“They are both playing you the same song, but one is a much earthier, richer, sort of natural feeling,” says Dan Drobik, Imax Melbourne Technical Manager.
The technical superiority of celluloid brings an emotional depth that modern alternatives struggle to replicate.
“[1570] is the highest resolution you can project in, but it still has that sense of warmth and feeling to it that, I think, is lost to a degree with some of the digital content that is played everywhere,” says Dan Drobik, Imax Melbourne Technical Manager.
Projecting on 1570 is far more fiddly and expensive – Drobik has to stay close to the projector for the entirety of every Odyssey screening, “listening away, hearing out for anything that might sound out of the ordinary” – but its scarcity means that “people are willing to pay to come experience something like that and put their phones away”.
Increasingly, audience members ask to visit him in the projection booth.
“It can feel very isolating up in the projection booth.
So it's very humbling to know people have travelled so far just to come and see the film in this format.
It's great,” says Dan Drobik, Imax Melbourne Technical Manager.
The Resurgence of Celluloid
The rise of Nolan's career correlates with 1570's mini comeback: the number of cinemas able to project 1570 film has risen from 30 to 41 globally since the release of Oppenheimer three years ago, while at the same time several auteur film-makers are returning to shooting on film.
