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.