Dunkirk pre-sale tickets went up today for most theaters. Here's a short primer on how to find the best version of the film near you and an explanation of what "70mm" is.

Last Wednesday, 70mm tickets for Dunkirk went on sale and I've seen a lot of confusion as to what that means and why that's better. Now that all tickets are on sale, I decided to make this post to clear some stuff up.

What To Look For In Seeing What Showings Are Nearby

There are really six different markers to look for:

• IMAX 70mm
• 70mm
• IMAX with Laser
• IMAX Xenon (often just referred to as "IMAX" or "IMAX Digital")
• Digital
• 35mm

Seems like a lot, right? Well, I'll try to clear these all up here. (If you just want an easy ranking of which is better, head to "What's Best?" at the bottom of this section.)

Digital and Film

Firstly, there are two basic types of ways to project a movie: using film and using a digital copy. These labels are pretty self-evident--film involves using a projector that shines a light through a physical film that gets pulled in from a spool. Digital, on the other hand, is a more modern method where the movie is stored as a file on a hard drive that a digital projector then projects onto a screen.

Now, basically, about a decade or so ago, the switch was made from film to digital. Why? Well, the problem with film is that using a lot of it can get quite expensive. On top of that, because film suffers from a problem where when you copy it, it degrades slightly. A direct copy might be similar quality to the source, but a copy of a copy is a little worse, and a copy of a copy is worse than that, and so on. This means as film copies were made, the output copies were of noticeably worser quality than the original source. So while some film has a much higher effective resolution (i.e. what Digital quality it would nominally compare to), because the copy your theater has has been copied over a few times from the original copy, it ends up looking a little worse than most digital projections.

So, around the original Cars, movies started to be shown in Digital instead of 35mm (the most common film format then and now). You can still find some movies shown in 35mm, but it's become far less common.

However, now, here comes in another film type, 70mm. The thing with it is that it's more pricey and requires a different projector than the more common 35mm, but it gives a clearer image (many regard it as better than Digital). As a result, Nolan has been able to get as many theaters as possible to show Dunkirk in the format, and has tried to get as many people as possible to see Dunkirk in that format.

"Oh, huh, that was simple," you're probably saying right now. It's sounding like 70mm > Digital > 35mm, right?

Well, there's a problem. And that problem is spelled "I-M-A-X."

IMAX v LieMAX

Basicallly, back in the day, IMAX meant one thing, and one thing only. A massive screen with a very specific 1.43:1 aspect ratio that's more of a square than the wide rectangle most movies are shown in, and a specific type of film called IMAX 70mm. Despite the name, it's a completely different format to 70mm. Basically, while 70mm is much higher quality than other film types, IMAX 70mm is far, far better than even normal 70 mm.

However, at some point during the 2000s, IMAX the company realized that requiring this specific film type and screen size was preventing them from expanding as far as they could. So, they designed a new format: IMAX Xenon.

IMAX Xenon is a digital format that displays movies in a less-tall 1.9:1 aspect ratio. This era also ushered in more, smaller screen sizes for IMAX theaters to allow more new movie theaters to build in IMAX support without having to dedicate lots of space to a single screen. This is what some people often call "LieMAX." It's advertised and made to seem like it's a full-size IMAX, but it's actually an inferior version of the golden standard.

Partially to address this (and partially to adapt with new technology), IMAX introduced in 2014 a new format called IMAX with Laser. It's still a lower resolution than IMAX 70mm, but it can do something the old film standard can't: it can display in HDR (For those who don't know, HDR is a hot new thing in TVs that allows screens to display more colors than was ever possible before, meaning that whites look whiter, blacks look blacker, and all other colors look more life-like).

Lastly, Dunkirk was shot entirely with IMAX cameras and 75-80% of the scenes were shot to fill a full IMAX aspect ratio. This means if you see a non-IMAX version of this movie, it will be altered slightly to remove part of the image to fit your screen. Even if you see it in IMAX if you don't see it in IMAX 70mm or IMAX with Laser you'll also miss out on part of the image (but not as much if you hadn't seen it in IMAX) as IMAX Xenon can't fill the whole screen, but only most of it. Lastly, some IMAX with Laser screens will also not be the full 1.43:1 aspect ratio. You'll need to check with your local theater to double check (see next section).

TL;DR just look at this picture: http://ift.tt/2u2cIWC

So What's Best?

So, really it depends. Do you prefer:

• a clearer, more sharp picture?
• better colors?
• an immersive, more content rich aspect ratio?

If clarity and the director's vision are the most important to you, try to hunt down an IMAX 70mm screening. If not, you can either go to a 70mm showing for a more clear, crisp picture, or just see an IMAX with Laser showing to get the full shot in a more vivid image. If neither an IMAX 70mm or IMAX with Laser are near you (as will be the case for most people), I would argue that 70mm would be preferable, but some would prefer IMAX Xenon.

Where Can I Find Showings in X, Y, and Z Format?

This is where things get messy (er, messier).

70mm and IMAX 70mm showings went on sale on Wednesday, ahead of the rest of the showings that went on sale today. To find these showings, use tickets.dunkirkmovie.com . It'll let you filter by the two types, and list out any theaters near you that are in those formats. However, it may not be fully accurate. For example, it lists one of the 70mm showings near me as being IMAX 70mm when that theater doesn't even have an IMAX screen. So, if you want an IMAX 70mm or IMAX with Laser showing, this handy list on IMAX.com should help you out. I should point out, the closest IMAX 70mm to me states there are 25 theaters showing the movie in IMAX 70mm in the US, but that list only shows 23. So I would call and double check with the theater to make sure what they exactly have.

Outside of those formats, you can find tickets where ever you usually get tickets (Fandango, theater's website, Atom, etc.).

Lastly, if a theater is advertising the film in IMAX but isn't an IMAX 70mm or IMAX with Laser showing, it's an IMAX Xenon showing.

Oof, that was longer than I expected. If you have any questions I can answer them in the comments.

Submitted July 08, 2017 at 12:41AM by jcracken http://ift.tt/2syzkJZ