The Force Awakens: 1.78:1 scenes in 2D? - with recreation of IMAX scene (Released) — Page 3

It’s like in Nolan films, there are multiple framings and cameras used within one scene-35mm anamorphic, IMAX, VistaVision, etc. Dan Mindell didn’t need to use IMAX camera for all the shots as they are really heavy. For shots with a lot of movement and within interiors, or close-ups, he’d just use the much lighter 35mm cameras, probably handhold them. The IMAX portions would naturally be mostly exteriors and plate photography.

Even if there was no aspect ratio shift during the falcon chase scene, it makes no sense to use a cropped pan & scan shot with less detail. So, for any shot within the IMAX scene that is cropped, it’s ideal to use the 2.35:1 footage instead.

The IMAX aspect ratio was 1.44:1. It’s impossible to crop a 2.35:1 footage to 1.44:1. Do you realise how ridiculous the shot would look?
Is it possible that the entire IMAX scene was not in 1.44:1/1.90:1 (LIEMAX)? Maybe this BB8 shot was in 2.35:1, but it was so short and it was a fast scene that you didn’t notice the aspect ratio shift? I mean I’ve read in many forums that people failed to notice aspect ratio shifts on fast shots of partially IMAX filmed movies.
Even if this shot was in Full/half IMAX, I doubt it was a cropped shot. Because a zoom-in of a scope shot would look too big and bad on a giant screen.

I think, if you plan on doing a final version, please at least consider using the uncropped anamorphic shots. Those BB8 shots were done with 2.35:1 locked shots. There’s virtually no information left on the top and bottom. So, there is no way those shots could be opened up on an IMAX scene. The texture of those shots look very much like ones from anamorphic lenses. There is more grain, which won’t be the case with the IMAX scenes in the first place.

You have to wonder if the IMAX scenes were cropped from 4:3 to 16:9 in height like the non-IMAX scenes were cropped down to 16:9 in width. That means some is still missing. From a completist point of view, this is fascinating, but with this being the 7th installment and all the others not being shot in this format, not to mention that the entire movie wasn’t shot in this format, it isn’t something I am going to worry about.

doubleofive said:

Film IMAX was full 1.44:1 the entire sequence. I’m not sure how they cropped those shots, but they looked just fine.

Guys there’s definitely some mistake going on here. Either those shots were in 2.35:1 or they were opened up vertically, which makes the shots in the Starz version nothing but pan & scan. And if the other other IMAX scenes are open matte, why aren’t those two, do you guys get it? Because they were shot in 2.35:1 native, so they had no choice but to crop the native 2.35:1 footage for the Starz version.

There is no way that a DOP or director in his right mind would allow an anamorphic 2.35:1 grainy shot to be zoomed all the way to 1.44:1 or even 1.90:1. The max a film can be zoomed without looking terrible is from 2.35:1 to 2.20:1, done for 70mm prints.

yotsuya said:

You have to wonder if the IMAX scenes were cropped from 4:3 to 16:9 in height like the non-IMAX scenes were cropped down to 16:9 in width. That means some is still missing. From a completist point of view, this is fascinating, but with this being the 7th installment and all the others not being shot in this format, not to mention that the entire movie wasn’t shot in this format, it isn’t something I am going to worry about.

Most likely, But IMAX is a very large format film with tremendous detail. It can be cropped and zoomed as necessary. However, composition matters. Unlike 4:3 TV, IMAX is a HUGE screen, so the possibility of zooming is very very limited, unless you want too much grain or pixels (if shot digitally) in your face. From the IMAX comparison shots that were released online before the film came out, it’s established that they were composed for 1.44:1, but cropped to 2.39:1 for normal multiplex screens across the planet.

It’s fantastic to hear this news 😃 A reconstruction will be a pleasure to see.

I assume there’s no known camrip of the IMAX version that we can compare this to?

schorman13 said:

I would like to thank Adywan and PDB for their work on this. Adywan’s video looks fantastic.

Ditto. I’m very happy about this 😃 According to the STARZ website, TFA will be on tomorrow at 12:40 PM EST. Does anyone have the ability for a higher quality capture?

That’s great to hear that there will at least be a 1:78:1 reconstruction of the IMAX sequence. It’s still a shame they didn’t include the full 1:44:1 sequence as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray.

doubleofive said:

Is it possible the STARZ streaming version also has the scenes expanded?

I can confirm that the streaming version has the IMAX scene intact (aside from the weirdly edited shots already pointed out).

Why is STARZ’s streaming garbage? I’m on a wired gigabit connection and it’s still very pixelated.

Ah sorry, didn’t catch that.

I’m working on integrating the imax scenes into a video copy of The Force Awakens, but I need help on getting the proper settings for it to look like the original source, because everytime I encode it the grain looks fine until I get to the black scenes were all dark shadows and such become super pixelated… The editing software I’m working with is Adobe Premiere Elements 10

Papai2013 said:

mapet318 said:

I just noticed blu-ray.com removed 1.78 from the TFA 3D listing. Hopefully it’s a mistake or inaccuracy.

So, that means the IMAX version won’t be released on home video. That’s very very sad and frustrating seing as they advertised the IMAX version much before the film came out. Even released stills showing how much the scope version would be butchered. Now they are abandoning it? Hopefully J.J. will release it later like the Star Trek compendium set.

To add to this frustration, I don’t think the IMAX version I saw when TFA was in theatres even properly showed the IMAX scenes. The film was presented at my IMAX theatre in 2.39:1 throughout the entire film with no changes to widen the frame during the IMAX portions. Other movies since that such as BvS, Doctor Strange, Civil War have all had the proper IMAX widening but Star Wars didn’t. I gotta say, I feel kind of robbed, especially since I did the Star Wars marathon, and saw it in IMAX about 4 times. I know this discussion is a bit old but I just wanted to air my frustration about not being able to see the Mil. Falcon scenes in at least 16:9.

To those who don’t like the shifting aspect ratios, I have to say I’ve always wanted to see popular films have shifting aspects like that ever since I heard that Dr. Strangelove was filmed in several different aspect ratios. I always thought how cool it would be to see a movie go from 2.39:1 to 1.85, and I’m truly glad that Nolan has brought this trend. I just think it’s a shame that some of the films with variable ratios like BvS don’t have this occur on the Blu-rays…

Double Post

Deloreanhunter12 said:

I’m working on integrating the imax scenes into a video copy of The Force Awakens, but I need help on getting the proper settings for it to look like the original source, because everytime I encode it the grain looks fine until I get to the black scenes were all dark shadows and such become super pixelated… The editing software I’m working with is Adobe Premiere Elements 10

Can someone please help with this, I hate to be impatient, but its been over a week and I’m still waiting for a reply…

MrGeekBoi420 said:

To add to this frustration, I don’t think the IMAX version I saw when TFA was in theatres even properly showed the IMAX scenes. The film was presented at my IMAX theatre in 2.39:1 throughout the entire film with no changes to widen the frame during the IMAX portions.

That’s not rare. I believe there were less than 20 theatres that showed it the way it was supposed to be seen, which was on proper IMAX film with the matte opened up during the Falcon chase.

I was at an IMAX on an opening night (front row, so it was terrible) and it was the same aspect ratio through the whole thing.

Ok, I figured out how to integrate the IMAX footage, and it looks GREAT!!! IF someone can help me out upload it to the spleen, that would be much appreciated!

I’m very anxious to see this. I hope you can put it up on the Spleen soon. 😃