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Topic: Arclignt's Dome 50th Anniversary - NO large format or Cinerama!!

William Kucharski
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 244
From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America
Registered: Oct 2012

posted 10-17-2013 04:07 PM

I'm not sure whether it's due to the retirement of John Sittig - previously Arclight's beloved Director of Projection & Sound, and arguably Cinerama's greatest partisan - or whether their Facebook representative is correct in saying Arclight wanted to focus on the anniversary, not the process - but as a part of their 50th anniversary of the Dome Arclight is not showing any films in large format or even Cinerama.

They are showing It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - in digital.

Worse yet, they are showing How the West was Won in what may be the lowest resolution format available to them - single strip 35mm!!

I can't imagine what they're thinking; so many people are going to be so disappointed believing they'll be seeing How the West was Won in Cinerama when what they'll be seeing is that beautiful three strip image shrunk down to a single 35mm frame then blown up dome-size. How is that a "celebration" of anything but film grain?

What's much more of a pity is during last year's 60th anniversary of Cinerama, they showed How the West was Won from the beautiful 3-strip print they own and a stunning 70mm Ultra Panavision print of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

I've heard from several people over the past year that Arclight has dropped in quality; is this yet another sign concealed under the veneer of "being a celebration of the Dome, not the process?"

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 10-17-2013 04:20 PM

Robert Harris has completed a restoration of the 197-minute version of Mad World. I wonder if that is the one that will be shown. (It will be released on Blu-Ray in January from Criterion.)

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William Kucharski
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 244
From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America
Registered: Oct 2012

posted 10-17-2013 04:31 PM

I doubt it; I suspect it's the current DCP.

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Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008

posted 10-17-2013 05:50 PM

To be fair, it's not like the Cinerama Dome actually played a real three-strip Cinerama title during its first forty years, and it's also not like they go a very long time without having some kind of Cinerama festival of its own. They just did a Cinerama 60th Anniversary festival last year, and I'm sure John would be willing to come out of retirement for a few days if Pacific/Arclight asked him for assistance on the next one.

Off topic, if you ever get the chance to see John's collection of lenses, films and other items of the widescreen era, you must do everything you can to see it. I wish he's write a book about his collection.

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William Kucharski
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 244
From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America
Registered: Oct 2012

posted 10-17-2013 06:17 PM

I'd love to see his collection.

I was at the festival last year and now am especially grateful that I was.

It's just you'd think that when the blurb for their anniversary states:

quote:
We're celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of Hollywood's most recognizable landmarks: The Cinerama Dome, a geodesic structure boasting a screen of 32 x 86 feet with a 146 degree curve. Opened on November 7, 1963, the Dome was designed to show movies in the Cinerama process, known for its ultra-realistic projection, and is currently one of only three theaters of the kind left in the world.

they might actually want to show a film in the process.

It's their decision, I get it, but it's still a pity.

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-17-2013 10:34 PM

quote: William Kucharski
How is that a "celebration" of anything but film grain?

Maybe this is the point. The industry has transitioned to digital, and that's where their allegiance lies now. What's in it for them if they start making film look *too* good?

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 10-22-2013 08:59 AM

So.... If you had a restored print of something, and had a DCP made of each strip, is there a way you could synchronize 3 digital projectors?

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Lincoln Spector
Film Handler

Posts: 46
From: Albany, CA, USA
Registered: Mar 2012

posted 10-22-2013 01:10 PM

quote: Jack Ondracek
So.... If you had a restored print of something, and had a DCP made of each strip, is there a way you could synchronize 3 digital projectors?

It's probably possible. There's a theater near me that syncs two digital projectors for 3D.

I imagine that you could get Cinerama quality with a 6K projector set up specifically for the AR and curvature. But first, someone would have to make a 6K projector.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-22-2013 07:19 PM

I've long believed that setups with multiple adjacent projectors are doomed to fail, because it will always create visible and distracting artifacts where the images meet. But...

I've recently been to The Wall by Roger Waters, the reincarnation of the original concerts they did back in the 80's.

They use a giant wall as backdrop that spans the whole venue and this was a stadium that seats about 50,000 people, so this thing was really HUGE.

The resolution of the whole canvas is supposed to be 8560 x 1620 pixels. The brightness of the projections is beyond amazing, I've never seen such bright digital projections before. They're using about 24 projectors for the wall alone, together with a custom rig that seems to chop off a bit off the vertical edges of the projections.

I do believe they use at least two projectors for every segment, to achieve this amazing brightness.

I've been looking for visible seams, as they're usually easily spotted in multi projector setups, but I've not seen a single one.

So yes, with sufficient dedication and budget, you could create something really amazing.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

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

posted 10-22-2013 08:52 PM

I saw HOW THE WEST WAS WON in three strip Cinerama at the Cinerama Theatre in Honolulu doing it's first run engagement and it was just marvelous. I saw it again about a year and a half later at my hometown theatre, the Waipahu in 35mm with mono sound and it was terrible. On the other hand, the Movie on Blu Ray gives a very good impression of what I saw in the original version. By the way, the three strip projection equipment at the Archlight Cinerama Dome is from our Cinerama theatre.

-Claude

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-24-2013 03:26 PM

Everything at the Dome is DCP for this including this Sunday's presentation of Mad Mad World. Sadly, this appears to be more about celebrating that the dome exists than it does the different formats both digital and film that it has and can still run.

Mark

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Randy Pryde
Film Handler

Posts: 32
From: Casper, WY, USA
Registered: Feb 2013

posted 10-24-2013 10:42 PM

As of the time of this post, the arclight webpage notes that the showing of "How the West Was Won" will be in the original 3 strip Cinerama process.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-26-2013 02:02 PM

Indeed, it does, sounds like the previous moaning was a bit unjustified:

quote:
Presented in the original three-strip CINERAMA projection process... From the Erie Canal and Ohio River, across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, How The West Was Won is the story of America’s expansion westward as told by three generations of pioneers, this massive motion picture was filmed with one of the greatest cast ever assembled.

Sounds pretty much awesome to me. It's not right around the corner for me, but when I would be in the vicinity, I would definitely try to catch this.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-26-2013 04:13 PM

And they are running HTWWW again on November 14th @ 8 PM. But possibly only a 35mm print. The listing wasn't exactly clear on format for that showing.

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