Imax engineers update PalmPilot To Run ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)

[toucana]

Director Christopher Nolan shot his new biopic ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023) in 70mm Imax format, and the new film has been given a rare theatrical release in that format (the first since ‘Tenet’ in 2020).

The Imax format film roll for this new 3 hour film is about 11 miles long, and weighs some 600lbs. The Imax engineers not only had to design a new enlarged platter system to carry this amount of film: they have also issued a software emulator for the long defunct PalmPilot m130 hand-held PDA -  because back in the day in 2002 this was the platform for the custom PDA app most often used by Imax projectionists as their ideal tool to control the long-play Imax Quick Turn Reel Units.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/imax-emulates-palmpilot-software-to-power-oppenheimers-70-mm-release/

[StringJunky]

Loading an iMax film is mental...

 

[toucana]

There is an Omniversum Dome Theatre version of the Imax which uses a gigantic hemispherical screen. The start-up on those machines is even more terrifying, because once you have laced the film, the entire projection head is then lifted up on a massive platform jack system to the projection porthole position located some 6 metres above the floor of the projection room.

There is a good YT video showing one of these rigs being set up at the IMax Dome Theatre in San Jose CA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gENOhw1Q3vM