Today, the media and entertainment sectors are facing considerable challenges than in the past. With the industry growing faster than ever, media houses and companies are finding it difficult to keep up, as viewers' habits are highly fragmented. There is a higher pressure to lower costs while improving revenues.
And amidst all the competition, Oppenheimer offers a unique visual. It is a film that relies on the stellar reputation of the film's director: Christopher Nolan. The maestro behind blockbusters like Tenet, Dunkirk, and Interstellar, Director Nolan's latest project - Oppenheimer -, however, is a culmination of many firsts for himself as well as Hollywood.
But why is it being deemed so special?
Being viewed as one of the biggest movie releases of 2023, director Christopher Nolan has used the latest IMAX technology. Oppenheimer was shot entirely on Imax 65mm and Panavision 65mm film with the use of some of the highest-resolution film cameras. The film embodies a period of risk-taking in which filmmakers could create both fictional and non-fictional stories.
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Many associate IMAX with larger screens and expensive tickets, but there is a lot more to the format. IMAX stands for Image MAXimum and is a set of proprietary cinema projection standards used by film directors. The standard was created by the IMAX Corporation, a Canadian company.
IMAX includes a taller aspect ratio than normal movie screens. This presents not just wider screens but also a taller picture, authorizing the audience to grab more data visually from the scene. Behind the scenes, IMAX is a widescreen motion picture film format that many directors use to shoot movies in. All live-action movies that feature the tag 'Shot for IMAX' or 'Filmed in IMAX' are shot with IMAX digital cameras or IMAX film cameras.
While Oppenheimer has also been digitized to work for all screens, director Christopher Nolan said it is best to watch the movie in specific IMAX theaters. IMAX offers a standard of high-resolution cameras. The instantly recognizable tall aspect ratio is usually 1.43:1 or 1.90:11. IMAX movies are shot using cameras that record larger frames, three times the theoretical horizontal resolution of a conventional 35mm film. These cameras are also capable of capturing footage with a very high amount of detail. IMAX processes the captured footage and uses proprietary image enhancement across every frame, allowing viewers to witness the clearest and sharpest quality of motion graphics.
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The Transforming Media and Entertainment Scene
Today, due to the increase in people's attention, movie studios have become more risk averse. While the changes in the media and entertainment business are likely to continue, studios and video streamers will soon face the reality of their own market disruption. They will only be competing with each other for attention, time, and revenue, but with social media and user-generated content. The latter has evolved more quickly and is staying close to younger demographics.
But Christopher Nolan's 2023 movie Oppenheimer has quite literally become the talk of the town.
Different technologies are being combined to deliver a new way of immersive storytelling. This creates an opportunity for writers and movie directors to present the content differently. Data analytics and AI are proving critical to the media and entertainment industry. They are equipping media houses with the ability to predict audience behavior as well as expectations. By aggregating, understanding, analyzing, and anticipating preferences and desires, enterprises and studio houses are strengthening their decision-making for the entertainment business. They are incorporating the right tools to improve and adapt faster with more accuracy and efficiency. These entertainment players are focused on increasing their analysis of consumer data to monetize this most effectively. With big data analytics, media companies are connecting with viewers directly via scheduled media streaming and maximizing profits.
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Immersion: Engaging with the narrative is all-encompassing, and viewers are a genuine part of it. Content developers are building stories with future immersion opportunities in mind.
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Community: The generated content must produce entryways for viewers to join the fanbase as well as have direct communication through a digital connection.
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Culture: Content needs to resonate and create an echo-like effect for the viewers across multiple formats for them to become part of the culture.
The new aspects of media and entertainment are informed, elevated, and integrated. With the use of breakthrough technologies, the integration of new tech is expected to increase. Another factor that is also affecting technology is how to offer immersive viewing experiences. Massive growth is further setting new standards and changing how people consume entertainment.
Summary
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The movie was shot entirely on Imax 65mm and Panavision 65mm film with the use of some of the highest-resolution film cameras known to mankind.
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This is unusual as Imax cameras are majorly used for big action shots, while more convenient cameras are used for other shots.
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The IMAX experience offers an overall superior audio experience that perfectly complements the visuals on the screen.
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Final Thoughts
While there has been a shift in media platforms, with more viewers preferring online mediums due to the rapid adoption of digital technologies, media companies are accessing new sources to attract the audient to movie theaters. But they need to fight harder to stay relevant in this highly competitive sphere.
But the release of Oppenheimer and Barbie has proved the speculations somewhat wrong.
Industry experts are highly praising the immersive-ness of this IMAX experience that is being defined not by video but equally by audio. Movies like Oppenheimer, which are shot completely on film and partially on IMAX film, offer far superior viewing resolution experience. This allows theatres to project motion graphics on much larger screens in a curved format. The screens offer a rich volume output, making everything - from soft dialogue to hard-hitting soundtracks - better. While it may seem louder than regular movie screens, it is also crisper and bassy where it needs to be. In a nutshell, the experience Oppenheimer offers on an IMAX screen is of higher-resolution video coupled with richer and better sound.
For media channels and studios, the use of new tech is emerging as a key component in this ever-changing media and entertainment industry. It is, therefore, critical for them to embrace different technological innovations and critical customer insights.
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