The Odyssey

‘s groundbreaking new IMAX technology is seemingly revealed by Ryan Coogler. After the success of Oppenheimer (2023), for which he won an Oscar, Nolan has set his sights on an adaptation of Homer’s The Oydssey, an epic Greek poem about Odysseus’ years-long journey home after the Trojan War. Matt Damon is confirmed to lead the film as Odysseus, with a supporting cast that includes Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, and Charlize Theron, among others. As was previously revealed, Nolan will be using new IMAX technology during filming.

During a recent episode of The Big Picture podcast, Coogler explains that he used a combination of IMAX and System 65 cameras to make Sinners. When it came to using IMAX, Coogler sought advice from Nolan, and this led to him getting some inside information about the new technology Nolan is using during the making of The Odyssey. According to Coogler, Nolan is using a sync-sound IMAX camera, a new innovation that changes the way dialogue is recorded on set. Check out Coogler’s explanation below:

For this one, man, I talked to Chris [Nolan] and Emma [Thomas] about the format, when large format became something that we were discussing and thinking about. Because they had just navigated both camera packages we ended up using – we used different lenses on our System 65 package, we used Ultra Panavision 276 lens. […] He basically told me not to be scared, you know? And don’t let anybody bow down to the camera on set. He acknowledged that it’s an intimidating piece of equipment, you know, and that—because he uses a lot of handheld camerawork in his history, and those cameras, you can’t handhold, the sync-sound cameras…

Alright, so, I’m gonna nerd out. [Laughs] The catch of the IMAX camera package is that it is technically not a sync-sound camera, in that… I think the new version he has on The Odyssey is, but the one that they sH๏τ Oppenheimer with is the same one they sH๏τ Dunkirk with, it’s the same one they sH๏τ the last two Dark Knights with. These cameras are mᴀssive cameras that are ripping celluloid through the gate, 15 perfs per picture at 24 pictures per second. [Makes loud whirring sound] So, it sounds like somebody took seven weedwhackers and tied them in a steel box, and had them going synchronized. You know what I’m saying? So, if you’re gonna to shoot an over-the-shoulder dialogue scene, that camera is gonna be all over the dialogue, it is automatically gonna be ADR.

Ryan Coogler Dives Deeper Into IMAX Camera Technology

Sync-Sound IMAX Cameras Come With One Major Drawback

As has been revealed in behind-the-scenes videos on Oppenheimer, the drawback of IMAX cameras is that they are very loud. The cameras use a noisy vacuum system, and this has historically prevented the use of sync-sound recording. For a quiet dialogue scene, then, the use of an IMAX camera by most filmmakers would often require actors’ dialogue to be re-recorded using ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) sessions during post-production. Nolan has historically been reluctant to do this, instead opting to use software to filter out the camera noise. As Coogler explains, though, the System 65 system he used on Sinners doesn’t have this problem:

The 5-perf, 65mm camera package, the System 65, has two sync-sound camera bodies. Sync-sound. So now these sound like – actually when it’s rolling, you don’t hear anything…

This inclusion of sync-sound technology on the System 65, however, isn’t without its drawbacks. As the filmmaker explains, the soundproofing required to eliminate noise has made these cameras very heavy, limiting how they could be used during filming:

Now, all of that soundproofing, because that camera’s doing a lot of work… is heavy, it’s insanely heavy. So, it becomes a 100lb camera system, with zero ergonomics. So, it is impossible to handhold the sync-sound version of that camera, you understand?

And Chris comes from the school that I also come from, the school of whatever works for the scene. So you see some of those movies, he’s handholding that camera a lot, you know what I mean? And when you decide to shoot System 65, and you want a sync-sound camera happening, you’re not handholding that. And you ain’t steadycaming neither… It’s just too heavy. You are on sticks or on a crane. Or the camera on the ground.

There is another version of the System 65, Coogler explains, that is far more mobile. It can be used with a steadycam system, potentially making it more useful during more dynamic scenes. The downside, however, is that it doesn’t feature any soundproofing, meaning, just like an IMAX film camera, it necessitates ADR:

And so, he was like acknowledging that, there’s another version of this camera that is the high-speed System 65 camera. Now this is essentially the same camera without the soundproofing, okay? So now this camera is about 60lbs. That camera can be handheld, that camera can be put on a steadycam. But now, your dialogue with that camera, ADR immediately. Because it’s almost as loud as, maybe, if not louder than the IMAX camera.

Coogler ends with the advice that Nolan imparted to him, which was to not let the technology completely dictate how he sH๏τ his film:

So, Chris’ advice to me was to use it like a Super 8 camera. He said use it like you would normally use your camera. And he told me straight up, he was like, man, you’ll see scenes of Oppenheimer where I got that camera right up against Cillian’s face. And yeah, but we got close with that thing, man. That was a part of what the movie had to be.

What This IMAX Innovation Means For The Odyssey

Will The Film Avoid A Common Nolan Complaint?

Oppenheimer reviews were glowing from critics. In fact, most of Nolan’s movies are very well-received, with praise aimed at his epic set pieces and mind-bending stories. If there’s one complaint that frequently crops up, however, it’s that the dialogue in Nolan films can sometimes be hard to understand. This is an artistic choice by Nolan, who prefers to use dialogue as it was captured on set instead of supplementing with ADR.

With a new sync-sound IMAX camera, The Odyssey may not suffer from this problem, at least not to the same degree. If the new sync-sound model is much heavier than the standard IMAX camera, though, this could make it even harder to use during dynamic action sequences. The big change could come during more static, dialogue-driven sequences. It remains to be seen how this new IMAX technology will impact The Odyssey, but audiences could be in for an exciting upgrade.

Source: The Big Picture