THE DARK KNIGHT: IMAX

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Director Christopher Nolan says he loves "creating cinema on the grandest possible scale."

So for The Dark Knight, Nolan shot six sequences of the film with IMAX cameras, marking the first time that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras. During the IMAX screenings, the film will expand vertically to fill the entire IMAX screen, which can be up to eight stories tall, for those scenes.

"In continuing Batman's story, the challenge was to make things bigger and better -- to expand the world we established in the first film, both through the story and in the way we presented it," Nolan said.

"I was thrilled with the way the IMAX photography turned out. It throws the audience right into the action in a way no other film format could. It takes me back to when I was a kid going to the movies and experiencing the scope, the scale and the grandeur that great cinema can offer."

Nolan said using the IMAX cameras turned out to be "not bad."

"We thought it would be very cumbersome, very tricky, very time-consuming," he said. "But a lot of careful planning and attention went into it. So by the time we were on set, it was pretty well worked out. As the film progressed, I think we got better at it and used the cameras on more and more things."

"When you think about some of the IMAX films we remember: they've taken these cameras up Mount Everest, they've taken them under the ocean, astronauts have had them in space," producer Emma Thomas said. "So if they can do that, then surely we can shoot on the streets of Chicago with an IMAX camera.²

One of the challenges in shooting in IMAX is simply the size of the cameras.

"The cameras are enormous and much heavier than a 35mm camera," cinematographer Wally Pfister said. "It required an entirely different approach, but like any challenge in moviemaking, you can't be so intimidated that you shy away from it. You just bite off one piece at a time until you've tackled it."

So successful the process became that Pfister actually was able to pull off a handheld IMAX shot.

The IMAX scenes are all action-oriented, including the first six minutes of the movie, which feature the Joker's men robbing a bank. The scene was released earlier this year to give a taste of the IMAX expierence.

"What I wanted to do was shoot as much of at least the main action of the film as possible in IMAX," Nolan said. "It felt very important for the first action set piece began that way, with the introduction of the Joker."

Gary Oldman, who returns as James Gordon, noted there was a guide for IMAX filming, even for the actors. "You kind of got to pull it back," he said during an appearance this week on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. "I thought that was quite funny that they gave you a booklet."