I’ve seen the future — and it’s in 3D
New technology has become a hard sell for me lately, because so much of it disappoints.
My whiz-bang new smartphone, supposedly the best ever, loses its cellular signal with alarming regularity. It has apps that don’t work as advertised. I wonder if I bought a lemon.
My light-as-air laptop, another hot product, seems to get a completely new operating system every six months, whether I want it or not. More frequent are the software patches to fix glitches in whatever OS I’m currently working with.
I’m left with the gloomy feeling that nothing works the way it’s supposed to. I think part of my disillusion stems from the fact I’m old enough to remember the first moon landing by Apollo 11 in 1969.
Everything worked perfectly for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, even though their lunar module Eagle had less computing power than the smartphone I’m now cursing.
Nothing in the realm of technology has been more of a turnoff for me than 3D movie projection, which has always been more snake oil than salvation. The newer 3D glasses resembling motorcycle goggles are no improvement on the old redand-blue eyesores of decades past.
They might actually be worse, because in addition to failing to adequately deliver the promised third dimension, they also darken the screen. It’s like watching a movie through sunglasses. Whenever I hear the old Timbuk 3 hit “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades,” I think of 3D films.
Then I went this week to Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre, to catch a latenight screening of Mad Max: Fury Road in the new IMAX with Laser system recently installed there on the 80-foot-wide screen. It was my third viewing of the movie, having previously viewed it in Cannes and Toronto, but the earlier screenings were in traditional 2D, or “flat” as they say in industry jargon.
I’d read the eye-glazing stats on the new IMAX system, which has the distinction of being the only one of its kind in Canada and one of only four in North America. IMAX started here in 1971 with North of Superior at Ontario Place, and the company’s research and development lab is in Mississauga, so it’s only right, eh?
I wasn’t expecting much. Earlier in the week, I’d seen Tomorrowland on the same system in 2D. I liked the brightness and sharpness of the images and the clarity of the sound, but I also noticed all the wrinkles and blemishes on the faces of the actors, not only on 54-year-old George Clooney but also on the younger actors. I could see the makeup used to cover them up.
It was a little distracting, but not as much as Peter Jackson’s failed experiment with 48-frames-per-second projection for The Hobbit, which was like watching high-definition television. But seeing Mad Max in 3D on IMAX with Laser simply blew me away. It was like viewing the film, which I love, for the first time. The screen was bright, with no sense of that sunglasses feeling. The image clarity was extremely sharp, offering a palpable sense of depth I’d never experienced before.
I became aware of things I hadn’t really noticed before. I could read all the medical info on the back of Tom Hardy (“Lone Road Warrior Rundown”) that had been tattooed there by capturing and enslaving War Boys. In previous screenings, it had been dark and indistinct.
IMAX with Laser makes me finally a believer in what 3D can do, well worth the not-inconsiderable $7 ticket surcharge.
This is music to the ears of Brian Bonnick, the chief technology officer for IMAX Corp., who says his company invested $60 million, tens of thousands of hours of research and acquired about 120 patents from Kodak to create the new system being showcased at the Scotiabank.
“We designed a new system literally from the ground up,” he says in an interview.
The most commonly named villain in the 3D projection horror show is the Xenon bulbs used in most current systems. The bulbs run hot and they’re expensive to replace, so many exhibitors run them at reduced brightness to make them last longer.
This greatly degrades the screen image, but it’s only part of the story why the ongoing conversion from film to digital projection has been a bumpy road and also why many 3D experiences have been unsatisfactory.
“There are three key areas where digital has really suffered and I’m speaking about almost any medium where digital projectors are used. One is brightness, two is image sharpness and three is contrast.”
IMAX has already been working on the first two issues.
“We were 50 per cent brighter than everybody else already,” Bonnick says. “So brightness was not a major issue for us. In 3D, yes, we could have used a little bit more, but we weren’t far off the mark already.”
Where IMAX with Laser excels is in the contrast department, not just on the screen as a whole but within individual frames. Without getting too technical about it — although Bonnick certainly can — it has to do with how light reflects through a prism into the projector lens.
Bonnick uses a wedding-photo analogy of a bride and groom to explain.
“Think of a bride standing next to a groom. In every other projector in the world except for the IMAX laser projector, the white of her dress will bleed into the black of his tuxedo, causing it to become more grey — or cloudy, if you will. The brightness impedes upon the black.”
IMAX with Laser solves this problem, along with the “20 other things we’ve done” to improve both 3D and 2D imaging.
To fine-tune the system, Bonnick and his team spent the winter testing equipment in the original public IMAX theatre at Ontario Place, which is now mothballed. It was so cold there at times, they often had to go inside the projection both to warm up.
But it was a poetic return to the past to develop not just the future for IMAX, but for all 3D systems, if they hope to hold audiences much future into the 21st century.
To say that Bonnick is excited about IMAX is an understatement, but for once the hype is warranted. And he’s careful not to oversell it, noting that IMAX with Laser will be a slow rollout around the world and many multiplexes might find the system too elaborate and expensive to warrant conversion. IMAX is working on that problem, too.
It’s interesting that IMAX with Laser is happening in Scotiabank, which is also home to Cineplex Odeon’s UltraAVX system. Until now, I would have judged UltraAVX as the best 3D system. I’ve seen 3D movies such as Ang Lee’s Life of Pi on the Scotiabank UltraAVX, and they’ve been quite good, but not as good as Mad Max on IMAX with Laser.
It might seem like a problem to have two different 3D systems under one roof, but that’s not how Cineplex views it, says company spokesperson Mike Langdon. “We see IMAX and UltraAVX as complementary offerings,” he said via email. “The same is true for IMAX with Laser. IMAX and UltraAVX both have very strong followings among Canadian movie fans. As with any of our premium experiences, our goal is to provide our guests with the option to choose the experience that works best for them.”
UltraAVX screenings are less expensive than IMAX ones: the perticket premium is $3 for 2D and $5 per for 3D, compared with $7 for both 2D and 3D in the IMAX format.
I know which theatre I’m going to want to be in later this year for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the new 007 film Spectre. IMAX with Laser makes me want to retitle that Timbuk 3 tune playing in my head: “The Future’s So Bright, I Don’t Have To Wear Shades.” @peterhowellfilm