In the 1940s, the invention of televisions caused a panic across the movie industry. With motion pictures now accessible for people at home, film studios were forced to innovate in order to draw audiences back to the theater, and Hollywood’s solution was developing the 70mm format. For fifty years, movies had generally been shot on 35mm film with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, which means the width of the frames were only 1.37 times longer than the height.
35mm Stills from Citizen Kane (1941) and Casablanca (1942) with a 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio
The frame of a 70mm film, on the other hand, is almost 3.5 times larger than the standard 35mm, with twice the width and an increased height. Not only does the wider 2.21:1 or 2.76:1 aspect ratio produce a grander image that gives the audience a more immersive experience, but the larger format also provides other technical advantages. With a greater area, the 70mm film can capture more detailed images. Compared to 35mm film, which has a digital equivalent resolution of approximately 6K, 70mm can capture up to 13K with less lens distortion and cleaner images, making the format the best image quality at the time. Furthermore, 70mm films often had a roadshow release to give audiences an even more special experience and lure them back to theaters. Roadshows took place before the wider release at selective theaters in larger cities and mimicked a live theatre production. The showing would include an overture, intermission, and exit music, and the feature film itself would show around ten minutes of additional scenes that were exclusive for the roadshow release. Audiences also dressed up in formal cloths and received programs for the movie. Hollywood’s innovation worked; the film industry was kept alive. The 70mm started a Widescreen Revolution which set a wider aspect ratio standard for future films, and countless cinematic classics such as Ben-Hur (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) would all be remembered for their glorious 70mm grandeur. Unfortunately, the popularity of the 70mm format slowly declined in the 1970s due to its costly projector systems and screens. Because of its large size, the distribution of the 70mm film stocks were also limited, and the bulkiness of the cameras and lenses developed for the format caused further inconvenience for the filmmakers.
The Chariot Race from Ben-Hur (1959), shot in Ultra Panavision 70
The Famous Hallway Shot from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), shot in Super Panavision 70
However, in 2008, when Heath Ledger’s Joker confronted Christian Bale’s Batman on the IMAX screen, a modern resurgence of the large format began. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) marked the first mainstream feature with sequences shot in 70mm IMAX and thus continued the 70mm legacy. Instead of having a traditional width of 70mm, an IMAX film has a height of 70mm, which enables it to cover three times the area of previous 70mm formats and obtain a digital equivalent of 18K resolution. The image also appears taller with a more square-like 1.43:1 aspect ratio, presenting the picture in a more epic scale. Nolan continued to shoot four of his five future films in IMAX, and his success popularized the format. Later films such as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) all had sequences captured in 70mm IMAX. Even traditional 70mm formats regained some recognition with The Master (2012), shot in Super Panavision 70, and The Hateful Eight (2015) in Ultra Panavision 70. As digital technology matured, camera companies also developed digital large format cameras. Films such as The Revenant (2015) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) were filmed with the Arri Alexa 65, and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) became the first movie shot entirely on digital IMAX. Though digital cannot capture as much detail as its film counterpart and loses film’s unique look, it still preserves most of the advantages of the large format.
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Cinematographers Hoyte Van Hoytema (Left) with a 70mm IMAX Camera and Sir Roger Deakins with the digital large format camera, Arri Alexa Mini LF, which he used for shooting 1917 (2019)
For audiences, to experience large format in its true potential may be more difficult than most would assume. Most theaters today use digital projector systems, and the majority of their resolutions are 2K (1080p) with some 4K exceptions. Few cinemas still offer celluloid film projections, and even fewer, 59 theaters in the United States, are equipped for 70mm film projection. Though digital projections are sufficient for ordinary digital large format movies, experiencing the full grandeur of the glorious 70mm picture with its 13K equivalent resolution is only possible by attending a 70mm film showing. Viewing true 70mm IMAX becomes even more complicated. If an IMAX film is shown in non-IMAX formats, including traditional 70mm film, it would be cropped to the wider 2.20:1 aspect ratio, which means the top and bottom of the full IMAX picture would be cut off, losing 35% of the frame. Then, even if a theater is advertised as an “IMAX theater,” most would only offer one of the digital IMAX formats, or “LieMAX.” Digital IMAX Xenon still crops the picture into a 1.9:1 aspect ratio; the better option, IMAX with Laser not only presents the full 1.43:1 frame but also guarantees a 4K resolution projection. These “LieMAX” theaters would be sufficient for digital IMAX movies like Avengers: Endgame (2019). However, the true way to view films shot in 70mm IMAX such as Dunkirk (2017) or Interstellar (2014) the way filmmakers like Nolan intended is on 70mm IMAX film, which is only available in 38 theaters in the US. Therefore, large format, just like 50 years ago, still remains the most immersive yet premium and exclusive way to present a film.
Monthly Movie Vote!
Last month, I asked you to vote for your favorite film composers, here’s the result!
Without a surprise, John Williams, Howard Shore, and Hans Zimmer, the three composers who wrote the iconic scores for our favorite movies, came in top three with significantly more votes than the other composers. Thank you for your great enthusiasm for participating!
For this month’s vote, we’re going to see how TPSers usually watch their movies. Cast your vote here: https://forms.gle/Gquw4SKN7cvB3dof8
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