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Cinerama Adventure at MoMA
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
October 2, 2007 at 7:45 am
NEW YORK, NY — The Cinerama documentary, “Cinerama Adventure,” will be showing at the Museum of Modern Art next month. The NY premiere is October 24th.
Get more details here.
Comments (13)
Is this being run in the Cinerama process? 3 projector?
It’s a documentary about the creation of Cinerama, it’s not in Cinerama.
Has anyone heard yet of any attempts to replicate the Cinerama process with digital cinema technology? Or is that just one of those things that will have to wait until social stratification improves for the better once more?
No it’s been done already years ago. Randal Kleiser was asked to shoot a demo film in the new format. I heard it refered to privately as “digital cinerama” but of course it was not related to the actual Cinerama format in any way. Who knows what it would officially be called. I don’t know if it has been developed enough to work on a big screen, but the idea has already been worked on to a substantial degree.
That’s reassuring to hear. But I presume the idea will not be picked up on again until a massive sea change takes place in the current status quo. I’ve been trying to get Texas Instruments and their affiliates to take special notice of the Boyd Movie Palace in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has been boarded up for years but had been a magnificent Cinerama theater back in its day (the ‘50s.) It’s currently up for sale, and is Philadelphia’s last still standing movie palace. But no luck so far in swaying TI and others involved with digital cinema to take any interest. Meantime, I take it the experiments you’re referring to took place back in the dot.com boom era of the 1990s?
Buy the Boyd and put in millions more to re-equip it so it can showcase Cinerama? Pigs will fly and cows will circle the Moon first. Cinerama hasn’t even returned to NYC.
When a pig flies you don’t fault him for not staying up so long. Stranger things have happened.
Well put, Saps! While make a special note: HowardBHaas is not saying that pigs will never fly and that cows won’t ever circle the Moon, only that he and others such as he are insistent that all that must happen first before the advance of technology can get back onto the fast track forward it was in the late 1990s. Or like I was saying, nothing such as I’m suggesting can happen until we see a sea change in the status quo. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the Boyd Theatre, which still has three projection booths leftover from its Cinerama days, is located, once had been home to some of the world’s greatest can-do innovators, starting with Ben Franklin. But now it is so contrasting to that innovative spirit that it can’t even so much as combine two already existing technologies so as to appear as if it still has it. Those who rule Philadelphia now won’t stand for it. But they’re certainly openminded to pigs flying and cows circling the Moon if anyone wants to head the city in that direction….as you can see.
I saw a preview of a rough cut of this film a couple years ago at the L.A. County Museum of Art – it was very interesting and informative. At the time its completion and release were held up due to negotiations for some of the film footage and music rights – looks like we’re finally getting to see it!
Going by what you saw, is its purpose to revive interest in Cinerama anew? That is, the revival of Cinerama itself? Or is it simply one of those documentaries that looks back nostalgically but with no ambitions beyond that?
For information on this documentary go to http://www.cineramaadventure.com/
Thanks for the great link! However, in reviewing this website so far I haven’t come across any efforts or even any mention of combining the technologies of Cinerama and digital cinema. In answering the question of my previous post, yes, there are efforts to revive Cinerama itself. Which is great! But from what I can tell, only in its original form, as a purely nostalgia type of thing. I’m looking to future — if it’s ever going to come — they’re looking to past. But thanks for giving us the link nonetheless.
I saw the documentary and met Dave Strohmaier at this event. His goal was to tell the true story of the phenomenon that wove its way into almost every aspect of 50s and 60s culture and beyond. Due to the expense of equipment able to screen authentic Cinerama (including the screen), there probably won’t be a rush to build or rebuild such theaters. While it is certainly possible to produce an effectual Cinerama display using digital equipment, the outcome may not be as impressive as witnessing the original as designed. One reason is, although progress continues, digital projectors are still rather limited in brightness, contrast, and resolution compared to a clean print through a high quality film projector. Sound is another problem: Much is lost when converting the original discrete 7-channel 30-ips magnetic tracks to 5.1, 7.1, or Dolby stereo. Any modern computer with a video card having 3 or more outputs and a sound card outputting 7 or more discrete hi-res PCM channels will, theoretically, give you the same effect, hooked to monitors or projectors. Now you need that special curved, multi-slat screen! Maybe, some day, computer systems like this will become affordable and popular (social stratification) and maybe someone will remaster and transfer all the original films to digital for this purpose, and you can have Cinerama in your bedroom or living room. Give Bill Gates a call…