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The race for Imax Super Speedway puts Imax on track by MATTHEW HAYS
"I've been meaning to make an Imax film about race cars for a long, long time," says local Imax veteran Stephen Low of his latest film, Super Speedway. "The logistics were tricky. If we had tried to do this even two years ago, we would have failed, because Imax cameras weighed 100 pounds. The new cameras are 50 pounds--which is bad enough." Thanks to a group of engineers, Low managed to get an Imax camera built into a race car. And thanks to world-famous driver Mario Andretti's involvement, Low has captured some astounding footage of the harrowing race on the track. Drivers have been known to sweat off 10 pounds during a two-hour race, and audiences will easily be sweating along as Super Speedway premieres next month. The budget of Speedway wa $6.5 million, which sounds expensive for a documentary. The cost of Imax is daunting: the film stock costs 10 times that of regular 35mm stock and 40 times that of 16mm stock (which most docs are shot on). "This is why so many Imax films are documentaries and not narrative-driven. The cost is daunting." As expensive as Imax is, it is also lucrative. The films run an average of seven years and prove extremely popular. Super Speedway has broken Imax records, selling to about 50 Imax cinemas around the world already. Low's track record as an Imax director and producer is impressive. In 1993 he released Titanica, perhaps the best Imax film ever made, a beautiful and poetic look at the haunting mystery of the famous sunken vessel. But Low has managed to take the best thing about Imax--its ability to overwhelm an audience with sensation--and create a thoroughly exhilarating trip in Super Speedway (not to be seen while hung over). The film isn't merely a race; as well as the tarmac-hugging shots, Speedway has Andretti appear with his best friend--a pig. "He was given this pig as a joke, and he hated it for a while. Then he fell in love with it. This pig is very intelligent and very savage. He loves Mario but no one else. He bit several members of the crew!" Super Speedway premieres in Montreal on April 11. Info: 283-0548 |
If the challenges facing conventional filmmakers seem big, consider those facing the creators of the latest Imax epic: how do you strap a 50-pound Imax camera ono a race car and manage to have the car travel safely at over 200-mph speeds?