Cinerama Hollywood
6360 Sunset Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6360 Sunset Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
142 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1,201 - 1,225 of 1,412 comments
In the old Dome booth panel they had five aspect settings to choose from: Flat (1.85) / Scope (2.35) / 70MM (1:85 masking) / 70MM (Full width) / Cinerama (full screen). So people who saw films there from 1963 till the late 1970’s could have seen a film on the full screen. When they put Xenon lamphouses they only used four of those buttons on that panel. Pacific’s projection department disconnected the Cinerama button from the panel. The full screen was still there but the operator could not open it the full Cinerama width. The D-150 type houses did the same thing too.
LenK: Sound of Music never had an overture. I agree the presentation was awkward, as if the operators had no idea what an intermission was, and just ran it like any other reel change, maybe from a platter. Again someone whould have told them, either actually have an intermission break or just changeover from the actone fadeout to the act 2 fade in.
The last real roadshow I paid to see was Fiddler on the Roof at NYC’s Rivoli in 72. They had 3 shows that day (prob a Sat) 2-5-8. I was at the 5… At the end of Act I the picture faded out, then the fade in to Act II came on imediately. It was done quite smoothly but even as a kid, I knew they skipped the intermission to allow more walk-in time for the 8pm show. Having that in mind, the professional union projectionist most likely threaded the second act reel past the blank entr'acte, and did an early changeover before the intermission title.
from much personal experience with them, I doubt there are any management staff at the ArcLignt who know what a roadshow or intermission is.
Since we were talking about how a print looks to a viewer, that’s what I meant about the cue marks.
The Dome used to cover 2/3 to ¾ of the screen for 35mm, and wisely reserved the full screen size for 70mm.
Since ArcLight now insists on using the full size of the Dome’s screen for every format, 35mm will look dim, and grainy or soft. 70mm will be a much brighter and sharper image.
In other words, 70mm would look much better, so you would probably see the difference.
I was at the AFI event and saw “The Sound of Music.” They did not do an overture. We had the same intermission problem. As soon as the intermission went up on the screen, people start to leave. But, they went straight to the blank screen entr'acte. Most people in the audience didn’t understand what was happening. They thought they were missing part of the film. Very confusing and it dampened what should have been a wonderful night. No exit music either. All of it exists on the DVD.
BTW, in our auditorium, Julie Andrews was introduced by George Stevens Jr. In the audience was the girl who played Liesl as well as the widow of Robert Wise.
All cue scribes for cue makers and cues are round, it’s the lens that makes them oval. So a round cue printed on a Scope print will be oval. When you look at it on a bench it’s round. For 70MM there round and scribed on to the print at the lab.
70mm: perfectly round marks in upper right corner of the screen
35mm: oval marks
Is that right?
“You can tell if it’s a 70 print by the shape of the changeover cue marks.”
?????
Please tell more.
You can tell if it’s a 70 print by the shape of the changeover cue marks.
(1) Somebody might want to ask the AFI if 35 or 70 mm print of Spartacus was shown. I hope there’s still a good 70 mm print available.
(2) People bought tickets and were looking forward to seeing it, but weren’t shown The Shawshank Redemption? Why didn’t they just borrow one of the celebrities from another auditorium to give an introduction?
Regardless, sounds like a great event.
Roadshow: They DID close the curtain when the Intermission card came on.
Bill: Kirk just gave Kubrick the normal “great director” accolades. Dalton Trumbo was truly & literally the focus of Kirk’s remarks.
BTW: Said remarks are now available at the LA Times Calendar section (www.latimes.com)
Chris: Did Kirk have anything to say, nice or otherwise, about Stanley Kubrick?
One would think with an organization such as AFI, care would have been taken to either present the intermission properly or cue a changeover before the title came on. Someone should have known better… I wonder if the same thing didn’t happen with the other roadshow feature they were running…
Chris and Cliff,
Thanks for sharing! Indeed sounds like it was a lot of fun, despite the late starts and the micro-intermission for Spartacus . When this all came about, I was on a business trip back in the Midwest, and by the time I got to my hotel, the shows were sold out.
I’m wondering about those empty seats at the Dome…
JSA
I was also in attendance for the Rocky show in the regular Arclight complex (lower theater #6). Much like Chris’s show, Rocky started very late (I’d say 7:40). Same spiel (repetitive Rocky trivia, “Gonna Fly Now” on an endless loop for an hour, then the Maryland AFI rep, AFI film clip…) then Talia Shire comes out to introduce Stallone. She talked for a few minutes about her experience shooting the film and then introduces Stallone, who enters to a standing ovation. He talks for about five minutes and then away we go with Rocky (at which point a huge group of people all rush Stallone to get various Rocky products autographed at the side of the theater – I was surprised they let as many people get stuff signed as they did).
Now, here’s what I found interesting (and I need to call the Arclight to double check). I’m about 90% sure what we saw was a digital projection and it looked pretty amazing, but it also showed every flaw in both the photography and sound mix (which was the original mono, but was terribly shrill and painful at times). The reason I think it was digital projection is that I saw no changeover dots or reel changes throughout the entire film. There were a few points that showed odd cuts during shots, but there were none of the tell-tale signs of a film splice or reel change (any extra dirt, analog pops). The audio sounded to be some form of digital and, like I said, showed more flaws in the mix than I’ve ever really heard before. I could be wrong and it could have been film, but if it was, it was the best made up print I’ve ever seen in my life. Regardless, it probably looked better last night than it did in 1976.
But one of the coolest moments of the night was the arrival. People coming from the Sunset side of the Arclight, had to walk just to the other side of the red carpet as the presenters were all doing their press interviews. So as we entered the complex, it was, “Hey, look, it’s Rob Reiner! Oh, and there’s Clint Eastwood! Hey, George Lucas! And Billy Crystal! Wow, Kirk Douglas!” In fact, the only presenters we didn’t see there were Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.
And the poor people who bought for The Shawshank Redemption were SOL because Morgan Freeman couldn’t make it so that show was cancelled.
Thanks so much, Chris. It does sound like a night to remember and I’m really glad you shared your memories of it with us.
bcareful:
Yes, “The Slipper And The Rose” played at the Dome. It opened March 25, 1976 and ran for eight weeks. The presentation was 35mm & 4-track mag stereo.
Alright folks! Here’s the report from AFI’s 40th Anniversay on 10/3/07:
The entrance to Arclight was covered in Red Carpet (neato).
Folks were dressed in everything from suit to jeans and everything in between. I shoulda dressed sharper.
All the movies got started REAL LATE. The events were supposed to kick off at 7:00 PM – most didn’t start till close to 8:00 PM.
They broke the cardinal rule of cinematic presentation: NO SLIDE SHOWS! The Dome screen was 50% open so AFI could run a myriad of “Spartacus” triva stuff over…and over…and over…and over…and over again! Ugh!
Far Left/Right seats & the whole stadium seated section of The Dome was full. The middle floor seats, though, had some serious gaps. A bunch of folks didn’t claim their seats at all.
1st intro to the night happened round 7:15 or so when one of the directors of AFI’s Silver Springs Maryland branch did a mini intro.
7:45 – 8:00 or so gave the REAL intro. Curtaiss close, lights dim, and a 1-2 minute clip of AFI’s history kicks off. Clip shows President LBJ announcing the forming of the American Film Institute and finishes with a plethora of clips with a voiceover underneath. The Chairman of AFI’s Board of Directors makes his spiel and introduces LA Mayor Antonio Villarigosa. We gave him a nice applause – no boos. He talked about how “Spartacus” influenced him to get out there and change the world, blah blah blah. AFI Chairman comes back and introduces Kirk Douglas.
Weird seeing Kirk Douglas at 90 years old. Not used to seeing him in his twilight. Speech was slurred (of course) but absolutely passionate. The highlight of his remarks were about how he fought to get Dalton Trumbo’s screenplay on screen and, of course, how he fought to ensure that Trumbo got his proper screenplay credit. We gave Mr. Douglas 2 standing ovations.
Mr. Douglas leaves, the Oveture kicks in, lights dim, curtains open (and open and open and open), Universal International logo pops up on screen and we’re off and running.
The version of “Spartacus” that we saw was the 1991 restored version. No one told us (and nothing was advertised on site) if we were seeing the 35MM or 70MM version. Heck…doesn’t matter. That film looked AWESOME on the Dome screen! As much as many folks balyhoo about images on edges of the Dome screen being distorted & out of focus, I have to say that I didn’t notice any of those issues at all. Everything looked crisp, sharp and, most of all, BIG!
Film ran without an “official” intermission. The “Intermission” title appeared onscreen but, 2 seconds later, the Entra'cte (sp?) for Act 2 rolled in and we were off and running.
Film ended after the 11:00 hour and was greeted with mucho applause.
All in all, it was a night to remember.
Chances are they were shooting something.
I was walking by the Cinerama Dome last Friday (9/14/07) on my way to a movie at the Arclight and a crew of guys was covering the outside forecourt of the Dome with signs and photos from the 1976 movie “The Slipper & the Rose: The Story of Cinderella.” I have never heard anything good about this 30 year-old movie; were they really planning to show it in the Cinerama Dome? Or was someone shooting a movie set in ‘76 and the Dome was being put in period? Did this movie play at the Dome in '76? This has been on my mind all week; anyone have an answer? Thanks.
As of 11:35 AM today, all tickets have been sold out. So glad I got mine!
Crossing my fingers, Terry.
Will ‘Spartacus’ be shown in 70mm In the Cinerama Dome? Hire some new ushers and put them in gladiator outfits!
I sure hope the AFI is going to record all the celebrity introductions and make them available for viewing on their website. This is the kind of event we could never pull off in New York City, sad to say.
UPDATE:
As of 7:55 AM PST, EVERYTHING except a few seats for “The Birds”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “Spartacus” is SOLD OUT. I suspect everything will be gone by 8:30 – 9:00 AM…if not sooner.
Arclight’s selling ‘em now (Tuesday 9/17). I just got my tix! SWEEEEET!
I will post a report of the festivities. Stay tuned.
Justin: The Dome uses Dolby Digital EX or SDDS 8 Channel for 35MM films (depending on the film)and DTS for 70MM films (that have been encoded for DTS).