Wednesday, April 29, 2015
How many projectionists does it take to change an IMAX bulb?
Below the Line: Freelance filmmaker John Ruddock recently released this video that shows how much work IMAX film projectionists go through to change a bulb in a 2,000 lbs projector. Shot with GoPro, the video goes behind the scenes at the Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater inside San Jose’s Tech Museum. It covers the process of a lamp change and brings you facts about the IMAX system.
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2 comments:
Call me nerdy, but a 15kW arc lamp developed for NASA is a pretty cool thing in my book. That lamp was a behemoth, a monstrously large thing that looks exactly as one would expect. In short, it’s a big ass light bulb. I remember walking in to the Wells one day to see a few of the VL 3500 fixtures that we have lamped on, and being very impressed with how luminous those things are. Seeing them in the Chosky during a performance of the Wiz reenforced my impression of the fixture. I’ve changed the lamp in those fixtures, and they have the power draw of about 1/12th of the IMAX lamp. I knew those projectors were pretty bright, and big, I’m no stranger to IMAX movies, but I am thoroughly impressed by the fact that the projector takes a single lamp that has the power draw equivalent to 20 horsepower.
Based off the title of the article I kept waiting for the punchline and was very surprised to what I got instead. I had no idea of the power that project held and never really understood the price jump when it came to ticket sales. I always assumed it was just a capitalist ploy with the curved screen but I now fully understand the true power behind the projector. While I know it was stated at the end of the video I found it very interesting that it takes two people to change the bulb. The amount of caution that goes into feels very necessary and really scary compared to the size. I was most impressed by the shear amount of power that lamp has but it makes me wonder how much power the bulb takes up? Also I am seriously now consider of the environmental impact that bulb has on the world around us? Over all I have found a new outlook on IMAX movies and I think the tech side of it all is incredible astounding.
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