as the triplex, IMAX/IMAX Dome/IMAX 3D theatre in Barcelona. In the United States there are 56 theatres, 12 in Canada, 18 in Europe, 19 in Japan, 7 in Mexico, 9 in Asia, 3 in Australia, and 1 in South Africa.

IMAX, with its restricted number of outlets, and specialized-style of product, is likely to remain more in the realms of novelty cinema. But will it? Already over 35 million people a year see IMAX productions, and spend over 100 million dollars at the box office. IMAX Corp. predicts that by the year 2000, they will most likely have over 200 theatre outlets, and that the above audience and box office figures will double. We'll have to wait and see how audiences respond to IMAX Solido and IMAX dramatic movies. In time, they might want even more than the traditional 70mm experience?

Peter Gray
(near Los Angeles)
P.O. Box 5132
Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222
United States of America
telephone: +1(661) 242-1234

dp@petergray.org