[music]
>> When a movie is filmed for and projected
in IMAX, the large format that you're
watching isn't just about the size of
the theater screen. It's also about the
size of the image on the screen print.
This is a single frame of IMAX 70 mm
film. It runs horizontally through the
projector and it's called 15 perf
because there [music] are 15
perforations on the film for every
frame. This picture is almost 10 times
the size [music]
of that stored on a standard 35 mm frame
which has the same [music] size
perforations on the smaller film and has
to share real estate with the soundtrack
on the right. That's a difference in
detail that I [music] can see with my
naked eye both on the frame and when
it's projected on a 90-ft tall film
screen. Tested went to IMAX's LA
headquarters to tour their vault of film
prints and bed [music] with technicians
splicing together reels heavier than me
and larger than this table and visit the
projection booth of their in-house
theater [music]
where some of the world's greatest
directors come daily to review and sign
off on their vision printed in film's
largest [music] format.
Greg, you you told me this is about 2
and 1/2 minutes of film give or take?
>> right. Um
I was a projectionist in my youth and
I'm just trying to wrap my head around
the volume and weight. How do you guys
handle something as simple as like
dailies or or post-production?
>> Well, we have a team that does that and
which you'll meet in a second. And so we
take this large roll film. This actually
is not as big as some.
They go up to 1,000 even bigger than
that. They all get assembled onto the
rewind on on a larger reel through the
rewind bench and they get spliced and
and we wheel them out there which you'll
see as well. Yeah.
>> Okay, let's let's let's walk through
this process. Okay.
All right Adam, so this is print
assembly. All right, so this is where
heavy things get assembled into heavier
things
>> [laughter]
>> and then eventually they leave.
>> Yes. God, the the volume of it is just
staggering.
>> Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of stations
here, a lot of work gets done. Irving
has a group of two so three all together
in print assembly. How many platters are
you processing out of this room in a
day?
>> It It really depends. I mean generally
they're working on one at a time. It
really depends if we have multiple
titles happening at the same time. In
this case we have one film that that is
getting plattered up for a screening
this afternoon and it's basically a
bunch of film out reels that are are
processed and printed at FotoKem and
we're going to show them here at our
theater. It's amazing. I mean I remember
my rewind table at the theater was like
the size of a thing. This is the size of
my first apartment in New York.
>> Yes, these are custom. There's one of
one and they're very old but they work.
Amazing. Hey Irving. How are you? Good
to see you. So you have been here for 33
years?
>> Yes, I am. Is it safe to say that you
have touched almost every print that's
come out of here? I would say yes. Okay,
so walk me through walk me through what
happens here. Usually when they start a
production they go with making dailies
and every daily that is made we
come to this place then it's get to be a
screen review, make sure that there is
no scratches, that physically look okay.
Because scratches can happen in the
camera and the negatives or it can
happen in printing in the lab. So you
want to make sure that everything is
okay. Also everything that we had a
screen we keep a record. So we had like
records in 1980s.
Yeah. We keep all those records. Every
single roll that have been
screened they keep a record and we keep
it on So every last thing that's come
through here is chronicled. Yes.
>> Okay. And right now we're working in a
project a demo and I'm going to pull um
There is different play different
pictures they're making from different
parts of the movies Yeah. and right now
we are trying trying to put a
a portion of that movie and put it
together like a puzzle and then that's
what we're going to do right now. I'm
looking for a specific scene.
Can I help? Uh you can try it if you
feel comfortable.
>> [laughter]
>> But we just going to roll it. This was
built like a
a month ago. Okay. And probably it was
made with a
It was make a
You have probably a hundred scenes
inside this. Okay, so this is our daily
reel with like a hundred scenes in it.
Yes and then we're going to look for the
specific one that they need right now.
But they they just give us we need this
and we have to find it in all of this.
You have to go through this and figure
out where it is. Okay. And usually
that's why we are trying to keep this
kind of list so they will give me an
idea where they are.
>> Amazing.
>> Cuz otherwise you will be impossible to
find it. And after that the piece that
we're going to find there is going to go
into this little roll and from that roll
we're going to take a portion of the
same material and go into the demo that
they need to screen tomorrow actually.
And this is like an
old tape machine. Remember when you push
the cassette tape and you play move this
way or move that way? Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's what it is. Okay. So this one
will if I want to push over there, move
over there just press this one or if I
want to go the other way, go that way
and stop and
and it's very simple. And this are only
tension you know because you need it's a
lot of you need tension and these are
the speed control which is how one here
one here is the same one the same
control. And
I've been here for more than
35 years so
>> These have been here longer than you.
>> Yes. Okay.
But this one is say that start from
chapter 78 to 101 which is
what we got here. Okay, so now you go
find that.
>> 78 cuz it start 78 and then I'm going to
go all the way. It start from one but
But that means that all of these have
already been left in file.
>> a different platters.
>> Got you.
Cuz
you cannot this platters only can hold
like a one hour platter and sometime we
had a screening of two hours plus so we
need to build into small platters like
this and then take it to whatever we
need to screen. That's the small
platter. Uh this is the regular platter
45 inch platter. Okay. The this is the
standard for most of the films.
>> Got you. But a big movie two hours and a
half movie will go in three of this.
And then you build it into one platter
in whatever theater you go. Yes.
I find myself wondering if there's a
machine shop somewhere in the world that
just makes these. I mean maybe there's
more than one but I mean it's got to be
a pretty bespoke business.
Look at that.
Wow.
So here we are putting tension on this
side so it will not wind loose to this.
So we're
and then you have clutches that so it
can allow the engine to engage to the
platter and it can rotate.
So this one we're going to go that way
which is ready there.
I just help a little bit.
And because you cannot go see [snorts]
it doesn't have no number no nothing we
just You just scroll and then you go
hunt for it.
>> Yes. But you know that it's probably
right around
>> Somewhere there. Yeah, cuz this is This
have 100 shots
but it's starting from shot 78 so
probably somewhere in here.
Holy cow.
It really is sort of blowing my mind
just the sheer weight, the sheer volume
of plastic and aluminum required to move
these pieces and prints around. Um this
is less than an hour of film
but at such a resolution that it weighs,
you know, dozens and dozens of pounds.
It's amazing. It's like it's like the
single heaviest component of flying an
airplane is its fuel. Like you don't
really think about that but it really is
like most of managing an airplane's
weight is about managing the weight of
its fuel. And for some reason that seems
to me to have some parity to like if you
want the best the most the sharpest film
format, well it's it's going to get
heavy. It's going to get heavy in a
hurry.
That's the splice, yeah?
>> Yeah, that's the tape.
>> have a cutter that cuts that Yes and
this is the one that does that.
Oh, oh so is that the difference between
this splicer and that splicer? This one
does the zigzag splice. This one does
the zigzag so you can pull it apart and
put it back like a puzzle but this one
once you do one of those because it's
well kind of welded
so you cannot pull it apart. If you pull
it apart you cannot put it back
together. So this is for like final
assembly?
>> Yes. And this is for temporary assembly.
Got you.
Okay, so we're in part of the projection
room here.
>> We are. We are below it.
>> Okay. [laughter] Yeah. Um can can I
help? Can I help put load this? Oh,
amazing. Okay. So now we're lifting the
platter up onto the Mark
reel unit.
Okay, now we're going to lock it in. Ah,
okay.
>> Got to be careful like and also we have
the screws. If you could pass me this
one.
>> [snorts]
>> And I just got tight there.
>> all right.
Now,
this is going up to the projector.
And so we need a lot of free that leader
and we're going to spool a lot of it.
So we go cuz the projectors are in the
second floor. So you see it's going to
travel from here all the way up and then
coming down. So it's not going to be the
actual movie. It's just leader. Right,
right, right. So this is all just blank
film, but it's going to travel all the
way up where that rope's going through
the hole? Yes.
>> Because because all the work is done
down here and all the heavy lifting
comes down on the first floor. There's
there was no real way to get these into
the booth as you'll see when we go up
there. So the weight of this means that
architecturally
this is an accommodation because of how
heavy these are.
>> It is and it might seem crazy like why
would you invent something like that,
but it works. Amazing.
>> Yeah. You guys must now have some
intense HVAC here because I would
imagine small amounts of dust can damage
this print over time.
>> Yeah, it's it's not as big a deal as it
is with negative.
>> Of course.
>> And we have special rollers too that
help make sure that that everything's
clean before it goes into the projector.
Incredible. Yeah.
Okay, so that's a lot of film he just
wound up there. Oh, look at that.
Yeah, how many feet Irving do you have
of of leader on the head?
I don't know, probably like 100 ft.
Wow.
IMAX film is 337 ft per minute. So
that's just over you know, 20 seconds of
of of leader, right? Wow.
330 and 35 mm is like 90 ft per Yeah.
Yeah. [laughter]
Right, an hour is a mile in 35 mm.
Oh my god, the cable carries the film
up.
Okay, now we're going to walk up Okay.
>> and pull this so we can continue.
>> Okay, so you go up there and pull it.
You don't just We just go like fishing.
We kind of
I'm sort of I'm still wrapping my head
around the fact that this travels 30 ft
into the ceiling to get to the
projector.
>> Yeah, yeah, it does. And then it has to
come back down.
Oh my god, of course it does.
>> Yes. So it travels another 30 ft back
down to get the the take-up reel, which
is of course it's there.
>> That's insane. I love that that works.
It is amazing. For 3D movies is it
double this? It is double this. Yeah, we
actually have a whole other Mark II
assembly uh platter system over there.
And if you notice there's plat there's
there's these little pulleys that go
over your head. And so we actually have
two sets that can go up there for left
eye and right eye film projector.
>> Oh my god, two separate gigantic prints
for left eye and right eye. Yes.
Amazing. Just to give you a sense of the
size of this. This is a roughly
hour-long reel and loaded with film
weighs about 300 lb.
This is a 68-in reel holds just shy of 3
hours, weighs almost 600 lb and this is
not their biggest reel. This is their
second biggest reel.
Crazy.
I'm only a tiny bit taller than this.
>> [music]
>> So here's Yvon with the film that came
from below.
I just love that these are bolted to the
the engineering in me thinks this
shouldn't be possible, but it's perfect.
Okay, so what's the next step for this
to get into the projector? So he's going
to go through that hole. Okay.
And we're going to be using that film
projector.
Wow.
So this is the David Keighley theater
booth.
>> Got you. And we have three sets of
projectors, one film and two digital.
Okay, so that's a set of film
projectors.
>> Yes. A set of digital projectors and
another digital projector.
>> And they're all on a rail system that
allows us to basically prep for a
session. So we might have a digital
session 10 minutes ago, it wraps and
then we have to basically go right into
film. So they can prep all this and load
it all up and then slide it over in
literally 5 minutes we're operating on
film. Amazing. And is the reason there's
two digital projectors is for stereo
projection? Yes, and and also to get the
power we need on the screen. That's our
GT digital projection system. So you
double it? Yeah, it's it's full 143. In
fact, every morning we have a
calibration system. Anytime these
projectors move, we have an auto
calibration system that converges the
two projectors. Wow. And so you're
putting one image on top of the other to
get the maximum amount of brightness
from the digital projector.
>> Yes. This is the only way to achieve
full 143 digital projection in IMAX. So
even though he is spooling the film into
the film projector, that projector is
still going to move into its final
position.
>> And this rig can accommodate that.
>> Absolutely. Again, the engineer in me is
like this shouldn't really work. It
shouldn't, but it does.
All right, and then it's coming back.
>> That's right. This is the return trip.
Through the same hole. Right, cuz left
eye, right eye.
>> Right, right, right. Going fishing.
Yeah, and here's the the film projector
is going into place. You can run both
these projectors if you're doing 3D, but
also if you're doing a rollover. So
basically if you're going to transfer
over from one to the ever other. If he
had let's say two different reels that
we needed to go from one to the other,
we could go into that mode.
>> So they don't you don't have little burn
holes in the corner of the
>> Yeah,
cuz the first one
and the second one
>> Yeah, totally. You don't do that. How do
you know when to do the changeover?
>> Because we're not doing it for final
product.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah, so they'll basically just change
over to the other one when we need to.
But it's all it's all in sync. Even our
sound. Our sound is basically a digital
track that goes in on an optical disc
and we we ingest it into a hard drive
system. And it syncs up with that.
>> It syncs up with the with the film,
exactly.
Similar to the DTS system. Got you. All
right, so this is the business end of
the process we just watched. A director
[music] who is working on a film with
IMAX is coming in in a few minutes to
watch some dailies of their film. We
can't tell you what it is, but it's now
been spooled into this projector and
[music] it's about to be projected. I am
Everything about [music] this process is
sort of gargantuan and incredible to me
and I can only imagine how thrilling it
is for that director [music]
to see their footage in such a format.
It's got to be intoxicating.
>> [music]
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