Column by Timothy Alguire
Alguire is a junior computer science major and can be reached at timothy.alguire@drake.edu
You’ve probably seen the tagline “Experience it in IMAX” on several movie posters for this summer’s blockbuster hits. But what does it mean to “Experience it in IMAX?”
Well, seeing a movie at the Blank IMAX Dome Theater located at the Science Center of Iowa is just that, an experience. The Blank IMAX Dome Theater utilizes a unique theater design, the largest screen in the state of Iowa, 12,000 watts of pure, digital surround sound, and one giant, crystal clear image produced by IMAX 15/70 mm film to bring you the best possible way to watch a movie this summer. The Blank IMAX Dome Theater’s screen is a tilted dome screen designed to fill your field of view and wrap around your peripheral vision to fully envelop you in the action.
The six–story screen is so tall and wide you feel as if you are in the movie. The 12,000 watt, 6–channel sound system, which consists of more than 40 individual speakers, makes sure you hear every word and feel every explosion by complementing what you see on screen. At the Blank IMAX Dome Theater you don’t just watch a movie, you become part of one.
Several Hollywood movies are getting the IMAX treatment and going through IMAX’s Digital Media Re-Mastering (DMR) process, which creates the largest, clearest image that you can see in film or digital theaters.
The Blank IMAX Dome Theater will be showing two Hollywood films this summer: “Oblivion” (now playing through May 2) and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (opens May 15, 2-day early release exclusively in IMAX). These two films have gone beyond the DMR process be either filming select sequences with IMAX’s extremely high–resolution film cameras (“Star Trek”) or by preserving more of the captured image during post-production (“Oblivion”). Exclusively at the Blank IMAX Dome Theater, the sequences of “Star Trek” that were filmed with IMAX cameras will expand to fill the entire IMAX Dome screen, providing the audience with 40 percent more picture than traditional theaters, further enveloping them in the action. The IMAX version of “Oblivion,” which the Science Center of Iowa is currently showing through May 2, is presented with an expanded aspect ratio giving viewers 21 percent more picture than standard theaters. The Blank IMAX Dome Theater is the only IMAX Theater in central Iowa meaning it is the only theater in the area with the ability to show these films in this format.
The Blank IMAX Dome Theater offers the best possible way to watch this summer’s most anticipated films. Exclusive release dates and early showings that are only available in IMAX means you can see these movies first at the Science Center of Iowa.
Combining the 15/70 mm IMAX film, the area’s largest screen, and the 12,000 watts of digital surround sound, IMAX is the way to experience this summer’s biggest movies. So when you’re choosing which venue to see a movie at, choose the Science Center of Iowa’s Blank IMAX Dome Theater and see the movie the way the filmmakers intended, in IMAX!
The Science Center of Iowa is located in Downtown Des Moines at 401 W Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, Des Moines, IA. Tickets for Hollywood IMAX films are $10 for high school and college students with valid student I.D.
For more information about the Blank IMAX Dome Theater visit www.sciowa.org/imax.
