Batman: The Dark Knight (The Dark Knight)

Opening the film with an IMAX sequence...

...seemed a terrific way to make an impression on the audience...

...really throw them into the action.

And when we came to shoot this prologue sequence, this bank heist...

...we'd never used the IMAX cameras before...

...we'd never used the technology before, and so there were a lot of challenges.

The first six minutes of the film are what Chris calls the prologue.

Chris had decided early on he wanted to shoot this in IMAX.

So we all got really petrified...

...that the very first thing we were gonna shoot in the movie...

...was this huge bank-heist sequence...

...with the Joker in full makeup and on IMAX.

On the top you can see four frames of 35 mm.

Of course, it goes through the projector up and down.

And that's actually a print down of IMAX photography.

And IMAX goes through the projector horizontally.

And that's four frames of IMAX.

It's about nine times bigger...

...So that's why you get incredible resolution in the IMAX format.

IMAX is an immersive medium, obviously.

You fill that whole screen and then you just get more impact to the audience.

And not just visually, IMAX sound is amazing also.

You feel the movie and you see it.

It has been used a lot on helicopters for Grand Canyon...

...and all that sort of stuff before, so people weren't unfamiliar with it.

But what we wanted to do with it and where Chris was taking us with IMAX...

...was using IMAX as a dramatic tool as opposed to a documentary tool.

Chris' perspective has always been, think of the IMAX films you remember.

They're the ones where the astronauts have had the camera in space.

They've taken the cameras up Mount Everest.

So if they can do that, then surely we can shoot on the streets of Chicago...

...with an IMAX camera.

And so the camera team and the grips and everybody...

...had to really adjust the way they worked to work with these cameras.

We really wanted to maximize our use of the IMAX frame.

So this rig where the Joker's men are sliding down the cable from rooftop to rooftop...

...was something I really wanted to get a very dramatic, vertiginous view.

So we did this very elaborate helicopter shot coming up and over.

Just to really use the IMAX format for what it's best at...

...which is, really, giving peoples' stomach a bit of a lurch...

...as they look down at an incredible drop.

So we did a little rotation on the camera head as it went over...

...which was a-- It was a complicated camera move to do.

Those guys going across, the death slide...

...that's two stunt guys doing that for real from two real buildings in Chicago.

There's a whole lot of prep goes into something which looks so simple.

It is just two guys sliding down a wire.

But you have to get permission from the building to rip the walls out...

...So that you can attach wires to girders.

So even for something simple like that, the prep's phenomenal.

Three of a kind, let's do this.

No one knew it was gonna be executed smoothly.

No one knew whether you could shoot action sequences in IMAX.

Because, if you think about it, IMAX is generally a couple of penguins...

...walking across a snowfield.

Or even NASCAR, but very long-held shots.

You know, with a camera on a fairly stable rig.

You don't hand-hold IMAX, and we did in this.

And the cinematographer will recover, I'm told.

The week that we spent shooting the bank-heist sequence...

...the prologue, was IMAX school for all of us.

We all learnt what we were getting into with those cameras.

I immediately learned how to deal with the weight of it...

...in operating with the camera.

What I could and could not accomplish in operating that camera.

One of our main fears was, the cameras are so heavy and cumbersome...

...we wouldn't be able to move the camera through the action...

...the way you would want to. The way you would with a 35 mil camera.

But Bob Gorelick, our Steadicam operator...

...tried flying the lightest IMAX camera, the MSM camera...

...and found that he could actually use it very effectively...

...use it very much as he would a 35 mil camera.

It was a five-day sequence. I think sometime after about the second day...

...of using the Steadicam intensively, the arm actually sheared off.

It broke off the vest and dropped the camera.

Luckily, Bob was okay and the camera was okay.

The film itself is extremely heavy.

The camera around it is five to six times the weight.

With Steadicam, if you take the camera and hold it out...

...and put it on a scale, it might weigh 35 pounds.

But when it's on a Steadicam, it's leveraged from your body.

The weight increases, is magnified.

So I would say the IMAX is close to-- You know, it's over 100 pounds.

There's a different way you compose for IMAX.

Because you're putting it on a screen that's eight stories high...

...your vision doesn't naturally go to the top of the screen.

So we kind of throw away a lot of what's in the top portion of the screen.

Focus is much more critical. It's shallower depth of field.

So the focus puller's really gotta be on his game.

Keeping the actors in focus is much more difficult in IMAX.

The area in the frame that the actor would be in focus...

...Is much more shallow.

In a normal movie situation, if an actor's maybe 12 feet from the camera...

...you'll have an area that could be in focus of maybe 1 or 2 feet.

In IMAX, I have an area that would be in focus...

...of maybe 4 or 5 inches, if I'm lucky.

Fluid cameras are very important to Chris in telling the story, and Wally.

And they were able to use the Steadicam.

Not as easily as they could in a 35, but they can use it.

Yes, the camera only has three-minute loads.

Chris says, "Well, then I'll just have another camera standing by to move in."

But if you want that quality, you want that immersiveness...

...if you have the vision and you wanna do it...

...it's difficult but not impossible. And he wanted to do it.

I'm betting the Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash.

No, no, no, I kill the bus driver.

Bus driver?

The school bus coming through the wall at the end of the prologue...

...was a surprise that we felt, you know, we really needed to have in that sequence.

But it turned out to be actually one of the most difficult things in the movie.

It's interesting because, as a director, it's the kind of thing...

...that actually, you'd think would be pretty simple.

I don't think any of us really were taking into account the logistics...

...of, you know, how you get a large school bus inside a building.

It was inside a disused post office in Chicago. It was a listed building.

So we couldn't just knock a wall down, get the bus coming though.

So what we actually ended up having to do was build a false wall inside the building...

...and then we mounted the bus behind that.

And then put the bus on a pneumatic jerk rig.

So on a cue, we pressed a button...

...and it hammered the bus straight through the false wall.

It was a little bit tricky because we only had a pair of double doors...

...to get this bus through, so it was almost an assembly.

We had to cut the bus up into pieces, take it into the building...

...and then put it back together to get the shot.

I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you...

...stranger.

It's a vast canvas. It's a very different way of looking at a character...

...because it's only what is head-on.

It's only when you look into his eyes that things really start happening.

So part of the Joker thing was very much designed with being like a laser beam...

...which would draw you into the performance.

But the IMAX thing, of course, gave me an enormous amount of room...

...to have the audience be inside the sound.

It gave this movie such a distinct personality from the other one.

We carved out the language of the score, really...

...and I think one thing Chris is very adroit at...

...Is maintaining a quintessentially disciplined approach.

We, in some instances, used the footage with the IMAX cameras...

...and Gary Rizzo, the dialogue mixer...

...did a great job of filtering as much of that noise as he could out.

In a lot of cases, we just scrapped the sound.

But they weren't generally dialogue sequences...

...So we were able to just replace the sound.

There's only a couple of shots in there where we used live sound.

The rest is ADR and foley.

It was really boundary-breaking, revolutionary stuff.

And it turned out very, very well. And inspired us, as well, to go on...

...and increase our IMAX components.

Once we saw that big opening shot with the helicopter...

...we realized all aerials really have to be IMAX...

...because it has so much punch and works so well.

From the get-go, we went to the studio.

We said, "This is something we wanna do.

We really wanna try it and we think it'll have great value...

...because as big an event as it's gonna be, it's gonna make it an even bigger event."

And it does. It's fun doing things like that.

It makes the filmmaking experience very fresh all the time...

...and it's really great to be part of that.

I'm very pleased with the results of our IMAX photography.

It's the world's highest-resolution film format.

And it creates an extraordinarily immersive image...

...on the IMAX screen, which is a colossal, you know, eight-story screen.

It throws the audience right into the action in a way that no other film format could.

Preparing Batman Begins, I had wanted...

...to redesign the technology of the suit completely.

But we really didn't have time to be able...

...to completely rethink the way in which the suit would be made.

So in coming into the sequel, I really wanted to get Lindy...

...to follow through that idea of...

...you know, building it from the ground up in a completely different way.

We were using completely different technology.

We just set about redesigning the suit...

...as a much airier, much more modern, much more subtle piece of equipment.

Like a suit of armor instead of a rubber suit.

A lot of their ideas are based on high-tech sportswear.

Motorcycle protection being one of the key things.

Chris wanted to bring in this flexibility.

So we developed armor plates that would allow a crumple zone...

...between those armor plates and allow him more movement.

Bruce is a highly evolved guy.

He's made himself so. And he's constantly looking for innovative things...

...and learning from his experiences as the Batman.

He's evolved and realized that he needs to make some modifications.

And continually upgrade the suit.

It had tremendous bulk, it allowed him to be able to withstand bullets...

...and knives and sharp instruments, but it lacked flexibility.

We took the reasons we had redesigned it...

...the increased flexibility, speed, the maneuverability...

...and we put those into the story. We wanted to give--

And I'd been looking for the story reasons for redesigning the suit.

Then it occurred to me, it's very simple.

We just would have it be the real reason we did redesign it...

...which is he wants to be able to move faster and more flexibly.

That's what we put into the story.

My armor.

I'm carrying too much weight. I need to be-- I need to be faster.

Chris wanted to be able to see the movement of the head.

Which has actually never happened with any of the Batman movies.

It's always been that he's had to move his shoulders to be able to see.