If you’ve ever been to watch one of Hollywood’s big blockbusters on an IMAX screen, you’ll know that while it certainly gives you an immersive experience, it is often a bit of a compromise. While the native IMAX format has an aspect ratio of 4:3 (roughly the same as an old-styleTV), most big movies are shot at either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, which leaves massive black bars at the top and bottom of an IMAX screen.
Well, it seems the makers of Tron: Legacy are attempting to mix things up a bit, telling /Film that while most of the IMAX version of the film will be shown as 2.35:1, there will be five major action sequences projected at 1.7:1, to give a more fully enveloping effect.
It’s interesting to see people experimenting with what IMAX can do, because until recently re-mastering major films for the format was purely an afterthought done to make a bit more cash. Then Christopher Nolan shot some bits of The Dark Knight using IMAX cameras, which were then projected using the super-resolution format (at a different aspect ratio to the rest of the film) on IMAX screens. More recently, Avatar became the first film to make over $100 million just in IMAX theatres, showing that potentially there’s a lot of money to be made by attracting punters to the format. Also with Avatar, the movie had a different aspect ratio for IMAX than it did on other screens. While most cinemas showed it at 2.35:1, it was screened at 1.7:1 in IMAX, so it filled up more of the viewer’s vision.
It seems then that this is what the makers of Tron: Legacy are trying to ape, with directors now really thinking not just about how to properly take advantage of 3D, but also how their movies should be screened in IMAX. It’s undoubtedly easier to fiddle with the aspect ratio of a film like Tron: Legacy without losing too much quality, as so much of it is computer graphics, but it’ll be interesting to see if this sets off a wave of people making alterations for a film’s IMAX release.