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Cinerama

For the UK rock group, see: Cinerama (band)

The original Cinerama system is a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146º of arc. The spectacular display is accompanied by a high-quality, six-track, stereophonic sound system. The original system involved shooting with three synchronized cameras, but this was later abandoned in favour of an anamorphic 65mm system, shot with a single camera. (Aficionados, however, insist that the later process was inferior).

Contents

History

Cinerama was developed by Fred Waller and was outgrowth of many years of development. A forerunner was the triple-screen silent Napoléon made in 1927 by Abel Gance; Gance's classic was considered lost in the 1950s, however; it existed only by hearsay, and Waller could not have actually seen it. Waller had earlier developed an 11-projector system called "Vitarama" at the Petroleum Industry exhibit in the 1939 New York World's Fair. A five-camera version, the Waller Gunnery Trainer, was used during the Second World War.

The word "Cinerama" combines cinema with panorama, the origin of all the "-orama" neologisms. ("Cinerama" is also an anagram of "American.")

Cinerama was introduced in September, 1952, at the Broadway Theatre in New York. For this big-ticket, reserved-seats spectacle, the Cinerama projectors were usually adjusted carefully and operated skilfully. Vibrating combs called "gigolos" were used to provide a linearly-ramped shading at the edge of each frame, so that they joined without a grossly obvious line or seam. Great care was taken in to match color and brightness when producing the prints. Nevertheless, the joins between the three panels were usually noticeable. Optical limitations with the design of camera itself meant that if distant scenes joined perfectly, closer objects did not. A nearby object might split into two as it crossed the seams. To avoid calling attention to the seams, scenes were often composed with unimportant objects such as trees or posts at the seams, and action was blocked to as to center actors within panels. This gave a distinctly "triptych-like" appearance to the composition even when the seams themselves were not obvious. Enthusiasts say the seams were not obtrusive; detractors differ. Lowell Thomas, an investor in the company with Mike Todd, was still raving about the process in his memoirs thirty years later.

The system had some obvious drawbacks. If one of the films should break and be repaired with the damaged frames cut out, the corresponding frames would have to be cut from the other two films in order to preserve synchronization. The use of zoom lenses was impossible since the three images would no longer match. Perhaps the biggest limitation of the process is that the picture looks natural only from within a rather limited "sweet spot." Viewed from outside the sweet spot, the picture is annoyingly distorted. But these problems certainly did not stop moviegoers from appreciating this innovative wide-screen process.

Worthy of note is the special Cinerama screen, which consisted of hundreds of separate vertical strips. This design eliminated cross-reflections on the deeply curved screen. Anyone who has seen the washed-out appearance of an IMAX Dome presentation will appreciate why this was important.

The impact these films had on the big screen cannot be assessed from television or video, or even from 'scope prints, which marry the three images together with the joins clearly visible. Because they were designed to be seen on a curved screen, the geometry looks distorted on television; somebody walking from left to right would appear to approach the camera at an angle, move away at an angle, and then repeat the process on the other side of the screen.

During the fifties, Cinerama was presented as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs. Patrons would dress up to attend.

Although most of the films produced using the original three-strip Cinerama process were full feature length or longer, they were travelogues or collections of short subjects such as This Is Cinerama and South Seas Adventure . Only two films with traditional story lines were made--The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won. (The total is three if you count Windjammer , made in Cinemiracle , a different but compatible process).

But rising costs in making three-camera wide-screen films caused Cinerama to stop making such films in their original form shortly after the first release of How The West Was Won. However, Cinerama continued through the rest of the 1960s as a brand-name for the one-camera Super- and Ultra-Panavision widescreen process (which yielded a similar aspect ratio as the original Cinerama). Examples of films made in one-camera Cinerama were It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cinerama name was used as a film distribution company, ironically re-issuing one-camera Cinemascope reduction prints of This Is Cinerama.

Cinerama's premiere

Cinerama premiered on September 30, 1952. The New York Times judged it to be front-page news. Notables attending included: New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey; violinist Fritz Kreisler; James A. Farley; Metropolitan Opera manager Rudolph Bing; NBC chairman David Sarnoff; CBS chairman William S. Paley; Broadway composer Richard Rodgers; and Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer.

Writing in the New York Times a few days after the system premiered, film critic Bosley Crowther wrote:

Somewhat the same sensations that the audience in Koster and Bial 's Music Hall must have felt on that night, years ago, when motion pictures were first publicly flashed on a large screen were probably felt by the people who witnessed the first public showing of Cinerama the other night... the shrill screams of the ladies and the pop-eyed amazement of the men when the huge screen was opened to its full size and a thrillingly realistic ride on a roller-coaster was pictured upon it, attested to the sock of the surprise. People sat back in spellbound wonder as the scenic program flowed across the screen. It was really as though most of them were seeing motion pictures for the first time.... the effect of Cinerama in this its initial display is frankly and exclusively "sensational," in the literal sense of that word

While observing that the system "may be hailed as providing a new and valid entertainment thrill," Crowther expressed some skeptical reserve, saying "the very size and sweep of the Cinerama screen would seem to render it impractical for the story-telling techniques now employed in film.... It is hard to see how Cinerama can be employed for intimacy. But artists found ways to use the movie. They may well give us something brand-new here."

A technical review by Waldemar Kaempfert published in the Times the same day hailed the system. He praised the stereophonic sound system and noted that "the fidelity of the sounds was irreproachable. Applause in La Scala sounded like the clapping of hands and not like pieces of wood slapped together." He noted, however that "There is nothing new about these stereophonic sound effects. The Bell Telephone Laboratories and Prof. Harold Burris-Meyer of Stevens Institute of Technology demonstrated the underlying principles years ago."

It is unlikely that Cinerama was ever presented better than at its premiere. Nevertheless, Kaempfert noted:

There is no question that Waller has made a notable advance in cinematography. But it must be said that at the sides of his gigantic screen there is some distortion more noticeable in some parts of the house than in others. The three projections were admirably blended, yet there were visible bands of demarcation on the screen.

Cinerama today

The Cinerama company exists today as an entity of the Pacific Theatres chain. In recent years hard work by dedicated enthusiasts has made possible showings of surviving and new Cinerama prints, notably at:

As of 2004, the Pictureville Cinema, Martin Cinerama and Cinerama Dome continue to hold periodic screenings of three-projector Cinerama movies.

A 2003 documentary, The Cinerama Adventure, took a look back at the history of the Cinerama process, as well as digitally recreating the Cinerama experience via clips of true Cinerama films (using transfers from original Cinerama prints). And Turner Entertainment (via Warner Bros.) has struck new Cinerama prints of How The West Was Won for exhibition in true Cinerama theatres around the world.

Cinerama is widely considered the most impressive wide-screen process ever to have achieved commercial success, and a process ahead of its time. Every other system--Todd-AO, Cinemascope, even IMAX, can be fairly described as attempts, with varying degrees of success, to approximate Cinerama at lower cost.


References

  • New Movie Projection System Shown Here; Giant Wide Angle Screen Utilized." Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, October 1, 1952, p. 1
  • Apparently Solid Motion Pictures Produced by Curved Screen and Peripheral Vision. Waldemar Kaempffert, The New York Times, October 5, 1952 p. E9
  • Looking at Cinerama: An Awed and Quizzical Inspection of a New Film Projection System. Bosley Crowther, The New York Tiimes, October 5, 1952 p. X1

External links

The American WideScreen Museum http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/ Rich, encyclopedic website on wide-screen motion-picture processes

Cinerama http://cinerama.topcities.com/ Detailed information on the history of Cinerama

Cinerama Adventure website http://www.cineramaadventure.com About the documentary on Cinerama


Last updated: 02-09-2005 23:45:08
Last updated: 02-24-2005 14:41:11