Through a new short film, IMAX Corporation set out to showcase how the company creates an immersive, in-theatre experience that invites audiences to push beyond the ordinary and always seek the fullest experiences.
IMAX, TBWA\Chiat\Day and Director Espen Sandberg collaborated with Santa Monica creative studio JAMM, culminating in an immersive journey through six unique worlds. From fantastical sci-fi panoramas to a turn-of-the-century boxing match, all are rendered in breathtaking detail. JAMM’s CG expertise compliments the live-action scenes that were strategically filmed with high-resolution IMAX cameras.
JAMM was engaged with the project starting at the creative conception stage and worked closely with IMAX, Sandberg, cinematographer Pal Ulvik Rokseth and senior art director Stephen Lum to take audiences beyond the frame and immerse them into the experience. The stunning CG work helps transport audiences into complex environments including an otherworldly forest with neon glowing trees, a dystopian city with post-apocalyptic doom as well as an action-packed battle scene, vast galaxies in space and much more.
In the opening shot, the fractal complexity of a swooping flock of birds leads the viewer from a real-world pastoral field through an archway. There, we’re transported into an environment created entirely in CG, an otherworldly forest where the trees glow neon blue and the valley walls move. In the apartment scene, floor-to-ceiling windows reveal a dystopian cityscape. Building the decaying city almost completely from scratch, JAMM added in the foreboding weather to give the shot a feeling of post-apocalyptic doom.
In another sequence, the camera busts through a wall, where JAMM has transformed a filmic live-action shot into an action-packed war zone with the addition of low-flying planes, explosions, smoke and gunfire. We then follow an adventurer traversing through a cave by torchlight, to reveal an underground world created entirely in 3D. Flying embers and bubbling lava conjure the spirit of adventure, before we are transported into space alongside a weightless astronaut. The space capsule doors open to reveal the vast pink galaxies beyond, before the familiar IMAX logo emerges into frame.
JAMM’s CG work, combined with the action sequences shot on IMAX cameras, is something you don’t want to miss. The film will play exclusively in IMAX theaters because only in the innovative IMAX theatre design can audiences have the fullest experience – larger curved screens, stadium seating, multi-channel sound, and IMAX projection systems. However, the “Making of Infinite Worlds,” seen here, gives a behind-the-scenes look at how this original shot film was brought to life.
“For a VFX artist, the opportunity to create multiple fantastical worlds is a dream brief,” says CG Supervisor Andy Boyd, “Partnering with IMAX on this brand film was particularly rewarding because each sequence is so substantial. The lingering shots gave our team the time to really flesh out each distinct environment, so the viewer can study and appreciate each world for longer.”
VFX Supervisor Jake Montgomery is equally proud of the high-end visuals JAMM crafted, saying, “It’s one full minute of dazzling eye candy, and you can only see it in an IMAX theatre.”
