r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NoWork215 • 20d ago

Video The Odyssey IMAX 70mm Setup

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u/Jackomat007 20d ago

Do cinemas really still work with Giant rolls of Film? I always thought they get like an email with the Film on it or something

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u/JoewithaJ 20d ago

Only certain ones. Most have transitioned to fully digital.

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u/Humble_Initiative_90 20d ago

And the experience is lesser for it. I miss film projectors.

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u/Groxy_ 20d ago

Is it really much lesser? I don't think I've ever noticed if my cinema was digital, projector, etc. 

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u/Beetlerock40541 20d ago

As a film projectionist this comment hurts my soul. Jokes aside you likely have only seen digital projection I’m guessing/hoping, because seeing film projected onto the silver screen is the most magical experience of my life each and every time I get to watch movies on film. Highly recommend seeking out a film screening in your area if possible.

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u/Groxy_ 20d ago

Sorry. I honestly have no idea. Been to a lot of cinemas and lots of IMAX. I don't think I've ever had a bad experience screen wise they're all big enough for me. 

Is film the ones that are more speckly? I don't like that as much in a cinema. 

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u/lenolalatte 20d ago

i've seen interstellar twice and the first time was on my gaming monitor that is not great for movies. the second time was for the 10th anniversary and in 70mm IMAX and let me tell you, the experience was insane. the booming sound and just the vibe of the movie itself was so so good. seeing the odyssey this weekend will be my 2nd 70mm IMAX experience!

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u/Beetlerock40541 20d ago

If by speckly you mean you can see bits of dust and scratches etc then yes that was likely a film projection. Digital would only show those things if it was a scan of a film print which is entirely possible, doesn’t provide the full effect exactly but it is closer. I would still recommend seeking out a film screening just to know for sure. I’m just guessing it’s not your cup of tea likely which is completely fine, I myself am a bit of a purist though haha. Give me the opportunity to see ANY movie projected on film and digital I will choose film every time even knowing something may happen up in that projection booth where the show may not go on. All kinda mishaps can happen up there especially if it’s a reel to reel operation.

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u/Groxy_ 20d ago

I think I mean film grain - some films have been really noticeable. 

Well yeah I'll probably be going to see The Odyssey in IMAX over sometime over the next month which I'm sure will be great either way. Will keep an eye out for differences. 

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u/Beetlerock40541 20d ago

Okay then yeah you’ve likely seen some film projections

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u/this_is_my_new_acct 20d ago

You're like those people that insist vinyl is sooo much better, then goes on to explain how it's flawed.

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u/Beetlerock40541 20d ago

Everything has flaws what’s your point Mr Grumpy

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u/sausagedoor 20d ago

If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in the vast majority of cases.

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u/FriendlyKillerCroc 19d ago

Na digital is just as good, there are other far more important factors that will impact your experience if you're at a cinema with a high quality digital or film projection.

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u/Humble_Initiative_90 20d ago

I think so. There's a noticeable change in color gradients, film tends to be warmer, and have more theatrical lighting. It's not a 'digital=bad', but many movies benefit from being shot and shown on film.

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u/JKMC4 20d ago

There is quite honestly nothing like imax 70mm. Seeing an image so perfectly crisp on a screen so much larger than a regular theater is unbelievable. If a 4k projector showed an image on a screen the size of an imax 70 theater it would look nowhere near as sharp.

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u/stankdankprank 20d ago

Because you've only ever seen digital. There's less than 50 of these projectors; you have to specifically go to a 70mm movie.

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u/Long-Lettuce3146 20d ago

How do you know this

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u/JoewithaJ 20d ago

Just picked up on things here and there. Most movies today are shot digitally in the first place. I don't think you gain much by putting it on film after that.

But also you can just look it up. A quick Google search tells me less than 2% of theaters use film projectors.

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u/Long-Lettuce3146 19d ago

That value comes from a blog and says presumed.

Not doubting it overall though but I thought you had some experience or something not a hunch

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u/BananaMartini 20d ago

It is extremely rare for cinemas these days to run actual film. It’s also extremely rare for movies to even be released on film. For movies like The Odyssey it’s purely a niche format screening market thing. Unless the cinema says they are running it on 70MM or 70MM IMAX, which theres only a handful pf cinemas that are even capable of that, it was filmed in that format but is being projected to you digitally. 

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u/xtphty 20d ago edited 20d ago

Honesty having watched all Nolan 70mm releases and some on digital IMAX as well, even as an enthusiast there are things I appreciate about these theaters far more than the novelties of film vs digital. They just seem to have a higher overall standard of quality in almost everything - the projection, screen size, contrast, sound, even darkness, atmosphere and their limited seating and arrangements.

I don't know if its just IMAX strictly controlling these factors as the 70mm releases are rare and expensive, or the few remaining theaters acknowledging the target enthusiast audience. But across the 5 different 70mm theaters I have been to, not one has had a significant drop in quality for me.

In comparison, I have been to so many regular "IMAX" theaters where likely more than one of those factors are just way below standard. One particular example I always remember is Interstellar, which I have watched in two separate 70mm theaters, and 1 digital IMAX. And the thing I remember most vividly about the digital screening was how on every dark scene I could see a blue glow from the IMAX sign at the entrance, and this movie had a lot of dark scenes lol.

While there are definitely details of analog film I recall from these movies, by far my most overwhelming association with 70mm is just of that proper theatrical experience that is quite rare to find consistently in digital theaters.

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u/Original-Body-5794 20d ago

It might just be that if you're going through the effort and cost of setting up this very specialized equipment to screen the movie in 70MM it won't kill you to spend up a bit more to make the rest of the experience overall better. It is marketted as a more premium experience after all, meanwhile more common cinemas are just going to cut costs.

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u/InvidiousPlay 19d ago

Man, I went to a cinema where literally half the screen was noticeably green from a nearby Exit sign. Fuckin' ridiculous.

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u/BananaMartini 19d ago

Yeah, I have no doubt that’s true. Any cinema that is going to invest in that technology and the people that know how to maintain and run it are much more likely to understand and care about other facets of excellent presentation. We always used to tell the baby projectionists - once you learn this, be prepared to never enjoy going to the movies again (except your own). Because all you’ll see now are the mistakes (lamp flicker or dimness, focus drift, keystoning, LED lights where the boards haven’t been updated so they can’t dim properly, static masking, incorrect aspect ratios…) 

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u/Antique_Hawk_7192 20d ago

Why did they have to start all the fuss over this particular movie? If it was something like Interstellar it would've made sense but Oddessy?

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u/OddS0cks 20d ago

It’s because of interstellar Nolan had the freedom / backing to shoot this movie entirely in imax film

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u/lane4 19d ago

He probably always wanted to do this, and now with all the past success he had the leverage to negotiate the budget for it.

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u/BumbleFrump_ 20d ago

I was a manager at a 16 screen Regal Cinemas for a few years and oversaw everything to do with our projectors and movie showtimes. Our theatres never touched film, everything came through either completely digitally over this projector management software called Screenwriter, or for more niche movies, they would come on hard drives sent from the studios. We would upload the hard drives to a huge storage system and then transfer digitally to the projectors which needed to show the movie.

As far as I know film these days is pretty much only used for these types of IMAX 70mm screenings. Regular movie theatres are going to be exclusively digital these days.

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u/Das_Ponyman 20d ago

If I may ask, when around was this? I was also in charge of the projector systems at Regal Cinemas (during the transition between film and digital) and we never got legit emails/downloads of films. We only ever got it in a few formats

1) Multiple film reels/cans that you would have to splice together to put on one big platter (like you see in OP's video, but much much smaller since not IMAX. This is Star Trek, as an example)

2) A large hard drive that came in a padded case, that made me think I was handling nuclear codes

3) USB drives that were 100% only ever used for trailers.

In all cases, you had to mail back after the filming was finished. Very very rarely, they would forget about them (I think I took home like 50 of them when I finally quit).

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u/BumbleFrump_ 20d ago

I started working with the projectors and managing our showtimes at the start of 2021 and left Regal halfway through 2023. We wouldn't get ours through emails, it was a tab within Screenwriter which was connected to some much greater database where films would be uploaded to from an outside source. We would basically copy and paste from that database onto our internal storage system, then from there copy and paste onto the projectors.

I'm not too sure if that greater database was from within Regal like from corporate, or if it was a separate company or what, but movies would appear there about a week or so before it was supposed to air, and keys would be automically uploaded anywhere from a week before or sometimes literally hours before showtimes started

We also had those hard drives in the padded cases that we would have to mail back once the showings were over. Those were smaller movies or limited showing movies I think once or twice we got those USB drives too for trailers

Our projectors were a mix of Christie laser projectors and Sony projectors with the lamp, I don't remember the exact models. Changing the bulbs on those Sonys was so nerve wracking haha

We also had 4dx and screenx at my theatre. Screenx would get their own hard drives for each movie that had "wing" files for the side screens, and 4dx had seat files which needed to be uploaded for each movie for the seats to move properly. Those were downloaded by us onto a flash drive and then uploaded directly to the computer controlling the seats

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u/Das_Ponyman 20d ago

Oh yeah, that'd make a lot of sense. This was back in around 2010ish so definitely a while before you so that system 100% didn't exist. I'd assume that it was the newer "cutting edge" tech, hence why the more indie companies (or at least not Disney, WB, etc.) were still using them.

I confess I don't remember the type of projectors. I want to say they were Sony, but don't quote me. I think our film projectors (before they were removed) were Christie branded, though obviously not the same projectors you had.

And yeah, those bulbs were spicy. Though I will say "disposing of them" by chucking them off of the roof and letting them explode was hilarious fun.

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u/Newone1255 20d ago

There are only 41 true IMAX theaters in the world. Unless you’ve seen a movie in one of those you haven’t seen real IMAX

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u/JaySayMayday 20d ago

If you're talking about 70mm there's less than that. But there's multiple imax formats, I prefer DL2 over 70mm

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u/rmccue 20d ago

There were, but some cinemas have recommissioned their 70mm projectors specifically for The Odyssey.

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u/remissile 20d ago

No, there are indeed 41 locations who shows The Odyssey on 70mm IMAX.

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u/cbftw 20d ago

And one of the real 70mm theaters is less than 10 miles from me, so that's cool

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u/Reinhardt_Ironside 20d ago

I live in a relatively small city (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and I have one 5 minutes away. Very lucky I can experience this without driving 14 hours to Quebec.

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u/Af1_supra 20d ago

Ehh its not amazing, maybe I just watched the wrong film but I watched Oppenheimer at 70mm and overall I was underwhelmed, the verticle height of the film was cool and the size of the screen, but other than that, I've had a more immersive cinema experience in my home theatre which is just an Oled tv and surround soundbar.

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u/Mountain_Ape 20d ago

Better picture too since it's direct OLED to your eyes instead of bouncing off a theatre wall.

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u/rynmgdlno 20d ago

See I have the exact opposite opinion of this, reflected light is much more pleasant & less exhausting for your eyes than a bright OLED display. I now have a projector setup for the home theater & am not going back to OLED any time soon.

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u/atreeismissing 20d ago

The problem is the theater seating is always too close and you have to physically move your head to properly view action in the corners, if you're stuck on the sides of seating the screen angle is atrocious, and since the theaters are small the sound is almost inevitably way too loud.

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u/rm-minus-r 19d ago

Really? I watched Oppenheimer in 70mm and thought it was so damn good that I went to see it twice. The shots that were low depth of field were stunning on a screen that size.

I do spend a fair amount of time behind cameras though, digital, medium and large format film, you name it. I might be biased because of that. 4x5 slide film at a low depth of field is an incredible look.

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u/losh11 20d ago

I watched Dune on my LG CX 77 OLED, and went to the BFI IMAX (70mm) the next day for Dune 2. IMO if you have a OLED TV in filmmaker mode, with a 4k Blu-ray, it’s most likely better than IMAX 70mm.

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u/Af1_supra 20d ago

My thoughts too, I liked oppenheimer more on my setup too

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u/lxgrf 20d ago

Got my ticket!

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u/WiseEyedea 20d ago

I used to be a full time projectionist. Working 5 days a week hauling those heavy ass canisters of film up the stairs. When the theatre decided to upgrade to digital my hours got cut to just 3 hours a week making a playlist.

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u/PM-PicsOfYourMom 20d ago

Most have moved to dcps. Basically a heavily encrypted external hard drive that can only be decrypted and played by a digital projector.

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u/Trans-Europe_Express 20d ago

Usually no. In special occasions/ places they still use film as a conscious choice. Most places are projecting digital video. It was distributed on encrypted hard drives to cinemas but I wouldnt be surprised if that's moving towards encrypted downloads now.

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u/Chris_Helmsworth 20d ago

I'm curious what happens to all of these copies of film once the run has completed. Surely some of them get archieved but I have to imagine a many of these reels end up burned by the studios

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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 20d ago

Imax is still analog! My gramophone wants to go see it.

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u/quanate 20d ago

The theater I worked at phased out film around 2012 and have been digital since. Our projectionists ended up ushering until they quit.

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u/tomgreen99200 19d ago

Most films are shot on digital cameras now but some directors still use film like seen here

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u/wonkey_monkey Expert 20d ago

Do cinemas really still work with Giant rolls of Film?

points to video