With “Inception” just a few short months away, we’ll take whatever news about the film we can get as we anxiously await some of the new footage that unspooled at ShoWest to arrive hopefully in a new trailer (maybe this weekend when Warner Bros. massive “Clash Of The Titans” opens?).
Anyway, Collider sat down with Christopher Nolan and producer/wife Emma Thomas at ShoWest to talk shop about the upcoming film, and they quickly got into the nitty gritty of what audiences can expect visually. Like “The Dark Knight,” Nolan has employed a variety of formats to bring his ambitious film to the big screen and do justice to his elaborately conceived set pieces:
We shot the film with a mixture of mostly the predominant bulk of the film is anamorphic 35mm, which is the best quality sort of practical format to shoot on by far. We shot key sequences on 65mm, 5 perf not 15 perf, and we shot VistaVision on certain other sequences. So we’ve got a negative – a set of negative – that’s of the highest possible quality except IMAX. We didn’t feel that we were going to be able to shoot in IMAX because of the size of the cameras because this film, given that it deals with a potentially surreal area, the nature of dreams and so forth, I wanted it to be as realistic as possible. Not be bound by the scale of those IMAX cameras, even though I love the format dearly. So we went to the next best thing which was 65mm. So we have the highest quality image of any film that’s being made and that allows us to reformat the film for any distribution form that we’d like to put it in. We’re definitely going to do an IMAX release. We’re excited about doing that and using our original negative 65mm photography to maximize the effect of that release.
So while he didn’t specifically shoot sequences in the IMAX format as he did in “The Dark Knight,” he did use the next best thing which ensures that those paying a bit more for the bigger screen experience will get more than adequate bang for their buck. In case all the technical jargon is going over your head, “Inception” is going to be a richly detailed film on a palette bigger than most studio films or tentpoles.
However, for those hoping to experience Nolan’s latest in 3D, don’t count it. The director expressed his reservations with shooting in the format, and doesn’t yet seem convinced of the post-conversion process:
3D I think is an interesting development in movies or the resurgence of 3D. It’s something we’re looking at and watching. There are certain limitations of shooting in 3D. You have to shoot on video, which I’m not a fan of. I like shooting on film. And so then you’re looking at post-conversion processes which are moving forward in very exciting ways. So really, for me, production of a large scale film is all about recording the best, highest quality image possible so that you can then put it in any theatre in the best way possible. And 65mm film, IMAX film, VistaVision, 35mm, that’s the way you do that.
With theater owners still playing catchup with 3D and given that Nolan prefers celluloid to digital, it might be a while yet before the director films his own personal “Avatar.” He also puts a good spin on the post-production conversion process saying that it’s “moving forward in very exciting ways,” but we would guess he’s not all that thrilled with what he’s seen. Obviously, we’re hardly enamored by the format and we’re glad that a director as high profile as Nolan is not jumping headfirst into the latest craze to hit Hollywood.
“Inception” invades your dreams on July 16th.