Director’s Legend

Three days later, Shao Shuaijun returned to the crew from the University of Southern California with a confused look on his face. He went to the Digital Art Center of the School of Film and Television of the University of Southern California, which is a research institution specially opened by the great director Robert Zemeckis for new film technologies. He was also received by Robert. Unfortunately, the most popular result is that the current 3D technology is not up to standard and cannot be integrated with IMAX.

If you simply use 3D to complete a movie, you can indeed record it on 35mm film. Once it is set to 65mm high-definition film, the many disadvantages of 3D will be exposed one by one, resulting in a disaster.

At that time, when Shao Shuaijun came to inquire, Robert showed the enthusiasm of a world-class director and patiently explained the current film technology to Shao Shuaijun.

"Young man, combining IMAX and 3D has always been my pursuit. We are of the same mind." In his office, Robert opened a computer used for teaching. The computer was connected to a projector and he called up a piece of information. "I think as a director, you have knowledge about various forms of movies. Let me explain to you in detail the prospects and difficulties of imax-3d."

Referring to the information on the projector, Robert explained patiently.

Nowadays, there are four ways to screen movies. The first is traditional film screening, which generally refers to using 35mm film to expose the picture. Due to film and photography reasons, its resolution is between 1k-2k. Among them, the high-quality film master tape can reach 3k, 4k resolution, copied many times. Appearing in movie theaters, it is usually 2k, which is 2048x1556 resolution.

The second is the emerging digital projection, which is shot with a digital camera and uses digital signals to replace the traditional film exposure. Its resolution is relatively stable, about 2k. Its code name on TV is hd, which means high definition. The resolution is almost several times that of the DVD format, and slightly higher than the Blu-ray disc. However, current digital movies are just emerging. There aren’t many digital cinemas either.

It is worth mentioning that. Sony is developing a digital version of 4k in an attempt to capture the high-end digital market. This 4k resolution is converted from high-quality 4k film master tapes and cannot be captured with digital cameras. It can only be shot with a film camera.

The third type is imax screening. This is a film projection system capable of projecting larger and higher resolution films than conventional negatives. The standard imax screen is 22 meters wide and 16 meters high. But it can be played on a bigger screen. In order to greatly increase the resolution of the image, imax uses a special 70mm film, so the real imax film should be shot with a 70mm (65mm horizontal film is also included) film camera.

This kind of camera. There are only seven imax cameras in the world.

The theoretical resolution of using an imax camera is 18k (18000x13433 pixels per frame), but movie studios cannot handle images of this size, and accordingly can only reduce the resolution to less than half the original, to only 8k, a film scan the maximum resolution. Therefore, the current limit of master tape production in the film industry is 8k, and when IMAX theaters display 70mm film, the resolution can reach 6k, which is considered the limit of commercial projection.

Whether it is producing an IMAX movie or showing an IMAX film version, it costs a lot of money. The projection equipment alone requires hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and maintain. This is the reason that has troubled the imax company for decades, but only less than 300 imax theaters have been built. People are neither willing to make such movies, nor are they willing to build special cinemas. It is too expensive!

In recent years, with the rise of digital movies, imax can no longer stick to their 70mm film photography, so another kind of movie appears. This is the imax-dmr format that "Painted Skin" sought before.

The processing process of DMR movies is like this. First, the production company handed over the 35mm film copy of the film to IMAX, which used DMR technology to scan each frame of the 35mm film at the highest resolution and convert it into a digital image; then, using proprietary image enhancement Technology, each frame is optimized and finally printed on 70mm film.

IMAX movies developed in this way theoretically have a resolution of 4k-6k, which is also the most mainstream approach for commercial blockbusters.

"It is said that imax company has begun to study imax digital version of movies. It is a traditional movie copy that has been converted into a 'digital cinema packaging' format to form an imax version. It is said that it can effectively lower the screening standard, but the resolution is only 2k-4k between."

Robert shook his head: "I don't know whether I should say that IMAX is too precious, or whether I should blame us filmmakers for not knowing how to make progress. After more than 40 years of development, we have not found a suitable film technology to match IMAX, so we can only reduce it." standards to cater to the current photography conditions... Alas, maybe imax appeared too early."

"So, another type of screening is 3D?"

"Yes, it is 3D projection. Currently, 3D projection systems in the world are mainly divided into five categories, XPAND system, Dolby system, Reald system, dual-machine 3D or single-machine dual-lens 3D, and IMAX-3D. XPAND, Dolby, Reald The three systems are the mainstream on the market, but they have a big shortcoming, that is, the brightness is too low."

Rob gave a very detailed introduction: "Dual-machine 3D or single-machine dual-lens 3D is also developed by Sony. It uses a 4k ultra-high-definition chip to easily accommodate two 2k images. A single machine outputs two 2k images at the same time, and the 3D projection is smooth and smooth. , there is no high-frequency flicker or blurred picture, and it eliminates the visual fatigue and dizziness caused by the 3-fold time-lag stand-alone 3D system projection. It is currently the best stand-alone 3D projection system with the best image quality. But unfortunately, it requires the help of the 3D projection system just mentioned. Yes, Sony-4k digital version screening is not universal."

Turning off the projector, Robert said regretfully: "I am also considering whether imax-3d is the most suitable limit for future movie effects. You know, the brightness of 3D is a big problem, and the clarity is even more of a big problem. On ordinary screens, they are easy to ignore. But when it comes to imax theaters, I have to say that it is a disaster. imax is famous for being bright and clear, and adding 3D will ruin it. So as you can see, I am committed to Researching the animated version of the IMAX-3D movie, I can’t do anything about the live-action version.”

Hearing Robert's words with his own ears shattered Shao Shuaijun's last illusion.

After returning to the crew, Shao Shuaijun was upset for a whole day before announcing to reporters visiting the crew that he had given up 3D shooting.

"I have to regretfully say that "The Nighthawks" will give up the idea of ​​​​3D shooting. With the current technology, it is difficult for us to integrate 3D into IMAX. I think the 3D version cannot be realized, and we will consider increasing the length of IMAX photography. In short, "The Nighthawks" will not disappoint you!"

Although the 3D idea cannot be realized, Shao Shuaijun's tone is still full of confidence and he firmly believes that "Night Watcher" will be successful. (To be continued...)