Above art by AndrewSS7.
Even though it’s not an AVENGERS movie, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR will no doubt be one of Phase Three’s most important Marvel flicks, both in terms of its cast (which will feature a ton of characters aside from Cap, Bucky, and Falcon) and the narrative repercussions it’ll have on the rest of the MCU.
Another huge thing that will distinguish CIVIL WAR: it will be the first Marvel film with sequences shot in native IMAX. And they’ll be using an all-new camera to do it.
It will be the first film shot with the new 2D digital camera developed by IMAX and Arri. Approximately 15 minutes of the film will be shot with the camera, “including what co-director Joe Russo describes as one sequence ‘with some incredible scale to it.’” My guess is that 15 minutes will be somewhere near…the end maybe?
Take note that this isn’t the same kind of IMAX Nolan famously used on the latter two DARK KNIGHT pics. Nolan and Wally Pfister were shooting on 65 mm film, but the Russos are shooting every frame of CIVIL WAR in digital. The IMAX footage will be shot on digital 2D, which will later be post-converted into 3D for release. Says Joe Russo:
“There’s an impressionistic quality to film that I’ll cherish forever, but today’s audience and younger audiences prefer the sharpness and crispness and reality they get from looking at digital.”
Uh huh. Those kids are always talkin' up digital's superiority to film.
Presumably, if all goes well, we should be seeing more than 15 minutes of IMAX footage in either (or both) of the INFINITY WARS pictures.
As a huge fan of the use of 65 mm IMAX in films like the DARK KNIGHTs and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL, I just hope that the level of grandeur those cameras evoke when used correctly isn’t lost in this new digital translation. The IMAX brand took somewhat of a hit due to the oversaturation of the “FAUXMAX” (a.k.a. not really true IMAX) theaters throughout the country, and I’d love it if CIVIL WAR was able to use their new tech in a way that was exciting and inspiring to other filmmakers.
Either way, it looks like CIVIL WAR will be one of the biggest Marvel movies to date in more ways than one.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR will be too big for your puny normal-sized screen to contain on May 6th, 2016.
