I’m sure you’ve seen comparisons between full screen and widescreen presentations of your favorite movies on DVD – this is something kind of like that, but for the cinematic presentation of SKYFALL. See, in the same way that the widescreen format allows for you to see more footage as part of your viewing experience than the full screen format (which cuts off bits on either side of the frame), so to will viewing Bond’s latest in IMAX rather than conventional cinemas.
Here’s the full description of the difference in technical terms from the folks at IMAX themselves, followed by a comparison picture to show you just what might be missing from your non-IMAX viewing: “The filmmakers worked with the IMAX team in the post-production process to increase the aspect ratio of the film and designed the IMAX presentation of Skyfall to allow audiences to see up to 26% more of the originally captured image. The technical term for the proportional relationship between an image’s width and its height is called aspect ratio. A film made for CinemaScope 2.41:1, the standard in the industry, is cropped and uses only part of the image the movie camera captures. Like with SKYFALL, we provide filmmakers with the ability to optimize their film’s aspect ratio for an IMAX screen during production by shooting with the extremely high-resolution IMAX camera (capable of up to IMAX® 1.43:1—up to 40% more of the picture) or in post-production (capable of up to IMAX® 1.90:1—up to 26% more of the picture). So what does this mean for moviegoers? You get to see much more of the original image, resulting in a full panoramic view that makes you feel part of the action.”
I tend to always check out films in IMAX if I can help it, even though the cost can be nearly double that of a normal ticket. And when a film is not just shown on an IMAX screen but properly formatted in a way that enhances it? All the better, and all the more worth it to pay the extra money. But maybe that’s just me – what about you? Will you be seeing SKYFALL in IMAX when it hits on November 9th? And if not, are there any reasons beyond cost? Sound off below!