The development course of image maximization

Since the birth of the film, people have never stopped exploring and trying big-screen movies. In the early days of the film 1900, the Lumiere brothers made their first screening of their 75mm movie giant screen in Paris. However, due to the huge size of the three cameras and the limitation of projection synchronization technology and picture mosaic technology, this form soon disappeared; In the early 1950s, a wide-screen technology through optical deformation was presented to the world after more than ten years of experiments. This is the deformed wide-screen film projection still in use today, which is called Cinemascope in the industry. This is a practical widescreen processing technology. In the 35mm shooting of a single camera, a panoramic picture with a ratio of 2.35∶ 1 is optically compressed horizontally to a 35mm film with a ratio of 1.33∶ 1 through a special deformable lens, and the same lens is installed on the projector to expand the projected picture horizontally.

The audience got pleasure and joy on the big screen. By 1957, 85% of American cinemas have installed Cinemascope projection doors and deformable lenses. However, it was soon discovered that although optical distortion can enlarge the picture, the narrow 35mm film and spherical errors of the distorted lens, such as reduced resolution, small projector light source, deep screen curvature and silver salt particles, have always affected the picture quality. However, with the development of technology, filmmakers' pursuit of big screen projection has never stopped. Increasing the area of film negatives and copied images has become the key to realize high-quality giant screen projection.

The real "image maximization" technology first appeared at the Osaka World Expo in 1970, and the Canadian-made film "Tiger's Child" was exhibited at the Fuji Pavilion. However, due to the high cost of production and screening and the difficulty of transportation, "image maximization" has not been popularized. Until the late 1990s, there was a wave of "image maximization" entertainment, and the appearance of "image maximization" such as Tyrannosaurus Rex: Returning to Cretaceous greatly promoted the development of "image maximization". After nearly 40 years of development, it has now become recognized as the most shocking film experience.

The earliest "image maximization" cinema in China appeared in Shanghai, and Peace Cinema was the first commercial "image maximization" cinema. China national film museum and Dongguan Science and Technology Museum have also built "image maximization" cinemas. According to the data, China Mainland is already one of the fastest growing markets for image maximum. By the end of 20 10, there are currently 22 "image maximization" cinemas, and another 27 have signed contracts to become the second largest market in the world. According to the survey data of Ian Consulting, by the end of February, 20 10, there were 22 "image maximization" screens in China, of which 13 (5 films for 8 people) were used for commercial screening and 9 were used for public welfare screening such as science and technology museums.

In June 2009, IMAX Company and Huayi Brothers formally established a cooperative relationship and jointly released three Chinese "image maximization" films, among which Tangshan Earthquake was one. The successful release of the first domestic mainstream China film with digital original copy technology will not only bring shocking audio-visual experience of "image maximization" to the audience and usher in a bumper box office, but also greatly promote the development of "image maximization" as the first domestic "image maximization" film.

Image maximum can be divided into film image maximum and digital image maximum. Most of the early cinemas in China are maximizing movie images, such as Dongguan Wanda Studios, while the maximization of new images under construction is maximizing digital images. The advantage of "image maximization" film is better color and more stable picture, while the advantage of digital "image maximization" is lower projection cost. As for how to choose the above two formats, Niu Puning, the office of china national film museum, suggested: "If the film is shot with' image maximization' film, the film version should be the first choice."

According to china national film museum's statistics, since 2009, the museum has shown films that maximize images, such as Fantastic Night at the Museum 2, Alice in Wonderland and Shrek 4. The first screening was 52 1 show, with an average attendance rate of 85%,170,000 people.