The Dark Knight

[picolas]

http://www.incontention.com/?p=667#comments

audio of press junket. really good stuff so far. remember: spoiler in the eckhart interview around 11:00. edit: and a slight one in the maggie gylenhaal around 5:00-6:00.. there's one really annoying guy.

[pete]

the new american cinematographer magazine has a real great piece on the pains that went into shooting IMAX.  so this might be my first imax movie.
I'd link it but the online version is still not up.

[picolas]

shitload of clips

http://media.movies.ign.com/media/752/752133/vids_1.html

other clip

[Ravi]

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/9645.html

IMAXimizing The Dark Knight
How Shooting, Lighting, Focus, Audio and Back Pains Were All Worth It
Debra Kaufman
June 30, 2008

Post your comments below
The Dark Knight, the latest "episode" in the Batman series, opens July 18 to great anticipation. The film is made more compelling and poignant by the death of Heath Ledger, who from what we can see in the film's trailer, plays a very dark Joker. But, for aficionados of "behind-the-scenes" stories, The Dark Knight is compelling for other reasons.

Those reasons were discussed at Cine Gear Expo 2008 at the Universal Studios backlot, by a panel, moderated by industry journalist Bob Fisher, consisting of cinematographer Wally Pfister, camera operator Bob Gorelick, chief lighting technician Cory Geryak and IMAX senior VP David Keighley.

From Keighley's point of view, The Dark Knight is a long-time dream come true. "We've tried to get a filmmaker to shoot a film in IMAX for 40 years," says Keighley, who ticks off Coppola's Apocalypse Now as one project he pushed for. "But everyone said, the cameras are too big, too heavy and too noisy."

With The Dark Knight, all the action sequences were shot in IMAX, and later intercut with 35mm film. This film also marks cinematographer Pfister's sixth collaboration with director Chris Nolan, which began with the indie hit Memento and was seen most recently in The Prestige.

As a team, Nolan and Pfister are notable for their efforts to adhere to an "in-camera" ethos. Pfister famously avoids the digital intermediate process that has become commonplace among Hollywood filmmakers for the ability to tweak nearly everything about the image. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Pfister comments. Though "The Dark Knight" does include digital visual effects, many of the effects are captured in-camera. In one notable sequence an exploding four-storey building was destroyed for the filmmakers, who shot it in Chicago. In other words: What you see in this film may actually have been there on the set.

That makes it all the more impressive that the very intense action sequences, which include the six-minute opening shot of a bank heist, were shot in IMAX. Pfister revealed that he and Nolan have long been fans of the IMAX format. "There's no better image quality," says Pfister. "And Chris wanted to enhance the film-going experience."

In fact, Nolan had an earlier experience using the IMAX format. The 2005 Batman Begins, Nolan and Pfister's first Batman picture, utilized IMAX's DMR (Digital Remastering) process, in which film shot in 35mm is transferred to IMAX's 15/70 format, for sections of the film. "That's what gave Chris the idea of originating in native IMAX," says Pfister. [As an aside, Keighley reported that 22 films have used the DMR process to release IMAX versions.]

But Nolan and Pfister didn't plunge headlong into IMAX production. "We shot lots of tests in Chris' garage," says Pfister. "Very guerilla-style, we drove down Hollywood Blvd. without a permit, shooting. We needed to get an idea what we were getting ourselves into."

Next, Nolan began to pick scenes he wanted to do in IMAX. "He had to sell the studio," says Pfister, who admits he was excited to shoot in IMAX, whose image is 9.5 times bigger than anamorphic 35mm. "He needed to answer in his own mind if he could finish the film within the post schedule."

He decided he could, and, ultimately, 28 minutes of the film were shot in full IMAX. "It was very detailed and very complicated, but we wanted people to see it on the IMAX screen," says Pfister. Keighley noted that Nolan also likes the sound mix best in IMAX. The IMAX theatre is a digital surround sound system that delivers multi-channel, uncompressed, full fidelity sound. IMAX's amplifiers generate up to 14,000 watts of power. That opening bank heist sequence, says Pfister, is notable for the IMAX sound because where the gunshots are both very loud and seem very close.

But an IMAX camera also weighs in at 100 pounds, compared to the Panaflex's 32 pounds. Because Nolan favors a hand-held look, the first test of shooting in IMAX was Gorelick's ability to operate the 100-pound Steadicam rig. That test came immediately, with the shoot's first filmed sequence: the movie's demanding opening sequence. The bank heist was located in an old post office, with very hard, very slick marble floors. "Bob had to do a running shot with the Steadicam and the arm broke off," remembers Pfister. "My back was stressing," admits Gorelick.

"At the beginning, Chris [Nolan] asked if we could do anything with this camera," Pfister adds. "At the end, he'd ask, is that as fast as you can run? It became second nature after awhile."

Framing for IMAX is quite different than for a 35mm image, said Gorelick. "You leave much more headroom," he said. "The cross-hair is just under the eyeline. The practical reason for that so that audiences don't have to crane their heads back to see. For a production like this, they extract whatever part of the negative they want, and it was usually the center."

Geryak reports that lighting wasn't that different than a typical 35mm shoot. "The biggest problem was hiding the lights," he says. "In the post office where the opening scene takes place, there were 12 big windows. We put up one Xenon light per window. With the IMAX camera, you get a lot of clarity; you can see all the details."

Shooting in IMAX also had a nuanced impact on the editing, by Lee Smith, said Pfister. "Christopher was very conscious of the IMAX format," he said. "In the opening, six-minute bank heist, which was cut during principle photography, they let scenes linger on the screen a little bit more [than usual]."

Pfister added that director Nolan didn't want to treat The Dark Knight any differently from an ordinary 35mm film. "We did all the conventional things we've done with 35mm for years." Pfister also credited "two great key grips, [gaffer] Perry Evans in London, fabulous focus pullers, and IMAX consultant Wayne Baker." Depth of field is very difficult in IMAX, he says. "The fastest lenses are 2.8; one gets down to a 1.4, losing flexibility which made it more challenging for Cory and his boys," adds Pfister, who said he used "mostly Hasselblad lenses." "The team did a great job in figuring it out." But he couldn't get the flares he wanted in one end scene. "I always imagined it with flares, but I couldn't quite get them," he said. "There's a much shallower depth of field and the image is very wide."

During production, recounted Pfister, Nolan remarked that, "in a weird way, shooting IMAX is like shooting Super 8mm." "There's only one lab that develops it, it comes in 3-minute loads," says Pfister, half-joking. "And you send it away and get it back in a week, so you have weeklies, not dailies."

The IMAX sequences were scanned at 8K resolution and turned into an anamorphic negative. These sequences that originated in IMAX "probably do look a bit sharper than those shot in 35mm," concludes Pfister. "You can notice a difference," he says. "Even in the material that's gone to DVD, the IMAX material is sharper. "It's called over-sampling," notes Keighley. "It always looks better when you start with a larger format, and it's harder to mess it up."

Shooting in IMAX posed numerous challenges. With only 3 minutes per load, the production used three IMAX cameras. Then there's the weight of the IMAX camera. "I was 6'4" when I started," jokes operator Gorelick. "And now I'm 5'10"."

With the 360-degree sweep of the Steadicam rig, Geryak also found it difficult at times to find places to hide lights. "When we had to light for large action sequences, such as the bank heist, the lights had to be moved further back," says Geryak. "It was trickier."

Finally, and significantly, the cost of shooting in IMAX is four times that of shooting in 35mm, reveals Pfister, who notes that, without a very large camera blimp, productions have to loop sound. "That's why it's too difficult to shoot an entire movie in IMAX," he concludes. "The problems are still a roadblock."

But the IMAX shoot went smoothly, and Pfister raves about the result, after having just seen a screening of an IMAX print. His advice to movie-goers? "You must see this film in IMAX," he says. "It looks beautiful."

[matt35mm]

 

I'd have to drive for over an hour to see it in IMAX.

[MacGuffin]

Christopher Nolan's 'Knight' vision
The director takes Batman to a dark place in a $180-million saga he's dedicating to the late Heath Ledger, who portrays the Joker to Christian Bale's Caped Crusader.
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times

THE BRITISH filmmaker Christopher Nolan has the mien of a passionate literature professor (passionate, that is, in the British sense of the term) and, last December, he spoke about the young actor Heath Ledger as if he were the most fascinating manuscript to cross his desk in years. "The bold decisions that Heath has made with this performance are fascinating to watch," said Nolan, who had one hand perched on his hip and the other holding a curled finger to his chin. "I think he's done something quite exceptional."

Nolan was in Los Angeles that evening to screen some early completed footage from "The Dark Knight," the second film in his reboot of the Batman mythos, which has Ledger in the role of the Joker. In super-hero cinema, the difference between a good film and a great film is the villain, not the hero, and it's telling that the six-minute sequence that Nolan brought with him did not include a single solitary frame of the franchise's caped crusader, who is again played by the lean and lupine Christian Bale. The screening audience of industry types and journalists were agog over Ledger's wicked and scabby character and, in the cocktail lounge after, Nolan was all smiles. "I really cannot wait," the filmmaker said, "for everyone to see the finished product."

The world will see that product July 18, when "The Dark Knight" opens across the U.S., but Ledger, of course, will not be around to enjoy it. The 28-year-old Aussie and his promising career will be remembered as an unfinished novel. Seven weeks to the day after that screening in Los Angeles, Ledger was found dead in his second-floor loft in New York City. Half a dozen different prescription drugs were found in his system, and an accidental overdose was the determined cause of death.

For Nolan and the cast of "The Dark Knight," the death was a bruising shock and, in the months that followed, an awkward professional challenge. A summer movie with a budget of $180million demands relentless pre-release promotion, but, especially with the always-proper Nolan at the fore, no one in this production wanted to make a crass or maudlin misstep. Nolan stepped forward to write an appreciation of Ledger for Newsweek, and not only was it thoughtful (Nolan on Ledger's short films: "Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I've never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents."), the essay never once mentioned the film's release date. The cast picked up on the message.

"To have this film be successful and to have people see Heath's great work in it -- to appropriately honor that performance by bringing the film to the audience -- that became the goal for Chris and everyone involved," said Aaron Eckhart, who portrays Harvey "Two-Face" Dent, another grotesque madman who fights Batman for the soul of Gotham City. "Chris gave us a set where the actors felt very secure, they felt they could take risks. And Chris has continued to protect Heath and his performance."

In mid-May, at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Nolan was in the late stages of post-production on "The Dark Knight" and the marathon hours were taking their toll. There was stubble on his chin and half-circles under his eyes. "Come on in," he told his visitor, "but I must warn you it's quite loud inside. I mean, really loud." In the mixing suite, Nolan joined sound editors Lora Hirschberg and Gary Rizzo, who were laboring over a bank of control boards. Up on a huge screen in front of them was a frozen image of Ledger, a rocket-launcher in his hand and an expression of callous menace on his face.

Nolan ran through the scene a dozen times and pulled apart the barrage of different sounds, homing in on what he disliked ("Why am I hearing an air brake there? The truck is speeding up, that's a disconnect.") and what he needed ("In the first film, the roar of the Batmobile that we hear when the headlights first go on; let's go back and get that and use it right here."). The director stretched his neck and exhaled. "OK, we're getting there."

Bigger is better

THIS IS clearly the season -- and the decade, really -- for filmmakers who understand the calculus of explosions and the proper lighting of bulging biceps; Hollywood has been throwing larger-than-life heroes at the cineplex at a dizzying rate, with Iron Man, Indiana Jones, the Hulk, Hancock and Hellboy leading the florid parade. But there is within "The Dark Knight" a level of subversive menace and ambition that sets it apart from the popcorn slugfests, although it may in fact be too unsettling to reach the $300-million box-office numbers of the comparatively sunny exploits of "Iron Man." "The Dark Knight" is many things, but it is not the feel-good movie of the summer.

Nolan looked up at the screen and, again, the image was of Ledger's Joker, his chalk-white face set off by a lipstick "grin" that emphasizes the jagged scars that curl up from the corners of his mouth. Throughout the movie, Ledger probes those scars with his tongue, the way some toothless people incessantly chomp their gums. He also walks with shoulders bowed and his chin out and down, like a hyena. This Joker has green hair and a purple suit, but there's little else that evokes Jack Nicholson's flamboyant take in Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman." Actually, if anything, Ledger here is closer to Nicholson's eerie ferocity in "The Shining."

Stepping out to take a break, Nolan ran a hand through his hair. The 37-year-old was wearing a sports coat and vest -- it's his standard look, far more formal than many of his generation -- and he began to talk about his new film in terms of a search for the dark heart of society and the blood-red line between justice and vengeance. It's still a super-hero gizmo movie, of course, but "The Dark Knight" delves further into Nolan's familiar themes of moral uncertainty, madness and the cost of vendettas, which gave shape to "Memento," "Insomnia," "The Prestige" and his first trip to Gotham, the 2005 "Batman Begins."

That movie grossed $205 million in the U.S., and critics hailed it as the necessary pendulum swing back from Joel Schumacher's campy "Batman & Robin," forever remembered for putting future Oscar winner George Clooney in a nippled Batsuit. It's telling sign of the times that right now, across Hollywood, there is a building buzz that Ledger might receive a posthumous Oscar nomination for his work as the Joker. (If he does, it would couple with Johnny Depp's nomination as Jack Sparrow to prove that summer vehicles are starting to win the artsy heart of Hollywood after occupying its box-office brain this whole decade.)

Nolan cowrote the screenplay for "The Dark Knight" with his younger brother, Jonathan. They also co-wrote "The Prestige" and, before that, "Memento," the $5-million movie that earned them an Oscar nomination for its intricate, reverse-order noir tale. The director said the job hasn't changed with the soaring budget and expectations.

"The job of the director is to consider what particular shot you are shooting and how that shot will advance the story," Nolan said. "There are many, many decisions to be made, but really, if you think of the job in terms that simple, it will guide you to what needs to be done next."

Bale has become Nolan's on-screen muse. Right now, the 34-year-old actor is working with director McG on "Terminator Salvation," and reached on set he was cagey about Nolan.

"I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you greatly; I'm of the inclination that I won't discuss or analyze an artistic relationship for fear of changing it or undermining it somehow," Bale said. "But clearly he's a director who is very focused and knows what he wants but is open to the collaborative process and finding unexpected things in performances. He makes you feel very safe and prepares you for success."

Is Nolan as unflappable as he seems? "I can tell you that my favorite memories are from these snapshots I have in my mind of Chris just losing it. When he starts laughing, really laughing, he's gone and it's something to see."

Great expectations

THERE weren't too many unforgettable moments at the MTV Movie Awards this year, but there was at least one: A faux "viral video" was shown with Robert Downey Jr. meeting a sullen teenager who had seen "Iron Man" three times. Downey is elated until the pudgy kid gives his review: "It'll do until 'Dark Knight' comes out."

That about sums up the intensity of genre fans who are treating the Nolan franchise as the most astute comic-book adaptation to date -- or at least a contender for that title with Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" and Bryan Singer's "X-Men." "Batman Begins" took the familiar legend but rooted it in a more realistic Gotham than Burton ever presented and, in many ways, its nihilism pulls as much from Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" and Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" as it does any Saturday morning cartoon.

" 'Batman Begins' was about the process of Bruce Wayne finding himself and his purpose and making himself an instrument of that purpose," Nolan said. "The advantage of this second film is that he is now fully formed and we can go straight into the story."

"The Dark Knight" will be parsed for political themes -- Batman's trustworthy aide Alfred ( Michael Caine) at one point rebukes his boss for trampling privacy rights in his fight against terrorism -- but Nolan steers clear of too much analysis, at least for the moment. Plot security was intense during shoots in Chicago and Hong Kong to preserve "all the things we want the audience to see for the first time when they sit down in the theater in the dark." A major character is murdered in the film, and when the end credits roll, Batman is in a far darker place.

This much can be said: "The Dark Knight" finds a new political force in Gotham in Harvey Dent, a crusading prosecutor, and a deranged new criminal in the mysterious Joker. Batman, meanwhile, is ready to hang up his cowl after watching the distorted shadows cast by his growing street legend. Back from the first film are cast members Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman, while Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes. For Nolan, the movie is an unsettling crime film, not a super-hero escapade.

"I think in the past there have been movies in the genre, even movies made by very good directors, where there comes a moment where you realize they do take what they are doing seriously," Nolan said. "The approach we have is take the tropes and iconography of the action-hero genre and ground it in a reality. Real life is more tactile, more threatening, more emotional. The experience is amplified. I very much consider it my job to entertain the audience. I learned some things watching 'Batman Begins' in a crowded theater with the audience. . . . I don't make movies for myself."

Leave the small-fry home

ONE OF the secrets that Nolan has guarded the longest with "The Dark Knight" is the visage of Eckhart's Two-Face character after his violent disfigurement that leads him away from law and order and toward ferocious revenge. Nolan's film is PG-13 and is clearly not for young children (there is one sequence, in fact, in which a terrified youngster is directly threatened by one of the villains), but the director said he had actually pulled back on the horror of Two-Face's seared flesh.

"I didn't want people to actually look away so much they were missing the film," Nolan said with a chuckle.

For the Joker, Nolan went back to the first appearance of the character in comics back in 1940, when the leering clown showed up without any sort of back-story and simply started killing people. That's how the Joker enters Nolan's Gotham, not unlike, Nolan pointed out, the toothy intruder of "Jaws."

"You don't care where the shark came from," Nolan said, "you don't care who the shark's parents were."

In one harrowing scene, Ledger does explain his cheek scars to a victim -- and then, later in the film, he delivers a second creepy monologue with an entirely different explanation. The revelation: The Joker is a liar, even to the folks eating the popcorn. It's one of the compelling nuances of the movie. There are many others. Maybe that's why Nolan declined to talk about his own emotional journey with the movie and its lost star. "I think we've said as much as we can about Heath. We want to do right by him. I'm proud of his work in this film, and I'm excited to have it seen, but I think in respect to him and his family, perhaps it's best to just let the film have the final word."

[Gold Trumpet]

This will be the best poster to come out for this movie:

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/the-dark-knight-got-a-new-poster-4951

[modage]

This will be the best poster to come out for this movie:

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/the-dark-knight-got-a-new-poster-4951

we totally agree.   

[Alexandro]

Michael Bay's The Dark Knight

http://my.spill.com/profiles/blog/show?id=947994%3ABlogPost%3A355506

[Stefen]

Michael Bay's The Dark Knight

http://my.spill.com/profiles/blog/show?id=947994%3ABlogPost%3A355506

bahahhahahaahahahahaaha. PERFECT.

[diggler]

i want to see that movie

[MacGuffin]

Early Rise for The Dark Knight
Crack of dawn screenings already selling out.

With more than a week to go before the highly-anticipated release of The Dark Knight, Fandango reports that many of its pre-opening Thursday midnight shows on July 17 are already sold out in cities across the country, from New York to Boise, Idaho. Theaters continue to add 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. showtimes to meet the ticketing demand.

"The Dark Knight may be responsible for a lot of bleary eyes at work next Friday morning," says Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer for Fandango. "We're seeing a record number of late-night showtimes selling out in advance, while theaters are adding new performances every day."

More than 1,500 late-night showtimes of the movie have been scheduled for the film's pre-opening on Thursday night (Friday morning), July 17-18. An online survey of more than 3,000 The Dark Knight fans on Fandango.com last week resulted in the following information on the late-night surge:



37% of respondents plan to see the film at least once during one of the late night performances on Thursday night.

38% say that they intend to take off a few hours or the entire day from work on Friday as a result of seeing the movie the night before.

60% of these moviegoers are male.

71% are under the age of 35.

39% plan to see the film in IMAX.

92% expect that the Academy will recognize Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker with a posthumous Oscar nomination next year.

[©brad]

wow. and, wow.

[last days of gerry the elephant]

I'm one of those people, I have tickets for the first show on July 17 but unfortunately, not the IMAX.
I'll end going to see it at the IMAX second time around.

[Kal]

It's insane apparently there are showings around the clock 24/7 for the whole weekend... people are crazy to see this... I read that Warners expect a 'conservative' opening weekend of $90 million, but others are even suggesting a $130-$150 million weekend, which would be a total record for a 3-day. It's really crazy but I love this. The reviews are just ridiculously great. I'm so excited for this film, especially because I remember so many people unsure about Nolan after the first one.