“The Odyssey,” directed by Christopher Nolan, will be the first major studio film with an extensive plot that was shot entirely in IMAX. The “blimp,” a new enclosure that significantly reduces the enormous noise generated by IMAX cameras, has proven to be the biggest breakthrough in IMAX use. This, coupled with their physical size and weight, is the primary reason why IMAX cameras have been frequently restricted in their use in the past.
Nolan elaborated in colloquial terms, “You can be shooting a foot from [an actor’s] face while they’re whispering and get usable sound. What that opens up are intimate moments of performance on the world’s most beautiful format.” To accomplish this, he and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema tested the system with a child reading David Bowie lyrics. According to Nolan, the results were “electrifying,” adding, “We never would have been able to get those shots before.”
This could perhaps address the “Nolan Sound” issue with the director’s films, which are frequently criticized for their sound mix in which the dialogue is drowned out by the score, as noted by the World of Reel.
In response to the criticism, Nolan stated in 2023 that he prefers “to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor revoice it later,” thus he doesn’t have his actors reappear after filming is finished and do supplementary dialogue recordings (ADR) in later stages of production. Additionally, he mentioned that quieter scenes were affected by the IMAX camera noise, which should not be an issue with the new system.
