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Xillix

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  1. I'm gonna release all my claims to rights. Beyond obvious at this point I don't actually have the motivation for this anymore, haha. Hopefully someone can have fun with some of 'em
  2. Crescent Film Releasing Launches, Five Films on Slate for Y9 Several of the main people behind TriCrescent Media, the former major film studio which imploded back in Y7 after prolonged and nasty legal battles with representatives of the also-defunct MV Pictures, have formally announced the establishment of successor company Crescent Film Releasing. The company, which has no formal ties to the prior entity aside from personnel, has already acquired five independently-produced films scheduled for release this coming year. This includes two big-budget would-be blockbusters - Simon West's Interceptors, a Chinese co-production that had been seeking US distribution for some time, and the Michael Bay-produced Ultraman: Dark Future, a loose sequel to TriCrescent's Y2 hit based on the Japanese TV series. For now, there are reportedly no plans for Crescent Film Releasing to establish an in-house production wing, but the company has acquired film rights to several properties and is apparently seeking agreements with various production studios in order to develop them into features.
  3. Interceptors Release Date: January 17, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Sci-Fi/Action Director: Simon West Theater Count: 3,625 Shooting Format: Digital 8K (Red Monstro) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 / 1.90:1 (Entire film in IMAX) Premium Release Formats: IMAX, Dolby Cinema Release Image Formats: 4K DCP, 2K IMAX Digital DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser DCP, 4K Dolby Vision DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel Production Budget: $100 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 104 minutes Major Cast: Nicolas Cage, Milla Jovovich, Antonio Banderas, Angelababy, Jiang Wen Plot Summary: A US-Chinese co-production. In the not-to-distant future, small meteorites begin impacting all over Earth, leading to major disasters. It’s discovered that they are harbingers of a huge asteroid on a collision course with earth, which will cause an extinction level event if it hits. The governments of the United States and China are forced to cooperate and launch an experimental spaceship crewed by some of the greatest astronauts from each nation’s space program. They will intercept the asteroid, destroying the smaller space rocks around it on the way, and plant special high-powered rockets on it that are designed to redirect it off of its collision course. When the ship lands on the asteroid, however, the astronauts discover that it is actually occupied by a civilization of alien scavengers. The aliens already have tech in place which they use to direct the asteroid’s movements and aren’t planning to actually crash into Earth, but to settle the asteroid into orbit around the Earth and let the calamities the gravitational disruption causes wipe out the human race. Then they will take whatever natural resources they can scavenge from the planet and move on. The astronauts are led by a pair of equally-ranked commanders (Nicolas Cage and Jiang Wen), who disagree on how to proceed and cannot get along. Communication is cut off with Earth, and so they cannot get orders from their superiors. Ultimately the two split up, each taking the crew members under their own command, and try to find a way to stop the aliens. Attempts to plant their own rockets and to re-establish communications with Earth both fail. The two groups are both confronted by the aliens and narrowly escape, forced back together. Begrudgingly the commanders work in tandem, and with the people under their command, devise a plan to infiltrate the control center for the alien’s operations and “hijack” the asteroid, directing it away from Earth and into the sun. The attempt is fraught with peril and low-gravity action, but the plan ultimately succeeds. In the end, everything is all set but both of the commanders decide they must remain on the asteroid while the people under their command escape on a stolen alien ship. They can’t risk something going wrong or the aliens breaking in and retaking control. The lower-ranked astronauts escape just in time, and the commanders sacrifice themselves holding off the aliens as long as they can. By the time the aliens retake the control center, their course is irreversible. The asteroid crashes into the sun and burns up, and Earth is saved. A mid-credits scene, however, reveals that several ships full of aliens managed to evacuate the asteroid just before it was too late, and the surviving extraterrestrials swear revenge on humanity! A brilliant setup for a sequel that will absolutely happen when this modern masterpiece inevitably breaks every box office record.
  4. #Spooked Release Date: October 24, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Horror/Comedy Director: Jeff Wadlow Theater Count: 2,874 Shooting Format: Digital 4.5K (Arri Alexa 35 anamorphic) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Release Image Formats: 2K DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1 Production Budget: $10 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 91 minutes Major Cast: Jack Dylan Grazer (Chad) and a bunch of unknowns Plot Summary: A group of teenage social media influencer wannabes, led by the spoiled rich kid Chad (Jack Dylan Grazer), decide to break into an allegedly-haunted house in their hometown for Halloween and livestream their escapades inside. The abandoned old mansion was built inside of the town’s old graveyard, and rumor has it the headstones on the plot of land it occupies were moved without the bodies moving alongside them. Also the first homeowner’s first wife was hanged for witchcraft. Also also said homeowner was a collector of antiquities from around the world, including a lot of precious artifacts stolen from Egyptian tombs. Also also also he killed all of his twelve subsequent wives in various gruesome ways and kept their skeletons hidden in the basement. The teens are all expecting a night of harmless fun scaring each other but things get serious when the rotting floorboards of the old condemned building give way, sending one of them falling from the top floor all the way down into the basement and killing them in the fall. When the group tries to leave they find themselves locked in by ghostly forces, and are forced to contend with the spirits of the thirteen dead wives, the reanimated corpses of the dead who were buried underneath the house, the mummy of a pharaoh empowered by the god Anubis, and even a werewolf that appears out of nowhere for some reason. During the ordeal none of them stop streaming, even when they die, and they actually do pretty great numbers. Their online pleas for help, however, are ignored by everyone because all of the viewers think it’s fake. Chad is the last survivor, and he’s ultimately surrounded by the various monsters and then dragged down to hell by demonic hands emerging from beneath the basement. The movie ends by pulling back to reveal someone watching the livestream as Chad’s feed goes dead, shrugging, and switching tabs to watch a cat video instead.
  5. Deep Sixed Release Date: March 7, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Action Director: Patrick Hughes Theater Count: 3,432 Shooting Format: Digital 4.5K (Arri Alexa 35) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Release Image Formats: 4K DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos Production Budget: $30 million MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 102 minutes Major Cast: Jason Statham (Carter), Liam Neeson (Cochran) Plot Summary: Carter (Jason Statham) is an enforcer for a rapidly-expanding crime family filling a power void left in Boston following the arrest of key figures in the prior dominant crime family. The leader of the new organization is an old Irish mobster, Cochran (Liam Neeson), known for his ruthlessness and paranoia. During a raid on a hideout filled with remnants of the fallen crime family, Carter shows mercy and allows a man with a family to escape alive. For this transgression, Cochran declares him disloyal and orders him “deep-sixed” – assassinated. The first hitman sent after Carter shoots him several times and inflicts near-fatal wounds, and Carter is dumped into the ocean where he’s left for dead. But Carter washes up on shore and recovers, and uses the fact Cochran and the gang believe he is dead to his advantage. Teaming up with the man he spared and a few other former members of the previously-dominant gang, he breaks into Cochran’s headquarters to take his revenge. There’s lots of action and violent bloody shootouts and it all comes down to a one-on-one showdown between Carter and the surprisingly spry Cochran while the others guard the door to his office from Cochran’s lackeys. Carter ultimately kills Cochran and makes his escape, swearing off his life of crime and letting the cards fall where they may as another power vacuum opens up. He moves to another state to start a new life.
  6. Fatal Error Release Date: May 30, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi Director: M.J. Bassett Theater Count: 2,842 Shooting Format: Digital 5K (Red Gemini) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Release Image Formats: 2K DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1 Production Budget: $15 million MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 89 minutes Major Cast: Unknowns and TV actors Plot Summary: Basically a ripoff of The Ring that goes off in a different direction. It opens with a mysterious masked hacker unleashing a computer virus onto the internet and committing ritual suicide. The virus can’t spread itself and has to be shared by people. If your computer, phone, or other device becomes infected, you begin seeing weird “glitchy” visions of the hacker and demonic creatures around said devices. If you don’t spread the virus within four days, or you try to destroy the infected device or otherwise remove the infection, the apparitions kill you. The first two acts of the film are typical Ring style with a chain of pretty young adults and teens becoming infected and cursed, figuring out how to survive by spreading it after several of them die terribly, and working to trace it back to its source. Some of the visions – which don’t cease even after ensuring your own survival by sharing the virus – provide helpful clues. By the end of act two they discover the hacker and the fact he’d made a pact with demon-like beings that apparently exist on another level of reality. The virus is their way into our world, and the more systems it infects, the more processing power it possesses and the more the barrier between realities breaks down. The third act consists of reality beginning to distort and glitch like a corrupted, infected simulation. Demons and the digital “ghost” of the hacker appear everywhere, large disasters occur when odd reality glitches happen – including an elevated train suddenly “clipping through” a rail bridge and crashing down into a heavily-populated portion of a city – and it’s basically turning into the apocalypse. Our remaining heroes try to survive the film that has now turned into a Pulse ripoff instead. There are hints that either the world the film takes place in is itself a computer simulation that has actually been infected by a virus, or that the demon-things come from a digital dimension of some sort and are “corrupting” our reality to be hospitable to them, but the question of which is the case is never definitively answered. One of the two last remaining protagonists is killed when the glitching of reality causes him to suddenly swap places with a vision of the hacker, which the other survivor, crazed and desperate, attacks – accidentally killing her friend instead. Despondent, and resigned to her fate, she suffers a mental breakdown and follows apparitions of the hacker, who leads her to a large data center full of infected servers around which the glitchy supernatural phenomenon are concentrated. The hacker disappears into a portal from which more and more of the demon-things are emerging – a huge conduit leading, presumably, to their world, the view of which is distorted and unclear. She tries to follow him in, but just as she begins to glimpse what’s on the other side – which is hidden from the viewer – she is torn apart by the demons.
  7. Ultraman: Dark Future Release Date: November 26th, Y9 Studio: Crescent Film Releasing Genre: Superhero/Sci-Fi Director: Jonathan Liebesman Production Companies: Platinum Dunes, Dentsu, Tsubaraya Productions Executive Producers: Michael Bay, Brad Fuller & Andrew Form Theater Count: 3,973 Premium Format: 3D, IMAX 2D+3D & Dolby Cinema Shooting Format: Digital 4.3K (Arri Alexa LF) (Post-converted to 3D) Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 / 1.90:1 (Select scenes in IMAX) Release Image Formats: 4K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 2K IMAX Digital DCP, 2K IMAX 3D Digital DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser DCP, 4K IMAX 3D with Laser DCP, 4K Dolby Vision DCP Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel Production Budget: $110 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 116 minutes Major Cast: Aaron/Ultraman (Michael B. Jordan), Fred Tatasciore (Belial) Prior Film: Distant sequel to Y2’s Ultraman, which opened on Wednesday, July 4th. It made $79,077,185 on its 5-day opening weekend, $47,889,144 on its first Fri-Sun weekend. Domestic total was $178,905,238, plus an overseas gross of $522,540,825 for a worldwide total of $701,446,063. Plot Summary: The film is set in the future, roughly 100 years after the events of the first film. An animated opening sequence catches the audience up on the first movie’s plot. Over the decades, the Zetton Empire’s failures on Earth and in other conquests led to the collapse of the warmongering society, with the Space Garrison dealing the final blow some 70 years after the failed takeover of Earth. By then, Earth’s original Ultraman had died naturally of old age after a long and fulfilling life, releasing the being bonded to him, who returned to his home planet. Earth has not seen another alien threat since, though the SSSP remains vigilant. Unfortunately, a new series of monster attacks begins from an unknown source. At first the SSSP, equipped with technology far superior to what it had a century ago, holds out; giant remote-controlled battle mechs are able to destroy the earliest monsters. But more and more beasts arrive, and they seem to learn the weaknesses of the SSSP forces. Soon the tide is turning and entire cities are being destroyed. An ordinary career man, Aaron (Michael B. Jordan), is fleeing his destroyed home city with his family when he comes across a glowing blue gem that seems to call out to him telepathically. Like the protagonist of the first film he bonds with the being in the gem, who turns out to be the same one from before. Together they transform into a new Ultraman with an updated design. The new Ultraman destroys the monster that leveled his home. Aaron is swiftly recruited by the SSSP to help fight against the alien attacks. As the being who he’s bonded with – called “Ultra” for convenience – informs Aaron, the attacks are being directed by Belial, a former member of the Space Garrison who bonded with an alien who had too much evil in his heart. Now Belial is essentially an evil Ultraman who seeks to destroy the Space Garrison and conquer the universe. He’s selected Earth to become the capital of his evil empire. Aaron requests help from the rest of the Garrison, but is informed that there are too many other threats throughout the universe being fought. There are many more monster battles of increasing difficulty. In the end Belial (a CG creation voiced by Fred Tatasciore) arrives on Earth personally to fight Ultraman and the SSSP forces. Belial is too powerful and is about to destroy Ultraman, but at the last minute backup arrives in the form of several more Ultraman-like heroes from other galaxies – the Space Garrison has finally acknowledged Belial is a threat to the entire universe and thus must be stopped here before he can establish a stronghold. Together they defeat Belial, who turns to stone as happens to any bonded “Ultraman” who is killed or runs out of energy in combat. The other heroes retrieve the petrified Belial and take him back to the planet housing the Garrison’s base of operations to be sealed away. Aaron chooses to leave Earth with them and become a full-time member of the Garrison, traveling the universe to defend those in need – so long as his family can come along with him.
  8. Based on that and the fact Bastien's been gone since Y1 I'm asking permission to take Watch Dogs. Also reclaiming Ultraman since no one else picked it up.
  9. Power Rangers and its Japanese source material Super Sentai (A new movie is in development irl but has no release date set and will be straight-to-Netflix)
  10. IMAX MEGAPOST 2021! PART THREE - USEFUL INFO FOR THE GAME! How many IMAX screens or theatres are there? How many full-sized ones? As of this writing (September 2, 2021), based on the latest data from LF Examiner, there are 401 IMAX screens in the US & Canada (the domestic box office market) that show commercial Hollywood films, as opposed to just IMAX documentaries. This includes screens which are temporarily closed as of this writing due to COVID-19, but are expected to reopen. These screens are in 398 separate venues, with four such venues - the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington, and three Mega-Plex multiplexes in Quebec province, Canada - having two IMAX screens each that both show commercial films. Of the 401 total IMAX screens: 349 rely primarily or entirely on the IMAX Digital 2K bulb-based projection system 39 rely primarily or entirely on the IMAX with Laser 4K single-projector system 36 allegedly still have IMAX 70mm film projection equipment, though this number is the most likely to be outdated 13 have the IMAX with Laser 4K dual-projector system 1 - at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama - is an OMNIMAX dome theatre which isn't exactly suited to narrative films but shows them anyway; it uses the single-projector 4K laser system 39 can properly show a full-height 1.44:1 ratio IMAX image while using the full screen width: -27 can achieve this only with their 70mm IMAX film projectors -7 can achieve this only with their dual laser projectors -5 can achieve this with both film and laser projectors For convenience, here is the list of those 39 screens in the spoiler below, along with their projection technologies and maximum uncropped image size: An additional 3 screens have film projectors and screen aspect ratios significantly taller than 1.90:1, and can show part of the additional image of a 1.44:1 release while using the full screen width if using the film projectors. They are listed below in the spoiler along with their maximum possible image sizes and how much of the image is cropped to fill the screen: The other 359 screens are only equipped with either the 2K digital projection or single-projector 4K laser systems, both of which have a maximum image ratio of 1.90:1, even if their screens are much taller. LF Examiner has a website with a browsable database of IMAX theatres, technical details and screen measurements. You can find it here: https://lfexaminer.com/theaters/ I also keep a spreadsheet with this information for US & Canadian theatres, and you can PM me if you have questions and can't be bothered to look them up yourself.
  11. IMAX MEGAPOST 2021! PART TWO - TECHNICAL DETAILS! What is the IMAX screen shape/aspect ratio? Forgive me if this shakes you to your core, but IMAX does not now have, nor has it ever had, a standardized aspect ratio for projection. IMAX focuses on providing an image that fills as much of the audience's field of view as they can get away with and isn't terribly fussed with the specific shape, and their mass-market move into multiplexes has only exacerbated this. In the USA alone, the shapes of IMAX screens range from as wide as 2.18:1 to as tall as 1.17:1. They just install the biggest-looking screen they can squeeze in given the architectural constraints of the individual location. That also means the sizes of their screens vary hugely - from as high as 75 feet to as short as 23 feet. The only standard is that an IMAX screen, contractually, must always be the biggest screen in its multiplex. However, the original IMAX film format has a maximum, full-frame aspect ratio of 1.435:1, variously stated either as the mathematically-correct 1.44:1 or 1.43:1 for... some reason. IMAX film projection is more or less dead now, but IMAX with Laser dual-4K projector systems are capable of projecting a full-height 1.44:1 image. But those systems are hard to find, and the overwhelming majority of IMAX locations use either the 2K IMAX Digital projection system or the single-projector variant of the 4K IMAX with Laser system, both of which have a maximum aspect ratio of 1.90:1. As such, most people now think of 1.90:1 as the "IMAX ratio," and it is usually the shape that is used when specially-formatted films feature an expanded image in IMAX presentations. Regardless of the projection system, though, only a handful of IMAX screens actually adhere to the 1.90:1 or 1.44:1 maximum ratios, and most need to either crop, letterbox, or pillarbox these images. That's why IMAX's advertising says "up to 26% more image" - there's a good chance you're not getting it all at your local IMAX. A comparison of two IMAX screens, based on real-world measurements, with a 6 foot human to scale. Both use the same 2K projection system. What are the details of IMAX's different projection systems? IMAX 70mm Film The original IMAX exhibition format, introduced in 1971 at the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan. More technically referred to as 15-perf 70mm film prints, or 15/70 for short. Based directly on the 15-perf 65mm negatives used for shooting in "real" IMAX on film, these gigantic film prints run horizontally through the projectors instead of vertically as in most systems. The film strips are 70mm high (including space for sprocket holes and the soundtrack), and each individual frame is 15 sprocket holes - or perforations, or perfs - wide. Like the film negatives, this gives IMAX film prints a maximum image area with an aspect ratio of 1.44:1. IMAX used to boast about how the theoretical equivalent resolution of an IMAX film print was ludicrously high, well above 4K, and many enthusiasts and purists still echo these claims, though real-world testing has never borne this out and IMAX shut up about that real quick once they went all-in on digital projection. Film does have a distinct "look" different from digital projection systems that many still prefer, though. The last Hollywood film to be released in IMAX 3D on 70mm film prints was 2013's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Since then, IMAX releases have only been made available in 3D digitally. The last reasonably wide release of a feature film on IMAX 70mm was 2014's Interstellar. Since then, the only features released on IMAX film prints - in very limited quantities - have been 2015's Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Rogue One, 2017's Dunkirk (37 film engagements worldwide) and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (11 film engagements in the US & Canada), a 2018 re-release of 2001: A Space Odyssey (5 film engagements in the US & Canada), and 2020's Tenet (8 film engagements worldwide). IMAX Digital IMAX Digital, introduced in 2008, is the primary form which IMAX takes today. It uses two side-by-side 2K (2048x1080) projectors to increase image brightness and allow projection on very large screens. There is no resolution boost from the use of two projectors. That was a step down from 70mm film in sharpness even in 2008, and the low resolution and lack of any HDR or deep-color capability means the system is really showing its age at this point. One advantage IMAX Digital has at least over "regular" 2K digital projection is that IMAX allows use of the full 2048x1080 pixel area for image without having to adhere to the Scope or Flat DCI standard ratios, giving it a maximum image aspect ratio of 1.90:1. Most movies that have an expanded image in IMAX will expand up to this ratio, screen size and shape permitting. IMAX Digital supports full-color 3D using linear polarization in projection and the 3D glasses. Unlike the more common circular polarization used by RealD, linear polarization means that if you tilt your head off-axis, the 3D effect falls apart as the glasses can no longer ensure that only one image is reaching each of your eyes. IMAX Digital also supports HFR projection, though IMAX likes to play their specs close to their chests so I can't say for certain what their specific HFR capabilities are. Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy was released in IMAX 3D at 48fps in select IMAX Digital locations. IMAX with Laser - Dual Projectors Intended for the largest, "traditional" IMAX screens and introduced in 2014, this uses a proprietary system of two side-by-side projectors with 4K resolution (4096x2160) and a laser light source that allows for HDR (high dynamic range) images with darker shadows, brighter highlights, and deeper colors. It's also capable of projecting a full-height 1.44:1 IMAX image in theaters with the screens to support it via an anamorphic lens. IMAX with Laser supports full-color 3D via a different 3D system than IMAX Digital, involving color spectrum separation as opposed to polarization - the same tech used for Dolby 3D. It also maintains support for HFR projection, though that support is oddly limited - it maxes out at 48fps, and can only project HFR in 2K resolution, not 4K. IMAX with Laser - Single Projector The second, more common version of IMAX with Laser was introduced in 2018 and uses only a single 4K laser projector. Intended for installation in multiplexes and conversions of existing IMAX Digital auditoriums, it only supports the shorter 1.90:1 ratio and offers less potential image brightness than the dual-projector setup. It probably features the same 3D and HFR support as the dual-projector system, although I have not found solid confirmation that the specs are identical. What are the details of IMAX's sound systems? IMAX's basic surround system is nearly identical to the standard 5.1 surround layout, except that instead of a separate LFE channel, all of the speakers in the auditorium are full-range and can produce deep bass. There is also an extra height channel behind the screen near the ceiling. Many IMAX auditoriums that are newer or have been converted to a laser projection system use IMAX's proprietary 12-channel sound layout. This, effectively, is IMAX's weird compromise between prior "3D sound" systems Dolby Atmos and Auro. It can't use each speaker individually the way that Dolby Atmos and (theoretically) DTS:X can. However, the layout is different than Auro's - it's got the same three front and four surround channels as a 7.1 system, plus the weird behind-the-screen height channel from standard IMAX audio, and four additional overhead channels aimed down at the audience from different spots on the ceiling, allowing sounds to move around above viewers, albeit with less nuance and precision than Atmos. What are the technical details of IMAX film negatives and the IMAX certified digital cameras? Check the first page! That's covered in the posts on cameras and film formats overall. What is IMAX Digital Media Remastering (DMR)? The majority of movies released in IMAX undergo what the company calls its "DMR" process, which they claim improves image quality with some vague series of sharpness and noise reduction tweaks. Originally it was used as part of the process for transferring movies shot on smaller film formats to be enlarged for IMAX film prints. Today it's just post-production processing done to a movie's digital master for release in IMAX theatres. Frankly it's almost definitely bullshit, and in fact Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins refused to allow his IMAX-released films Skyfall and Blade Runner 2049 to go through DMR because, after viewing tests, he felt it made them look worse.
  12. IMAX MEGAPOST 2021! PART ONE - THE HISTORY THAT MIGHT SECRETLY BE A RANT! Since it's the biggest part of the CAYOM game, format-wise, I've decided to give IMAX its own posts. I needed to update and expand the information anyway. If it comes across a bit cynical, I do not apologize. What is IMAX? Good question! IMAX is whatever the IMAX Corporation says it is, and they keep changing their definitions so they can make more money. A history of IMAX as a theatrical exhibition format: Originally, IMAX was a large-format 65mm film system for production and the associated cameras, theatres, and 70mm projection equipment. However, the IMAX corporation has continually pursued wider mainstream success to the extent they have largely abandoned their original standards. Now, IMAX is essentially a premium brand that consists of a chain of theatres - mostly inside larger multiplexes - four different projection systems, a pair of proprietary sound formats, their rarely-used original film cameras, and "certification programs" for digital cameras and displays by other manufacturers. In 1973 IMAX introduced OMNIMAX, a projection system designed to show specially-made short films (and, if they wanted, ones not actually shot for the format) on giant dome-shaped screens above the audience. In 1985, an OMNIMAX short, We Are Born of Stars - was shot and released in 3D, though it screened in anaglyph 3D (with the colored lenses) from normal OMNIMAX projectors. 1986 was the debut of proper IMAX 3D with the short film Transitions, which was shown in full-color 3D via dual projectors and 3D glasses with clear polarized lenses. In 1998, IMAX introduced a new model of film projector - the SR. This was smaller and quieter than the prior GT projector systems, and was designed with the intent of being more practical for smaller venues. The slippery slope argument may be a logical fallacy, but trust me when I say this is foreshadowing. IMAX was initially used only for short films, mostly documentaries and specialty programs, that were shown in purpose-built theatres. In 2000, Fantasia 2000 was screened in select IMAX theatres. The first "conventional" narrative Hollywood film released in IMAX was a special re-release of Apollo 13 in 2002, which also served to introduce IMAX's DMR process (more on that in a later post). Because IMAX projectors' film platters weren't designed to hold enough film for long feature films, this version of the movie was cut by 24 minutes. The subsequent IMAX re-release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones later in 2002 was also heavily cut for the same reason, but IMAX did ultimately work out how to get around this issue and all subsequent releases have been uncut. The first Hollywood feature released in IMAX the same day as its general release was The Matrix Revolutions in late 2003. The market for IMAX releases of traditional films expanded rapidly, going from two releases in 2003 to seven in 2006. It was during this period that IMAX saw dollar signs and realized they'd be much more profitable if they started abandoning their roots and doing whatever was necessary to capitalize on their brand name by expanding into multiplexes and transitioning to showing mostly mainstream feature films. So that's what they did, and they have continued going further and further down that path ever since. In 2004, IMAX introduced the MPX projector model, designed specifically to be installed in multiplexes, often in existing standard auditoriums that were "converted" into IMAX theatres. This generally involved replacing the original screen with a slightly larger one - within the confines of the building's existing architecture - and placing it a bit closer to the audience so that it fills more of their field of view. It also included the installation of their proprietary surround sound system (again, more on that later). The result was still projection of "real" IMAX 70mm film prints, albeit mostly blow-ups of movies shot on smaller film formats and run through IMAX's questionable DMR process, and without support for 3D projection. For those used to the truly giant purpose-built auditoriums, though, the experience was drastically different. This was the beginning of what some dissatisfied customers came to call "LIEMAX." In 2008, IMAX began making "LIEMAX" their primary business model with the introduction of the IMAX Digital projection system, again designed specifically for multiplex use and conversions of existing auditoriums. While it has the usual advantages of digital projection - lower operating costs, easier maintenance, no worries about film prints fading or becoming damaged - it also has two major disadvantages. It operates at 2K resolution, resulting in much less potential sharpness and detail than an IMAX film print, and it cannot fill a traditional full-size IMAX screen because it is only designed for widescreen projection. Ironically, 2008 is the same year that The Dark Knight - the first Hollywood feature partially shot on IMAX film - was released. The movie brought a lot more attention to and criticism of "LIEMAX," because IMAX did not publicly differentiate between their different projection systems. If you went to see The Dark Knight in IMAX, you could wind up in a huge, traditional, purpose-built auditorium where the IMAX footage expanded to become 67% larger, filling a towering, squarish-shaped screen with a crisp, clear, 70mm image... or you could wind up in an ordinary multiplex auditorium with a marginally bigger-than-usual widescreen where the image only expanded by 26% maximum, and it was all shown in what is essentially 1080p resolution so that you could spot the individual pixels if you were sitting far enough up. The lack of transparency meant a lot of people who thought they'd paid for the former experience were incensed to discover they'd wound up with the latter, lesser format. The backlash was not strong enough to stop the gravy train, though, and IMAX Digital ultimately proved tremendously successful despite the naysayers. Installations of the digital projection systems and releases of Hollywood features exploded over the ensuing years. Conversely, installation of new film projectors died off, and eventually, so did the practice of actually releasing movies on IMAX film prints. Only a handful of high-powered filmmakers are still able to demand extremely limited IMAX 70mm releases of their productions. With virtually no product to show, IMAX theatres that had been built specifically for the format were forced to install the digital projectors that were incapable of filling their tall screens or providing images of sufficient clarity for such giant projection. Most of them threw out their film projectors eventually. IMAX didn't introduce their solution to this problem until almost seven years later, at the very tail end of 2014. That's when IMAX with Laser first rolled out - a new digital projection system using two laser-light-based projectors with 4K resolution, dramatically improved image quality, and the capability to fill a full-height IMAX screen. Which would be great if anyone actually installed them. Unfortunately, the system is extremely expensive and most venues, which had just had to spring for the basic digital projectors in order to keep sowing movies, didn't bite. Installations of this system remain exceedingly rare - but I've been fortunate enough to see Dunkirk at one and can confirm it is quite impressive. In 2018, IMAX introduced a solution to THAT problem with the rollout of a smaller, cheaper IMAX with Laser system using only a single 4K projector. Installations of this version are becoming more common, but unfortunately, it doesn't support the full-height IMAX images - only widescreen. So, at present, the VAST majority of IMAX theatres are still using horribly outdated 2K projection systems. To counter this, IMAX has started leaning more heavily on other stuff - such as the increased prevalence of movies, even ones shot conventionally, which offer an expanded image for select scenes or the entire film exclusively in IMAX. That exclusivity isn't for any technical reason, it's just a marketing gimmick. It helps IMAX compete with the proliferation of theatre chains' own in-house "Premium Large Format" auditoriums like Cinemark XD, Regal RPX and the like. Those auditoriums often use vastly superior technology to most IMAX installations, but they don't have the marketing muscle and brand recognition of IMAX and usually don't get the special expanded-image versions of films. One notable exception was Transformers: The Last Knight, which offered its shifting aspect ratios to all theatres. What does "Shot in IMAX" or "Shot for IMAX" mean? Second verse, same as the first! It means whatever IMAX Corporation says it means on this particular day of the week. Originally, it meant it was shot with actual IMAX cameras on actual IMAX 15-perf, 65mm film. Those cameras, though, are extremely large, heavy, and loud, and only capable of recording for a rather short time. This makes them extremely difficult to work with. So in order to be able to promote more movies as "shot in IMAX," the corporation eventually started making exceptions. Even for IMAX's former business model focusing on documentaries, the cameras were often impractical for filming in remote locations and/or tight confines. One early "exception" was James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss, the feature-length documentary about the undersea wreck of the Titanic that was made for IMAX 3D exhibition and released in 2003. It was shot on early Sony CineAlta digital cameras in 1080p resolution and blown up for the 70mm prints. Several of IMAX's space documentaries were shot partially or entirely with more compact conventional cameras, including, in some cases, handheld DSLRs. To be fair, IMAX did not go so far as to actually call these "IMAX cameras" or use the specific marketing phrase "shot in IMAX." That didn't happen until 2014, when IMAX announced what they called the "IMAX 3D Digital Camera." This is what was used to shoot portions of Transformers: Age of Extinction, which was explicitly advertised as having "select footage captured with IMAX cameras." In actual fact, the "IMAX 3D Digital Camera" was just a custom 3D camera body housing a pair of image sensors (one for each eye) from the pre-existing Phantom 65 Gold digital cinema camera made by Vision Research. That camera, while very good and featuring much larger sensors than typical digital cinema cameras, had already been around for years. It also didn't support the full-height IMAX ratio. This particular camera was never used on another Hollywood production, because IMAX moved on from it very quickly. The very next year, in 2015, IMAX announced they were partnering with a bigger camera manufacturer, Arri, to create a new IMAX digital camera "based on" Arri's Alexa 65 large format digital cinema camera. Here's the thing - it wasn't based on the Alexa 65. It WAS the Alexa 65. With IMAX branding and, allegedly, a few software tweaks. This is essentially the first time IMAX just pointed at another manufacturer's camera, made a lucrative deal, and they both agreed to call it IMAX. What's especially ludicrous is that, again, the Alexa 65 had already existed and been in use before this deal, and plenty of movies continued to be shot on the Alexa 65 without IMAX's official endorsement. It doesn't mean anything. That said, the Arri Alexa 65 is an excellent camera - one of the best out there - and in controlled tests conducted by The Last Jedi and Knives Out cinematographer Steve Yedlin, it actually captured a slightly sharper, more detailed image than IMAX film. The image sensor is much smaller than a frame of IMAX film, however, and it doesn't support full-height IMAX images either - in fact, its native aspect ratio is wider than even IMAX Digital's 1.90:1, requiring the sides of the image to be cropped off to provide an image that can use the full height of even the IMAX Digital 2K projection system. That particular limitation was taken to an extreme for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Those movies were marketed as being filmed entirely with IMAX cameras. Even if you accept IMAX's shifting definitions of what an IMAX camera is, that's not true anyway because some aerial shots and other minor elements were actually shot on cameras other than the Alexa 65. No actual IMAX film was used in the process. The other big IMAX marketing gimmick for Infinity War and Endgame was that they would feature an exclusive expanded image for their entire runtimes. There was more image shown in IMAX theatres, but "expanded" is pushing it. It's actually just "less cropped." The directors insisted on using anamorphic lenses to shoot the movies, which - as detailed in prior posts in the thread - essentially squeeze a wider image onto a sensor or frame of film. But the Alexa 65's sensor is already wider than IMAX Digital's "expanded height" ratio, and using those lenses made this much worse. So to arrive at the "expanded" IMAX framing for the movie, they simply didn't use or threw away the image from 28% of the camera's sensor. Then to get the "standard" version, they cropped that even further on the top and bottom, leading to 43% of the camera's sensor (and potential resolution) going unusued for general release. Here's a handy visual aid! Click for full size! In the fall of 2020, IMAX just decided to stop pretending and officially announced the "Filmed in IMAX program," in which they agreed to "certify high-end, best-in-class digital cameras with leading brands... to work in the IMAX format when paired with its proprietary post-production process." This is exactly what they'd already done with the Alexa 65, only this time they're admitting it and expanding that "certification" to pretty much every major large format digital cinema camera on the market, including the Alexa 65 as well as the Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF, Red Ranger Monstro, Panavision Millennium DXL2, and Sony CineAlta Venice. Again, those are all good cameras. And again, this "certification" process means absolutely nothing. I'll close this post out with some more quotes from the official press release, with translations from marketing-speak to English in the spoilers below each: "This program will help IMAX work with a broader and more diverse group of top filmmakers, sparking new and exciting collaborations that can take advantage of our proprietary technology and global theatrical platform." "IMAX will also certify independent camera rental houses who can supply certified cameras worldwide." "IMAX will select only a limited number of films to participate in the program each year." "The company will implement best practice guidelines for each production to take advantage of each cameras' highest possible capture qualities and settings in order to maximize The IMAX Experience – including IMAX's exclusive expanded aspect ratio." "In addition, IMAX will utilize its expertise to work with each partner across R&D, production testing and post-production to achieve the highest level of digital image capture for optimized playback on IMAX's proprietary projection systems."
  13. You would not get IMAX on Easter, that's the second week of the Rian Johnson film's reservation
  14. Can I move Texas City to November 26th and claim IMAX?
  15. @Alpha Okay so. I am claiming one property - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I'm releasing a lot of others: Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Elder Scrolls Digimon D Ace Combat RoboCop Ghost Rider (except I'm reasonably sure I'd already traded these to @Reddroast in exchange for Star Fox) Moon Knight Jackie Chan Adventures Chaotic Also if the asterisks are meant to be on properties we've actually released films of then there are some corrections. I have NOT adapted Phii Khon Pen, but I HAVE adapted Pon, Ju-Rei: The Uncanny, and VR Troopers.
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