Thursday, October 31, 1996
IMAX:
Lack of screens limits potential IMAX use in full-length feature
filmBy Jeff Hilger
Daily Bruin Contributor
Since 1970, when the first IMAX film premiered at the World’s
Fair in Osaka, Japan, millions of viewers have been educated and
entertained by the larger than life images offered by the
technology. IMAX (which stands for "image maximization") films use
the largest film frame in motion picture history.
Last week two new IMAX features debuted in Los Angeles, "The
Great American West" and "Survival Island."
"The Great American West" tells the story of westward migration
in the United States from the time of the Louisiana Purchase
through the end of the 19th century. Along the way, the film
follows Lewis and Clark, Native Americans and settlers on their
different journeys throughout the American West.
The film is an extremely well-presented history lesson, complete
with the natural beauty that the IMAX format captures so well. The
film’s best scene concerns a "mountain man" who has an extremely
close encounter with a bear. The bear chases him through the water
until the man hides underneath a beaver dam. The scene is quite
exhilarating, but when the closing credits roll, you feel as if
you’ve learned something too.
"Survival Island" does an even better job of both educating and
entertaining simultaneously. The film looks at the animal
populations on South Georgia Island, an isolated island southeast
of the Falkland Islands in the Antarctic Ocean. The images of male
elephant seals courting and then protecting their "harem" is both
fascinating and hilarious. At one point, a daddy seal practically
crushes his children as he climbs over them to fight off another
male who may have designs on a seal in his harem. These animals are
not cute, in a classic sense, but they are certainly endearing. The
millions of penguins that lurk in the background of the seals
become the focus of the movie’s middle part and the huge IMAX
screen makes you feel as if you live among the penguins. At one
point, they are coming in from sea, and as they are climbing up
onto the rocks, waves keep coming in and washing them back to sea.
The film is full of entertaining moments such as these.
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the film explores how the 10
million animals that inhabit the island each summer are able to
survive and coexist in each other’s presence. After seeing this
film, you truly feel as if you’ve spent a day on the island.
But this feeling is only possible with the technology of
IMAX.
Each frame is 10 times larger than that of 35mm film, which is
the standard format of Hollywood movies. The larger film provides
greater resolution, so that when it is projected onto an oversized
screen, the quality holds up. At the approximately 60 IMAX theaters
across the nation, the images are projected onto screens that are
not just larger than normal. The screen at the California Museum of
Science and Industry’s IMAX theater is 70 feet wide by 50 feet
tall.
According to Lynda Young of the Museum of Science and Industry,
the philosophy of IMAX is to put the viewer "inside the picture."
To achieve this illusion, IMAX screens are so large that the image
extends into the viewer’s peripheral vision so that one sees
virtually nothing but the picture above, below, or to the
sides.
In the mid-1980s, the Los Angeles IMAX theater opened. At that
point, theaters existed only in the largest of the nation’s cities
and were almost exclusively connected with science museums.
Since that point, the technology has expanded. Theaters now
operate in such relatively remote locations as Lahaina, Maui and
Zion National Park. The standard format of IMAX films is 45 minute
science documentaries. There have been exceptions, such as the
"Rolling Stones Live" film, but the vast majority of IMAX films
have been produced the educational science format. At present,
nobody seems to be planning a full-length feature filmed in IMAX
format, although such a product would have potential for incredible
popularity.
Imagine watching the next Schwarzenegger action film on a screen
10 times larger than the largest one in Westwood.
The primary reason why this won’t happen anytime soon is that
there simply aren’t enough screens around for such a project to be
profitable.
If IMAX screens continue to proliferate, however, this may
someday become a reality. There’s no denying the technology’s
versatility. In one scene, you can see intricate details of the
inside of a flower. In the next, you feel as if you’re moving down
a river on a rafting trip.
Of the films that fall under the educational category, most can
be further sub-classified as dealing with either human achievement
or natural wonders. In the past, films in the human achievement
category have included "The Dream is Alive," which looked at NASA
and astronaut training, "Stormchasers," which looked at pilots who
fly into in clement weather to look for patterns, and "The
Discoverers," which looked at different explorers of past and
present. The natural wonders category seems to have produced more
entries. These have included "Blue Planet," "Antarctica," "Mountain
Gorillas," "Hidden Hawaii," and "The Living Sea" among others.
Movies like these simply would not be possible without IMAX
technology. In a normal format, it would be an entertaining science
documentary. As an IMAX feature, you feel as if you are a baby
penguin or elephant seal who opens your eyes to discover the
incredible world around you. IMAX films have the power to open our
eyes to the natural world around us in a way that standard movies
cannot do.
FILM: IMAX tickets are $5 for students. For more information
call (213) 744-2019.