Page 20 - 22_Bafta Academy_John Malkovich_ok

feature
As technological develop- ments in film production and exhibition have evolved at an ever faster rate over recent years, larger screen formats have been largely ignored by major Hollywood studios.
Back in the 1950s it was a dif- ferent story, as the majors fought back against the perceived threat of television with an array of ratios, sizes and formats that emphasised cinema as an epic medium.
Now the major players in the industry are on the verge of doing so again, with more mainstream product finding its way onto the super-sized IMAX screens.
Typically five to eight storeys high and slightly concave in shape they deliver dramatically enhanced sound and vision thanks to projectors that are ten times the size of their regular cine- ma equivalent.
Proven hits like Apollo 13, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Beauty & The Beast and The Lion King have all found suc- cess in this larger than life medium.
The Matrix Reloaded is the most recent example, and its sequel The Matrix Revolutions is set to open simultaneously on regular screens and across IMAX cinemas too. More will undoubt- edly follow.
The reasons are simple. The technology is now in place, with DMR – digital re-mastering – of existing material able to meet the technical requirements of the format.
For a studio it can be a shrewd investment, as a few mil- lion dollars offers a premium view- er experience as well as a handy springboard to subsequent video and DVD releases.
There are, conversely, relative- ly few films made directly for the IMAX format, with disproportion- ately high production costs and an in-built delay of years before backers see a financial return,
due to the relative scarcity of the appropriate screens.
British director Mike Slee co- wrote the natural history film Bugs! expressly for large format and, what’s more, shot it in 3D - all of which makes Slee himself a rare breed in the US-dominated world of large format. As co-chairman and creative director of Principal Media Group, Slee and his talent- ed team have made Bugs! so much more than a run of the mill, 40 minute insect documentary.
Instead it is an intrepid, award- winning journey through a Borneo rainforest that enables audiences to follow the delicate life cycles of a Praying Mantis and a cater- pillar in intimate, close up detail.
This is as in-yer-face as it gets.
“We set out to knock peoples’ socks off,” explains Slee in his London office, “because there’s no point in people paying extra to go to a 3D large format movie and not getting that ‘wow’ factor. Luckily our subject matter and our technology allowed us to do that.
“With Bugs! we took people into the real rainforest: hairy, big, mean, funny, deadly – all of the things that you expect to see are there, five storeys high, in 3D like you’ve never seen them before. It’s really like entering a world of dinosaurs, it changes everything when you see it at that size.”
Technological advances are, at this stage, being driven by the needs of the filmmakers. But at the same time this cutting edge cinema is also casting an eye towards history as it continues to develop further.
“We use pretty heavyweight bits of kit that are precision engi- neered,” adds Slee, “and if you’re shooting in 3D you also have to got a bloody great mirror on the front. So you end up with some- thing very like what they must have been shooting with in 1915.
“The camera heads we’ve been using are from the Cecil B
DeMille era, they were literally out of the museum. And we use those on our 21st century 3D movies, because that’s the only technology that will take the weight and give us the stability we need.”
Whatever works, might be a handy motto for this brave new ever changing world. Supported by non profit making bodies like the Large Format Cinema Association (LFCA) in America, everyone involved in the format seems to have accepted that they are at the cutting edge of the 21st century cinema experience.
But while regular feature films are finding a route onto IMAX screens, this might in time become more of a two way street as multiplex cinemas seek out ways of offering greater vari- ety for their own core audience.
With just seven IMAX screens operating in Britain at the moment, the chance for high quality films such as Bugs! and its ilk to be seen by a wider audi- ence still is irresistible.
That was certainly the case for James Cameron, director of the 3D Titanic documentary, Ghosts Of The Abyss.
“In the US we showed the film on an additional 50 screens
of 35mm 3D,” Cameron explains, “and I believe that that can be changed much fur- ther in the future.”
The influx of mainstream movies reformatted for the medi- um will help raise the profile, and the number of screens too, with IMAX co-chief executive Richard Gelfond confidently stating that the company aims to show six Hollywood blockbusters a year.
This, Mike Slee contends, can be of benefit to all those involved in the (currently) small world of large format filmmaking.
“Just think of The Hulk – imag- ine if he really was five storeys high, what a great experience that would be. That’s what cine- ma tries to do anyway, to make you feel that a giant really is a giant but in large format it really is.
“So in a sense the medium is becoming slightly less elite whilst still maintaining that quality thresh- old. That, in the end, has to be good for business.” Anwar Brett
size matters
Long-term crowd-pleaser or just a passing gimmick? Behind the high and wide screen world of IMAX
18
Photos: Scene from Bugs and Bugs’ Director Mike Slee; James Cameron’s Ghosts Of The Abyss