‘Sinners’ Is the First Movie to Be Simultaneously Shot on Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX
Oscar-nominated and award-winning filmmaker Ryan Coogler released a new video ahead of his latest feature film Sinners‘ debut this week. The video breaks down Coogler’s use of different Kodak film stocks and formats. It is a highly informative 10-minute video explaining the movie-making process, analog film formats, and various theater projection technology.
Coogler is best known for directing the Black Panther series, Fruitvale Station, and Creed, teamed up with famed actor Michael B. Jordan again for the upcoming film, Sinners.
“In anticipation of the release of our newest film, Sinners, I just wanted to walk you guys through a little bit of information on how we made the film, as it may provide some context for which tickets you choose to buy once they go on sale,” Coogler explains in the Kodak video above. “I’m really excited to announce that Sinners was captured on film, that’s a format I fell in love with when I was in film school.”
Coogler, a very passionate filmmaker and believer in analog movie formats, then shows off some different film formats, including Super 8 and Super 16, which Coogler used to shoot Fruitvale Station, 35mm, and large format (65/70mm). As he explains, much like with digital image sensors, the larger the imaging surface, the higher the resolution and the shallower the depth of field, all else equal. For Sinners, Coogler went all on the “big boy” format and shot the entire film on two different large-format film formats.
“So obviously, even more resolution, even shallower depth of field,” the filmmaker says.
“These perforations have a particular meaning, because we shot the film using two different camera systems. One proprietary to Panavision, it’s called Ultra Panavision 70 used on films like Ben-Hur (1959) and most recently, The Hateful Eight. But another format we used is IMAX — IMAX film cameras. Those cameras spin the film in a horizontal fashion and those spin it using 15 ‘perfs’ per frame.”
Sinners is the first movie to be shot on simultaneously Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX 65 film cameras, which, as Coogler expertly breaks down, has significant implications for how it is shown at theaters.
Ultra Panavision 70, which is 2.76:1 aspect ratio, offers the benefit of more width in the frame. “This is one of the widest formats you’ll see in film,” Coogler says. A frame of Ultra Panavision 70 has five perforations on it.
On the other hand, IMAX has a taller image area, an aspect ratio of 1.43:1, and 15 perforations per frame.
“So the film was shot with two different aspect ratios,” Coogler says. “This is the first time ever that a film has been released combining [Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX].”
“So it was a pretty complicated process to shoot. We had a lot of fun,” he continues.
As for how this novel filmmaking approach impacts the release of Sinners, cinema fans have many options. There will be varying ticket options depending on where someone lives and the theaters in their area. The most widely available format is the Ultra Panavision 70 version, with its wide 2.76:1 aspect ratio. This version will not have any aspect ratio switching during the presentation.
However, for people with access to an IMAX theater, an IMAX 1.90:1 version might be available, which will expand the 2.76:1 aspect ratio upward for certain portions of the film.
“And if you’re especially lucky, you might live close to an IMAX 1.43:1 ratio theater,” Coogler explains. “Where you’ll get the full impact of every image how we intended you to see it.”
Coogler continues, explaining that most theaters these days show movies using DCP, or a Digital Cinema Package. It’s a digital projection format. “It’s basically a really expensive hard drive that has a file for the image and a file for the sound.”
While this is the format that most people will have access to — and Coogler and his team worked hard to ensure that the baseline DCP experience is amazing — there are some more extravagant options available, including 4DX (which can have moving seats and immersive elements), ICE (which has extra side screens that show different images at select parts of the film), and more. Coogler and Warner Bros. went all out.
As Coogler notes in the video, since Sinners was shot exclusively on film, it delivers remarkable dynamic range, including rich, inky black levels that help bring out the film’s horror vibes. If it’s possible to see Sinners in IMAX, especially 1.43:1 IMAX theaters, Coogler highly recommends it. It’s how he and his team shot the film, how they intended it to be seen, and is the most “immersive” experience.
For extremely lucky moviegoers, there will be 10 locations worldwide that project the film in actual 15-perforation IMAX film, where the film is spun horizontally, like how it is shot on the IMAX camera. Even rarer, five theaters in the United States will show Sinners in 70mm five-perforation format, a vertical reel format.
Sinners arrives in theaters on April 18, and tickets are available now.
Image credits: Kodak, Warner Bros. Entertainment
