This IMAX technology used in The Odyssey could be Nolan's major breakthrough (& Ryan Coogler just dropped key details about it)

Christopher Nolan is about to bring Homer's The Odyssey to the big screen, and the fans are surely excited about it. That is hardly surprising for a filmmaker of his acumen, who has consistently proven his chops through all his works. He has also been a consistent advocate for shooting on film and using IMAX cameras to bring his vision to life. This makes his films both costly and labor-intensive, as he also favors practical effects over CGI.

There is another reason for the strain—these cameras are far heavier and usually noisier than their counterparts. So, it leads to a genuine struggle to carry them around. Still, Nolan has used them and professed their creative advantage over digital cameras or print. This year, Ryan Coogler's Sinners uses the kind of IMAX camera with a System 65 package that Christopher Nolan has previously used and is going to use in The Odyssey. However, Nolan might be utilizing a technological breakthrough.

During his appearance on The Ringer's The Big Picture podcast, Ryan Coogler dropped some insights into the newer IMAX technology being implemented in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey will reportedly use sync-sound IMAX cameras

Ryan Coogler has previously spoken about the advice Christopher Nolan and his partner in filmmaking and real life, Emma Thomas, offered toward using large format IMAX cameras. On the podcast, Coogler addressed them and offered additional insights about the camera package:

"We used different lenses on our System 65 package, we used Ultra Panavision 276 lens—and those cameras, you can’t handhold, the sync-sound cameras."

These cameras are notoriously heavy and noisy. So, it creates a challenge while filming scenes with dialogue:

"The catch of the IMAX camera package is that it is technically not a sync-sound camera.—These cameras are massive cameras that are ripping celluloid through the gate, 15 perfs per picture at 24 pictures per second.—So, it sounds like somebody took seven weedwhackers and tied them in a steel box, and had them going synchronized.—So, if you’re gonna shoot an over-the-shoulder dialogue scene, that camera is gonna be all over the dialogue, it is automatically gonna be ADR."

To summarise Coogler's comments, filmmakers usually cannot record the dialogue while filming due to the noise, which is otherwise possible with sync sound. Instead, they resort to using ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), where actors re-record their dialogue to make it audible without the noise.

Coogler's camera package included sync sound, but it also required soundproofing, which made the equipment heavier to carry, ultimately limiting the creative choices while filming the scenes. Instead of using it over the shoulders for handheld camera movements that can offer more creative freedom or using a steadycam that offers smoother footage, Coogler had to resort to keeping the camera still on the ground or using it with a crane to move it around:

"The 5-perf, 65mm camera package, the System 65 [I used], has two sync-sound camera bodies. Sync-sound. So now these sound like – actually when it’s rolling, you don’t hear anything—[With all the soundproofing], it’s insanely heavy. So, it becomes a 100lb camera system, with zero ergonomics. So, it is impossible to handhold the sync-sound version of that camera."

This IMAX camera package used in The Odyssey could be a breakthrough

Despite using the IMAX cameras, Christopher Nolan has been reluctant to use ADR. Instead, he used sync sound and reduced the noise later in the post-production. Many times, that makes dialogues hard to understand. However, that is not the case with the camera package used in The Odyssey. In line with this, Coogler said:

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"I think the new version he has on The Odyssey is, but the one that they shot Oppenheimer with is the same one they shot Dunkirk with, it’s the same one they shot the last two Dark Knights with."

A recent report from Forbes, based on the May 2024 session related to IMAX, suggests that Christopher Nolan is using a significantly quieter and lighter IMAX camera for The Odyssey, which can allow him to record dialogues on set with less noise to get rid of. In this case, it might help the dialogue be more audible without the literal burden of the camera package.

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