The critically acclaimed Planet Of The Apes franchise is back for another installment, and when it hits theaters, fans will be able to catch it in all its glory on an IMAX screen. Ahead of the much-anticipated film’s release, we sat down with execs and scientists over at the premium format giant to discuss the conversion process, and during those convos, we learned a ton.
While every movie is a potential candidate for the IMAX treatment, movies broadly fall into two groups: those shot entirely with IMAX cameras and those shot in other formats. Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes falls into that second category; so, we worked alongside AMC Theatres to ask IMAX’s VP of Production DMR Adam Edwards how it worked. It turns out they don’t just work independently to reformat the movie after it’s done, they work with the filmmaker throughout the whole process to capture the look and feel that’s right for that specific movie…
DMR stands for digital media remastering, and it was designed as a tool to take content not shot in the IMAX format to convert it and optimize it for our format. Many people don’t realize how involved we are with the filmmakers. We’re not just taking content and putting it on an IMAX screen. We’re working with them to develop the look of the film in every single phase of the process.
There’s no single right way to remaster a movie for IMAX. Sometimes the goal is to tap into the sheer size and awesomeness of the big screen to make an action sequence look as visually stunning and overwhelming as possible. Sometimes the goal is to make the audience feel as emotionally close to a vulnerable character as possible, which requires an intimate and quieter atmosphere. These are decisions that need to be made by filmmakers, which is why IMAX is so plugged in with the creators throughout the process to make sure all of those little decisions are being made correctly.
Our convo with Edwards was part of a longer series we’re doing in partnership with AMC Theatres where we explore the science behind IMAX. We toured the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles and Toronto and interviewed a half dozen or so experts who work on these projects to figure out exactly what they’re doing and why. You can check out more from those interviews in this video below…
And of course you can catch Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes at AMC Theatres in IMAX starting on May 8th. Go see it and experience the science of IMAX for yourself.