Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 60th Anniversary Cinerama Festival (Sep 28-Oct 4)

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Topic: 60th Anniversary Cinerama Festival (Sep 28-Oct 4)

Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-13-2012 01:35 PM

60th Anniversary Cinerama Festival
September 28-October 4, 2012
Tentative Schedule
Tickets on sale next week

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

10:00am
FREE
IN THE PICTURE (2012)
The first new film photographed in 3 strip CINERAMA in 50 years.
Extras: Behind the scenes documentary on the filming.
60 minutes

12:00 noon
SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE (1958)
Digital presentation, remastered from original negative.
142 minutes

3:00pm
CINERAMA HOLIDAY (1955)
Digital presentation, remastered from original negative.
Extra: break-down reel.
159 minutes

7:00pm
HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA.
Extra: short on film locations and 3 strip Renault automobile commercial.
195 minutes

11:00pm
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Presented in 2K Digital
158 minutes

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

10:00am
THE GOLDEN HEAD (1965)
Digital presentation, remastered from 65mm negative.
110 minutes

12:45pm
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM (1962)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
Original print courtesy National Media Museum, Bradford England.
155 minutes

4:00pm
SEARCH FOR PARADISE (1957)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
Original print courtesy of John Mitchell. (color faded to magenta)
Extra: Break-down reel with Lowell Thomas and Dimitri Tiomkin.
140 minutes

7:00pm
SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD (1956)
Digital presentation, remastered from original negative.
Extra: IN THE PICTURE in 3 strip CINERAMA, New York premiere and breakdown reel.
192 minutes

11:00pm
HOLIDAY IN SPAIN (1961)
Digital presentation remastered from 65mm negative.
118 minutes

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

10:00am
CINERAMA’S RUSSIAN ADVENTURE (1966)
Digital presentation remastered from 65mm negative.
142 minutes

1:00pm
WINDJAMMER: THE VOYAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN RADICH (1958)
Digital presentation, remastered from Swedish Film Institute 35mm composite print.
Extra: Reconstruction short and break-down reel.
171 minutes

4:30pm
IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD, WORLD (1963)
Presented in 70mm Ultra Panavision.
Extra: Cinerama Dome construction and “Mad World” premiere.
180 minutes

8:15pm
THE 60th ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF THIS IS CINERAMA (1952)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
Extra: IN THE PICTURE presented in 3 strip CINERAMA and Q&A, and behind the scenes documentary
200 minutes

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1

12:00noon
SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD (1956)
Digital Presentation Extras: Break-down reel and premiere newsreel
165 minutes

3:20pm
SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE (1958)
Digital presentation
Extra: IN THE PICTURE presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
165 minutes

7:00pm
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM (1962)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
155 minutes

10:15pm
CINERAMA HOLIDAY (1955)
Digital presentation.
Extra: IN THE PICTURE presented in 3 strip CINERAMA, and break-down reel.
186 minutes

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2

1:00pm
CINERAMA’S RUSSIAN ADVENTURE (1966)
Digital presentation.
142 minutes

4:30pm
WINDJAMMER, THE VOYAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN RADICH (1958)
Digital presentation
Extra: IN THE PICTURE presented in 3 strip CINERAMA.
171 minutes

8:15pm
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Presented in 2K digital
158 minutes

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012
No Cinerama showings due to AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE Anniversary Celebration at ArcLight Hollywood

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4

12:30pm
SEARCH FOR PARADISE (1957)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA.
Extra: Break-down reel
138 minutes

3:45pm
THIS IS CINERAMA (1952)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
132 minutes

7:00pm
HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962)
Presented in 3 strip CINERAMA
Extras: Q&A, Location short, Renault Commercial in 3 strip CINERAMA
210 minutes

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Robert Throop
Master Film Handler

Posts: 412
From: Vernon, NY USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-13-2012 06:17 PM

Is this at the Dome?

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-13-2012 06:24 PM

Isn't it sort of missing the point to show 2001 in 2K DLP?

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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-13-2012 06:28 PM

quote: Michael Coate
11:00pm
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Presented in 2K Digital

I've never before blown a beverage out my nose and onto my computer screen until I read this just a minute ago. In a Cinerama festival at the Dome, fer crissakes. There's a brand freakin' new 70mm print out there too.

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-13-2012 10:24 PM

Yeah, 2001: a Space Odyssey is actually playing in 70mm during the Academy's (Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, Bevery Hills) Last 70mm Film Festival on August 6 in L.A. (although it's already sold out, as is everytghing except for Grand Prix).

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Allan Young
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 125
From: EGHAM, Surrey UK
Registered: Jun 2011

posted 07-15-2012 05:22 AM

quote: Michael Coate
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Presented in 2K digital

Words fail me. And two screenings to boot.

I don't really understand the point of the digital remasters of the three-strip travelogues either. The films might have a bit of retro charm, but they're not exactly masterpieces of cinema. The format, not the content, was the main reason to see them. Search for Paradise is as dull as dishwater but at least they've got a Cinerama print of that one.

It would have been smarter to use all the money they could raise to make a single new three-strip print of just one of the titles rather than waste it digitally remastering them all.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 07-15-2012 10:45 AM

quote: Allan Young
The films might have a bit of retro charm, but they're not exactly masterpieces of cinema.

True, they are pretty dull to todays standards. But they are a part of the Wide screen history of film. By digitally remastering them, the film is saved. For the over 50 years the negs to these films sat growing older and dying in a film storage in Burbank, California. Now with these restored versions, they can be seen again. My father once talked about when he saw "This Is Cinerama" and another friend was one of the projectionists at the Broadway Theatre in NYC when it opened there. Boy they went on about how Big screens were and this was an event and the stories went on and on. I did not see it till the 1973 reissue of it. But these films do hold a place in film history. The remasters for DVD/Blu-ray release too.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-15-2012 11:11 AM

quote: Allan Young
The format, not the content, was the main reason to see them.

Exactly. So if the point is to recreate an anniversary of the format, then, like already pointed out, presenting the content in other than the format is quite off the mark.

And 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in TOOOO KAY DIGITAL when there are two relatively new 5/70 prints out there??!!!....gag me with an effin spoon.

And just for historical accuracy, if that is what this is about, WINDJAMMER was not a Cinerama production.

quote: Bill Gabel
My father once talked about when he saw "This Is Cinerama" and another friend was one of the projectionists at the Broadway Theatre in NYC when it opened there. Boy they went on about how Big screens were and this was an event and the stories went on and on.

But Bill, I bet your dad never went on and on about the CONTENT...it was all about the format!

You have to admit, some of them were pretty boring, even as travelogues. Now IMAX -- those guys really knew how to do travelogues.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 07-15-2012 12:35 PM

Yes , it was about the format Frank.

quote: Frank Angel
WINDJAMMER was not a Cinerama production.

No, it wasn't but Cinerama bought the process's patents from National Theatres. And presented in Cinerama Theatres. In New York it played at National Theatre's Roxy Theatre.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-15-2012 01:18 PM

I could accept the DLP presentations of the Cinerama titles _if_ they used three projectors to simulate the Cinerama process. But, from what I understand, they are not doing that. They are doing the DLP equivalent of showing a 35mm print on a Cinerama screen. That is the sort of thing that killed Cinerama (the company) and which will kill Imax eventually.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 07-15-2012 02:38 PM

The digital presentation of THIS IS CINERAMA will not be from a 35 mm print but from the same digital master that is being used to create the Blu Ray disc of the film due to be released on September 17th along with WINDJAMMER in the Smilebox process. As most of you know, Smilebox was used on the Bly-Ray of HOW THE WEST WAS WON and it was fantastic in my opinion. Many years ago, there was a 70mm print of THIS IS CINERAMA and I saw it at the the Cinerama Theatre in Honolulu and it was dreadful. It looked almost as bad as the 35mm print I saw of HTWWW.

By the way, I saw all of the Cinerama travelogues in three strip Cinerama at the now defunct and demolished Princess Theatee in Honolulu in the late fifties including WINDJAMMER and they were NOT boring. In fact, they were all very exciting and fun to watch on that huge curved screen with seven tracks of stereophonic sound.

-Claude

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-17-2012 06:10 AM

quote: Allan Young
It would have been smarter to use all the money they could raise to make a single new three-strip print of just one of the titles rather than waste it digitally remastering them all.

But which film would you choose, and having made the print, what would you do with it? There are three public cinemas in the World which would be capable of screening it, plus one or two private ones; I'm not sure of the status of those now.

To the best of my knowledge the only regular screenings of Cinerama are the monthly ones of 'This is Cinerama' at Bradford; other than those it's just occasional special events at all three venues. I've been to the regular screenings at Bradford a couple of times, and to be honest there are not a great number f people there. Most people today probably could not even be able to give a reasonably accurate description of what the Cinerama process was. With (almost) nothing new having been released in the last fifty years, there's little chance of any new installations taking place, and with only three venues there's little chance of any new films being made ... That's before we even consider the technical and artistic restrictions imposed by the process.

It would be nice to have a new print of each of the films made which could circulate between the three venues, but there's little chance of that happening. At least the digital restorations enable the films to be seen, DVD and BD sales will bring in a small amount of revenue, and promote continuing interest in the films.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-17-2012 05:10 PM

quote: Allan Young
It would have been smarter to use all the money they could raise to make a single new three-strip print of just one of the titles rather than waste it digitally remastering them all.

I completely take your point that most of the non-fiction titles are basically unwatchable but for the unique technology that was used to make and show them.

The defence would be, however, that if you want to put on a festival that offers as complete as possible a cross-section of the output of Cinerama in its heyday on a finite budget, then if going down the digital route expands the range of titles you can show, then maybe there is some justification. But even so, 2001 in just 2K is a long way from ideal.

At the other end of the scale there are people who put on shows of educational, sponsored, industrial films etc. using the 16mm classroom projectors we remember from the classrooms of our childhoods as a sort of retro event - and again, without the atmosphere you get from putting the show on like that, well, you would have to be a very serious geek to be willing to sit through most of them. I helped to put a show on at an alternative comedy venue in Leeds last month, and the howls of laughter at faded and completely knackered prints of Say No to Strangers and Young Man's Fancy I don't think would have been there if they'd been seeing glossy restorations. The projector itself was also a talking point, specifically the fact that it was actually in the room and not hidden away in a booth. Most of the audience was under 30, I'd guess, and so probably hadn't seen one. In fact, I bought the BFI's DVD compilation of sex education films when it came out a few years ago, and on a TV screen in the living room, the atmosphere just wasn't there. But if the point of the show had been, say, to explore how classroom films about road safety or paedophiles had changed over the years, then if the ones you wanted to show weren't all available on 16mm then you'd be faced with a choice of not being able to deal with the subject properly, or having to go digital. I'd speculate that the curators of the Cinerama gig had to face a similar choice - format purism and be restricted to three or four films, or not so purist and show a wider range of titles. It's a tough one.

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