Christopher Nolan’s films have always been the perfect exhibits for IMAX due to their large canvasses and epic treatment of the story. Nolan has been a huge proponent of IMAX ever since he used them in The Dark Knight and has been increasingly using them in his films. His latest Oscar nominee Oppenheimer seemed to have pushed the technology to its limit as it became the first film to have black and white images in IMAX.
While Nolan’s films have always been marketed as theatrical experiences that one has to ‘feel rather than understand’, he has also mentioned how the experience becomes much more authentic when seen on a 70mm, fifteen-perf IMAX screen. With only thirty in the world, the screening of Oppenheimer for LA’s TCL Chinese theater was reportedly a huge hassle for the projectionist, who came out of retirement for the movie.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Was Almost Too Big For IMAX
Christopher Nolan has worked on IMAX-friendly films ever since he dabbled in the blockbuster genre. Beginning with The Dark Knight, the filmmaker used IMAX’s camera for sequences in Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, and Dunkirk. With his recent biopic Oppenheimer, Nolan reportedly pushed the limit of the 70mm IMAX projectors.
The IMAX projectors reportedly had a part called the platter which housed the film reels and supplied them to the projector to be shown on screen. The mechanism was reportedly the most important part of the projector as it enabled the smooth feeding of frames to the projector for a seamless experience. With Christopher Nolan’s films, the platter has reportedly undergone massive changes.
In an interview with Collider, Christopher Nolan mentioned that he pushed the limits of how long of a film a platter could hold in Interstellar as they were increased from 150 minutes to 167 minutes. However, with his latest film, Christopher Nolan had to talk with the people at IMAX even before he filmed as he wanted to know whether a 180-minute film could be shown. He said,
“I went to them and I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got a 180-page script. That’s a three-hour movie on the nose. Can it be done?’ We looked at it, they looked at the platters, and they came to the conclusion that it could just be done. They’re telling me this is the absolute limit because now the arm that holds the platter went right up against it. So, this, I think, is finally the outer limit of running time for an IMAX film print.”
Christopher Nolan’s film reportedly always makes way for some modifications in the projection systems at IMAX theaters. However, his latest film reportedly really pushed the limit to the modifications to be made as the reel for the film was close to 11 miles long (via Indiewire).
Oppenheimer Brought IMAX Projectionist Out Of Retirement
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer reportedly created history when it became the highest-grossing screening in 15/70mm IMAX at LA’s TCL Chinese theater. The large-format technology has reportedly been limited to thirty theaters around the world as the majority of the theaters moved on to digital projection systems during the 2000s.
Charles Moss, a retired IMAX projectionist at the TCL Chinese theater was reportedly brought out of retirement to operate the 70mm film projectors as they were being reinstated for the film. Moss mentioned in an article for Indiewire that Nolan’s Oscar-nominated epic took months of planning to be shown on the 15/70 IMAX screen.
Moss also mentioned the insane amount of hard work it took for the projectionists in the booths to ensure a seamless experience for the viewers. He said that a special booth was constructed around the projector to handle the weight and length of the reels. He said,
“I spent many hours in those darkened, claustrophobic quarters during a five-week period to ensure a seamless theatrical experience…Six hundred pounds and 11 miles of film is spinning around at insanely fast speeds on giant aluminum platters that could send you to the hospital if you unwisely put any part of your body in their way.”
Charles Moss also went on to say that the minor imperfections and flickers that were seen in the screening were what made it a realistic and authentic experience. He also mentioned that such imperfections lead to a magnificent experience of reality for the viewer, especially during the Trinity Test sequence, which was why Christopher Nolan loved it so much.
