Chris*Liberti

Is anyone still shooting films in large negative formats

I am trrying to find out if anyone is still shooting films in large negative formats like 65 or 70mm? (not including IMAX). If so what films have been shot in these formats recently?

Peter Kline

I believe the last major film to be photographed in 70mm was "Hamlet" starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1996. Some 70mm productions are done for theme parks but I don't know if recently. By the way, what ever happened to Mr. Branagh?

ThomasC

He was in two movies last year, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Gilderoy Lockhart and Rabbit-Proof Fence. He was also the leading man in a TV movie that was shown on A&E called Shackleton.

The man I loved - the man who vanished - he never came back at all. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again.

Aaron Garman

Hello all. What effect does shooting in large formats have on CGI? We've already discussed how anamorphics effect it, but what about standard large formats? I yearn to actually see 70mm films, but like people have stated, they are simply not made anymore. Maybe Indy IV could be in 70mm...oh my!

AJG

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Jason Seaver

In short: More pixels.

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Chad R

I'm not positive but I believe that all of the plates for 'contact' were shot 65mm to eliminate the anamorphic problems in the CGI.

Guy Martin

As chad points out, its not uncommon for effects plates to be shot in large formats like VistaVision since it is much easier to do effects in a "flat" format (no need to worry about correcting for the distortions caused by anamorphic lenses). Although in recent years this has been supplanted somewhat by the use of Super35 for FX-heavy films. Presently I'm working at a company that's producing a major release where the bulk of filming is in anamorphic, but the FX sequences are being done in Super35 instead of VistaVision.

As for doing CGI at 70mm, the bottom line is it is simply a matter of having to render everything at a much higher resolution (approx 4x that of 35mm) with the resultant increases in render time and storage space. There are a few CGI effects in Hamlet (most notably the shot of Fortinbras' army just before the intermission) so obviously CGI is possibly at 70mm, it just costs more and takes more time (as almost everything does when shooting 70mm).
- Guy