It's because there's a different kind of projector that can be raised into the same spot in the exact center of the dome theater. That other kind is the star projector that draws all the stars for presentations about astronimy. Because most of these domes were built for astronomy before IMAX existed.
The first time I watched a movie at IMAX...when that incredible countdown started I nearly cried. It's just unbelievable! It makes conventional cinema seem like a 14 inch black and white tv.
One of my first jobs, I made an attempt to train to be a projectionist. One evening, I had the opportunity to check out the projection prep room for an IMAX film. After seeing the highly experienced imax projectionist drop a 300 pound reel, I knew my place was back downstairs in my ratty 35mm projection hole where I was safe from the 70 mm monster.
The dvd replaced the 4 track studio tape. They used to have a 4 track tape player like your see in a mastering studio and used the 4 channels of audio for basic surround sound.
Some people may hate me for saying this, but digital has caught up with analogue years ago for quality. Then I'm not saying an mp3 is better than vinyl, but to a signal to noise ratio, there is much less noise in digital in general. Uncompressed (or lossless), 192kHz 24bit audio cannot be matched with anything analogue.
@@nextlifeonearth the movie is on film not for any quality reason, it's for storage and archival reasons. You can chuck a film in a cool dry dark cave with no power for centuries and it'll be fine. You're right about digital, but analogue still has it's little niche.
I wonder how big an IMAX movie would be as a digital file with no compression. Seems almost easier and cheaper to have each movie on it's own 10tb hard drive.
Senior Tech of a circuit in the USA here, movies are usually 150GB to 300GB depending on 2K vs 4K. The files are not compressed at all as every frame (24 per second) is its own uncompressed TIFF file, but the color formatting does change anywhere from 8bit to 12bit. Most movies are 12 bit unless they are 3D where they have to drop the color resolution due to playing technically two movies at once (left/right eye) on the processors. I'm not sure 70mm is equivalent to 18K due to the digital editing nowadays along with prints no longer being optically transferred as the days of old, they are printed onto the film with high res printers. I just so happened to have dinner the other night with one of the fathers of IMAX. Not trying to disclaim your findings as certain directors have produced optically transferred films recently such as Tarantino and Nolan in which resolution goes down to the molecule level, way better than 18k.
@@HighOrbitMediaVideos You'd lose no resolution, you'd just have an enormous file, around 130TB uncompressed according to my napkin maths. While thats large, you'd definitely not need a forklift to move it. Each film would fit into a shoebox.
Awesome video! I knew projecting IMAX 70MM wasn’t as simple as playing a disc but did not know the complex process involved to play it properly. This gives me a new appreciation for the work projectionists do. I love seeing a movie in this format. It totally makes a trip to the theater because there is no way to get it at home.
the real thing would be to see a movie actually shot on 70mm, and then projected on 70mm.... but there are only handful of movies ever shot on 70mm film Hateful Eight was probably the last one ever shot on 70mm.
@@UA-camUser-nd8qv 70mm and IMAX are not the same thing. They use the same film stock, but use it completely differently. 70mm (what Hateful Eight used) runs the film vertically, with each frame being five perforations high. IMAX runs the same film horizontally, with each frame being fifteen perforations wide. An IMAX frame is three times the size of a 70mm frame.
@@eksine Usually, but not always. If you're seeing actual 15/70mm IMAX film projected, it's not. Any form of digital projection is a scam, at least until it meets or exceeds 8K resolution.
Was lucky enough to get a tour of a legitimate 70 mm IMAX booth a couple of times. The calibration precision and sheer handling difficulties of such massive film reels was impressive. The ratio is also something you can't really believe until you see it. Dark Knight opening scenes in IMAX were riveting. Highly recommend everyone goes to a 70 mm IMAX screening at the earliest opportunity.
I spent a lot of time in that booth way, WAY back in 1973. My girlfriend's grandfather was one of the projectionists. He would actually smoke a pipe in the booth, which was gigantic. The Exorcist, The Parallax View, and The Sting were playing. I thought is was the coolest thing ever. Thanks for the tour and the memories.
Projectionists have ALWAYS been loyal and quite snobbish when it comes to the better engineered brands. Guys who have Kinoton projectors in their booths are snobs about them,;guys who have Norelco Philips AAs or DP70s think they have a projector that was dropped from heaven directly into their booths. Even the guys who ran Eastman 25B in college thought it was beneath them to even touch a Bell & Howell or Eiki or Elmo...and of course they were all eminently correct!
@@pryvisee all the computers on the bridge of the set for Star Trek New Voyages (now the Star Trek Set Tour) are running windows xp. I have a picture of the actor playing Scotty (who does the animation screens) programming the screens with the old green start button.
I worked 10 years as a projectionist trouble shooting Ive seen crazy stuff happen. Brain lock is common and can take 2 min to a hour to fix. The worst I had was titanic for some reason had a issue with the film and static causing the brain to spin out of control and it fly off the platter. Not fun in a sold out show. Also Ive had bulbs blow, power systems to the projector blow, lens crack. One funny one was Dr. Doolittle 2 reel 4 was in Spanish. It was in the film no way to fix it. We had to wait for a new reel to change it on the platter. I miss it the pay sucked but somedays were a adventure.
I worked at a theater back in the early-mid 90's ( I was 16-17) I remember one day someone forgot to put the platter on "payout". So a few mins later the film wraps around the brain, stops, burns then breaks. Talk about a pain in the ass to fix. My sister was actually in the theater watching "The Craft" came out and told me that it just stopped and you could see a hole burn through the film on the screen.
This was cool to see. I worked on the sound systems back when these were first being designed. I was the one who designed the sync system for the digital audio tracks when it was first making the transfer from the DA-88 to digital workstation, and it was really fun to dee a DA-88 still in the rack. The biggest problem I ran into was the inertia of the projector on startup. The projector fed LTC to the system which used that for the sound sync, but going from dead stop to full running speed took a chunk of time to get from 0 to 24 FPS, and that was all we had to lock onto. The immensity of the whole thing was insane. I remember getting introduced to the subwoofer room, which was essentially the inside of the subwoofer cabinet, and was larger than my first apartment.
When I worked at the Imax at Great America Park, we had 6 track sound on 35MM mag film that you synced to the projector electronically. No problem. Find the start point on the film and on the sound track and hit the sync switch!
This "old fashion crap" has an effective resolution of 12K, whereas digital IMAX is about 2.9K (yup, less than 4K - most digital films that are shot in 4K tend to end up being projected at 2K anyway). Traditional 70mm IMAX film still blows digital out of the water by a long way. There are also plenty of theatres still showing Dunkirk in traditional 70mm IMAX film so there's no reason he couldn't have seen it in this format.
Hahaha, I actually miss my landline because it sounded so much better, though my Verizon updated to HD calling like a year ago and it's on par with what I remember a landline sounding like, though it still has the lag.
Kidboy A.G. you seem to be forgetting that 128 lines of audio as for example specific by the Dolby Atmos standard can be in total more than 100GB. You will be going nowhere with a Blu-ray in those cases.
Blu-ray didn't exist when IMAX came out, and this is an older theater. Neither did DVD, for that matter, so not sure what original IMAX movies used to store audio. I would guess it was magnetic tape, but that's a guess.
Dude! You brought back so many memories for me as an old-school film projectionist. I never got to run Imax though I really wanted to but, I ran pretty much everything else from 35mm feature films built up on a platter (ugh) to 70mm double-system studio screenings. I had the privilege of having the Norelco AA 35/70mm projectors to show films on for years. We used to have our own private screenings of the films we were showing as well as "trailer parties" where we sat and watched a bunch of trailers. Being a projectionist is what got me through some lean years while attending film school and starting my career in visual effects and motion graphics. Yep, it pretty much has all become digital, mostly for the better - especially for post-production, visual effects very much included. Even most so-called Imax screens today just show the same 4k files (perhaps they will go to 8k once the capture and post pipelines catch up) that are shown in standard cinemas, expanded to fill the bigger Imax screen. The main difference today really is the sound systems used, not so much the picture quality. There really is nothing quite like that vast film experience you get with an Imax film that is really 70/15 Imax film.
The Imax projector was an example of someone saying "how do we do this without compromise?" But it was a total BEAST! Between the pumps to pump the cooling water, the air compressor to form the loop and fans running, you really needed hearing protection. And a bit of "obsessive compulsive disorder about cleanliness!@@HighOrbitMediaVideos
Love IMAX so much. IMAX Melbourne have the laser projector now but they brought back the classic projector for Dunkirk and ran most of its sessions in the 1570 format. Classic projector is still popular enough that a few times a year they rerun older films - especially Interstellar.
Well then, I haven’t seen a IMAX movie in 20 or so years and I just gained a whole new appreciation for the projectionist. Time for me to go watch some IMAX films! Seriously, well done I’m going back to the theater👍
When I was in elementary school, I used to know a kid whose dad did this job at the Franklin Institute. He used to shoot Imax movies about tornadoes too.
Melissa0774 yo that’s literally where I saw iMax for the first time at the Franklin institute and I saw a imax thing about a tornado that’s actually so weird lol
I was an assistant manager at a digital cinema for 2.5 years. This is absolutely crazy, super cool to see how different a top tier film projector works versus what projectors we had which were essentially Linux PCs with a big bulb.
The last IMAX theater who plays 70 mm films was available in my country until 2013, then all was replaced with digital projection, it´s sad that I couldn´t enjoy this back in the day and now with the close premiere of Oppenheimer it makes sadder.
Holy Wow!! I worked at The Tech after the turn of the century. I'm really glad to see ya'll did something cool and showcasing the dome making it more of an exhibit. It was always super cool seeing the behind the scenes, and helping drag those super heavy platters on the lift. It's amazing how much heavier Star Wars Clone Wars was than Shackleton or Wild California. F'n nostalgia.
I was also curious as to what they were paid. At my last theater I managed (before becoming a full time projectionist for a huge corporation), we showed Dunkirk in 70mm and the studio sent out their own projectionist. Dude was stuck there day and night for two weeks. But I'm willing to bet they made it worth his while.
Wow. I grew up in the days before VHS. So I'm used to threading film through the super 8 projector but this is another level. I wouuld love to be a Imax projectionist.
Used to think digital was the way to go in the beginning. Now later on afrer warching Chris Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and P T Anderson on 70 mm film. Film is better. Digital is way too perfect looking. I love film with grain. Its like people who go back to vinyl for the warm tone even with the scratches and hiss. But the kids these days can't tell the difference because now all its all about the streaming.for music and film.
@@cinergi2003 film is just different. Kt better ir worse. Film has a charm (there is a reason for that) both film and video has good and bad points. They are just different mediums
as a former film student this makes me appreciate the craft much more!! although i wouldn't want to be an imax projectionist I'd get nervous just by the scale and process of it hahaha
Thanks for this - all my film experience is 35mm, so I assumed the workflow would be similar, just bigger, but this really shows it's a huge pain in the backside by comparison!
I just wanted to mention that your editor used a free loop that I used on Garage Band circa 2012 on my moms iMac trying to be a “DJ”. But now here I am ten years later and I’m opening a record label while working full time as a drum teacher and music instructor at school of rock! So thank you free GarageBand/iMovie loops!
As I remember, Laserium people used to have to do tons of prep, too. All worth it! You are giving folks wonderful lifelong memories! Even the early Space Shuttle IMAXes, Antarctica, Fires of Kuwait, Chronos.
This is a really great demonstration of a cutting edge analogue technology! Keep in mind that all this pain in the ass is dedicated to the value of higher quality. You strictly couldn't do this better and more simply. Super cool!
A friend of my family used to be a movie theatre tech. he can attest to this lengthy process. where as most movies can be stored on a hard drive, and played via VLC on a computer, he said IMAX films must be manually prepared and played through the projector, because the information the film holds would take up tons of space if it were possible to convert it digitally.
@@imeakdo7 Six 30.72 TB drives? Six thousand thirty 72 TB drives? Six hundred thirty 72 TB drives? Or just one 6, 30.72 TB drive? Whatever that might mean. I ask because I've got a bunch of 5, 89.24 solid state drives here and I'm trying to save closet space.
I have been in professional audio visual presentation industry and my father was as well, since 1944 where he worked with military footage from wing cameras , through the advent of television where he was a critical member of the installation and production teams of 5 different TV stations, including the original ABC station in Washington , DC. WMAL ch.7. He and I both worked with 35 mm and of course, 16mm. He was a film director as at that time, there was no such thing as video tape or digital. In all those years in the industry, I have never heard the phrase "play a film". We both worked with JAN projectyors (Joint Army/Navy) projectors where the images were on one 16mm projector and the audio was recorded on a sproketed, 156mm magnetic track on the other side of thew projector from the optical so they would stay in perfect sync. This was achieved by marked sprocket holes optically counted during development and recording. It was the next generation of a clap board in post production.
My dad started working for Dumont T.V. the longest on air television network in the world (and still is on the air, not as Dumont, but Fox) I began my career in video tape in 1955. I habe worked on EVERY model of video tape machine that AMPEX made. I was the youngest ever to be nominated for an emmy for tape editing at the time as well. I am a proud IATSE member. I never fiddled with film, as it was a process that I felt was old and had no place in Television, since television was an electronic medium. I do find that film has a charm that video can never achieve. I am extremely disappointed that movie theaters are reduced to big screen TV's. Gone are the days of huge 70 foot screens where you were immersed in the film. Radio City Music Hall was one if the greatest movie theaters around and I am glad its still in operation (not as a movie house though) Alas because of corporate greed, there will be no more film. IMAX is going to replace the projectors with laser projectors with content comming from servers. Gone will be projectionists, film labs, distribution centers, duplication houses and all the support companies. Shame
@@rty1955 Agreed. Film has a warmth that video has never and will never achieve, AFAIC. I grew up with film of all types and thanks to a chance meeting with an incredible film expert by the name of Kemp Niver several years ago, I had the opportunity to hold some of Thomas Edison's original motion PICTURES in my hands. His original motion pictures were actually that- strips of photographic paper creating motion by actual strips of sequential images, not the little flip card displays. Kemp also won a technical Oscar award for creating the Rennovaire system, that pin registered each individual frame of the old nitrate films and re-photograph the origiginal onto safe, non flammable celluloid stock so it would survive time and exposure to air. He willed his entire library of Edison's collection to the film library at USC. His equipment is also now in the Smithsonian. I also did a LOT of work with 3-1/4x4 " hand- mounted glass sandwiched slides through the advent of 2x2 slides. The coolest exhibit was using 80- 2x2 slide projectors torecreate full 24FPS motion for the NAVA convention (pre-cursor to INFOCOMM) in 1969. WE cut up a Donald Duck cartoon in 16mm and reshot it frame by frame to 35mm slides. the animation was created by using a 1" mylar tape with puched holes, to change the slides of all those projectors in perfect synchonization. I also installed the first video projector ever used in a federal hearing in Washington, D.C.for the legal hearings of Bob Haldeman (Watergate character) My Dad was also the film editor and projectionist for the Senate hearings into the game show scandals of the 1950s. My uncle was also in the early television industry in the late 50's through the early 80s. He owned his own radio and TV store and installation business in Sandusky, Ohio- 'Bloomquist Radio and TV.'
I was lucky enough to have been able to learn how to project IMAX 70mm film back when interstellar came out. It was one of the greatest jobs that I have ever performed while working in a movie theater. Knowing that the fate of the audiences viewing experience is in your hands is one of the greatest feelings ever. By the end of our run of Interstellar I was able to thread the print through the projector in about 8 minutes. Man how I wish more theaters still projected in film. I miss being able to thread it.
This was great to see. I was a projectionist in the 80s', using 20 year old equipment. It was hot. It was heavy. Third phase generators and carbon filament rods. I can see what huge changes there are. Light years ahead.
Matt McCarthy me too… i thought it was litteraly just a computer with a big ass oled display, or at least a nice projector… i never thought theyd still go all old fashion…
Good question. It's not necessary as the parts of the film we touch are just the header and tail. There's probably up to 100 feet of "extra" film attached to the movie so we can thread it through the system without touching the actual frames.
Great detailed tour. LOTS of work for sure. Great stuff. My all time favorite IMAX was Chronos, the time lapse movie from all over thyr world. Incredible
I know at my local IMAX (dome type the st. louis science center) theres two reasons. One, for dome types the projection window is actually situated in the seating area because it needs to project at an upward-ish angle. Two, it allows the projection equipment to be an exhibit unto itself in the lobby
@@KingSlimjeezy Yup, where as normal imax is above the crowd. Because a dome IMAX uses a lens that requires a broad field of view. The projection station is actually central in the seating area. If you made paths to walk there you'd loose seats. So you load it on floor one, raise it to floor 2 and you're good to go.
It depends on design of the building and cost. Is it cheaper to build a second floor room with a heavy lift/elevator for carting all the film reals or to simply keep the room on the ground floor and raise the projector itself, with the film already loaded? I believe the latter is the cheaper option(in most cases).
For a regular flat IMAX theater, yes. For a dome IMAX theater, the projector has to be at the center of the dome, and is surrounded by seats. If you were to build the room high enough to not need a lift, you'd lose the seats on the sides of the projector and above it.
I started as a film major which made it very easy to get a job in the IMAX theater. However, you do not need to be in film to work at a theater. I took tickets and did various other things for about 5 years before I was trained as a projectionist. Only took that long because there were no openings so I imagine you could get this job in far less time after starting at a theater. Go for it.
I'm so glad I actually worked as a projectionist, I know how tedious this process is. One of my favorite jobs that was a ton of fun. 8 years total, but I'm glad that I had the chance to experience it all
hornetluca There used to be IMAX film projectors (the system was called “IMAX HD”) that projected 70mm IMAX film at 48fps, but it was never widely used since it costed more, used more film, and put more strain on the projector (Soarin’ at Disney California Adventure and Epcot used the projectors to project the image before it was revamped a couple of years ago).
Yes it's called "rolling loop" and a blast of air forms the loop and the rotor rolls that loop along and lays it on the gate perfectly flat so there is no jitter to the image that would actually make people ill if projected on a large screen.
In the 1970s, as a kid, I went to a few IMAX movies in St. Paul, MN. And I saw some of this gear, and thought it was amazing looking, but I didn't know how it worked. I do wonder why they have an elevator system. Did they build the projector on the ground floor just to show off the gear? I would think 70mm IMAX is better resolution than 4k digital? But maybe it's dynamic range is less?
Yes, 70mm resolution is better than 4K. It's closer to 18K. The projector is lifted into the theater because it needs to be in the center of the the theater so the fish eye lens can do it's job. So it's not just to show off the gear. We have those giant glass windows to show off the projection booth. Some booths don't give guests that opportunity though.
I'm an "old" 35-mm carbon-arc IA projectionist from day's past. Our "craft" died with the inability of the older generations to adapt to change. Granted, the technology evolved in a manner that it eventually eliminated jobs (e.g. carbon-arc to xenon; reels to platters; automated lens and apertures etc.), but this process would have been both a physical and mental challenge for a large segment of the folks I worked with. Still, the real "pros" I worked with (and fortunately, I benefited from aligning myself with these operators for mentoring) would have loved working with IMAX. I am in that crowd. Thanks for a great reveal of IMAX's idiosyncrasies! What I'd give to have worked with this format.
Theatres are one of the best uses of modern tech, just the idea of watching a film in a MASSIVE screen itself is amazing, theatres are the best friends of movie lovers like me i hope they dont die..
I remember seeing my first IMax film way back in 1985 here in Australia and the film was called The Dream is Alive all about the space shuttle program.. Was awesome to watch I can tell you.. :)
I'm not going to lie; I don't mind the digital projections. They look good. And sound wise my sound at home beats any theater anyway, as I prefer good stereo to any kind of surround sound.. But as someone who loves hands on media, I could never work at a digital theater. It just doesn't mean anything to me, really. Sure, it works, sure it's practical and reliable but... Nah. Where's the drama?
@@rollingtroll hahaha... the drama comes when internet is down... But as a former Cinerama projectionist I agree with you give me film anytime. But I have to say at home I have a 2K projector with all the screenformats there are..... also IMAX but flat and 7channel dolby Atmos and DTS-X.... One day I'll be absolete too.... too bad
@@sjoerdbalfoort7170 Let's not forget how bad flat screens once were, and how bad digital video once was (honestly, laserdisc did a pretty good job but that, technically, wasn't all digital). It's gotten so much better already, by the time stuff is obsolete there may be something better. For me personally the only real 'gap' in development of audio/video was vinyl to digital. Sure, digital had its upsides (no surface noise, easy track skipping etc, no wow/flutter.) but the music part of things just wasn't there. By now digital audio has caught up. Sure, there's still not many digital downloads available online that are great, but digital equipment right now is capable of captureing the sound of a vinyl record (it sounds as stupid as it is :D). I'm sure at some point digital video will be good enough to capture the feel of film while being digital. I hope by that time directors will start shooting on film again, mainly, and cinemas will have a digital copy that's (almost) just as good.
Since childhood, way back in 1972, because my dad operated projectors, I was fascinated by mechanical projectors. I collect6ed my own projector parts, spools, reels, lamp, intermittent sprockets, Geneva mechanism and fabricated my own projector over the years. I still get goosebumps seeing the tech. However with mobile phone in everyone's hand I don't see anybody appreciates the past tech anymore.
I was actually just there a few days ago, and saw Rogue One on film. It was certainly different. Do you think film projectors might make a comeback, like vinyl?
I highly doubt it. Unlike vinyl, the system required to play a 70mm film is huge. It can't really get any more compact than it actually is unless you, you guessed it, make it digital. Anyone can buy a record player but only a select few places can have a fully functional 70mm projector.
High Orbit Media That's a shame. After seeing Rogue One, and a preview for Dunkirk a few days ago, I can say it was a nice experience, and I doubt the closest IMAX Dome to me will show Dunkirk.
And it's hard to find a TRUE IMAX theater these days. Don't be fooled by a digital IMAX. 70mm film still has better clarity than consumer digital. It's best to find out what format a given IMAX theater is playing before you go.
I'm not generally opposed to digital, and in fact for most multiplexes I think it's an improvement over a poorly projected 35mm print. However, digital IMAX has nothing on the 70mm system.
Rabbitto09 Digital still tops out at 4k resolution (4096x2160) not to be confused with the similar home format UHD that is often incorrectly called 4k but is 3840x2160. Good 35mm prints have more effective resolution than 4k and 70mm being twice as big as that can have twice the effective resolution of 35. So until we have 16k digital projectors (16384x8640) 70mm film wins.
Bullshit. Digital is far better, no matter how "analog" you think you are. I'm not talking consumer digital. Professional digital. How the hell do you think movies are recorded these days????
i saw a tiny bit of the film in the projector walking out of the IMAX theater in the science museum in St. paul MN..... it was REALLY cool..... even as a 15 year old . now days.... i know most films are 35mm..... but even back then, i knew that film was HUGE!!!
I mean, i knew it was more complex then just putting in a Blu-Ray. Man i really love these kind of things, i have a lot of appreciation for it! It really is complex though!
ARI HD I worked at a AMC theater in high school. Almost everyone except the managers went to one of two high schools. We didn't have projectionists. The managers ran the films much if the time but they trained a few of us 16-17 year olds. I remember starting up Labyrinth for the first showing on the first day and it broke. I think I set a world record for splicing a film back together! Still my favorite job, though I like my pay better now!
Great video, but Im more interested about sound, like you said that IMAX 70mm film does not have space for audio, we have DVDs for it. So for example in Interstellar's case, for audio track you have only one DVD? But Isnt it supposed to be very small storage for such a long duration movie? And also in what format you have these audio tracks? Lossless format I suspect and what about sample and bit rate and how many speaker channels? Is it the same as bluray?
Hey, Atik. Yes, each film has only 1 DVD for the entire length of the film. I'm not certain what format the audio is in. We don't do the compression ourselves, it comes straight from IMAX HQ that way and we just play it. But you're right, you'd think the audio file was bigger than 5GB. There are 6 clusters of speakers in our Dome Theater. Not sure what Blu Ray's details are.
High Orbit Media thanks for the answer! In imdb it says that imax 6 track. As this is already known due to the recording sessions. They had 5.1 audio only. So in bluray movie is in dts hd master 5.1 and its almost 3 to 4GB. When in wave format its much bigger. We know that imax doesnt compress as well so i expect it to be around the wave format's size as the bluray. Then how come its only one DVD?
It's only one DVD because if it were 2, how would you move to the 2nd one without stopping the film? Also, even if half the SFX were on 1, and half on the 2nd, how would you play 2 DVDs at the same time? Are there systems that support that? I've never heard of that.
You're right it's only one DVD, but the old system worked with 3 CDs, so it's certainly possible. Every CD had 2 channels and had to be played at the same time, which isn't that hard with digital files. I don't know how good IMAX's compression is, but even a Dolby Atmos track on a Bluray rarely is over 5GB, so it could fit on a DVD. And maybe they're dual-layer DVDs.
DrDentz +1 to that but they advertised it as uncompressed digital sound, thats why i asked how is it possible with one dvd? Clearly its compressed... but it shouldt matter because its a lossless compression.
Woah makes you appreciate those imax scenes even more... No wonder whole film cannot be shot in imax.. Those cameras must be freaking huge and heavy and very expensive... I wish there was a sized down version for the imax camera... 4k is ok... but imax... displayed on a 4k is like whole god damn different thing altogether!
That's what makes the Everest IMAX film more impressive. Not only did they climb it, but they brought that gigantic camera and film all the up there as well. Incredible.
As a former 35mm projectionist for Regal (fun job) I can tell you if you mess up it's usually on a crowded, sold out day of course. The worst goof-up was I once built-up a sneak-preview movie in the wrong reel order: Reel 1 correct, reels 2-7 out of order, movie ended in the middle somewhere then back towards the beginning - haha! I once had a film on a busy sat night break, the whole film was on the floor!
This seems so ridiculously old-fashioned it’s weird to think it’s still done like this. To say normal movies are digitally streamed, I would never have guessed actual rolls of film would be used, especially for the level of quality required.
Actually today's movies are sent to the theaters on a hard drive to be dumped in the theaters storage system. There is way too much information to "stream" a theatrical movie.
@@marcesser4218 depends on the movie but it's not uncommon to film on 70mm and digitize it because you can digitize to any resolution so it's future proof. That's how old movies can be rereleased in 4k
@@81396xman Not the way my local cinema chains work I’m afraid. They have a direct connection to a central server which runs all the films on a high-speed internet connection.
I watched the last Jedi at this dome theater at the tech museum in San Jose back in 2017 before the renovations and new projector came in. I’d come to the the dome a lot cause I lived in Cupertino and loved to come by with my parents when I was younger. I’m curious, do you think you’d be up to making a video about the new digital IMAX with laser projector that replaced this one? I’m curious to see how the setup and theater itself compares to the old one. I live in San Diego for college now so I won’t be able to come to the tech museum as often as I used to :(
Glad to hear you enjoy The Tech. I actually don't work there anymore and live an hour away so it would be very hard for me to shoot something similar. It's in the back of my mind though. You'll definitely see it here if I can get something together.
A friend of mine helped create the cameras and projectors used in IMAX productions. His name is John Shaw. John was the engineer responsible for putting IMAX cameras on the space shuttles. Pretty cool eh!
6:20 to fire events, click fire events, to skip events click skip events. Wow, I'm glad that helper section exists, who would have known what the two buttons do?
Yeah, the entire industry has been drowning in such useless texts since they started letting documentation writers get away with it. This is part of the reason people stopped reading instructions in general.
Oh yeah. When you hear a noise you don't expect or the alarm goes off it's a full on panic. Similar to what it would be like in the International Space Station I imagine.
Good question. The film is very strong. Once we were disposing of a film and dumped a bunch of it in a trash compactor and it actually broke the compactor! I'd be very surprised if someone could rip or tear 70mm film. Secondly, when the projector is rising into the theater, the film is pulled up with it. It's not pulling on it like a rubber band.
On the same sort of topic, you mentioned that the print gets dirty the more times it's used. How do you minimize that? I would also like to mention there is nothing to beat a Chris Nolan film in IMAX, especially when the 15/70 footage comes from the original camera negative, giving you an 18k resolution. On Blu-Ray it's as sharp as you like
reptongeek The only way to minimize it is to keep the projection system as clean as possible by the process shown in the video. But with the short turnaround times it's difficult to keep up sometimes. And yes, Interstellar was incredible on our 9,000 sq/ft screen.
I’m happy I live in Canada because IMAX is a Canadian invention and I’ve never been happier to have seen an IMAX movie, even if I’ve only ever seen one
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Engineer 1: How can we make this really complicated machine even more expensive?
Engineer 2: Let's attach it to a lift
dude totally
It's because there's a different kind of projector that can be raised into the same spot in the exact center of the dome theater. That other kind is the star projector that draws all the stars for presentations about astronimy. Because most of these domes were built for astronomy before IMAX existed.
This is what happens when you throw money at engineers and lock the accountant in a cupboard.
Not like they could just have a pannel that pops up to block the light. No move the whole machine
@@wetlettuce4768 as things should be!
i thought it is just a double click on the desktop.
sunnyspeed studio yeah with VLC as default
GregLH0 wtf are u saying
IMAX 70mm is equivalent to 18K, so there's no comparison of digital format. yet.
A C he's trying unsuccessfully to sound smart
ll jj at least he tried though
The first time I watched a movie at IMAX...when that incredible countdown started I nearly cried. It's just unbelievable! It makes conventional cinema seem like a 14 inch black and white tv.
Jessica It is incredible. Our screen is 82 feet in diameter and covers over 9,000 square feet. Standard theaters seem so small in comparison.
Jessica Our IMAX in Bradford, UK has recently gone digital. Watching the countdown in 3D is utterly stunning! So clear and razor sharp.
Fr
Nope most movie theaters nowadays use digital projectors. Film projectors are a thing of the past.
Hahaha:D
One of my first jobs, I made an attempt to train to be a projectionist. One evening, I had the opportunity to check out the projection prep room for an IMAX film. After seeing the highly experienced imax projectionist drop a 300 pound reel, I knew my place was back downstairs in my ratty 35mm projection hole where I was safe from the 70 mm monster.
so you jinxed the guy
Patrick Howie Good catch. Corrected. 👍
@@Patrick.Howie. we all make errors.
Yes, you can tell people to correct them... Just do it politely
I love how “inserting a DVD” is actually a step too
The dvd replaced the 4 track studio tape. They used to have a 4 track tape player like your see in a mastering studio and used the 4 channels of audio for basic surround sound.
Some people may hate me for saying this, but digital has caught up with analogue years ago for quality. Then I'm not saying an mp3 is better than vinyl, but to a signal to noise ratio, there is much less noise in digital in general. Uncompressed (or lossless), 192kHz 24bit audio cannot be matched with anything analogue.
I’m only surprised it wasn’t a blu ray.
@@nextlifeonearth the movie is on film not for any quality reason, it's for storage and archival reasons. You can chuck a film in a cool dry dark cave with no power for centuries and it'll be fine. You're right about digital, but analogue still has it's little niche.
@@alec4672 I was mostly talking about audio. There are digital CDs made of non-organic materials that can last ages too.
Holy crap this is amazing. This should be shown before every IMAX feature.
Fantastic idea. Please share this so we can make that happen.
No, not amazing. Outdated. Not used much anymore, and for a good reason.
You're probably the type of person that goes to vinyl meets and tell them CD is better
what if they had a live stream of them preparing the movie while the crowd waits?
It won't be outdated until we have digital cinema cameras, projectors, and everything in-between in at least 8K resolution.
I wonder how big an IMAX movie would be as a digital file with no compression. Seems almost easier and cheaper to have each movie on it's own 10tb hard drive.
here in Australia they're on drives, all digital
@@justdazr5950 Ah nice. Are the movies downloaded or delivered to you?
You would lose a ton of resolution using a digital file. 70mm is equivalent to 18K digital.
Senior Tech of a circuit in the USA here, movies are usually 150GB to 300GB depending on 2K vs 4K. The files are not compressed at all as every frame (24 per second) is its own uncompressed TIFF file, but the color formatting does change anywhere from 8bit to 12bit. Most movies are 12 bit unless they are 3D where they have to drop the color resolution due to playing technically two movies at once (left/right eye) on the processors. I'm not sure 70mm is equivalent to 18K due to the digital editing nowadays along with prints no longer being optically transferred as the days of old, they are printed onto the film with high res printers. I just so happened to have dinner the other night with one of the fathers of IMAX. Not trying to disclaim your findings as certain directors have produced optically transferred films recently such as Tarantino and Nolan in which resolution goes down to the molecule level, way better than 18k.
@@HighOrbitMediaVideos You'd lose no resolution, you'd just have an enormous file, around 130TB uncompressed according to my napkin maths. While thats large, you'd definitely not need a forklift to move it. Each film would fit into a shoebox.
Thanks. I really wanted to make this quick and easy DIY project at home.
Are you sure about that?
Imma need sauce for your profile pic bro.
😂😂😂
4K DLP digital projector. You won't need something capable of projecting an image 6 stories tall with a 2000 watt light bulb at home.
You can, just not 70mm film... Building a 35mm film projector really isn't that hard or expensive.
The fact that rain-x is an essential ingredient in this process is the most amazing part.
Awesome video! I knew projecting IMAX 70MM wasn’t as simple as playing a disc but did not know the complex process involved to play it properly. This gives me a new appreciation for the work projectionists do. I love seeing a movie in this format. It totally makes a trip to the theater because there is no way to get it at home.
I used to think like "dang. IMAX is just a scam, why so expensive" after watching this, I respect IMAX again. Great job guys.
Most IMAX is just digital with the IMAX brand slapped on which is just a scam.
the real thing would be to see a movie actually shot on 70mm, and then projected on 70mm.... but there are only handful of movies ever shot on 70mm film
Hateful Eight was probably the last one ever shot on 70mm.
@@UA-camUser-nd8qv 70mm and IMAX are not the same thing. They use the same film stock, but use it completely differently. 70mm (what Hateful Eight used) runs the film vertically, with each frame being five perforations high. IMAX runs the same film horizontally, with each frame being fifteen perforations wide. An IMAX frame is three times the size of a 70mm frame.
Imax is a scam
@@eksine Usually, but not always. If you're seeing actual 15/70mm IMAX film projected, it's not. Any form of digital projection is a scam, at least until it meets or exceeds 8K resolution.
Was lucky enough to get a tour of a legitimate 70 mm IMAX booth a couple of times. The calibration precision and sheer handling difficulties of such massive film reels was impressive. The ratio is also something you can't really believe until you see it. Dark Knight opening scenes in IMAX were riveting. Highly recommend everyone goes to a 70 mm IMAX screening at the earliest opportunity.
You tell 'em, Chris.
Man, I like how he explains this so casually, like assuming everyone watching owns an IMAX projector and this is just a typical tutorial 😂
I spent a lot of time in that booth way, WAY back in 1973. My girlfriend's grandfather was one of the projectionists. He would actually smoke a pipe in the booth, which was gigantic. The Exorcist, The Parallax View, and The Sting were playing. I thought is was the coolest thing ever. Thanks for the tour and the memories.
I feel that there’s an underground of projectionist snobs who talk about how low brow other projectors are.
probably only platter systems. Christy > *, BTW
Projectionists have ALWAYS been loyal and quite snobbish when it comes to the better engineered brands. Guys who have Kinoton projectors in their booths are snobs about them,;guys who have Norelco Philips AAs or DP70s think they have a projector that was dropped from heaven directly into their booths. Even the guys who ran Eastman 25B in college thought it was beneath them to even touch a Bell & Howell or Eiki or Elmo...and of course they were all eminently correct!
And Here I was there thinking it was a windows 7 PC hooked up to a projector.
Theater I work at uses Windows XP on the projector OS as choice. It doesn't play the content but it's still XP lol.
lmfao
@@pryvisee all the computers on the bridge of the set for Star Trek New Voyages (now the Star Trek Set Tour) are running windows xp. I have a picture of the actor playing Scotty (who does the animation screens) programming the screens with the old green start button.
@@pryvisee
XP is still a pretty good OS for use as a small non internet connected OS when HDD space and/or processing power is limited
Only some theaters use film as film is more expensive
I worked 10 years as a projectionist trouble shooting Ive seen crazy stuff happen. Brain lock is common and can take 2 min to a hour to fix. The worst I had was titanic for some reason had a issue with the film and static causing the brain to spin out of control and it fly off the platter. Not fun in a sold out show. Also Ive had bulbs blow, power systems to the projector blow, lens crack.
One funny one was Dr. Doolittle 2 reel 4 was in Spanish. It was in the film no way to fix it. We had to wait for a new reel to change it on the platter. I miss it the pay sucked but somedays were a adventure.
Oh, yeah. No two days are alike as a film projectionist. Sounds like you had some stressful moments.
I thought the audio was on a DVD, not on the film... suspicious!
I worked at a theater back in the early-mid 90's ( I was 16-17) I remember one day someone forgot to put the platter on "payout". So a few mins later the film wraps around the brain, stops, burns then breaks. Talk about a pain in the ass to fix. My sister was actually in the theater watching "The Craft" came out and told me that it just stopped and you could see a hole burn through the film on the screen.
@@scowell dude that's one type of film most of them do have it on it
@@chabka34 On IMax? Not to my knowledge.
I was an imax projectionist for about 6yrs during my highschool and university days and this video brought back so many memories!
Lucky! I would’ve loved to be a projectionist during like 2008-13 when IMAX was regularly releasing 70mm prints.
I have run from 8 mm to 35 mm projectors, but this takes the cake. I have never seen such a machine. Thank you, incredible.
I ran 35mm through DP75s for 11 years. Absolute child’s play in comparison to what I just witnessed lol
This was cool to see.
I worked on the sound systems back when these were first being designed. I was the one who designed the sync system for the digital audio tracks when it was first making the transfer from the DA-88 to digital workstation, and it was really fun to dee a DA-88 still in the rack.
The biggest problem I ran into was the inertia of the projector on startup. The projector fed LTC to the system which used that for the sound sync, but going from dead stop to full running speed took a chunk of time to get from 0 to 24 FPS, and that was all we had to lock onto.
The immensity of the whole thing was insane. I remember getting introduced to the subwoofer room, which was essentially the inside of the subwoofer cabinet, and was larger than my first apartment.
When I worked at the Imax at Great America Park, we had 6 track sound on 35MM mag film that you synced to the projector electronically. No problem. Find the start point on the film and on the sound track and hit the sync switch!
I just saw Dunkirk in IMAX. What a great experience!! IMAX is truly incredible!
Moacir Führ
Me too, very impressed
You saw a digital IMAX version of Dunkirk, not this old fashion crap.
This "old fashion crap" has an effective resolution of 12K, whereas digital IMAX is about 2.9K (yup, less than 4K - most digital films that are shot in 4K tend to end up being projected at 2K anyway). Traditional 70mm IMAX film still blows digital out of the water by a long way. There are also plenty of theatres still showing Dunkirk in traditional 70mm IMAX film so there's no reason he couldn't have seen it in this format.
I'll bet Scott Wilkins also thinks cell phones sound better than land lines.
Hahaha, I actually miss my landline because it sounded so much better, though my Verizon updated to HD calling like a year ago and it's on par with what I remember a landline sounding like, though it still has the lag.
Huh, Interesting to know that the audio doesn't come from an audio track on the film strip, but on DVD...
Tyson L wonder why it isn't put on a blu-ray
Jason Lee Because it doesn't need to be. The audio would have to be extremely large to be on Blu-Ray
Kidboy A.G. you seem to be forgetting that 128 lines of audio as for example specific by the Dolby Atmos standard can be in total more than 100GB. You will be going nowhere with a Blu-ray in those cases.
Well, a number of DVDs actually.
Blu-ray didn't exist when IMAX came out, and this is an older theater. Neither did DVD, for that matter, so not sure what original IMAX movies used to store audio. I would guess it was magnetic tape, but that's a guess.
Dude! You brought back so many memories for me as an old-school film projectionist. I never got to run Imax though I really wanted to but, I ran pretty much everything else from 35mm feature films built up on a platter (ugh) to 70mm double-system studio screenings. I had the privilege of having the Norelco AA 35/70mm projectors to show films on for years. We used to have our own private screenings of the films we were showing as well as "trailer parties" where we sat and watched a bunch of trailers. Being a projectionist is what got me through some lean years while attending film school and starting my career in visual effects and motion graphics.
Yep, it pretty much has all become digital, mostly for the better - especially for post-production, visual effects very much included. Even most so-called Imax screens today just show the same 4k files (perhaps they will go to 8k once the capture and post pipelines catch up) that are shown in standard cinemas, expanded to fill the bigger Imax screen. The main difference today really is the sound systems used, not so much the picture quality. There really is nothing quite like that vast film experience you get with an Imax film that is really 70/15 Imax film.
I'm glad I could bring back some memories for you! It's a crazy system.
man, i sometimes miss the gentle bob of film from traveling thru a mildly worn film gate. but TOTALLY don't miss scratched prints and missplices
The Imax projector was an example of someone saying "how do we do this without compromise?" But it was a total BEAST! Between the pumps to pump the cooling water, the air compressor to form the loop and fans running, you really needed hearing protection. And a bit of "obsessive compulsive disorder about cleanliness!@@HighOrbitMediaVideos
Love IMAX so much. IMAX Melbourne have the laser projector now but they brought back the classic projector for Dunkirk and ran most of its sessions in the 1570 format. Classic projector is still popular enough that a few times a year they rerun older films - especially Interstellar.
Well then, I haven’t seen a IMAX movie in 20 or so years and I just gained a whole new appreciation for the projectionist. Time for me to go watch some IMAX films! Seriously, well done I’m going back to the theater👍
When I was in elementary school, I used to know a kid whose dad did this job at the Franklin Institute. He used to shoot Imax movies about tornadoes too.
Melissa0774 did this kid have the surname Casey?
We may never know! :O
Melissa0774 I
Melissa0774 yo that’s literally where I saw iMax for the first time at the Franklin institute and I saw a imax thing about a tornado that’s actually so weird lol
Lol if I had a job like this in IMAX I'd be fired already... 😬
Ariya Mangsanhanh great job dude
Ariya Mangsanhanh looks like the biggest pain in the ass ever
Ariya Mangsanhanh same
Same
I'd probably drop sweat on the film
I was an assistant manager at a digital cinema for 2.5 years. This is absolutely crazy, super cool to see how different a top tier film projector works versus what projectors we had which were essentially Linux PCs with a big bulb.
The last IMAX theater who plays 70 mm films was available in my country until 2013, then all was replaced with digital projection, it´s sad that I couldn´t enjoy this back in the day and now with the close premiere of Oppenheimer it makes sadder.
That is INSANE -- all of that film flying around up and down through hoops and loops........I had no idea it worked like this!!
"So I hope you've gained more appreciation for what projectionists do" oh, indeed.
Thx for this video, it's quite impressive
Thanks watching, Mr. Spock. Please share.
Holy Wow!! I worked at The Tech after the turn of the century. I'm really glad to see ya'll did something cool and showcasing the dome making it more of an exhibit. It was always super cool seeing the behind the scenes, and helping drag those super heavy platters on the lift. It's amazing how much heavier Star Wars Clone Wars was than Shackleton or Wild California. F'n nostalgia.
Great video, professional knowledge, it really should be used by IMAX to recruit the new projectionist for Dunkirk.
zhafeco I'm scrolling the comments now trying to figure out what they get paid
I was also curious as to what they were paid. At my last theater I managed (before becoming a full time projectionist for a huge corporation), we showed Dunkirk in 70mm and the studio sent out their own projectionist. Dude was stuck there day and night for two weeks. But I'm willing to bet they made it worth his while.
Oppenheimer in IMAX 70 mm would be something else , specially the b/w scenes
seeing this machine work is cooler then any movie it ever plays
Wow. I grew up in the days before VHS. So I'm used to threading film through the super 8 projector but this is another level. I wouuld love to be a Imax projectionist.
Better get on that before digital takes over!
Why? Digital is better.
Used to think digital was the way to go in the beginning. Now later on afrer warching Chris Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and P T Anderson on 70 mm film. Film is better. Digital is way too perfect looking. I love film with grain. Its like people who go back to vinyl for the warm tone even with the scratches and hiss. But the kids these days can't tell the difference because now all its all about the streaming.for music and film.
@@cinergi2003 film is just different. Kt better ir worse. Film has a charm (there is a reason for that) both film and video has good and bad points. They are just different mediums
as a former film student this makes me appreciate the craft much more!! although i wouldn't want to be an imax projectionist I'd get nervous just by the scale and process of it hahaha
gabrielle marie imperial , right? I figured it took some work but wow, it's really a LOT of work!
Nima Kabir yeah mate I mean the weight of that film is too much 😧
gabrielle marie imperial
@@nkabir12 nothing compares to a quad video tape machine. Makes this look mike child's play
Thanks for this - all my film experience is 35mm, so I assumed the workflow would be similar, just bigger, but this really shows it's a huge pain in the backside by comparison!
I just wanted to mention that your editor used a free loop that I used on Garage Band circa 2012 on my moms iMac trying to be a “DJ”.
But now here I am ten years later and I’m opening a record label while working full time as a drum teacher and music instructor at school of rock! So thank you free GarageBand/iMovie loops!
As I remember, Laserium people used to have to do tons of prep, too. All worth it! You are giving folks wonderful lifelong memories! Even the early Space Shuttle IMAXes, Antarctica, Fires of Kuwait, Chronos.
This is a really great demonstration of a cutting edge analogue technology! Keep in mind that all this pain in the ass is dedicated to the value of higher quality. You strictly couldn't do this better and more simply. Super cool!
I've been wondering about a lot of these details for ages. Thank you so much for sharing every step!
A friend of my family used to be a movie theatre tech. he can attest to this lengthy process. where as most movies can be stored on a hard drive, and played via VLC on a computer, he said IMAX films must be manually prepared and played through the projector, because the information the film holds would take up tons of space if it were possible to convert it digitally.
Thaey are doing that now to IMAX films. They are goingf ALL digital
Digital with IMAX film resolution nowadays would fit into 6, 30.72 tb solid state drives
@@imeakdo7 Six 30.72 TB drives? Six thousand thirty 72 TB drives? Six hundred thirty 72 TB drives? Or just one 6, 30.72 TB drive? Whatever that might mean. I ask because I've got a bunch of 5, 89.24 solid state drives here and I'm trying to save closet space.
@@amarissimus29 there's a comma and a space
Takes me back. I worked for IMAX back in the late 90's early 2000's. Thanks for the reminder 👍🏻
Wow, I had no idea how much work went into doing this. Love watching movies in IMAX.
I have been in professional audio visual presentation industry and my father was as well, since 1944 where he worked with military footage from wing cameras , through the advent of television where he was a critical member of the installation and production teams of 5 different TV stations, including the original ABC station in Washington , DC. WMAL ch.7. He and I both worked with 35 mm and of course, 16mm. He was a film director as at that time, there was no such thing as video tape or digital. In all those years in the industry, I have never heard the phrase "play a film". We both worked with JAN projectyors (Joint Army/Navy) projectors where the images were on one 16mm projector and the audio was recorded on a sproketed, 156mm magnetic track on the other side of thew projector from the optical so they would stay in perfect sync. This was achieved by marked sprocket holes optically counted during development and recording. It was the next generation of a clap board in post production.
My dad started working for Dumont T.V. the longest on air television network in the world (and still is on the air, not as Dumont, but Fox) I began my career in video tape in 1955. I habe worked on EVERY model of video tape machine that AMPEX made. I was the youngest ever to be nominated for an emmy for tape editing at the time as well. I am a proud IATSE member.
I never fiddled with film, as it was a process that I felt was old and had no place in Television, since television was an electronic medium.
I do find that film has a charm that video can never achieve. I am extremely disappointed that movie theaters are reduced to big screen TV's. Gone are the days of huge 70 foot screens where you were immersed in the film. Radio City Music Hall was one if the greatest movie theaters around and I am glad its still in operation (not as a movie house though)
Alas because of corporate greed, there will be no more film. IMAX is going to replace the projectors with laser projectors with content comming from servers. Gone will be projectionists, film labs, distribution centers, duplication houses and all the support companies. Shame
@@rty1955 Agreed. Film has a warmth that video has never and will never achieve, AFAIC. I grew up with film of all types and thanks to a chance meeting with an incredible film expert by the name of Kemp Niver several years ago, I had the opportunity to hold some of Thomas Edison's original motion PICTURES in my hands. His original motion pictures were actually that- strips of photographic paper creating motion by actual strips of sequential images, not the little flip card displays. Kemp also won a technical Oscar award for creating the Rennovaire system, that pin registered each individual frame of the old nitrate films and re-photograph the origiginal onto safe, non flammable celluloid stock so it would survive time and exposure to air. He willed his entire library of Edison's collection to the film library at USC. His equipment is also now in the Smithsonian.
I also did a LOT of work with 3-1/4x4 " hand- mounted glass sandwiched slides through the advent of 2x2 slides. The coolest exhibit was using 80- 2x2 slide projectors torecreate full 24FPS motion for the NAVA convention (pre-cursor to INFOCOMM) in 1969. WE cut up a Donald Duck cartoon in 16mm and reshot it frame by frame to 35mm slides. the animation was created by using a 1" mylar tape with puched holes, to change the slides of all those projectors in perfect synchonization.
I also installed the first video projector ever used in a federal hearing in Washington, D.C.for the legal hearings of Bob Haldeman (Watergate character)
My Dad was also the film editor and projectionist for the Senate hearings into the game show scandals of the 1950s. My uncle was also in the early television industry in the late 50's through the early 80s. He owned his own radio and TV store and installation business in Sandusky, Ohio- 'Bloomquist Radio and TV.'
I was lucky enough to have been able to learn how to project IMAX 70mm film back when interstellar came out. It was one of the greatest jobs that I have ever performed while working in a movie theater. Knowing that the fate of the audiences viewing experience is in your hands is one of the greatest feelings ever. By the end of our run of Interstellar I was able to thread the print through the projector in about 8 minutes.
Man how I wish more theaters still projected in film. I miss being able to thread it.
Yeah, I agree. Super unique job.
This is just incredible.. never seen the behind the scenes!!!!! MORE!!!!
This was great to see. I was a projectionist in the 80s', using 20 year old equipment. It was hot. It was heavy. Third phase generators and carbon filament rods. I can see what huge changes there are. Light years ahead.
This is an absolute art form, cleaning, preparing and even moving these rolls. It’s beautiful❤
i thought they played movies off of computers nowadays, guess not
Congratulations, you're exactly who I made this for.
Matt McCarthy they are, for 99% of the time. But there are stil film theatres around and 15/70mm IMAX is the leading technology of them.
Matt McCarthy hello my brother
Matt McCarthy me too… i thought it was litteraly just a computer with a big ass oled display, or at least a nice projector… i never thought theyd still go all old fashion…
Matt McCarthy right now 15/70mm film is better, well, until the digital projection companies step up their shit.
Dude, I know you're the expert, but do you minimize finger prints on the film? Or is that not even necessary?
Good question. It's not necessary as the parts of the film we touch are just the header and tail. There's probably up to 100 feet of "extra" film attached to the movie so we can thread it through the system without touching the actual frames.
High Orbit Media I still feel like he should wear gloves to not damage the film with oil from his fingers.
vamosnippon the part of the film that he touches is blank so it will not be played
Blake Foster ahhh I see it's only the film with those numbers. Cool
vamosnippon pretty sure he knows what he's doing
Wow! Impressive ! We should give more props to these operators !!! Amazing job !
Great detailed tour. LOTS of work for sure. Great stuff. My all time favorite IMAX was Chronos, the time lapse movie from all over thyr world. Incredible
Incredible. Hard to believe this is still used today. Amazing technology.
This is awesome man thanks for sharing!
Kevin Nguyen don't they use hard drives now? Instead of film
Kevin Nguyen don't they use hard drives now? Instead of film
Kevin Nguyen don't they use hard drives now? Instead of film
Kevin Nguyen don't they use hard drives now? Instead of film
Mario lacolucci cant they still use film now? Instead of hard drives
Why a lift? Isnt it easier and cheaper to build the room higher up?
I know at my local IMAX (dome type the st. louis science center) theres two reasons. One, for dome types the projection window is actually situated in the seating area because it needs to project at an upward-ish angle. Two, it allows the projection equipment to be an exhibit unto itself in the lobby
@@KingSlimjeezy plus you can use the wasted space under the seating I guess :D
@@KingSlimjeezy Yup, where as normal imax is above the crowd. Because a dome IMAX uses a lens that requires a broad field of view. The projection station is actually central in the seating area. If you made paths to walk there you'd loose seats. So you load it on floor one, raise it to floor 2 and you're good to go.
It depends on design of the building and cost. Is it cheaper to build a second floor room with a heavy lift/elevator for carting all the film reals or to simply keep the room on the ground floor and raise the projector itself, with the film already loaded? I believe the latter is the cheaper option(in most cases).
For a regular flat IMAX theater, yes. For a dome IMAX theater, the projector has to be at the center of the dome, and is surrounded by seats. If you were to build the room high enough to not need a lift, you'd lose the seats on the sides of the projector and above it.
How do I get this job?? Serious question, I’m in love with film, it’s a passion of mine and having this job would be sweet.
I started as a film major which made it very easy to get a job in the IMAX theater. However, you do not need to be in film to work at a theater. I took tickets and did various other things for about 5 years before I was trained as a projectionist. Only took that long because there were no openings so I imagine you could get this job in far less time after starting at a theater. Go for it.
Ethan....very easy... just show them that you can do it for them...questions?
You wont have to soon as this job is going away
GOOD GOOD IVE NEVER SEEN A THEATRE LIKE THAT THOSE SEATS ARE GLORIOUS
I'm so glad I actually worked as a projectionist, I know how tedious this process is. One of my favorite jobs that was a ton of fun. 8 years total, but I'm glad that I had the chance to experience it all
Are the 70mm IMAX movies projected at 60 fps?
That projector can only do 24fps.
BigChap J 😂
hornetluca There used to be IMAX film projectors (the system was called “IMAX HD”) that projected 70mm IMAX film at 48fps, but it was never widely used since it costed more, used more film, and put more strain on the projector (Soarin’ at Disney California Adventure and Epcot used the projectors to project the image before it was revamped a couple of years ago).
There is a process called Showscan that runs 70mm film at 60 fps, but it's basically only ever been used for short movies for theme park rides.
hornetluca it's film lol all films are 24fps
If you plan another clip on IMAX, then I'd like to see how the film is looped in front of the lens. And how audio is synced to the images. Thanks!
Yes it's called "rolling loop" and a blast of air forms the loop and the rotor rolls that loop along and lays it on the gate perfectly flat so there is no jitter to the image that would actually make people ill if projected on a large screen.
In the 1970s, as a kid, I went to a few IMAX movies in St. Paul, MN. And I saw some of this gear, and thought it was amazing looking, but I didn't know how it worked. I do wonder why they have an elevator system. Did they build the projector on the ground floor just to show off the gear? I would think 70mm IMAX is better resolution than 4k digital? But maybe it's dynamic range is less?
Yes, 70mm resolution is better than 4K. It's closer to 18K. The projector is lifted into the theater because it needs to be in the center of the the theater so the fish eye lens can do it's job. So it's not just to show off the gear. We have those giant glass windows to show off the projection booth. Some booths don't give guests that opportunity though.
The Omini theater in St. Paul, at the science museum had a similar arrangement, with a tilted dome. The theater was also a planetarium.
I'm an "old" 35-mm carbon-arc IA projectionist from day's past. Our "craft" died with the inability of the older generations to adapt to change. Granted, the technology evolved in a manner that it eventually eliminated jobs (e.g. carbon-arc to xenon; reels to platters; automated lens and apertures etc.), but this process would have been both a physical and mental challenge for a large segment of the folks I worked with. Still, the real "pros" I worked with (and fortunately, I benefited from aligning myself with these operators for mentoring) would have loved working with IMAX. I am in that crowd. Thanks for a great reveal of IMAX's idiosyncrasies! What I'd give to have worked with this format.
Never seen an Imax but HUGE RESPECT TO THE PROJECTIONIST
Holy shit! There are so many ways this can go wrong! I have a newfound respect for projectionists.
I want to watch interstellar in IMAX, I would give a tooth for that feeling
I Am Potato I saw gravity and interstellar in IMAX, truly incredible experiences.
I Am Potato me too
Potatoes got no teeth.
Oooh, I think Blade Runner for me... Then perhaps Blade Runner 2049.
interstellar on imax was fucking amazing when i saw it
"If a dirty film has just played"
( ͠❛ ͜ʖ ͠❛ )
OH YEAH *music*
Theatres are one of the best uses of modern tech, just the idea of watching a film in a MASSIVE screen itself is amazing, theatres are the best friends of movie lovers like me i hope they dont die..
that's incredible, i had no idea that much went into this. new appreciation for this!
I remember seeing my first IMax film way back in 1985 here in Australia and the film was called The Dream is Alive all about the space shuttle program.. Was awesome to watch I can tell you.. :)
Mine was a little less serious but way way more fun. Monsters Vs Aliens in 3D. Fell in love with movies again after watching it at the Sydney IMAX.
Really? No one in this comments section has any appreciation for film? It's a beautiful medium to work with.
You the man, Nic.
That's true!
I'm not going to lie; I don't mind the digital projections. They look good. And sound wise my sound at home beats any theater anyway, as I prefer good stereo to any kind of surround sound..
But as someone who loves hands on media, I could never work at a digital theater. It just doesn't mean anything to me, really. Sure, it works, sure it's practical and reliable but... Nah. Where's the drama?
@@rollingtroll hahaha... the drama comes when internet is down... But as a former Cinerama projectionist I agree with you give me film anytime.
But I have to say at home I have a 2K projector with all the screenformats there are..... also IMAX but flat and 7channel dolby Atmos and DTS-X.... One day I'll be absolete too.... too bad
@@sjoerdbalfoort7170 Let's not forget how bad flat screens once were, and how bad digital video once was (honestly, laserdisc did a pretty good job but that, technically, wasn't all digital). It's gotten so much better already, by the time stuff is obsolete there may be something better.
For me personally the only real 'gap' in development of audio/video was vinyl to digital. Sure, digital had its upsides (no surface noise, easy track skipping etc, no wow/flutter.) but the music part of things just wasn't there. By now digital audio has caught up. Sure, there's still not many digital downloads available online that are great, but digital equipment right now is capable of captureing the sound of a vinyl record (it sounds as stupid as it is :D). I'm sure at some point digital video will be good enough to capture the feel of film while being digital. I hope by that time directors will start shooting on film again, mainly, and cinemas will have a digital copy that's (almost) just as good.
This is what it feels like when ur high and you try to put in a dvd
Since childhood, way back in 1972, because my dad operated projectors, I was fascinated by mechanical projectors. I collect6ed my own projector parts, spools, reels, lamp, intermittent sprockets, Geneva mechanism and fabricated my own projector over the years. I still get goosebumps seeing the tech. However with mobile phone in everyone's hand I don't see anybody appreciates the past tech anymore.
GREAT VIDEO, SHOWS ALL THE HARD WORK THAT GOES ON BEHIND THE SCENES. Jay
I was actually just there a few days ago, and saw Rogue One on film. It was certainly different. Do you think film projectors might make a comeback, like vinyl?
I highly doubt it. Unlike vinyl, the system required to play a 70mm film is huge. It can't really get any more compact than it actually is unless you, you guessed it, make it digital. Anyone can buy a record player but only a select few places can have a fully functional 70mm projector.
High Orbit Media That's a shame. After seeing Rogue One, and a preview for Dunkirk a few days ago, I can say it was a nice experience, and I doubt the closest IMAX Dome to me will show Dunkirk.
And it's hard to find a TRUE IMAX theater these days. Don't be fooled by a digital IMAX. 70mm film still has better clarity than consumer digital. It's best to find out what format a given IMAX theater is playing before you go.
15/70 IMAX FILM ULTIMATE FILMED ENTERTAINMENT
High Orbit Media 125 theatres are getting Dunkirk in 70mm. So it very well could be making a comeback
Recently, when the screening is on 70mm format, will the “Sonics Preshow” be presented before the movie?
We played that before every show for years. Not sure if they still do it anymore as I haven't worked there in 3 years.
I'm not generally opposed to digital, and in fact for most multiplexes I think it's an improvement over a poorly projected 35mm print. However, digital IMAX has nothing on the 70mm system.
Brian Cairns why does it have nothing on a 70 mm? Genuine question.
Rabbitto09 Digital still tops out at 4k resolution (4096x2160) not to be confused with the similar home format UHD that is often incorrectly called 4k but is 3840x2160.
Good 35mm prints have more effective resolution than 4k and 70mm being twice as big as that can have twice the effective resolution of 35.
So until we have 16k digital projectors (16384x8640) 70mm film wins.
Bullshit. Digital is far better, no matter how "analog" you think you are. I'm not talking consumer digital. Professional digital. How the hell do you think movies are recorded these days????
...Film. A lot are still shot on film because as Daniel illustrated, large format film has much more resolution than digital.
Red cameras 8k 2:4:1 res up to 30fps using a Helium 35.4 megapixel CMOS sensor. They use hotswap SSDs as storage mediums.
i saw a tiny bit of the film in the projector walking out of the IMAX theater in the science museum in St. paul MN.....
it was REALLY cool..... even as a 15 year old
.
now days.... i know most films are 35mm..... but even back then, i knew that film was HUGE!!!
I mean, i knew it was more complex then just putting in a Blu-Ray. Man i really love these kind of things, i have a lot of appreciation for it! It really is complex though!
You should look into old quad video tape machines! After working with quads, this is a walk in the park!
SO MUCH CARE GONE INTO CINEMA
THE SCREENS AND AUDIO I DIDNT EVEN KNOW AND THAT YOU HAVE TO DO ALL THIS IS INCREDIBLE
ARI HD modern cinemas don't have films. Almost everything is digital.
ARI HD I worked at a AMC theater in high school. Almost everyone except the managers went to one of two high schools. We didn't have projectionists. The managers ran the films much if the time but they trained a few of us 16-17 year olds. I remember starting up Labyrinth for the first showing on the first day and it broke. I think I set a world record for splicing a film back together! Still my favorite job, though I like my pay better now!
James Braselton it's actually because ticket prices go to the movie creators and not the theater, they make money off consessions
"If a DIRTY film has just played" :}
Hmmm.... now you are giving us ideas..... dirty films on a bigass screen......
@@vallurirajesh MMm..Yeah.
IMAX 3D!
Lmao 😂😂😂😂 Since when IMAX plays XXX movies?
Didlers..
Great video, but Im more interested about sound, like you said that IMAX 70mm film does not have space for audio, we have DVDs for it. So for example in Interstellar's case, for audio track you have only one DVD? But Isnt it supposed to be very small storage for such a long duration movie? And also in what format you have these audio tracks? Lossless format I suspect and what about sample and bit rate and how many speaker channels? Is it the same as bluray?
Hey, Atik. Yes, each film has only 1 DVD for the entire length of the film. I'm not certain what format the audio is in. We don't do the compression ourselves, it comes straight from IMAX HQ that way and we just play it. But you're right, you'd think the audio file was bigger than 5GB. There are 6 clusters of speakers in our Dome Theater. Not sure what Blu Ray's details are.
High Orbit Media thanks for the answer! In imdb it says that imax 6 track. As this is already known due to the recording sessions. They had 5.1 audio only. So in bluray movie is in dts hd master 5.1 and its almost 3 to 4GB. When in wave format its much bigger. We know that imax doesnt compress as well so i expect it to be around the wave format's size as the bluray. Then how come its only one DVD?
It's only one DVD because if it were 2, how would you move to the 2nd one without stopping the film? Also, even if half the SFX were on 1, and half on the 2nd, how would you play 2 DVDs at the same time? Are there systems that support that? I've never heard of that.
You're right it's only one DVD, but the old system worked with 3 CDs, so it's certainly possible. Every CD had 2 channels and had to be played at the same time, which isn't that hard with digital files.
I don't know how good IMAX's compression is, but even a Dolby Atmos track on a Bluray rarely is over 5GB, so it could fit on a DVD. And maybe they're dual-layer DVDs.
DrDentz +1 to that but they advertised it as uncompressed digital sound, thats why i asked how is it possible with one dvd? Clearly its compressed... but it shouldt matter because its a lossless compression.
Gosh..!! Tough job..!!! Before this I had no idea how this happens!!
Haha try working a quad video tape machine in broadcast. IMAX is a walk in the park compared to that
Wow all that work and equipment just to play a movie, that's incredible!
Where I grew up in Australia we had one called Omnimax. It projected onto a hemispherical screen.
Holy crap I remember that, thanks for reminding me. Last time I went to one was like in 2009 lol
Woah makes you appreciate those imax scenes even more... No wonder whole film cannot be shot in imax.. Those cameras must be freaking huge and heavy and very expensive... I wish there was a sized down version for the imax camera... 4k is ok... but imax... displayed on a 4k is like whole god damn different thing altogether!
That's what makes the Everest IMAX film more impressive. Not only did they climb it, but they brought that gigantic camera and film all the up there as well. Incredible.
The cameras are not that big becuase they shoot small sequences and dont have a large film magazine
The magic of cinema right here.
As a former 35mm projectionist for Regal (fun job) I can tell you if you mess up it's usually on a crowded, sold out day of course. The worst goof-up was I once built-up a sneak-preview movie in the wrong reel order: Reel 1 correct, reels 2-7 out of order, movie ended in the middle somewhere then back towards the beginning - haha! I once had a film on a busy sat night break, the whole film was on the floor!
Oh my god... I feel you on those. Sounds awful! Fun to talk about now I guess though.
So cool to learn the behind the scenes work that makes IMax the best theater experience!
This seems so ridiculously old-fashioned it’s weird to think it’s still done like this. To say normal movies are digitally streamed, I would never have guessed actual rolls of film would be used, especially for the level of quality required.
Actually today's movies are sent to the theaters on a hard drive to be dumped in the theaters storage system. There is way too much information to "stream" a theatrical movie.
film is an analog format so its resolution is basically infinite. In the same way your eyes dont see at a resolution neither does film.
@@adelinevesecky1817 but the movie ist Filmed Digital. So there are noch sharpness benefits.
@@marcesser4218 depends on the movie but it's not uncommon to film on 70mm and digitize it because you can digitize to any resolution so it's future proof. That's how old movies can be rereleased in 4k
@@81396xman Not the way my local cinema chains work I’m afraid. They have a direct connection to a central server which runs all the films on a high-speed internet connection.
It's like sending Frankenstein up to get a bolt of lightning, It's Alive!
5:33 the epic music like spacesthuttle lift-off. Anyway is there anybody else, who have not been to IMAX yet?
I watched the last Jedi at this dome theater at the tech museum in San Jose back in 2017 before the renovations and new projector came in. I’d come to the the dome a lot cause I lived in Cupertino and loved to come by with my parents when I was younger. I’m curious, do you think you’d be up to making a video about the new digital IMAX with laser projector that replaced this one? I’m curious to see how the setup and theater itself compares to the old one. I live in San Diego for college now so I won’t be able to come to the tech museum as often as I used to :(
Glad to hear you enjoy The Tech. I actually don't work there anymore and live an hour away so it would be very hard for me to shoot something similar. It's in the back of my mind though. You'll definitely see it here if I can get something together.
A friend of mine helped create the cameras and projectors used in IMAX productions. His name is John Shaw. John was the engineer responsible for putting IMAX cameras on the space shuttles. Pretty cool eh!
6:20 to fire events, click fire events, to skip events click skip events.
Wow, I'm glad that helper section exists, who would have known what the two buttons do?
Yeah, the entire industry has been drowning in such useless texts since they started letting documentation writers get away with it. This is part of the reason people stopped reading instructions in general.
This is the scariest most anxiety-inducing job that i would probably never be able to handle
Oh yeah. When you hear a noise you don't expect or the alarm goes off it's a full on panic. Similar to what it would be like in the International Space Station I imagine.
How does the film not break when you rise the projector up to it's start position
Good question. The film is very strong. Once we were disposing of a film and dumped a bunch of it in a trash compactor and it actually broke the compactor! I'd be very surprised if someone could rip or tear 70mm film. Secondly, when the projector is rising into the theater, the film is pulled up with it. It's not pulling on it like a rubber band.
On the same sort of topic, you mentioned that the print gets dirty the more times it's used. How do you minimize that? I would also like to mention there is nothing to beat a Chris Nolan film in IMAX, especially when the 15/70 footage comes from the original camera negative, giving you an 18k resolution. On Blu-Ray it's as sharp as you like
reptongeek The only way to minimize it is to keep the projection system as clean as possible by the process shown in the video. But with the short turnaround times it's difficult to keep up sometimes. And yes, Interstellar was incredible on our 9,000 sq/ft screen.
I’m happy I live in Canada because IMAX is a Canadian invention and I’ve never been happier to have seen an IMAX movie, even if I’ve only ever seen one
Fascinating. I love the convinence of digital but this process is trancing to watch