If you go
› What: Tennessee Aquarium Imax 3D Film Festival.› When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1-Thursday, Feb. 11; schedule varies.› Where: Tennessee Aquarium Imax Center, 201 Chestnut St.› Admission: $11.95 adults, $9.95 children per single screening; $40 Imax Club pass.› Phone: 1-800-262-0695.› Website: tnaqua.org/imax/imax-3d-film-festival.
Join the club
The debut of the Tennessee Aquarium’s new projection system and screen will coincide with the launch of the Tennessee Aquarium Imax Club. Members get unlimited visits to all 45-minute Imax films for a year, unlimited entrance to the 2016 Tennessee Aquarium Imax 3D Film Festival, reduced admission of $4 to feature-length films, discounted guest tickets, free upgrades to concessions and a 10 percent discount at the Imax store. Cost is $35 for Tennessee Aquarium members (via online purchase only), $40 for nonmembers. For more information, visit www.tnaqua.org/imax/imax-club.
Like a debutante preparing herself for a stunning social debut, the Tennessee Aquarium is inviting all comers to a film festival designed to showcase what a healthy dose of technological gussying up can accomplish.
Late last year, aquarium officials approved a $1.2 million upgrade to the institution's Imax facility. This included transitioning from a 20-year-old film-projection system - the last of its kind in Chattanooga - to a state-of-the-art model that uses dual, 4K-resolution lasers found in only a handful of theaters in the world. The renovation also bundled in a replacement for the six-story, 5,800-square-foot screen and doubled the number of speakers to 12, including some mounted directly overhead.
Enacting these changes was completed during a monthlong closure that began on Jan. 4. The facility is celebrating its reopening on Monday, Feb. 1 - not to mention showing off a bit, admits aquarium spokesperson Thom Benson - with an 11-day, 3-D film festival featuring the ultra-high-definition return of some of its most beloved documentaries.
""From everything I've heard from our team that experienced the system there's a significant difference between film and laser projection," Benson says.
"You could call this Laser Launch, if you wanted to," he adds, laughing.
The new projector beams the image directly onto the screen rather than via a prism, which previously resulted in significant light loss, leading to films that looked dimmer and lower-contrast, especially in 3-D. Laser digital projection is a multigenerational leap forward, technologically, but the end result for guests will be a profoundly improved viewing experience, says Gordon Stalans, the aquarium's director of finance as well as chairman of the Giant Screen Cinema Association board of directors.
"It does look that good," says Stalans, who was one of the team from the aquarium who previewed different projection technologies before ultimately deciding on laser digital. "The difference in contrast ratio - how white are the whites and how black are the blacks - and the crispness of colors is remarkable. Laser provides a much wider color gamut [and] the images projected by laser are much brighter.
"Most of the films we show are 3-D, and putting more light on the screen for 3-D is a major improvement."
Exit surveys were used to select eight of the facility's most popular past offerings to show at the festival, which concludes on Feb. 11. Showing so many films at once is another benefit to the new projector. Instead of 70-millimeter film reels weighing several hundred pounds that took hours to prepare for screening, the new system uses digital cinema packages, which weigh just a few pounds and can be screened in a fraction of the time.
Although the films in the festival aren't new, Benson says, the upgraded projector and sound system should offer an experience that feels revolutionary.
"The titles we've selected [for the festival] each will have really cool aspects of that technology that will be brought out," he says. "The contrast is supposed to be spectacular in space films. 'Hubble 3D' is one of my favorites, and I'm looking forward to seeing that true blackness of space and the contrast with the white, like the clouds on Earth.
"We have a good mix of underwater films, terrestrial films and space films in this festival. They're really exciting films."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.
The movies
› “Born To Be Wild 3D”: Morgan Freeman narrates this “fun-filled, yet soul-stirring” film following the work of dedicated animal preservationists: Kenyan elephant sanctuary founder Daphne Sheldrick and orangutan defender Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas.› “Deep Sea 3D”: Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet serve as co-narrators of this vivid documentary on the deepest parts of the ocean, where viewers will see sights such as sea turtles using algae to clean themselves, giant squid shifting their colors and the spawning of a coral reef.› “Galapagos”: This documentary lets viewers take part in an above- and below-the-waves expedition to the biologically isolated Galapagos Islands off the coast of South America. There, they’ll meet the islands’ famed tortoises as well as crabs, iguanas, sharks and other wildlife.› “Hubble 3D”: Leonardo DiCaprio narrates this 3-D film — one of the aquarium’s highest rated — which takes viewers on a universal tour through distant galaxies and documents the stomach-churning heroism of astronauts seeking to repair the storied space telescope.› “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar 3D”: Morgan Freeman narrates this documentary offering breathtaking views of playful lemurs living on the African island Madagascar.› “Humpback Whales 3D”: Ewan McGregor narrates this documentary, which offers a sneak peek into the lives of a pod of majestic whales in the waters of Alaska, Hawaii and Tonga.› “Space Station 3D”: Venture 250 miles straight up to see the in-orbit assembly of the International Space Station in the first 3D live-action film to be shot in space.› “Under the Sea 3D”: Jim Carrey narrates an undersea adventure to coastal regions of southern Australia, New Guinea and the Indo-Pacific.