Cinerama
Cinerama is an extreme widescreen film format developed by the company of the same name with an aspect ratio of 2.685: 1, which was launched in 1952. When recording and the projection are three synchronously running 35 mm - video cameras , each equipped with a 27-mm-fixed focal length optics from Kodak, and corresponding projectors necessary. The frame rate was initially 26 frames per second, later 24. The word Cinerama was created by combining the two words Cinema (derived from cinematography ) and Panorama .
Cinerama technique
A fourth device was also used for the sound and synchronization of the three projectors in the cinema , which plays 35 mm magnetic film with seven sound tracks ( SepMag process ). The film step measures six hole spacings . Original sound recorded with several microphones is ultimately played back as a magnetic film with originally eight, later six tracks over six loudspeaker groups in the cinema. A distinction is made between center, left, right, half left, half right and surroundings. That was the first magnetic surround sound film sound .
The image is projected onto a screen curved over 146 °, which consists of many individual vertical segments (Louvered Screen). In the similar later film format Cinemiracle, the projectors throw the partial image indirectly (via mirrors) crossed onto the screen (left projector: right screen area; middle projector: center; right projector: left screen area).
The motion picture is at least 20 by 8 meters in size. The screen stands on a circle, the radius of which corresponds to the projection distance. If possible, the seats are arranged in a square that is roughly in the middle of the circle. In order for Cinerama to work, five technicians had to work at the same time: a demonstrator sat at each motion picture projector, a fourth was a jumper, and a sound engineer controlled the channels. The image and sound copies were distributed on reels for about one half of the program each. During the break you rewound the first half. For the around 15-minute breaks, extra music was composed for many films, some of which can also be heard on the respective film music sound carriers.
Cinerama's two main problems are in the curved screen. First, the reflected light from the sides brightens the center of the image and, second, the joints between the partial images can be seen as vertical stripes. A remedy was sought with the so-called Louvered Screen, which is not a closed surface but consists of hundreds of one- inch wide strips of tear-resistant plastic that are stretched vertically in a strong frame. Each strip can be directed around the longitudinal axis. The joints were made to disappear with so-called "gigolos". These are jagged metal strips that are electromagnetically vibrated in the picture window in the projector in order to blur the edge light. As soon as the partial images on the side were no longer projected directly, but via mirrors (projectors turned outwards, copies clamped reversed), the system was named Cinemiracle . A “miracle screen” reappears later in CinemaScope , but does not consist of strips.
The showing of the Cinerama films was a great success from 1952 to 1963. Cinerama cinemas with huge screens of up to 30 × 10 meters were built especially for this purpose around the world, especially in Europe. Back then it was an overwhelming experience to sit in the midst of the curved screens and surrounded by up to 7-channel magnetic sound ( cinema panorama up to 9-channel magnetic sound) and go on “world trips”. The production and also the showing of the films in the cinemas was very complex and ultimately too expensive. Furthermore, efforts were made to fill the big screen only with the help of a projector.
Other wide screen formats
Under Mike Todd (then husband of Elizabeth Taylor ), the "in return for Cinerama Todd-AO " method (AO = A merican O developed ptical (Company)). With the musical film Oklahoma! (1955), the 70 mm film was only shown by a projector and was therefore much cheaper. The viewing angle decreased to 128 degrees. The multi-channel magnetic sound track was now applied directly to the 70 mm film.
The Cinerama Company followed this procedure in later films ( It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World , 1963) under the title Super-Cinerama . Except for the name part, the Super-Cinerama format has nothing to do with the conventional Cinerama process. It is one of the numerous names of the 70 mm format ("single-lens projection"), which was still particularly suitable for being able to be shown on the large curved Cinerama screens without pronounced edge distortions.
The almost three-dimensional depth of the former 3-lens projection of the Cinerama films was lost somewhat. In the USSR, the Kinopanorama process was developed from 1956 onwards in return for Cinerama .
Cinerama theater
In Switzerland there was a single, the former Apollo Cinerama at Stauffacher square in Zurich (screen size 20 x 9 meters). After failures, especially due to the complex technology and the associated malfunctions, the projectors were replaced by the then newly developed legendary and later Oscar-winning " Philips DP 70 ", which could also play 35 mm film. The films that have now been copied to the Todd-AO could be presented with considerably less effort and almost without interference. For a long time, the Apollo had a cinema organ connected to lighting effects .
The cinema with the largest curved, permanently installed wide screen in the world (32 × 13 meters, curvature 120 degrees) was located in Berlin. It was the Royal Palace in the Europa Center . For comparison: the Cinerama Cooper Theater in Denver had a screen size of 32 × 11.5 meters, and the screen of the Cinerama MIR Theater in Moscow was 31 × 11.5 meters. In London, the screen of the Casino-Cinerama-Theater was 19.5 × 7 meters - here the world premiere of " How the West Was Won " on November 1, 1962 . The largest wide screen (no IMAX) in the country (England) owned and probably still has the Odeon Marble Arch with 23 × 9 meters. The Berlin Royal Palace was demolished in autumn 2006 to make way for a Saturn department store. There were still 3 projection booths there, but 3-lens Cinerama films were no longer shown there. The movie theater was on 10 August 1965 with the performance of the Super Cinerama film " The Greatest Story Ever Told " ( The Greatest Story Ever Told opened 1965).
The first Todd-AO cinema in Europe was built in Germany. It was the Savoy film theater on Hamburg's Steindamm. The official opening took place on March 14, 1957. The opening film at that time was "just" a normal CinemaScope 35mm color film: " Red Dust " ( The Brave One ). The demonstration film " The Miracle of Todd-AO " was shown on the large, curved screen (20 × 8.5 meters) in the accompanying program. Since 1998 the cinema has only existed as a "ghost cinema". There was an oriental bargain market in the foyer. The Savoy Film Theater has been back in production since 2013. The Hamburg municipal Metropolis Kino (formerly Dammtorstrasse) is using the “Savoy” for about 3 years as an exile.
The Grindel-Filmtheater , which opened in Hamburg in 1959 , had a screen size of 27 × 10 meters after a renovation in 1963. There were also 3-lane Cinerama films shown there, for example the German premiere of How the West Was Won on February 1, 1963 . During later renovations, the large curved screen was replaced by a smaller flat screen (20 × 11 meters). The cinema was closed on March 31, 2008 to make room for housing development.
There were also various “hiking cineramas”. These were huge air domes or tents in which the films were shown. They became known in England and France under the name "Itinerama".
On the occasion of the International Horticultural Exhibition (IGA) in Hamburg, there was a Cinerama tent cinema on the Heiligengeistfeld from April 26 to October 13, 1963. The Cinemiracle production Windjammer was shown .
In 1964, the first Cinerama drive-in cinema (car cinema) opened in Inglewood, California, the Century Drive-In Theater . At that time it had a screen size of no less than 54 × 18.8 meters. It was demolished in the 1980s.
Other venues for 3-lane Cinerama films in Germany were once:
- Aachen: Eden Palace
- Augsburg: Rex (?)
- Berlin: Capitol (first Cinerama Theater in Germany - premiere of " This is Cinerama " on April 29, 1959, later complete conversion to a theater) (Cinemiracle) *, Sportpalast (multi-purpose hall, screen size at that time 24 × 10 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Bonn: Universe
- Braunschweig: Kaiserhof (screen size 13.6 × 6.2 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Bremen: Regina (screen size 20 × 8 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Duisburg: UT palace
- Düsseldorf: Tonhalle (screen size according to listening and speaking 24 × 10 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Essen: Europapalast (screen size 26 × 11.8 meters), Grugahalle (multi-purpose hall, screen size here at that time a huge 33 × 13 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Frankfurt: Lichtspiele Filmpalast
- Hamburg: Cinerama Grindel Filmtheater (screen size 27 × 10 meters) * (here the German premiere of " That was the Wild West " on February 1, 1963), UFA-Palast am Gänsemarkt (screen size 17.5 × 8.2 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Hanover: Gloria Palast (screen size 13 × 6.1 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Karlsruhe: City (screen size 12.7 × 5.8 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Koblenz: residence
- Cologne: residence
- Mannheim: Scala-Filmtheater (screen size 16.6 × 7.8 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Munich: City Palast, Royal Palast (screen size 16.4 × 8.3 meters) (Cinemiracle) * (here German premiere of " Windjammer " on July 15, 1958)
- Münster: Fürstenhof (Cinemiracle) *, Münsterlandhalle (multi-purpose hall)
- Nuremberg: Delphi Filmpalast
- Siegen: Siegerlandhalle (multi-purpose hall)
- Stuttgart: Atrium (screen size 14 × 6.3 meters) (Cinemiracle) *
- Wiesbaden: Rhein-Main-Halle (multi-purpose hall)
- Neu-Ulm: Central Filmtheater (until 1969) *
(?) not quite sure whether only 70 mm films were shown there - (*) the Cinemiracle film Windjammer was also shown here .
Today, 3-strip Cinerama films in Europe are only shown in a cinema on a large curved screen (15.6 × 5.9 meters, curvature 146 degrees), especially once a year in March at the widescreen film festival in Bradford (England). There is a very beautiful and technically state-of-the-art cinema called Pictureville . It belongs to the National Museum of Media . Once a month, for those interested, a restored version of the first Cinerama film This is Cinerama (1952) is also presented there.
Worldwide there are only 3 cinemas in which 3-lane Cinerama films can be shown. The other two cinemas are the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles (screen size 26.2 × 9.7 meters) and Seattle's Martin Cinerama Theater (screen size 27.4 × 9 meters).
cinemamovies
The films “ That was the Wild West ” ( How the West Was Won , 1962) and “ The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm ” ( 1962) were the only 3-lane Cinerama films with a correct plot. All the others were so-called travelogues (travelogues, some with small storylines). Later, in a complex process, they were also converted to 70 mm format (three become one). They were also shown on television in 35 mm format.
The Cinemiracle film " Windjammer " (1958) was also copied into the CinemaScope format in Europe in the 1960s , and in Germany there was also a "widescreen copy" (ran at Delphi Berlin). However, it was only a light-tone mono copy.
Cinerama film list (3 stripes)
- This Is Cinerama (1952), premiered on September 30, 1952 in New York at the New York Broadway Theater (screen size at that time 19 × 7 meters), later, in the early 1970s, occasionally even shown again as a 70 mm Cinerama film. The Daily News commented on the event with the words: " Since the discovery of penicillin, there was no greater sensation in New York as the Cinerama ". The German premiere took place on April 30, 1959 in Berlin in the Capitol Theater on Lehniner Platz.
- Cinerama Holiday (1955)
- Seven Wonders of the World (1956)
- Search for Paradise (1957)
- South Seas Adventure (1958)
- Great is my Country (1958), also: Pokoriteli morya (b), Shyroka strana moya rodnaya (a) or German title: "Far is our country", first 3-lane cinema panorama film, awarded at the Brussels World Fair (EXPO ) 1958 , premiere on February 28, 1958 in the specially built Cinerama-MIR-Theater in Moscow.
- Windjammer (1958), the first and only Cinemiracle film, later also shown as a Cinerama film (without deflection mirror)
- The Enchanted Mirror (1959), also: Volshevnoye zerkalo (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- Naughty Curves (1959), also: Vallatud (Ohtlikud) kurvid (b), Opasniye povoroty (a), 3-strip cinema panorama film
- Renault Dauphine (1959), 3-strip commercial short film
- One Hour of unexpected Travels by Helicopter (1960), also: Chas neozkhidannykh puteshestviy v polyote na vvertolyote (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- Fourth Program of Panorama Films: Circus Performance and On the Red Square (1961), also: Chetvyortaya programma panoramikh filmov: Tsirkovoye predstavvleniye e Na krasnoy ploshchadyu (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- USSR with an open Heart (1961), also: SSSR s otkritim serddem (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- To the Antarctic for the Whales (1961), also: V antarktiku za kitami (a), 3-strip cinema panorama film
- Amazing Hunting (1962), also: Udivitelinaya okhota (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- The Volga Flows on (1962), also: Techit Volga (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- Dangerous Turns (1962), also: Opasniye Povoroty (a), first dramatic 3-strip cinema panorama film
- Holiday in Spain (1962), also: Scent of Mystery , Todd-AO 70, occasionally implemented in 3-Stripes Cinerama
- How the West Was Won (1962), later also copied into a 70mm Cinerama film
- The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), later copied into a 70mm Cinerama film
- Best of Cinerama, German: Cinerama's World Parade (1963)
- Winter Etudes, (1963), also: Zymnie etudiye (a), 3-lane cinema panorama film
- To Be Alive! (1964), short documentary film (18 min) performed at the New York World Fair 1964/65, Oscar winner 1966, also copied into a 70 mm Cinerama film for the award
- Cinerama's Russian Adventure (1966), 3-lane cinema panorama film, later also copied into 70 mm Cinerama film
- The Bounty (1995), 3-lane, Australian-made panorama documentary short (14 min) by John Steven Lasher, shown in Bradford on March 15, 1995
- In the Picture (2012), 3-lane short film shot in America for the 60th anniversary of CINERAMA by David Strohmaier. It is the first new CINERAMA film in 50 years.
- (a) Russian title, (b) Estonian title
According to the journal “Weltwunder der Cinematographie”, issue no. 1/94, even the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), filmed in Ultra Panavision 70, was only supposed to be in a Cinerama 3 tape in France, Belgium and the Netherlands at the time Version has been shown.
In France, the film La Fayette (1965, shot in Super Technirama 70) is said to have been shown in three stripes.
Super Cinerama 70mm films
- The Story (Chronicle) of the Flaming Years (1961), also: Povest plamennykh let - Sovscope 70, presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1961, the first Russian 70mm film, was also occasionally released as a 3-strip Cinerama in Russia Movie listed
- It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) A totally, totally crazy world - Ultra Panavision 70
- Circus World (1964), also: The Magnificent Showman - Super Technirama 70
- Golden Head, The (1964), also: Millie goes to Budapest - Super Technirama 70, only performed in Europe
- Mediterranean Holiday (1962), also: Flying Clipper - MCS-70, presented as a Super Cinerama 70mm film
- Battle of the Bulge (1965) - Ultra Panavision 70
- The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) - Ultra Panavision 70
- The Hallelujah Trail (1965) - Ultra Panavision 70
- La Fayette (1965) - Super Technirama 70, only performed in Europe
- The Black Tulip (1965) - MCS-70, presented as Super Cinerama 70mm film, only shown in Europe
- Grand Prix (1966) - Super Panavision 70
- Khartoum (1966) - Ultra Panavision 70
- Custer of the West (1967) - Super Technirama 70
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Super Panavision 70
- Ice Station Zebra (1968) - Super Panavision 70
- Krakatoa, East of Java (1969) - Todd-AO, presented as a 70mm Super Cinerama film
- Song of Norway (1970) - Super Panavision 70
- The Last Valley (1971) The Forgotten Valley - Todd-AO, presented as a 70mm Super Cinerama film
The films " Run Run Joe " (Arrivano Joe e Margherito) 1974, filmed in Todd-AO 35, and " The Great Waltz " 1972, filmed in Panavision (35 mm), were once "promoted" in England as Cinerama films . In reality it was just 70mm enlargements.
Literature / film documentation
- Joachim Polzer (Hrsg.): Weltwunder der Cinematographie - Contributions to a cultural history of film technology. Issue 2. 1995. "This is Cinerama". Publishing house of the DGFK Berlin.
- Robert E. Carr and RM Hayes: Wide Screen Movies. A History of Wide Gauge Filmmaking. McFarland & Company, Inc. - 1988. ISBN 0-89950-242-3
- In 2002 David Strohmaier made a film with the title " Cinerama Adventure ". It is a 93 minute long documentary, a completely original and unique documentary about the mother of all widescreen systems - namely the “Cinerama adventure”. In 2007 it was shown at the Bradford film festival. With the release of the DVD "That was the Wild West" in October 2008, the documentary was published for the first time as an additional film. Furthermore, a "SmileBox" version appeared on the Blu-Ray edition of "That was the Wild West", which tries for the first time to illustrate the "wraparound effect" of Cinerama on TV at home.