The first-ever movie shot entirely on IMAX cameras
Cinema has always been about spectacle, ever since the dawn of the moving image. Just take the pioneering 1902 movie A Trip to the Moon by director Georges Méliès, a silent film that punched way above its weight, telling the story of a group of astronauts who flew to the moon and interacted with aliens. Thanks to Méliès’ film, and many others of the same kind, the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Denis Villeneuve and other modern cinematic innovators could thrive.
Such aforementioned filmmakers often look for new technical innovations they can use within their epics, with Cameron utilising 3D for the release of Avatar in 2009, whilst Christopher Nolan went the other way and decided to use no CGI at all for the release of his first biopic, Oppenheimer. One preference these filmmakers all share is their fondness for the IMAX format, however, a film format known for its vast aspect ratio.
Displayed only in cinemas that can accommodate the height and breadth of the IMAX ratio, such formats use 70mm film that is run horizontally through the projector. Expensive, complex and a little cumbersome to use, few films are shot entirely in the IMAX format, with this being saved mainly for spectacular documentaries made for the might of the big screen. Instead, most blockbuster films choose to shoot only their most spectacular moments using the format.
Although it seems like a pretty new technological innovation, IMAX was actually conceived back in 1970 by co-founders Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. Shaw, with the very first movie ever to be shot entirely using the format being Tiger Child.
Demonstrated at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan, Tiger Child was a short film helmed by Donald Brittain and was made to show off the IMAX format at the international convention. A poetic vision of contemporary civilisation, the movie, much like the visual delights from such filmmakers as Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke, was filmed in countless locations from around the world, creating a mosaic that celebrated human life.
The creation of the film in 1970 was followed by the construction of the very first permanent IMAX installation, with the spectacular Cinesphere Theatre being constructed at Ontario Place in Toronto. Opening one year after the release of Tiger Child, the theatre opened with a screening of North of Superior, a short film by cinematographer Graeme Ferguson that boasted magnificent shots of the Canadian landscape with fast-paced cuts.
Cinesphere Theatre remains standing to this very day and was renovated in November 2017 with IMAX 70mm and laser illumination.
Even though Nolan and the like may boast about shooting on IMAX, you can be certain that they haven’t shot the entire thing using the expensive method, with the likes of Oppenheimer, Dune and Top Gun: Maverick being only partially shot using cinema’s most spectacular format.
