FYI, when Dunkirk was released just two years later in 2017, this system was re-installed side-by-side with the new 4K laser projectors, making IMAX Melbourne one of the few theatres worldwide that can show both 1570 and 4K laser IMAX presentations. Nolan's push for 1570 saved this projector at IMAX Melbourne.
The true massive IMAX theaters I have around me keep their film projectors on hand for their nature documentaries, older movie re-runs, and basically any Christopher Nolan movie.
I have an honest to god appreciation for this guy. He's an artist at what he does and it's very sad to hear that digital has killed off his career. The skill required in maintaining projection equipment such as this is second to none and a far greater set of skills is required day to day in order to keep things moving. I hope he knows his efforts are appreciated!
IMAX sure has come a long way, I was one of the original licensed and trained projectionist on the original IMAX projector in 1970, Ontario Place Canada, there were only three of us in the world at that time... It's called the rolling loop projector with a 25,000watt zenon bulb... it's an Australian invention for printing film... William Shaw designed it along with Graeme Ferguson and Roman Kroiter.... David Callaghan was the Chief projectionist...he trained us.... enjoy
sir love u n resoect to ur job ur very hard working n very perfectionist....sir i feel so happy to see u doing all small things with care n perfectly....sir im 30 years old n me worked as projecnist on 35mm. projector...now all digital n old projector is washed out now ...when i saw u i feel proud of u sir i remember my days....now days no work coz no 35 mm projector in theaters.... kip working sir kip loving job god bless u n fmly...Amen
Kevin taught me how to be a projections in 1997. A awesome teacher and very passionate about cinemas and drive-ins. Sad to see his beloved career end. I hope Kevin reads this one day. Hope you're doing well. Cheers from Andrew, Swan Hill.
Watching this makes me so sad. In my opinion digital is always sacrificing quality for quantity. We are far away from being able to replace this genius sturdy technology that has developed over a period of more than 100 years with this laser garbage. There will come a time when people realize that quality is more important than quantity and cinema is more than just watching a movie..
Eventually we will have digital that can achieve even better results than film, in many ways the actual process of capturing footage/stills IS already technically better than film. Only thing is the footage needs post process color correction to actually make the tones more natural.
The digital vs. film thing reminds me of back in 1985 when the CD vs. LP argument was raging. CDs were quiet, clean, convenient. But then people started noticing “something was just missing”. That thing that made the music bloom digital just couldn’t do. And still can’t. Not even hi res files can match a record. A digital piano will never, ever, sound like a Steinway
Something was missing, alright. It was the imperfections and damages in the vinyl tracks, making God-awful noise when the stylus hit them. Thank GOD for CD, and beyond, for helping clean up the sounds we want to preserve and listen to, as close to perfect as it can be. But yeah, there's no comparison whatsoever between a digital piano, and a real Steinway. As for pipe organs, nothing compares there either, but I've give Laurens Hammond a tip of the hat for giving us the B and C3, and the inimitable sounds they've given us in music over the years.
I was a projectionist for many years, but only ran 35mm. I think I would be scared shitless to run IMAX with all the rollers and threading that has to be done. I suppose it would become second nature after a while, but you really have to make sure everything is correct or else you will lose a show and do ALOT of swearing if one little thing goes wrong. Great deal of respect to the IMAX projectionist.
It has to be said that they reinstalled their 15/70 projector for Dunkirk and this theater is able to show movies both with laser projectors and on film now.
Wow - I worked on the original 3D system in Oakville in the late 80's - The first revision of 3D glasses synchronization and drive were designed by an Australian Engineer Gerry Carter who was on a scholarship exchange set up with the Rolling loop patent. Gerry also designed the saturating transformer control of those massive Miller 666 welders making the horrible ripple down to just a couple volts. The Lamphouse I worked on had Dual 17.5's and was built for Expo 90 in Japan for the film echos of the sun. Apparently, that projector is now housed in Futurescope in France - They put a plaque on the system with the name of all of the people who worked on the system - Thanks for this - Many happy memories.
I've only ever seen an IMAX film when I was at the Titanic Exhibition over in Minnesota. Didn't get the chance to enjoy the most of it, but I'm missing it already.
This brought back some great memories of working in projection. I would say my favorite job just because of how cool the technology was to work with. Never got to work with IMAX but it looks like it would have been an amazing experience. Thanks for the video!
Well thank you for sharing your knowledge and it was a very interesting video to understand how IMAX works and I want to be the first to wish you a happy healthy retirement
15:50... 15 000 kW... well fck my rusty sheriffs badge. 15 000 000 W. So what power plant support these bulbs? XD i know its a mistake, yet its funny XD
Thank you so much for sharing! :) Really informative. Sad to see old cinema die out, but I really hope that some will keep it alive for as long as possible.
One of our museums recently retired our omnimax dome system. Ours had an autoload system that could switch between 4 films and later 2 3d films. Our film projector was on a lift that would lift it in to a projection box. The lift failed after 25 years do to operator error and they decided to end the imax partnership. We had a dome screen which was pretty unique.
It’s a shame this technology is fading in favour of digital projectors because the film ones are so cool. Love the clicking sound they make when the movie starts
Here is the reality film produces 8k resolution at a minimum. Digital is only 4k and will take decades for the theatres to replace them because they so expensive to put in. We now have a society that has the lowest common expectation.
Nothing compares to real film going through a projector .... it’s a different more artistic experience - the sharpness of digital technologies makes everything look like a stage production and fake. IMAX was a lot of work, but nothing looked as good in my opinion - great projectionist here the guy really knows his equipment 👍👏
"The use of any kind of recording devices _are_ strictly prohibited..." Oh dear. Hearing that grammar goof a few times a day, day in day out, would make my career as a projectionist very short.
That was awesome to see and sad that it is being phased out. I still love to pull out my super and standard 8 films and my 16 mm and just having a movie night with films I have collected so much fun . Oh well
It was the cost of the prints that killed it. Now that the cinemas have gone digital, film laboratories are closing and film production has dropped by 97%, so the cost of those prints could more than double within a year or so.
Thanks for posting this fantastic short....i am an old carbon burning dog, and i miss the job over 30 years on, i wonder if you will miss the job as i did ? or more, it was like a kind of berevement for me, nothing can replace it, but you have to turn the page.
Thank you for taking the time to make this documentary. I hope you know how informative and interesting this doc was. Film is a hard loss. Where I live they used to have a real IMAX theater. It closed in 2013 due to costs and a Digital IMAX being closer to a busier area. Now if I want real IMAX with film it's a 4 hour drive. For the time being though... I hope since it's a dual 3D SR projector screen it won't be upgraded and left alone. Thanks again for a look inside the projection booth!
Yet another wobbly video: why can't the people who shoot these things learn to hold the camera steady? Also bear in mind that the camera does have an "off" button: there are times when you do need to stop shooting, plan your shots and thus avoid this non-stop confusion.
Eliminates a projectionist, less maintenance, less consumables and wear. Also helps to make sure that the poor downtrodden movie studios "struggling to survive" know exactly when and where a film is playing.
Because over 90% of the ticket price goes directly back to the movie makers. The concession stand selling the popcorn, candy and drinks is what pays for all the personnel and the theater upkeep.
@@KingdaToro It is nothing like tossing a Ultra HD Blu-ray and replacing it with DVD. It is like tossing Ultra blu ray and replacing it with a child's picture book.
real cinema has also 70mm. imax 15/70 has the same width with 15 perforations and trice the height of a regular 70mm. there is also 35mm scope that produces a 70mm image.
ATTRACTIONS FUEGOS ARTIFICIALES I missed 15/70 film also but if gone have you seen IMAX laser it's amazing to my eyes? Some museum still have 15/70 IMAX film but it's the worst place to see a movie because it's not a flatscreen I still go but it kills the movie experience!
its not from what i understand from how they do things in other non imax the pre show visuals are not imax because i cant imagine why they would make comercials with imax cameras but instead there shot in normal 16:9 or simmilar using only a portion of the screen when the show begins they then use the whole screen a cinema i go to does this but they show comercials in 16:9 then when the movie starts 2 curtains draw back revealing the rest of the screen and they then project the 21:9 movie
@@arricammarques1955 By calculating the size of the colour grains, 35'mm film is equivalent to 4k resolution, making 70'mm (6k) and Imax (18k) impossible. Rather than enjoy the benefits of the 35'mm. companies are already considering saving a few pounds by compressing the data. I have little doubt that this will end up with cinemas receiving their films via the internet. Not satisfied with 'killing the golden goose', they now seem to want to blow him up with a grenade.
To say things have changed since I was in the box is an understatement here. I ran 70mm in the early 60's before I was made redundent and still miss the job as much as this chap will.
Kind of sad; I wonder if that’s how the pin setters felt when the mechanical pin setters were being installed In bowling alleys... People being replaced by machines; where does it end??????
No it is nothing like that. Film is a superior technology for the customers sitting in the theatre. What we now have is businesses that have forgotten that the customer matters not business convenience. Imagine going to a play at the theatre and finding out that there was a tv screen there and the actors were in some other city and then you find out it is weeks old.
In some ways, seeing those gigantic spools of celluloid running at breakneck speeds is amazing, but it's also nightmarish... A copy of a feature film can set you back for close to 100k, and it's a complete mess to set up (and if you mess it up the results are catastrophic). I can sew why this technology is getting phased out, even if it's a bit heartbreaking.
Theatres are suppose to be an special experience. They are not suppose to be convience to run. And the reason for this is that it is the best picture experience. People in society have lost their sense of wonder because of the nihilistic culture that has developed in media, education and music. Everything is so down beat and angry.
Am I the only one that noticed e slip of the tongue describing the xenon specs ? you see on screen at 13.14 minutes in, the specks are 15,000watt X 2. at 15.50 minutes in, he says "15,000 kilowatt times 2" never mind, it was a nice video to watch.
In the development of Imax, in the beginning, they must have scratched their heads so much over the way of doing this easier, to someone not familiar with the whole process it must have looked and still does look over an engineered mess, but i suspect there has never been an easier way to do this.
"Welcome to IMAX Melbourne Museum, home to the world's 3rd largest screen. Our unique projection system delivers outstanding on-screen images, and combines with 15,000 watts of digital surround sound to deliver the ultimate movie experience. Before the feature commences, we'd like to remind you to switch off your mobile phone, and that the use of recording devices of any kind are strictly prohibited inside the theatre. Our 3D glasses are cleaned, sanitised, and recycled after every session. At the end of the movie, please place them in the collection trolleys as you exit at the rear of the theatre. You can now put on your 3D glasses. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the movie."
Sadly, even 4K laser doesn't come CLOSE to the resolution offered by even 35mm film, and isn't even in the same world as what 70mm IMAX film can resolve.
I was fortunate enough as a young fella to work at the Merrylands cinema as a film handler, the projector was a carbon arc unit the one that came out of the Capitol Theatre and was combined with a new state of the art Philips 3 platter system, which was one of the most modern in Sydney at the time. Spent many many hours splicing rolls of 35mm into full platters for show. First full show I was allowed to run as trainee projectionist was "Macbeth" for a school matinee. I never got to see a show in full but certainly look back and remember those days fondly....
I used to be afraid of any cinema projectors when I was little because of their big ventilation and how they tilted. Those were great times in the early 2000s. Now I've become fascinated looking up these type videos on boring rainy days.
This is a man who clearly loved his work... it's such a shame that we don't have this amazing format any more. It's just another boring digital projection nowadays, lower resolution than some TVs.
Did you know that in the 1960's, horizontal Vistavision was used as a competitor to 3 projector Cinerama. Both these formats had the problem of needing to interlock the sound via a perforated full coat 35'mm sound player (as used in film production). 70'mm, striped with 6 magnetic tracks resolved the problem and allowed far more theaters to equip. At the time, many people assumed that all theaters would convert to 70'mm, thus reducing the high cost penalty of so few prints. However, having to stripe the film and add the sound after processing, made this unlikely. The film laboratories would also not have been unable to cope with more than a few prints.
It does not matter how much work it is. The customer needs to get the best experience. Imagine people complaining about how much work there is in the kitchen of a restaurants so they think everything should be prepackaged and heated in a microwave.
I thought there isn't yet a digital IMAX format comparable with the resolution of IMAX 70 or do the new projectors only differ in light source (laser) and still run the celluloid prints ?
No they are digital projectors. Widescreen movies are shown in 4K and additional resolution is added for taller format from 1.85 and digital IMAX up to the original 1.43 IMAX aspect ratio so if the theatre is build in 1.43 (some laser theaters have been normal digital IMAX theaters before and support just the digital IMAX 1.9 ratio) you don't loose any of the original 70mm space. It suppose to have much better colors and contrast but as I can remember its as good as 70/15, except the resolution of course. I just was just in one 70mm IMAX screening.
