Over at MTV News there’s a piece with cinematographer Wally Pfister. Christopher Nolan’s director of photography since Memento, Pfister is getting kudos for his cinematography for Inception. He’s also discussing the capabilities of IMAX.
A very important story element in Inception involves trying to successfully implant an idea in another human being. When Christopher Nolan and Wally Pfister shot a portion of The Dark Knight in IMAX, the question arose on whether or not they would shoot Inception in the large-scale film format.
That idea has been lingering inside of Pfister, like an uncontrollable virus that keeps growing. The action scenes and the need for handheld cameras made it impossible to use the IMAX camera on set. But the third Batman is a different story. It is Pfister’s goal to shoot the entire movie in IMAX. However, this may change with how the story is laid out and logistics of the production. Even if IMAX is not possible, I love Pfister’s thinking. Just awesome. Considering the beautiful imagery in Inception can you imagine what Batman 3 would look like in large format? Forget 3D, give me the largest canvas possible.
“I must say I’m a huge IMAX fan. I like IMAX more than I like 3-D,” [Pfister] explained. “Chris’ films are so densely layered and have so much going on visually in every way that IMAX helps enhance that because of the scope and the scale of it — it becomes a much larger canvas to paint on. That’s what we found on ‘Dark Knight.’
“I’m not a big fan of 3-D,” he continued. “I liken it to my View-Master I had 40 years ago. Are you really getting more out of the story with 3-D? When you separate those different planes and you’re creating artificial depth, it looks phony to me.”
The Pulse: Nolan is on record saying that he’s not a fan of 3-D; but it will ultimately be Warner Bros’ decision on what the format will be. If the cost to shoot in IMAX is too exorbitant, or if it turns out to be an ADR headache in post-production (since IMAX cameras are so loud), then it may have to be 3-D after all. However, if the entire film is shot in large-scale format, the studio will have bragging rights at having the first feature film to be shot entirely in IMAX. (Note, Nolan’s second Batman film, The Dark Knight, was the first time a major feature film was partially shot using IMAX cameras.)
You can also be sure that Nolan and his DP will have a long discussion like they did prior to shooting the Leonardo DiCapario headlining sci-fi drama, which exceeded box office estimates and earned $62.8 million last weekend.
Anybody else excited about this? Sure, it may be a pipe dream, but the filmic trinity of Nolan’s direction, Pfister’s imagery and IMAX needs to happen!
