What is IMAX? The “fake IMAX” controversy and boycott. IMAX facts on retrofit for theaters. How big is the screen? The sound?

It’s a huge Twitter trend as I write this. Comedian Aziz Ansari (from NBC’s Parks and Recreation) published this tirade about paying an extra $5 to see and IMAX showing of “Star Trek” (which shattered box office IMAX records) that wasn’t much bigger than a normal screen. By the end of the day, he had caused such a stink that IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond responded on MainStreet.com:

“The overwhelming majority of comments on that guy’s blog this morning, more than 90% of them, are vehemently disagreeing with him. And consumers are confirming this with their continued purchases of tickets.”

Aziz says this is not true on a post later that day.

Why is this a big deal and what are the facts?

I guess I’m just used to seeing IMAX in local movie theaters on screens that are not as big as the ones I saw at the zoo when I was younger. And I also know that most Hollywood movies are upconverted, rather than filmed in the actual IMAX format or a hybrid of both (like “The Dark Knight” which had about 20 minutes actually filmed in IMAX during production*), so I’ve come to accept it and just enjoy that it’s a little bigger and a lot louder. Aziz feels gypped because this is the first time he’s gone to one and he didn’t appreciate the extra charge.

Gizmodo says: “IMAX used to build their own massive theaters in their own buildings. But now, in order to expand, the company has made a deals with major theater chains like AMC in which they’ll provide and install their proprietary mix of projectors, screens, speakers and hardware if the theater will foot the bill for the necessary structural renovations.”

Wikipedia says: “The resolution of the picture is much lower than normal IMAX. The screens used by digital IMAX installations are also much smaller (28×58 feet) than those found in traditional IMAX cinemas. Despite these facts, the digital installations are marketed simply as IMAX, drawing no distinction to the traditional 15/70 IMAX – much to the dismay of 15/70 IMAX cinema owners.”

A digital version of IMAX started rolling out in 2008. The new system is a projection standard only. About this new system, IMAX mentions no size standards or picture standards, just generalizations: “With crystal clear images, laser-aligned digital sound and maximized field of view, IMAX provides the world’s most immersive movie experience.”

What is the difference in this digital IMAX retrofit?

1. The screen is bigger (although sometimes as little as 10 ft.).

2. The seats are closer, making the screen more imposing.

3. Acoustic paneling to absorb sound and remove echo.

4. A specifically non-THX-certified sound system featuring uncompressed digital sound without distortion that removes the center-only “sweet spot” and improves the surround experience.

5. Two digital 2K Christie projectors that work together.

Here’s the bottom line: Theaters just don’t have the room or the money to build standalone houses just for IMAX purposes. If you sit 30 ft. closer and the screen is bigger and the sound is amazing, you’ll notice a difference. You may not feel that the picture is enveloping you like it does at the nature documentaries at theme parks, but you’ll notice a difference. (Besides, with all of the fast Hollywood editing most action pics have these days, true IMAX might create a pretty bad headache.)

If you see a movie filmed with IMAX cameras, you’ll really notice. Unfortunately, not that many movies are filmed that way (”Star Trek” and most everything else was upconverted). With the numbers it posted this weekend though, I’ll bet more will.

It would be nice, however, for theaters to designate an IMAX-D for the digital IMAX retrofits.

Figure it out for yourself: If your multiplex can’t house a 70+ ft. screen, it’s a digital IMAX retrofit.

* “The Dark Knight” used high-res IMAX cameras in the 15/70 film format. When the scenes shot on IMAX cameras were shown in IMAX theatres, the aspect ratio morphed to 1.43 to 1, expanding the image to fill the entire screen and magnifying the overall effect. Regular 35mm upconverts like “Star Trek” have the letterboxed look throughout the entire movie.

Tags: amc, Ansari, Aziz, boycott, controversy, facts, fake, IMAX, regal, retrofit, screen, size, sound, star, theaters, trek, What

To showcase how freaking cool our sitegoers are, we decided to do something different for our “Star Trek” screening contest. We asked you to send in your own homemade “Star Trek”-related videos to win tickets to the IMAX advance screening on May 6 in Kansas City. The only stipulations were that entries mentioned “Star Trek” and Scene-Stealers, and that they kept it PG-13, like the movie. One entrant, who you’ll be able to find on Page 2, took that last one particularly to heart.

We got a lot of great submissions. Congratulations to all of you! Each and every person who submitted a video has won free tickets to the IMAX screening and will receive some cool “Star Trek” memorabilia at the show. In addition, we will hold the first and second place winners’ seats in the theater, so they don’t have to get there two hours early like everyone else! Those of you who entered the drawing for tickets without submitting a video will be emailed today and notified that your passes are in the mail.

Part of the fun of doing this contest is showcasing everybody’s efforts on the site, so without further ado, here are the winners and runners-up of the Scene-Stealers 2009 “Star Trek” Contest. Great job, everybody!

The winning entry was from Trey Hock, and is a bizarre public service announcement for the Vulcan Adoption Alliance. It’s short, but it’s very funny and worth watching more than once, because it leaves you more than a little confused. Like any PSA, the acting and editing is both a little suspect. Perfect.

The second-place entry came from Hai Nguyen. Hai won gift certificates to Paisano’s Ristorante and Pachamama’s restaurant in Lawrence, KS. He made an animated video for an actual Leonard Nimoy recording of “If I Had a Hammer” that’s eerily up to date, asking the important question: “Is MC Hammer responsible for swine flu?”

RUNNERS-UP (and more to follow on next page!)

All of the other submissions get free tickets to the screening as well. Here’s one particularly funny video created by Seth Iliff and starring Trey Hock. It’s a spoof of the “Star Trek” teaser trailer where Chris Pine, as Captain Kirk, drives up to the camera purposefully on a motorcycle. Seth’s character has a different, although equally noble purpose.

Theresa Kester filmed a funny quickie video about an excited father that is apparently “based on a true story.”

There’s more where these came from.

Tags: 2009, early, giveaway, IMAX, j.j. abrams, kansas city, pack, prize, scene-stealers, screening, Star Trek, submitted, user, video

Here are some more of the winning videos from our 2009 “Star Trek” screening contest. Congrats again to the winners, and to everyone else—enjoy!

Johnathan M. Reeves put together a cool “Star Trek” tribute that uses the classic theme song and superimposes the old and new actors in the series over the top of it:

Andrew Tomb shot a self-described “awful film” for the contest, but I thought it was really funny. It may not have any budget to speak of and the actors may be reading their lines from a computer, but Andrew is the only entrant who decided to push the envelope and go PG-13 with his language.

David Fike’s video is all about how awesome Captain James T. Kirk and the rest of “Star Trek” history is. It also has some very funny inter-titles. Check it:

Nick Colby showed how easy it is to make a crappy-ass video by doing some quick impressions of popular “Star Trek” characters and filming it on a cell phone camera:

Amber Sisco interspersed her “History of Star Trek” video with memorable quotes from the movie and TV series’ characters:

Christopher Swanson may be the biggest “Star Trek” fan out of everybody. He wrote this about his epic tribute film: “Throughout its 40+ year history, Star Trek has celebrated the hope of humanity. This video is a celebration of that hope!” It looks like he’s going to be making the drive from Springfield, MO to KC for Wednesday night’s screening! Congrats to Christopher and everyone else who submitted a winning video.

Tags: 2009, early, giveaway, IMAX, j.j. abrams, kansas city, pack, prize, scene-stealers, screening, Star Trek, submitted, user, video

This giveaway should be fun. We’re giving everyone advance notice on this because it involves shooting video!

We have 50 ‘admit-two’ passes to see the Kansas City advance screening of J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek” in glorious IMAX on May 6, 2009 at AMC Barrywoods (8101 Roanridge Rd.) at 7:30 pm. We also have one very cool “Star Trek” prize pack (including prizes to be named at a later date!). But we’re doing things a little different this time at the request of Paramount Pictures, who know that we have the coolest movie freaks on the Internet.

We want you to make a video.

It can be anything you want, as long as it has something to do with “Star Trek.”

Upload it to any user-based video site and send me the link, your name, and your address at eric@scene-stealers.com.

Some ideas to get you started:

- Recreate a favorite scene from any incarnation of the TV show or movies using yourself, friends, animation, action figures, whatever!
- Do an impression of any familiar “Star Trek” character.
- Speak Klingon.
- Describe why you deserve the prize/tickets more than anyone else.
- Create a mash-up using clips. You DON’T have to appear on camera

Rules:

- Just so we know that you’ve made this video specifically for this contest, make sure that Scene-Stealers is mentioned either out loud or onscreen in your entry and also in your text description of the video.
- Videos cannot be more than 5 minutes in length.
- Let’s keep the raunchiness to a minimum. We’re talking PG-13 here, just like the movie.
- Remember: “Star Trek” and “Scene-Stealers” in one video!

I will pick the winner personally. I’m looking for a video with that intangible “Star Trekiness.” Quality doesn’t matter. Use your cell phone (or someone else’s) if that’s all you got! Funny is always good too. The best videos will be posted on the site!

The winner (whether he/she is from Kansas City or not) will win the “Star Trek” prize pack. If the winner is local and can attend the KC screening on 5/6 at AMC Barrywoods, they get VIP passes to the screening as well. We have VIP reserved seats for 2 other runners up. The other 47 winners will be chosen at random, starting with the people who made videos.

You may enter with the form below if you’re not going to make a video and hope that less than 50 other “Star Trek” fans make them.

All entries must be received by Thurs. April 30 at noon CST. We’ll post winners on Friday May 1.

Good luck. Live long and prosper!

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Tags: early, giveaway, IMAX, j.j. abrams, kansas city, pack, prize, scene-stealers, screening, Star Trek

There is a brand new IMAX theater at the AMC Barrywoods 24 (8101 Roanridge Rd.) in Kansas City and the fine folks at AMC want to promote their new screen by giving our website 200 ‘admit-two’ passes to see the new animated movie “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” in IMAX. The screening is Monday, December 8th at 7pm and the first 200 people to fill out the form below will get a pass for that night to see “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” in the new IMAX theater at AMC Barrywoods 24.

If you signed up for passes, you will get them in the mail soon. All passes are going out in the mail today! Thanks and congrats! Stay tuned for more giveaways!

Tags: "Madagascar 2", free, IMAX, in, kansas city, tickets, to

If you live in the Kansas City area, here’s your chance to hit another FREE ADVANCE SCREENING courtesy of your pals at Scene-Stealers. Check out the trailer for the Martin Scorsese-directed IMAX film “Shine A Light,” starring the Rolling Stones, below:

You may remember that Scorsese is the man behind what is widely regarded as the best concert film of all time, 1978’s “The Last Waltz,” starring The Band, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Van Morrison. This time, the master set his sights on the Stones during a rare 2-day small-venue stop on a tour filled almost exclusively with stadium gigs. The movie was filmed at the more intimate setting of the Beacon Theater in the Fall of 2006, and also features rarely seen archival footage and current behind-the-scenes footage and interviews shot using additional Hi Def, DV Cam, 16mm, and 8mm cameras. Even though the Maysles brothers’ “Gimme Shelter” from 1970 is probably the definitive Stones movie, I’m more than a little curious to see what Scorsese and a crack team of cinematographers such as Robert Elswit (who just won an Oscar for “There Will Be Blood”),  Emmanuel Lubezki (”Children of Men”), and Ellen Kuras (”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) have come up with in the loud, large IMAX format.

Your favorite rock ‘n roll movie site (that’s us!) is giving away free passes to see this event before the movie opens intheaters. The free screening will be on Tuesday, April 1 (Yes, I know what day it is, but we promise this is no joke. You won’t get there and find “Hannah Montana.” You’ll just have to trust us.) and will be on the IMAX screen at AMC Olathe Studio 30 (119th & I-35) at 8:30 pm. Just fill out the stuff below, and get a pass for two in the mail. It’s just that simple! Don’t forget to get there early, as some screenings are overbooked!

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Tags: advance passes, amc theater, concert, contest, free movie tickets, free passes, giveaway, IMAX, kansas city, olathe studio 30, rolling stones, scorsese, shine a light