IMAX Enhanced

“IMAX, as most people experience it, is a high quality movie format used in specialized theaters worldwide. But its history, and development, is complicated. I’ll provide only the Cliff Notes version here, as our primary subject is a relatively new home theater format that trades on the IMAX name.

IMAX was first developed roughly 40 years ago for special venues in museums and science centers. The programs there were filmed documentaries, generally running one hour maximum with titles such as Blue Planet and Africa, The Serengeti. Apart from its educational and entertainment value the main attraction was spectacular technical quality in both picture and sound. The screens were immense, sometimes as much as seven stories tall, the aspect ratio 1.43:1, and the resolution, as captured and presented on 70mm film (this was well before the advent of digital cinema), offered a picture area nine times larger than the 35mm used for theatrical films.”

By Tom Norton

To read the full article, visit SOUND & VISION

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