r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NoWork215 • Jul 16 '26

Video The Odyssey IMAX 70mm Setup

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u/Jackomat007 Jul 16 '26

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

69

u/BananaMartini Jul 16 '26

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. 

14

u/xtphty Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

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.

5

u/Original-Body-5794 Jul 16 '26

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.

1

u/InvidiousPlay Jul 17 '26

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

1

u/BananaMartini Jul 17 '26

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…) 

1

u/Antique_Hawk_7192 Jul 16 '26

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?

1

u/OddS0cks Jul 16 '26

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

1

u/lane4 Jul 17 '26

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