This wasn’t an ordinary trip to an afternoon matinee.

On Friday, Marty and Barb Mueller went to see “The Odyssey” in Spokane. Just so happens, however, the Coeur d’Alene residents built the very IMAX camera Christopher Nolan used to film his epic motion picture starring Matt Damon.

“It’ll be interesting to see what it looks like,” Marty, 78, said before seeing the film.

The Muellers, known around the Coeur d’Alene community for creating community makerspace GIZMO, have manufactured multiple cameras for IMAX. One of them, called No. 3 Camera, was not only used to film “The Odyssey” but also Nolan’s 2023 Academy Award-winning “Oppenheimer.”

The No. 3 Camera produces 375 feet of film per minute. After Nolan finished “Oppenheimer,” he went through 1 million feet of film on it.

“That’s his favorite camera,” Marty said of Nolan using the No. 3. 

The Muellers are originally from the Chicagoland area. In the 1960s, Marty studied engineering at Stanford University for about a year before he dropped out to attend trade school.

Marty then entered the camera industry in the 1970s. He said he built the cameras that copied all the pictures incorporated into the popular hand-held stereoscopic device called 3D View-Masters.

“I’ve always liked building stuff,” Marty said. “When I was a kid, I was building hot rods.” 

In his early days in Hollywood, Marty began absorbing critical optical engineering knowledge from a man named Alan Gundlefinger, an optical consultant known for having a hand in 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”

Barb and Marty would later move to Coeur d’Alene to escape Los Angeles’ oppressive traffic, and by 1988 they were making motion picture cameras in a shop near Wolf Lodge Campground. This included VistaVision and 65mm 8-perforation cameras.

In 1992, the couple made their very first IMAX camera. The Muellers then went on to produce five more cameras. They sold the final products to IMAX and to another buyer in Japan between 1995 and '96. 

Those cameras earned the Muellers a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1996.

But accolades in the motion picture industry are a far cry from what the Muellers accomplished three years later. In 1998, Russia and the United States joined forces to launch the International Space Station. Still on a consulting contract with IMAX, the Muellers were asked to create two 3D cameras to film the building of the International Space Station in outer space.

One of the Muellers’ cameras got to fly in the cargo bay. Another was inside the station with the astronauts. Meanwhile, they worked with Bill Shepherd, the famous NASA astronaut who was head of the Space Shuttle Discovery, the first resident crew on the International Space Station.

“I love the idea that we’re helping capture images that lots of people get to see, especially from space,” Marty said. “The first time we saw film back from the cargo bay area, it was a shot of a shuttle leaving the space station with the earth behind. It was a religious experience.” 

During this time, NASA worried the Muellers’ cameras wouldn’t work in zero gravity. Marty would tell them the acceleration and deceleration G-force of the cameras was 900 Gs. The cameras, naturally, worked just fine in space.

“The space station stuff was the most exciting stuff that we did because it offered a view to so many people that never ever experienced any of that,” Barb said.

When it comes to building cameras, it’s certainly a labor of love. Marty said it takes about 2,000 hours to produce a camera from scratch.

And creating these complicated, esoteric machines also takes a little dumb luck. When the couple was making their first IMAX camera in 1992, Marty was having trouble with the circular bayonet-style lens trying to be in the same place as the shutter.

Barb asked Marty why the lens had to be round. In a eureka moment, Marty agreed, and he thus created a rectangular lens for the camera.

“And now,” Marty said, “every single IMAX camera in the world has that mount on it.”

Barb understands the power of unexpected fortune, especially from working with her husband for nearly half a century.

“I work with a person who understands me and I understand him,” she said. “Both of us do that really well.” 

In addition to seeing films they helped create, the Muellers can be found tinkering with new projects, their dog, Mitzvah, by their side, inside the shop behind their Coeur d’Alene home. Right now, they are building what’s called a “3D rig” for a Hollywood production company.

And when the Muellers, who have three children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, are not working?

“I like to play with this girl,” Marty said, motioning to Barb. “We’ve been working together for 48 years almost, and we’re still having a good time.”

    Marty and Barb Mueller with their Academy Award on Friday. The award was given in 1996.