IMAX: Part 1

Cameras and how they capture scenes are hugely important to post-production. Post-production exists at the end of a film production’s pipeline, and our responsibilities overlap with everyone else's. This means we must understand everything everyone else does throughout the production process. Everything that happens on set, including how it is filmed, lit, captured, processed, displayed, and packaged, must be understood if post-production and visual effects are to take place successfully. 

From the development of technology of the Camera Obscura in 400 BC to Smartphone Cameras, the methods by which humans have pursued the desire to remember something forever, capture a moment of disbelief and wonder, or show our world from our perspective is something that will persist for various centuries to come. However, regardless of the eyes we have or the devices we use to capture these moments, perspective is everything. 

This chapter features a Canadian-based company that elevated the craftsmanship of cinema and filmmaking and the form of the documentary format. 

Most people associate IMAX with Cineplex, Famous Players, and other theatre chains. However, IMAX is the world's most successful large-screen cinema system, with projection systems installed in over 129 theaters worldwide. It’s one of the most well-known Canadian exports, and it all started with the innovative minds of four best friends. 

The first of the four best friends was Roman Kroitor. Born on December 12, 1926, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Kroitor would attend the University of Manitoba, graduating in 1951 with a Master in Philosophy and Psychology. While studying philosophy and psychology at the University of Manitoba, he became fascinated with the creative possibilities of cinema after a friend introduced him to the work of the avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren. Specifically, Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). 

Meanwhile, in a different province and a smaller town, Robert Kerr, the next in line to the IMAX legacy and one-third of the now infamous friend group, was born on August 28, 1929. Keer’s background deviated from that of his fellow IMAX creators. Kerr owned a printing business with his father, John Kerr, in a small town called Galt (Later known as Cambridge, Ontario). He would become Mayor and have a successful term between 1964 and 1967. Robert Kerr was best described as a no-nonsense politician and businessman who had financial smarts

His long-time friend Graeme Ferguson described him as a social activist in a business suit.  "He was a great raconteur. He was a delightful person to be around……Robert in business had the most conservative temperament you could imagine, but he had the heart of a radical."

One of Kerr’s closest friends, The Honorable William (Bill) Shaw, was born in Hespeler on October 31, 1928. Shaw would attend  Galt Collegiate Institute(GCI) from Grade 11 through Grade 13, colliding with his future collaborators, including Kerr, in the GCI science lab. Upon graduating high school, Bill Shaw separated from the group. He was accepted into the University of Toronto, where he graduated in Engineering and Business—later obtaining his MBA from McMaster University. Shaw then worked for the Ford Motor Company in Windsor and eventually ended up at CCM (CCM Hockey), where he designed the first hockey helmet as Manager of Manufacturing Services. Here, he would stay until an unexpected visit from his childhood friends. 

Finally, there is the man, the myth, and the filmmaking legend, Graeme Ferguson. Ferguson is the most famous of the four. Born in Toronto on October 7, 1929, he is the oldest of Frank and Grace Ferguson's four children. Originally from Saskatchewan, Graeme Ferguson grew up in Galt, Ontario, where his father was head of the English department at Galt Collegiate Institute. 

Ferguson pursued political science and economics at Victoria College and The University of Toronto from 1948 to 1952. Always exploring new creative outlets on top of his studies, Ferguson started to develop a love for photography after his parents gave him a Baby Brownie camera at age 7. While studying in Toronto, Ferguson was chosen for an apprenticeship at The National Film Board of Canada, where he met his future collaborator, Roman Kroitor, in the summer of 1950. He would become a cameraman for The University of Toronto’s film society, be elected to represent his college to the Students’ Administrative Council and be chosen as national secretary of the World University Service. 

From here, the National Film Board inspired Ferguson’s interest in 3D by showing him the short Around is Around (1953), produced by NFB animator Norman McLaren. He equated this film with opening his eyes to the third dimension as a “medium of imagination.” 

1965 would be the year to change Ferguson’s life. The Canadian Exhibition heard of Ferguson and his reputation as a rising star in filmmaking. They approached him and asked if he would be interested in making films for them to showcase. The upcoming 67 Expo required only Canadian companies or artists to produce exhibitions for them. Ferguson seemed like a good fit due to his filmmaking background and his background as a Canadian. Ferguson accepted.

Ferguson now was under pressure to deliver what would be one of the most significant accomplishments of his life. Not sure who to turn to, he reached out to his old childhood friend Robert Kerr, who was serving as Galt's youngest mayor and managing his family’s printing company. Ferguson and Kerr had first met in school on a school newspaper at the Galt Collegiate Institute, and Ferguson knew he needed someone with a business background to help him manage money on his projects for the Expo. After some convincing, Kerr would sell his printing business and collaborate with his closest friend.

Ferguson's reasons for why he initially went to Kerr was that: “They wanted me to produce and direct, but I had no idea how to produce a movie. The film was very successful, and we made a bit of money, which gave (Kerr) the illusion that there was money in the film industry.” Kerr was the only businessman Ferguson knew at the time and could trust. 

The film, shown at the “Man the Explorer” pavilion, examined the lives of northern peoples in Canada, Lapland, and Siberia. It was to be featured on eleven 35mm screens and a continuously rotating audience platform. 

This was a daunting task, and the duo was concerned about pulling it off, but they powered through, resulting in the film Polar Life(1967). Robert Kerr once reflected on their ability to experiment with the film, "At that age, you think the world's your oyster," he said. "We had just enough experience to give us some confidence; if it didn't go, we could still recover. We were very naive, which probably saved us.”

Expo 67 was known as The "Universal and International Exhibition.” Its presence was a significant part of Canada’s Centennial celebrations in 1967. It was the first world exhibition held in Canada. The Expo was a three-way partnership between the Canadian Federal Government, The City of Montreal, and The Quebec Government. The theme was "Man and His World.”  Based on the 1939 book “Wind, Sand and Stars” by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Expo 67’ was divided into five main groups: Man the Creator, Man the Explorer, Man the Producer, Man the Provider, and Man and the Community. These categories were further divided into smaller categories based on the overall topic.

Towards the end of the Unit era at the Film Board, Kroitor became interested in the creative possibilities of large-format and multi-screen cinema. After an early experiment with the formats at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, Kroitor secured a commission to produce a large-scale multi-screen project at Expo ’67 in Montréal, Québec. Produced in collaboration with Colin Low and Hugh O’Connor, Labyrinthe was the most successful film project at the EXPO. 

Commissioned by the federal government for Canada’s centennial celebrations and Expo ’67,

Labyrinthe was a three-chamber multi-media experience that used multiscreen cinema and large-format film based upon Roman Kroitor’s previous experiments completed at the CNE  in 1963.  Kroitor combined forces with filmmaker Colin Low to design the multi-screen architecture that required the visitor to move through the theatre space to obverse the whole experience of the film. As visitors moved from chamber to chamber, they were treated to presentations of footage shot worldwide. NFB animator Ryan Larkin also designed animated sequences for the film.

Kroitor conceived an idea involving a semi-circle of thirteen screens grouped into four clusters of three displaying material from the Film Board’s archives. While the footage was arranged thematically, every sequence was chosen for its capacity to stand independently. A spectator could look at a single screen, the relationships between images in a cluster of three screens, and the “image of the country in all its varied aspects.” The exhibit was designed so visitors might see an entirely different show every time they entered the pavilion. Kroitor’s CNE project was the backbone and was an essential learning lesson for creating its predecessor, Labyrinthe. 

When approaching the theme of Expo 67, “Man and His World,” Kroitor and his collaborators, Low and Hugh O’Connor, conceived a three-chambered pavilion based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Labyrinthe used this story to metaphorize man’s confrontation of “the beast within himself, through which he might be reborn.”  Visitors entering Labyrinthe must travel to the farthest tip of Montreal’s Old Port, enter a large building built next to Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67, and progress through three cinematic chambers via darkened corridors. These chambers were full of symbolism: childhood, youth, conflict, death, metamorphosis, rebirth, and celebration. The Labyrinth was unique as it was the first film to test the concept of multi-projection systems with both 35mm and 70mm film simultaneously on multiple screens. 

The first chamber of Labyrinthe was a horseshoe or teardrop-shaped theatre in which

audiences viewed two massive screens from balconies on each side of the chamber’s four

floors. Arranged into an “L,” with one screen on the floor and the other perpendicular to it at the top of the elliptical room, the multi-screen divided viewers’ attention between images. On these screens, visitors to the pavilion were treated to 70mm footage allegorizing the individual’s passage from birth to adulthood. At the start of the 18-minute program, a child was born. Then, it progressed through childhood and onward to adulthood. The Chamber’s final act included images of the homeless and forgotten, drunkards, gamblers, and riots. 

The main concern with Labyrinthe was that Chamber One’s footage included right-angled diptych-produced effects and actions that induced a sense of vertigo in individuals viewing from higher up in the chamber. (Diptych photography techniques involve displaying contrasting photos/images side-by-side and in a single or unified frame.) Unfortunately, the chamber’s complex sound system of several hundred speakers and directional audio effects furthered these effects. Film Board officials were concerned that the physiological effects of such shots might be enough to “induce anxiety, depression, or even suicide in spectators.” However, no deaths or self-harm were reported.  The first room had eight balconies, five theater sound systems, and 288 speakers. 

After departing the first Chamber’s theatre, visitors wound their way through a hall described as “a zigzagging passageway of mirrored glass that both reflected and transmitted a multiplicity of different flashing lights triggered by an experimental soundtrack combining electronic and animal sounds.” 

Dubbed “The Maze,” Labyrinthe’s second chamber was the most "Labyrinth” of its three rooms. Visitors followed a set path to avoid getting lost en route to the final Chamber. Visitors were only meant to get lost in self-reflection in The Maze, which “was designed in a way that elicited feelings of confusion, weightlessness, and even disembodiment.” These effects were achieved using intermittent lights, which produced alternating illusions of endless isolation. When the flashing lights were on, a visitor would find his or her image reflected infinitely in the mirrored walls. The visitor was alone in the dark when the flashing lights were off. 

In Labyrinthe’s third and final chamber, a seated audience would observe imagery in a five-screen display captured worldwide with a specially rigged assemblage of five Arriflex cameras arranged in the form of a cruciform that was 9m x 13m. The presentation had three principal strategies: a shot that could unfurl across all five screens, a single shot that could be multiplied and appear simultaneously on each screen, or each that could display a different image. Images were enlarged to almost fill the spectator’s field of vision, ensuring that the viewer would not focus on anything other than what was shown before them. The multiplication of a single image made it more accessible to individuals seated in more distant corners of the theatre, and the variety of images allowed the viewer to observe any image’s relation to the total network of images across the five screens. Overall, the performance was captivating, and the experience became an abstract wonder of personal reflection for the onlookers. 

However, some personal concerns were raised when the layout of the Labyrinthe films was constructed. With five screens, there was a clear risk of the viewer missing key information on one screen while watching another. To combat this, the arrangement of the material and the rate at which it appeared prevented this. Labyrinthe’s Third Chamber used its footage to orchestrate viewers’ attention and entice them deeper into the film.

The Labyrinth was shot in various countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Ethiopia, Japan, Cambodia, Greece, India, the Soviet Union, Canada, and India. The project's total cost was around $4.5 million (equivalent to $35,204,420 in 2021). These rooms took up the entire pavilion and were attended by 1.3 million people during the EXPO. The film played for over 5,545 shows for six months. The New York Times equated In The Labyrinth as "as special to Expo 67 as the Eiffel Tower was to the Paris Exposition of 1889", and Film Quarterly stated that it was "the most ambitious architectural-film relationship of all."

Familiar faces from the NFB and Canadian films will be present during the Montreal exhibition, including Canadian and American directors Christopher Chapman, Francis Thomson, and Alexander Hammid. Following the success of Labyrinthe, Kroitor became interested in the possibility of making the experience more broadly available and started to consult with his fellow filmmakers at the NFB. Around this time, Graeme Ferguson also worked on similar ideas and remarked, "We ought to be looking for a way to make these films without multiple projectors." Unfortunately, the multiple projector system developed for Expo ’67 for both exhibits was far too complicated to be reproduced consistently or commercially. 

Together, Robert Kerr, Kroitor, and Ferguson realized that to keep inventing and showcasing films in the format they so profoundly enjoyed, they would need to invent a state-of-the-art and contemporary system to do so.  Each inventor would buckle down and invest $700 to found the Multiscreen Corporation in 1967 to develop the idea. Shortly thereafter, the three renamed the company “IMAX Corporation.” Ferguson dreamed that IMAX would create a new motion picture and film form with its own creative rules. 

The team’s idea was to develop a format of the film so large that it would mimic the experience of attending a multiscreen exhibition. When projected, the images would fill the spectator's entire field of view. The resulting format would need to be bigger than the current standard movie format of the time, 35mm. It would also require building a new projector and camera that could process the new format, as any existing camera would be unable to work with it. They must also create new theatres for their films as the projected images exceed traditional theatre screens.

With the brainstorming assistance of Graeme Ferguson, Kroitor conceived of a 70mm film format ( however, they originally used 65mm) that would move horizontally through a projector using 15 perforations or sprocket holes along the top and bottom of each frame, creating a native aspect ratio of 1.43:1. This square format was excellent for using more symmetrical, central compositions, framing singular characters, and incorporating more lateral height into the shot. Passing through the gate horizontally would allow the camera to record a frame width of 48.5mm in height, with a pause for a tiny fraction of a second as the light from the projector bulb illuminated the image. 

 Ferguson and  Kroitor also developed the required area to project onto. The final screen size and image were ten times larger than traditional 35mm cinema screens, measuring around 18x24m.

However, there was one significant issue: the film format itself was so large that it was difficult to feed through a projector at a continuous and constant speed. Without a remedy for this problem, the IMAX projection system was dead in the water.

For those who began their film careers after the industry switched to digital in the late 1990s and those unfamiliar with the film medium, 35mm film was the most common format for shooting a theatrical film. It is a photochemical emulsion 35 mm wide and records images when it passes vertically through the camera. With all sizes of film, some of that frame width must be used to accommodate sprocket holes called perfs that pass the film through the camera, lowering the total usable size of a 35mm frame to around 24.90mm. Different methods can be used to record 35mm frames at different heights, changing the usable size of the frame. The larger the surface area of a piece of film, the more photographic information it will contain. For a large format Imax frame, this means more detail, less visible film grain, and significantly cleaner and higher quality. 

To achieve a smooth-moving image from the projection of the oversized and horizontal IMAX stock, the film had to pass through the projector much faster than it did with other stock sizes. However, speeding up the projector would cause too much stress on the perforations by which the film was pulled through the projector’s gate, which would cause the film to tear. This was not ideal if the format was to be marketed towards feature film production. 

In an interview with Wyndham Wise of Take One Magazine, Ferguson opened up about how difficult it was to create the IMAX format. “Although neither Roman, Robert, nor I were engineers or even very technically oriented or skilled, we knew what technology we would need. We knew you couldn't take a standard movie projector and just scale the whole thing up and run a big film. We knew that we would need to find a new projector movement. Roman and I went to Los Angeles to look at a movement used in some high-speed printers. We went to dinner with my old friend Jean Philippe Carso one evening.”

“Jean Philippe and I had worked together in film in my freelance days, and now he was running the Eclair Corporation of America. He said that he had read a little, one-paragraph extract in a publication that described a new film movement that had just been invented in Australia. We said this looks interesting. Why don't we find out about it? Jean Philippe and Robert called Ron Jones, the inventor, in Brisbane. I think Ron was essentially a man who serviced projectors; he was a very bright man. We called him and said, "Have you sold this yet?" He said, "No, I've had a couple of expressions of interest, but I haven't sold the rights." Jean Philippe and Robert flew to Brisbane, met with Ron, and acquired the patent rights to his invention. We didn't have very much money, so we paid for it over time. He had a set amount that he wanted. I don't remember the exact dollars, but it was rather an odd number, and we said, "Why do you want that?" He said, "I want to build a little house up in the hills, and that is what it will cost me to build it." He was in his 60s by then and wanted to retire. He continued as a consultant, helping us with his invention, which was called the Rolling Loop.”

Jones’ system differed from conventional film projection because the film advanced through the projector using a rolling loop that ensured enough slack to prevent it from ripping. However, neither Kroiter, Ferguson, nor Kerr felt experienced enough to operate, maintain, or develop the equipment further, so they faced an impasse; they needed to hire an engineer. 

Ferguson said, “We had two filmmakers, one too many, one businessman, which was right, and were shot in the engineering department. We asked each other, ‘Who’s the best engineer we could hire?’ And it took us about one-tenth of a second to say, ‘Bill Shaw.” Finally, the high school gang of lads was all together again. Just like that, Bill Shaw joined the team in 1968.

The team was ecstatic to have Shaw on board. At this time, The four were in their early 40s and had successful careers: “Bill was brilliant,” Ferguson recalled. “He was a superb engineer and a very, very good friend to all, but most importantly, he was a major inventor.”

Co-founder Ferguson considered Shaw to be one of the most important inventors in motion pictures in 80 years: “If you look at motion pictures, the technology that is used in ordinary cinemas has existed essentially since the First World War, the main changes being the addition of sound, and color in the 1950s. We said, ‘Let’s build a completely new kind of theater in which the picture is so big that it fills your field of vision, is of the highest quality, offers surround sound, and steep seating,’ now called stadium seating. All of the technology to do with that was led by Bill.”

When asked why he took them up on the offer in the first place, Shaw stated: "One day, Graeme and Robert showed up at my desk and said they had this marvelous idea, But they needed someone who understood chain drives like those on bicycles.” Shaw, then 39, said, "I figured if I didn't do something adventurous, then I never would."

The newly created IMAX cameras did come with some downsides. The first was cost. The price of buying and processing the 65mm film and, later, the 70mm required to shoot on Imax was incredibly high. This is because 15 perforations per frame moving through the gate 24 times in 1 second is around 337 feet of 65mm film for every minute shot.4 00 feet of 65mm film costs around $1,500 for 3 minutes of shooting in 24 FPS. Developing and scanning one minute of film would cost around $490. For filmmakers, Imax cameras would also become costly to rent as very few of them would be made.

Another negative came from the film's speed through the camera. The fast-moving film would cause the camera to shake, which generates noise when shooting. It was difficult, if not impossible, to record clean sound audio without hearing the whir of the film running. The cameras were also incredibly bulky, heavy, and cumbersome, weighing close to 200lbs. They were designed to be operated from tripods or on a remote head on a helicopter, not handheld. Another disadvantage was that  It took almost 20 minutes to reload an IMAX film magazine, and once loaded, it only shot for 3 minutes. 

Funding was a significant issue for IMAX. Ferguson and Keer had initially secured some capital and loans from Fugii. However, the funding was so minimal that it wouldn’t even cover the costs of developing their final projector system prototype. They needed around $100,000 to finish the system, and after several negotiations, Kroitor secured another advance from Fujii. This investment deal with Fujii would form the start of a long-term partnership and launch them into another series of Expos. 

Over the next two-and-a-half years, the group invented the 15/70 film format, commissioned the first 15/70 camera, built the first 15/70 rolling loop projector, and produced a giant-screen film called Tiger Child. The film opened at what was considered the world’s first IMAX theatre at Expo 70 and was the first precursor to IMAX technology.

Written and produced by Kroitor and directed by Donald Brittain, the film had similar aspects to the mosaic multi-screen cinema of Labyrinthe’s final chamber. As with Labyrinthe, it was edited together to produce interesting juxtapositions. The film references the forms of exploitation that result from human’s modern faith in technology: a slaughterhouse, a prison, and a child born with a Thalidomide-induced birth. The images positioned the film as an ironic relationship to the Osaka Exposition’s theme, “Progress and Harmony for Mankind.” 

Filmed on locations worldwide as a travelogue of the human spirit, The film used 18 by 24-meter (59 by 79 feet) screens in a unique 70/15 aspect ratio. Due to its specialized projection system, Tiger Child was only ever shown over 7 months at the Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan, where it premiered on March 15th, 1970. The film was screened at the Fuji Group Pavilion, where guests would watch the film from a rotating central platform as it played on a continuous loop. The Fuji Group Pavilion was the world's first air-supported structure building designed by the architect Yutaka Murata, supported solely by the force of air injected into 16 pipes. This dome was large enough to encompass a 10-story building. Despite the film's importance to the history of IMAX, it is considered lost media. The original negative for the film is currently secured and stored in IMAX's headquarters in Los Angeles; whether or not it will ever be officially re-released is unknown. 

After this success, Bill Shaw continued to be the lead inventor for IMAX. He led the teams that invented all of the future IMAX technology, including the Imax theater, projector, cameras, and other equipment, including the Imax Dome (Omnimax), Imax 3D, Imax Solido, Imax Magic Carpet, and Imax HD. Shaw also patented several developments of the rolling loop mechanism, which was fundamental to the IMAX system, and subsequent developments for projectors, cameras, and devices.

For the four lifelong friends, failure was never an option. They rarely gave up due to funding, mechanical, or technological issues. As stated by Kerr, there were moments when each of them doubted whether what they were trying to achieve was even possible. "I guess what saved us was we weren't all discouraged simultaneously." Shaw admits to being discouraged "maybe once a week” at first, but then I’d go to sleep and wake up ready to try a new idea.”

Ferguson wanted to develop a system that anyone from all over the world could use in a commercially successful way. His goals for the company were much more than a few experimental exhibitions. Ferguson and Kroitor aimed to create the world’s most sophisticated film projection system. It’s straightforward to state that IMAX fulfilled his wishes.