Christopher Nolan continues to give audiences the best possible film image as he continues his preferred IMAX format for Oppenheimer.
Christopher Nolan has been a champion for the most immersive experience that can be had at the cinema. This does not mean he would shoot a movie in 3D like James Cameron, though. Nor does this mean one of those 4DX theaters where the chairs move with various elements being thrown at the audience during the movie. Nolan’s long-preferred method is the IMAX format. For those that do not know, the IMAX film (which was predominantly used for nature documentaries in the past) is the highest-quality image possible that can be printed, and the picture is expanded in size. Nolan would shoot in this format for his Dark Knight movies, Dunkirk and most recently, tenet.
Universal Pictures has just released a featurette that shows how the crew shot his upcoming drama, Oppenheimer. The movie is about one of the most significant world-changing events and involves sequences of a grand scale. The new behind-the-scenes look has Nolan and his cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema, describe the process in which they utilized the special IMAX cameras for the feature. They would describe a new type of film they would create for special black-and-white footage they shot to mimic the 1940s newsreels during World War II.
The official description from Universal reads,
Oppenheimer is filmed in a combination of IMAX® 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX® black and white analog photography.
Usually, when filmed in a dual format, the movie will shift aspect ratios from a normal scene to one filmed with IMAX cameras. In the featurette, Robert Downey Jr. would describe a shot which was achieved by having the camera sitting on his lap and the lens was so big, that it reminded him of older models of cameras from an earlier age in Hollywood.
Universal’s synopsis reads,
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the US Atomic Energy Commission. Academy Award® nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. Oppenheimer also stars Oscar® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.
Oppenheimer will detonate on screens on July 21.