My (possibly insane) plans to shoot an "IMAX" timelapse movie... :)

[M Hsu]

most excellent ideas start with : "ok, this might be crazy but what if...."

[Jeremy Teman]

Tom,

I would get together a small reel, treatment, plan, etc. to show potential investors, IMAX, etc. before going out and spending a bunch of your own money. If they like the idea, they will probably fund the project. If they don't they you might not want to spend $50K and just keep adding to your stock gradually. I also imagine many investors and/or IMAX wouldn't be too keen on having a completed film thrown at them. They would want to give input, etc.

Good luck

[Ruairi Robinson]

Originally Posted by Tom

Ruairi, I know what the theme is. :) But I'm going to keep that quiet for now.

Fair enough.

Why not shoot a trailer before going all out and doing the whole thing?

[Peter Majtan]

I would not underestimate IMAX. They are quite keen on anything reasonably good as there isn't many content creator's focused on this format.

But there is one point. I do not accept IMAX in the "gigantic" screen installations. For that kind of impact I can just sit in the first few rows in a normal cinema. For me IMAX is the dome-variety. The "original" IMAX. Once You have been enveloped by such a image that fills Your entire FOV without any planar reference of focus - it is unforgettable.

And what You are planing on shooting seams almost designed for dome-IMAX. I think they would love this project...

Good luck!

[amrrahmy]

u seemed a bit paranoid with the backup. having a backup camera and some batteries and some flash drives, would be a wiser decision.
and i thought the d3 would be better for what u r going to do?(it's not by the # of mps)
and dont forget to get some mounts for ur tripods to move the camera on them.

[number6]

Don't forget to take your RED to document the "making of".:) Also, if you haven't got all your visuals pre-planned, why not ask for Sou'westerners to put up images of places they've been to steer you toward an area to find your oun slant on it?


Following my oun suggestion, I would put up something locally but problem is, there's not much here that's IMAX-worthy. A hundred or so miles west of here might qualify though

[Davide B.]

Tom, do you know if the shutter on the Canon will be able to hold up through all this? Don't they have to be replaced/retooled after a certain number of exposures?

45 minutes x 60 seconds x 24 frames = 64,800 exposures. If you're film is going to be 45 minutes then at minimum you're going to be releasing the shutter almost 65,000 times right? And that's not including the hours of footage you shoot that you may not use.

According to B&H it can handle 300,000 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._III_SLR.html). But I'd double check just to make sure. You wouldn't want to be out in the field, away from a service center, when the shutter goes out.

davide

[Dan Hudgins]

Originally Posted by Tom

Ruairi, I know what the theme is. :) But I'm going to keep that quiet for now.

BTW, do you guys think I could legitimately claim that, as of right now, if this goes into production, it will be "the highest resolution digital movie ever shot"? At 21mp per frame, I am not aware of any digital cinema cameras that match it. Maybe someone is shooting something like this on a Hasselblad, but I am not aware of it.

If you pick a story that can be read and the images go with the narration you might have something people can sit through and keep some interest, maybe Muir or someone.

The final music will have a tempo, knowing that would allow you to set the frame rate to have the action go with the music.

[Bruce Allen]

Sounds good. I'd break it into 2 stages though:

1. shoot cool high-quality 5-10min demo reel

2. try to get some funding based on that demo so when you do your epic journey you can afford more than one camera. And maybe some a motion control tracking system so you can move the camera instead of doing just pans.

I'll PM you... I think I know someone I think you should have lunch with once you've made your reel.

If you do killer stuff and have a great presentation, I don't think it'd be impossible to get funding, really.

Your equipment costs are minuscule compared to shooting IMAX film. Main cost is your own time, travel, living costs, etc.

But what happened to your cool narrative project?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Tom Lowe]

Bruce, I am going to focus on this timelapse stuff, because it's what I am most interested in right now, and as you say, the cost of shooting something like this is ridiculously low. Gas, food, motels, etc. Only 5 years ago it would have been absolutely impossible to shoot a quality "IMAX" movie digitally on a budget like this. It's amazing to me that you could legitimately say that you shot "the highest resolution digital movie in the history of cinema" for 50 grand. :)

Yeah, I should be able to put together a pretty stunning 10-minute reel this winter, at which point I could show it to the IMAX people, investors, production companies, etc. I just feel like I would rather be a guy who goes out and DOES something first, than one who TALKS about what he's going to do. The more I can show IMAX, the more they might take me seriously, I think.