I saw "To Fly" at the Air and Space Museum soon after it opened. Compared to the many other IMAX movies that followed, it's simple, short and sweet. Perhaps a little quaint, too. Even at the time I rolled my eyes at the gimmick of the steam locomotive rolling into the theater.
IMAX was a brand new format, and the producers were clearly challenged to come up with enough material for even a half hour film. They pulled tricks such as tiling a standard resolution film across the screen to make it look bigger. But the relatively little full IMAX resolution footage made it all worthwhile.
I won't forget that first dissolve from the tightly cropped ground scene to the full screen aerial view from the hot air balloon. It's a cliché, but that really was "movie magic". I wonder how many kids fell in love with flight through this film.
IMAX was a brand new format, and the producers were clearly challenged to come up with enough material for even a half hour film. They pulled tricks such as tiling a standard resolution film across the screen to make it look bigger. But the relatively little full IMAX resolution footage made it all worthwhile.
I won't forget that first dissolve from the tightly cropped ground scene to the full screen aerial view from the hot air balloon. It's a cliché, but that really was "movie magic". I wonder how many kids fell in love with flight through this film.