Nolan breaks down the best ways to watch a movie, ahead of Oppenheimer release
Los Angeles: It's no secret that Christopher Nolan made Oppenheimer to be seen on the big screen. But not all big screens are created equal.
That's part of the reason why Universal Pictures has made Oppenheimer tickets available early for over a thousand premium large format (or PLF) screens, with options including IMAX 70mm, 70mm, IMAX digital, 35mm, Dolby Cinema and more.
Knowing that even those words can get overwhelming and technical, Nolan went a step further: In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, he offered a guide to his favourite formats, explaining why it matters and even where he likes to sit so that audiences don't feel like they need a film school degree (or one in theoretical physics) before settling on a theatre.
You rarely get the chance to really talk to moviegoers directly about why you love a particular format and why if they can find an IMAX screen to see the film on that's great, Nolan said.
We put a lot of effort into shooting the film in a way that we can get it out on these large format screens. It really is just a great way of giving people an experience that they can't possibly get in the home.
In a film about about J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who oversaw the development of first atomic bomb during World War II, this will be especially pivotal in viewing the Trinity Test, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. Nolan and his effects teams recreated the blast, with all its blinding brilliance.
"We knew that this had to be the showstopper,” Nolan said. We're able to do things with picture now that before we were really only able to do with sound in terms of an oversize impact for the audiencean almost physical sense of response to the film.
Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, opens in US theatres on July 21.
THE BIG PICTURE
Oppenheimer was shot using some of the highest resolution film cameras that exist. Like Dunkirk and Tenet, Oppenheimer was filmed entirely on large format film stock, meaning a combination of IMAX 65 mm and Panavision 65 mm (think David Lean/”Lawrence of Arabia”), that's then projected in 70mm.
The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled, Nolan said. The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you're really letting the screen disappear. You're getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You've got a huge screen and you're filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You're immersing them in the world of the film.
Nolan has been shooting with IMAX cameras since The Dark Knight. Audiences would regularly gasp at seeing its first shot projected in IMAX 70mm. Though it's just a helicopter shot of some buildings in Chicago, it helps explain the ineffable power of the format.
On a technical level, the IMAX film resolution is almost 10 times more than a 35mm projector and each frame has some 18,000 pixels of resolution versus a home HD screen that has 1,920 pixels.
WHY IS IT SHOT ON 65MM AND PROJECTED IN 70MM?
The 5mm difference goes back to when that extra space on the film had to be reserved for the soundtrack. With digital sound, that's unnecessary and it is purely a visual enhancement, Nolan explained.
DO THE DIFFERENT FORMATS IMPACT HOW THE FILM IS SHOT?
We have to plan very carefully because by shooting an IMAX film, you capture a lot of information, he said. Your movie is going to translate very well to all the formats because you're getting the ultimate amount of visual information. But there are different shapes to the screen what we call aspect ratios. What you have to plan is how you then frame your imagery so that it can be presented in different theaters with equal success.
Starting with The Dark Knight, they developed a system that they call centre punching the action” so that nothing is lost.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema is also always aware of the frame lines for the different theatres when looking through the camera.
On the biggest presentations, IMAX 1.43:1 (the massive square screen) the screen essentially disappears for the audience. For other formats like 35mm, the top and the bottom get cropped.
But, Nolan said, from a creative point of view, what we've found over the years is that there's no compromise to composition.
WHY NOT MAKE AN ENTIRE MOVIE IN IMAX?
The IMAX cameras are just too loud for dialogue heavy scenes, but Nolan is optimistic about the new cameras being developed.
WHAT'S THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BLACK AND WHITE SEQUENCES?
Some of Oppenheimer is presented in black and white for a very specific story reason. I knew that I had two timelines that we were running in the film, Nolan said. One is in colour, and that's Oppenheimer's subjective experience. That's the bulk of the film. Then the other is a black and white timeline. It's a more objective view of his story from a different character's point of view.
