Showing posts with label inception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inception. Show all posts
for mac users
Film Inception explained for mac users. Of course, the windows version would have to stop in the middle for a system update followed by the blue screen of death [via].
"property that the steps forever carry"
Film Wired on Inception’s Penrose Staircase:
"The Staircase cannot be constructed in three dimensional reality due to its property that the steps forever carry the traveler upward in a loop. The same steps are traversed, but, impossibly, after the first time around (or second, or third…) one ends up back at the beginning, and the whole journey starts again. One can turn around on the stairs and descend, as well, with the same effect—continually treading the same ground, over and over."About the only disappointment I have with Inception is that no one uses the words "recursive occlusion". That would have been special.
if Inception was gender reversed
Film I've had Karie and John's posts about recasting Inception under other conditions knocking around in my brain for a few days. They've conspired to produce a new cast list of what the film would be looked like in 2001. I'd agree with almost everything, except I still think Tom Beringer would be there. Oh and Audrey Tattou instead of Marion Cotillard.
Taking a leaf out of the Bechdel Test, I wondered what the cast would look like if Inception was gender reversed. As you'd imagine this is somewhat harder.
Angelina Jolie plays Cobb. *
Rosario Dawson steps in for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur (or Gwen) **
Romain Duris replaces Marion Cotillard.
Michelle Yeoh as Saito, in place of Ken Watanabe.
Michael Cera as Ariadne (or Adrian). ***
Hermione Norris replaces Tom Hardy as Eames (Emma).
Rachel Weisz instead of Cillian Murphy as Roberta Fischer.
Demi Moore in place of Tom Berenger as Browning.
Parminda Nagra replacing Dileep Rao
Some notes:
* Honestly, I agonised about this, but in truth there isn't another actress of DiCaprio's stature known for action and acting.
** I didn't agonise over this
*** Ariadne is in awe of Cobb in the film and though I know this is jokey and easy I can imagine what these scenes would be like.
Taking a leaf out of the Bechdel Test, I wondered what the cast would look like if Inception was gender reversed. As you'd imagine this is somewhat harder.
Angelina Jolie plays Cobb. *
Rosario Dawson steps in for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur (or Gwen) **
Romain Duris replaces Marion Cotillard.
Michelle Yeoh as Saito, in place of Ken Watanabe.
Michael Cera as Ariadne (or Adrian). ***
Hermione Norris replaces Tom Hardy as Eames (Emma).
Rachel Weisz instead of Cillian Murphy as Roberta Fischer.
Demi Moore in place of Tom Berenger as Browning.
Parminda Nagra replacing Dileep Rao
Some notes:
* Honestly, I agonised about this, but in truth there isn't another actress of DiCaprio's stature known for action and acting.
** I didn't agonise over this
*** Ariadne is in awe of Cobb in the film and though I know this is jokey and easy I can imagine what these scenes would be like.
"important buildings"
Film An entertaining bit of ineption about the architecture in Inception:
Plus in criticising Cobb's world, he's neglected to realise that this is Cobb's world, the buildings of his memory. These are the important buildings in his life.
"the architectural set pieces grow increasingly trite and familiar. The bulk of the dream sequences take place in the following spaces: on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, including a wide intersection in front of a Famima store; the inside of a van; a hotel room; hotel hallways; an elevator; an elevator shaft; and a quasi-Brutalist mountainside complex where, in the deep snow, you can make out the boot-prints of both James Bond and Jason Bourne."What this writer has missed is that Ariadne has to create unfamiliar versions of the familiar and that loop back on themselves. If she had gone about creating the architectural marvels this writer was hoping for, the mark would have realised his dreams were being interfered with.
Plus in criticising Cobb's world, he's neglected to realise that this is Cobb's world, the buildings of his memory. These are the important buildings in his life.
slash
Film That's Inception slash fiction. What were they like at private school?
"Arthur doesn’t tell anyone else about Eames. He doesn’t witness anything like it again anyway, even after he starts hanging out in Eames’s room on occasion. Dom’s been spending more and more time with Mal and Ariadne has started an architecture club, so Eames is pretty much the only person around that Arthur sees on a regular basis. He doesn’t really have a choice in the matter but even if he did, he acknowledges that the outcome would probably be the same.Not safe for work. Or anywhere else to be honest.
The Fall dance and the end of the semester are both coming up, the combination of which makes all the students quietly go crazy. Arthur kicks it into high gear and takes full advantage of the new later library hours. He sucks down coffee like a mad man and only eats when Eames sneaks him sandwiches from his backpack.
Eames even being in the library is a fairly novel turn of events. Once, Arthur looks at Eames’s book selections when he’s off in the bathroom and sees titles ranging anywhere from Psychopharmacology to Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan to Eat, Pray, Love."
"a stack of dreaming people"
Film I've been waiting for this. Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell deconstruct the narrative structure and offer a thorough film studies perspective of Inception and produce essentially the best analysis of the film you're likely to ever see. Spoilers ahead obviously:
"The narration constructs its causal chain by being nominally omniscient. For short stretches of the film we may be “with” Ariadne and Cobb or Mal and Cobb and witness them having personal conversations, most dramatically when Cobb fails to talk Mal out of leaping to her death. These moments provide the main alternative to the exposition-ridden dialogue, and they are a very small portion of the overall speech in the film. Yet the narration arches over all, stitching together the series of causes by moving us among the levels, catching at exactly the right moment the critical action (Arthur is putting a stack of dreaming people into an elevator) or dialogue (Cobb asking Ariadne where she designed a route bypassing the labyrinth in the hospital)."There's much to talk about here and a may just when I have some time (though Jim Emmerson who wasn't a fan of the film has some), except to say that I love that even Thompson is willing to admit she still doesn't understand the whole plot and Bordwell can still find fault with a film he clearly very much enjoyed. Though I'd argue that some of the action sequences are purposefully clunky because Nolan is underscoring imperfections in the dream.
[...]
"In sum, as ambitious artists compete to engineer clockwork narratives and puzzle films, Nolan raises the stakes by reviving a very old tradition, that of the embedded story. He motivates it through dreams and modernizes it with a blend of science fiction, fantasy, action pictures, and male masochism. Above all, the dream motivation allows him to crosscut four embedded stories, all built on classic Hollywood plot arcs. In the process he creates a virtuoso stretch of cinematic storytelling."
look again
Film Another Inception interview, this time with costume designer Jeffrey Kurland. You've seen the film by now haven't you?
"COF: How much does costume reflect the inner machinations of the plot, particularly in a film such as Inception? For example, Cobb’s children are wearing the same clothes at the end of the story as they are in his dream ‘memory’ throughout the film. Is there something to be interpreted here?And with that millions of internet theorists suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Not me. The "evidence" throughout the rest of the film is too weighted in a particular direction.
JK: Costume design reflects greatly on the movement of the plot, most significantly through character development. Character development is at the forefront of costume design. The characters move the story along and with the director and the actor the costume designer helps to set the film’s emotional tone in a visual way. In a more physical sense the costumes’ style and color help to keep the story on track, keeping a check on time and place.
On to the second part of your question, the children’s clothing is different in the final scene… look again ...
That cannot be a coincidence.
Film Music Honestly, it's not just that Hans Zimmer based most of the musical score to Inception on “Non, je ne Regrette Rien” which punctuates the film in its own right ...
It's that Chris Nolan also hired Marion Cotillard who was the lead in the Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie En Rose, to play Leo's girlfriend. That cannot be a coincidence. But which came first, the casting or the song? Oh, the academic essays which will be written about this film ...
It's that Chris Nolan also hired Marion Cotillard who was the lead in the Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie En Rose, to play Leo's girlfriend. That cannot be a coincidence. But which came first, the casting or the song? Oh, the academic essays which will be written about this film ...
the Inception-like walls of your reality
Drama I know that hyperbole is very easy for me, but this may well be one of the best blog posts I've ever read. A screenwriter called Josh writes about a nocturnal encounter. I won't spoil much more than that other than to say, when you begin reading and see paragraphs like:
"The Character-driven Procedural works for a number of reasons, but the biggest and the best of them is this: they almost never get picked up to series without a Serious Asswhipping Actor in the lead. Simon Baker. Hugh Laurie. Tony Shaloub. Kyra Sedgwick. Angie Harmon. These are legitimate cleanup hitters in any TV lineup. They might not be the favorites of the genre crowd. You might not stand in line for their autograph. And you are not going to see them down at Comic-Con doing funny panels with Jeff "Doc" Jensen. Why? Because they are too busy making the other twenty million people who watch tv every night love them."... he's just putting you into a false sense of security, as the Inception-like walls of your reality slowly begin to crash down.
again and again
Film Whilst I await the release of the Inception blu-ray so that I can watch it again and again, I'm pleased to see that Cinematical, or a piece of it at least shares my theory about ... well just read it (assuming you've already seen the film).
Review (?): Inception.
Film Part of the entertainment in the run up to the release of Chis Nolan’s Inception has been watching reviewers attempting to write numerous paragraphs and offer well formed opinions but without giving anything away about the plot, even those who didn’t enjoy the film understanding that it’s best seen without any prior information. The apogee of this approach is in this month’s Empire Magazine, where Nev Pierce’s five star opus spends three pages making comparisons, talking about influences, mentioning legacy but trying desperately not to say very much about the story, but still I think inevitably manages to say too much.
Inception is a film which has to be approached cold. If you’ve seen any of the trailers, heard any interviews, you’ve probably seen and heard too much already. The enterprise was shrouded in mystery during shooting, like well, Cloverfield, only really becoming known when a very early teaser appeared online and baffled everybody. My own adventure began with that tease and from a glimpse of something in a corridor whilst flicking through the channels, my only exposure has been Mark Kermode’s review which again revealed just a little bit too much, but only enough to wet my appetite. Not until this morning did I really decide to attend, but only because I knew that my forced obliviousness would not survive until the dvd release.
With all of that in mind and before I launch into the mainstream of this symposium, imagine my utter surprise when, before the film began, we were treated to an advert for an entertainment website which included footage from the red carpet premieres of the new Twiglet film and Inception, with Leo being asked a facile question about the quality of the script and which included loads of footage of said film and him describing the plot. Luckily I managed to shut my eyes and put my fingers in ears before too much seeped out and in, but it’s almost as though the marketers are desperate to spoil a film no matter what.
Which is why I’m not going to join them and put the rest of this “review” behind one of those link things. Other than to say that all the self evident truths are in place. It's well acted, intelligently directed and is photographed beautifully, visually a masterpiece. And that it’s probably going to be one of the ten best films of the year and has various elements that have the potential to change the way mainstreams films are made, or at least what’s permissible in a mainstream film, in a number of ways, and that if you're a film fan of any description and don’t see it now, at the cinema, you’ll later regret it.
Inception is a film which has to be approached cold. If you’ve seen any of the trailers, heard any interviews, you’ve probably seen and heard too much already. The enterprise was shrouded in mystery during shooting, like well, Cloverfield, only really becoming known when a very early teaser appeared online and baffled everybody. My own adventure began with that tease and from a glimpse of something in a corridor whilst flicking through the channels, my only exposure has been Mark Kermode’s review which again revealed just a little bit too much, but only enough to wet my appetite. Not until this morning did I really decide to attend, but only because I knew that my forced obliviousness would not survive until the dvd release.
With all of that in mind and before I launch into the mainstream of this symposium, imagine my utter surprise when, before the film began, we were treated to an advert for an entertainment website which included footage from the red carpet premieres of the new Twiglet film and Inception, with Leo being asked a facile question about the quality of the script and which included loads of footage of said film and him describing the plot. Luckily I managed to shut my eyes and put my fingers in ears before too much seeped out and in, but it’s almost as though the marketers are desperate to spoil a film no matter what.
Which is why I’m not going to join them and put the rest of this “review” behind one of those link things. Other than to say that all the self evident truths are in place. It's well acted, intelligently directed and is photographed beautifully, visually a masterpiece. And that it’s probably going to be one of the ten best films of the year and has various elements that have the potential to change the way mainstreams films are made, or at least what’s permissible in a mainstream film, in a number of ways, and that if you're a film fan of any description and don’t see it now, at the cinema, you’ll later regret it.
the IMAX 3D experience at Odeon Liverpool One.
Film Tomorrow sees the launch of the IMAX 3D experience at Odeon Liverpool One and this morning I was invited to see a preview by the publicity company stage managing the opening few days. The email came via my Liverpool Blogs blog, which happens sometimes because of its proximity to the search terms "liverpool" and "blogs". It’s good that they’re reaching out to the social network, and quite exciting to be treated like a proper journalist, joined in the process by a Merseyside radio personality and someone from the local press, both of whom rushed off to talk about and write up what they saw.
I came home and finished painting the living room, which isn’t quite as glamorous.
If the idea was for me to offer some good word of mouth, it worked. As a film presentation and projection system this is amazing. A refit of one of the third floor auditoriums, the screen size has been increased to 9.7 high by 17.8 wide with stadium seating so that it’s almost impossible to be blocked by someone sitting in front of you (unless they have a very big head). The half hour spent in there were comfortable, with only the aisle based, under seat lighting providing a slight irritation, always twinkling brightly at the edge of vision.
The sound and picture quality are magnificent. We were presented with a showreel of some old and new content, mostly trailers for the likes of Batman Begins and 300 complete with the green band US MPAA ratings at the top. The clarity of the image is sometimes astounding, especially in the promo for Chris Nolan’s latest Inception, were the grain from the 35mm negative was perfectly visible, removing that slight stumbling block I’ve always had with digital projection experiences in the past (cf, Cornerhouse Manchester) which have always retained the slightly artificial quality of dvd.
The most astounding examples were of course in 3D; excerpts from a documentary about the Hubble telescope in which the edge of the satellite are at eye level, the train in Polar Express flying past your face in a way that makes you understand quite why that first audience that saw a similar locomotive projected by the Lumiere Brothers over a hundred years ago in L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat. The sound quality is extraordinary, very detailed and realistic; the press release speaks of being able to hear a pin drop and I can believe it.
We were treated to a preview of Tron Legacy in which it seems the “real” world will be presented in 2D only entering the third dimension as Kevin Flynn’s son materialises within the game world, in much the same way as the Wizard of Oz flips from monochrome to colour when Dorothy and Toto aren’t in Kansas any more. I’ve always thought that 3D will only shift from gimmick or enhancement to art form when filmmakers begin to somehow produce stories that only work in that format and this could be the first indication of a shift in that direction.
After the screening whilst my journalistic colleagues were interviewing the Odeon’s manager, I inevitably asked instead to see the projection room. I met the technician/projectionist who spearheaded project to bring the system to Liverpool and he was positively evangelical, patiently answering my questions about how the films are stored (giant removable hard disks) and how the system works (two giant projectors that look like the kind of equipment Galactus might use for his holiday slides). His glee was infectious and only increased my excitement for seeing a complete “film” projected this way.
But, and this is a big but, and after being treated so well this morning I take no pleasure in saying this, it’s not IMAX, or at least it’s not the traditional projection IMAX format. As I surmised in my bonkers unsurprisingly unanswered email to the Odeon last week, no matter how large the screen, it doesn’t have the wrap around experience of the classic IMAX aspect ratio reaching to the ceiling and floor and filling the field of vision on either side as seen at the Manchester Filmworks, the BFI and the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Before the preview I put this to a gentleman who was introduced to me as knowing more about the technical side. As the projectionist would later, he talked about how IMAX was about the immersive experience and that was what they were interested in. I suggested that in fact that meant they were reconfiguring the IMAX name but that there would be people who knew (what I kept calling) “proper IMAX” but would be disappointed to discover that’s not what they were getting here and that perhaps they needed to make that clearer in the publicity.
I tried not to sound overwhelmingly negative since I was still looking forward to investigating this other system (always interjecting with “I don’t want to be a cynical sausage...", "I'm honestly trying not to be a cynical sausage..."), but having seen the new IMAX logo which had been added to the Odeon signs in the foyer, as a passionate film fan, I’m genuinely concerned that when the people of Liverpool greet this new way of seeing movies, that they’ll think they’re finally seeing a range of film made in the IMAX format (assuming they’ve heard of it before). They’re not. They’re seeing a range of films which in the main are made for an ordinary projection system that are being transferred to this other format.
That difference is also covered by the media fact sheet, which says “a major change of aspect ratio from the traditional ‘full-height’ 1.33 of 15 perforations 70mm film, to the 1.78 of their DMR system, which is more consistent with the general framing of Hollywood films.” Except, since “DMR” is Digital Media Remastering system that upscales a 35mm film, that change in format means that the image quality, however detailed, could actually still be inferior to the original IMAX which has more information in the original print, unless like some sections of Inception they're shot in at least 65mm.
The FAQ also asks itself about the key difference between this IMAX auditorium and the one in Manchester, and answers by talking about crystal clear imagines and the special audio system when in fact its that watching a film here involves looking at a giant rectangle but there it's feeling as though your about to fall out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon or whatever. I think about my own first jaw dropping experiences in Bradford in the 90s in which I felt like Jodie Foster in Contact ("they should have sent a poet"), my eyes agog at this strange new world, as penguins swam beneath the glaciers above my head.
Imagine this trailer projected on a screen the size of a three up, two down:
I brought up the problems last year in the US when people turned up for IMAX showings to find this system in place (which led to the Destroy Fake IMAX campaign), all he could offer was that yes, there had been criticism on some technical blogs. But journalists also wrote like this one which I’ve linked to before and lists the key differences. At length. With pictures. Roger Ebert also went over the topic in much greater detail and I’d direct you to his article too. As he says, “(IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond)’s problem appears to be that most people do foolishly persist in thinking of IMAX as the giant screen” when they’ve branched out further in the battle against home formats.
So Liverpool is still waiting for its first IMAX film projection system, but what it does have is a truly excellent new option for seeing Hollywood film releases, which admittedly has been well received in other areas. The first week will see Shrek Forever After and coming soon are Inception, Toy Story 3, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (partly voiced by Bernard Cribbins), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) and the film which could be the game changer, Tron Legacy. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of those (yes, even Resident Evil, it’s a guilty pleasure) with only the price a potential barrier (£11.75 for adults).
Because, let’s be honest, despite my reservations about calling a spade a spade, it’s probably just all about some pupils from a local school in a photo which was sent to me this afternoon by the PR company (because they were the first to see the system), on the edges of their seats and the rapt expression on their faces. The boy on the left looks like he's going to be a film fan for life.
UPDATED 14/7/2010:For all my huffing and puffing above about screen areas, I've just discovered that the Odeon aren't using the proper IMAX screen they inherited (when they bought out UCI) at the Filmworks in Manchester to show proper IMAX films anyway. Boo. (see below)
Updated 02/08/2010 Haylay has been in touch with the Odeon regarding all of this and has sent me their response. She's agreed to let me publish her email to me below. All I've done is break up the central quote into small paragraphs for ease of reading (FYI we swapped emails after I saw a comment from her on Twitter):
Interestingly our nearest proper IMAX screen at the Manchester Odeon in the Printworks has Ghost Protocol and the Batman preview which indicates that although they've installed Digital, they can still show floor to ceiling when necessary (Chris Nolan has indicated the preview could not be shown on faux-IMAX screens).
I came home and finished painting the living room, which isn’t quite as glamorous.
If the idea was for me to offer some good word of mouth, it worked. As a film presentation and projection system this is amazing. A refit of one of the third floor auditoriums, the screen size has been increased to 9.7 high by 17.8 wide with stadium seating so that it’s almost impossible to be blocked by someone sitting in front of you (unless they have a very big head). The half hour spent in there were comfortable, with only the aisle based, under seat lighting providing a slight irritation, always twinkling brightly at the edge of vision.
The sound and picture quality are magnificent. We were presented with a showreel of some old and new content, mostly trailers for the likes of Batman Begins and 300 complete with the green band US MPAA ratings at the top. The clarity of the image is sometimes astounding, especially in the promo for Chris Nolan’s latest Inception, were the grain from the 35mm negative was perfectly visible, removing that slight stumbling block I’ve always had with digital projection experiences in the past (cf, Cornerhouse Manchester) which have always retained the slightly artificial quality of dvd.
The most astounding examples were of course in 3D; excerpts from a documentary about the Hubble telescope in which the edge of the satellite are at eye level, the train in Polar Express flying past your face in a way that makes you understand quite why that first audience that saw a similar locomotive projected by the Lumiere Brothers over a hundred years ago in L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat. The sound quality is extraordinary, very detailed and realistic; the press release speaks of being able to hear a pin drop and I can believe it.
We were treated to a preview of Tron Legacy in which it seems the “real” world will be presented in 2D only entering the third dimension as Kevin Flynn’s son materialises within the game world, in much the same way as the Wizard of Oz flips from monochrome to colour when Dorothy and Toto aren’t in Kansas any more. I’ve always thought that 3D will only shift from gimmick or enhancement to art form when filmmakers begin to somehow produce stories that only work in that format and this could be the first indication of a shift in that direction.
After the screening whilst my journalistic colleagues were interviewing the Odeon’s manager, I inevitably asked instead to see the projection room. I met the technician/projectionist who spearheaded project to bring the system to Liverpool and he was positively evangelical, patiently answering my questions about how the films are stored (giant removable hard disks) and how the system works (two giant projectors that look like the kind of equipment Galactus might use for his holiday slides). His glee was infectious and only increased my excitement for seeing a complete “film” projected this way.
But, and this is a big but, and after being treated so well this morning I take no pleasure in saying this, it’s not IMAX, or at least it’s not the traditional projection IMAX format. As I surmised in my bonkers unsurprisingly unanswered email to the Odeon last week, no matter how large the screen, it doesn’t have the wrap around experience of the classic IMAX aspect ratio reaching to the ceiling and floor and filling the field of vision on either side as seen at the Manchester Filmworks, the BFI and the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Before the preview I put this to a gentleman who was introduced to me as knowing more about the technical side. As the projectionist would later, he talked about how IMAX was about the immersive experience and that was what they were interested in. I suggested that in fact that meant they were reconfiguring the IMAX name but that there would be people who knew (what I kept calling) “proper IMAX” but would be disappointed to discover that’s not what they were getting here and that perhaps they needed to make that clearer in the publicity.
I tried not to sound overwhelmingly negative since I was still looking forward to investigating this other system (always interjecting with “I don’t want to be a cynical sausage...", "I'm honestly trying not to be a cynical sausage..."), but having seen the new IMAX logo which had been added to the Odeon signs in the foyer, as a passionate film fan, I’m genuinely concerned that when the people of Liverpool greet this new way of seeing movies, that they’ll think they’re finally seeing a range of film made in the IMAX format (assuming they’ve heard of it before). They’re not. They’re seeing a range of films which in the main are made for an ordinary projection system that are being transferred to this other format.
That difference is also covered by the media fact sheet, which says “a major change of aspect ratio from the traditional ‘full-height’ 1.33 of 15 perforations 70mm film, to the 1.78 of their DMR system, which is more consistent with the general framing of Hollywood films.” Except, since “DMR” is Digital Media Remastering system that upscales a 35mm film, that change in format means that the image quality, however detailed, could actually still be inferior to the original IMAX which has more information in the original print, unless like some sections of Inception they're shot in at least 65mm.
The FAQ also asks itself about the key difference between this IMAX auditorium and the one in Manchester, and answers by talking about crystal clear imagines and the special audio system when in fact its that watching a film here involves looking at a giant rectangle but there it's feeling as though your about to fall out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon or whatever. I think about my own first jaw dropping experiences in Bradford in the 90s in which I felt like Jodie Foster in Contact ("they should have sent a poet"), my eyes agog at this strange new world, as penguins swam beneath the glaciers above my head.
Imagine this trailer projected on a screen the size of a three up, two down:
I brought up the problems last year in the US when people turned up for IMAX showings to find this system in place (which led to the Destroy Fake IMAX campaign), all he could offer was that yes, there had been criticism on some technical blogs. But journalists also wrote like this one which I’ve linked to before and lists the key differences. At length. With pictures. Roger Ebert also went over the topic in much greater detail and I’d direct you to his article too. As he says, “(IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond)’s problem appears to be that most people do foolishly persist in thinking of IMAX as the giant screen” when they’ve branched out further in the battle against home formats.
So Liverpool is still waiting for its first IMAX film projection system, but what it does have is a truly excellent new option for seeing Hollywood film releases, which admittedly has been well received in other areas. The first week will see Shrek Forever After and coming soon are Inception, Toy Story 3, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (partly voiced by Bernard Cribbins), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) and the film which could be the game changer, Tron Legacy. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of those (yes, even Resident Evil, it’s a guilty pleasure) with only the price a potential barrier (£11.75 for adults).
Because, let’s be honest, despite my reservations about calling a spade a spade, it’s probably just all about some pupils from a local school in a photo which was sent to me this afternoon by the PR company (because they were the first to see the system), on the edges of their seats and the rapt expression on their faces. The boy on the left looks like he's going to be a film fan for life.
UPDATED 14/7/2010:
Updated 02/08/2010 Haylay has been in touch with the Odeon regarding all of this and has sent me their response. She's agreed to let me publish her email to me below. All I've done is break up the central quote into small paragraphs for ease of reading (FYI we swapped emails after I saw a comment from her on Twitter):
"Hi StuartUpdated! 25/12/2011 Slashfilm have posted an FAQ which covers much the same ground but updates to include material about Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Dark Knight Rises.
Thanks for the email (sorry its taken me so long to reply!)
Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who felt this way.
I emailed Odeon after I had been and thought you might be interested to read their response:
"I'm sorry to hear you feel you are disappointed with our new IMAX installation. I would like to assure you that the IMAX we have had fitted is a 'True IMAX' and was installed and tested by IMAX technicians from Canada.
Unfortunately Liverpool ONE was not designed for IMAX when built so we were limited on how large we could make the screen.
The IMAX we have is Digital IMAX which historically has a smaller screen than traditional IMAX as it is more difficult to enlarge a digital image to the size of older IMAX screens. With the digital age of cinema becoming more apparent you will find newer IMAX installations to be of similar size.
The IMAX experience is not just the screen size and the laser aligned sound it is the full process from filming on special IMAX cameras to enlarging each frame of film.
I do agree however that if you are sitting close to the front or far out on one of the sides the Immersive wrap effect is some what lost. We are current working hard with IMAX to see if there is any solution we can come to."
I'm guessing they have probably had a fair few emails about this!
As you had said in your email, the thing that's bad is that they are selling it as IMAX, and people expect IMAX to be the giant screen and wrap around shape.
Take Care,
Hayley
Interestingly our nearest proper IMAX screen at the Manchester Odeon in the Printworks has Ghost Protocol and the Batman preview which indicates that although they've installed Digital, they can still show floor to ceiling when necessary (Chris Nolan has indicated the preview could not be shown on faux-IMAX screens).
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