Cinerama Hollywood

I have read that the Cinerama screen at the Dome is 126 degrees of an arc, while the Cinerama process was shot with a 146 degree field of view. If that is the case, how does the Dome setup deal with the difference ? Is there cropping ? I have seen Cinerama presentations at both the Dome, and in Seattle. I could be mistaken, but it was my impression that Seattle was more like the original Cinerama experience that I remember. In any case, I have my ticket for Sept. 7th. See you there !

Just saw the screening of ‘South Pacific’ at the Cinerama Dome. I am in town for awhile from NYC and I was amazed at this theater that I have waited so long to visit. It really is a bit of a mind blower. The film was introduced by none other than Mitzi Gaynor herself. It was great to see this legend in person, and the print was one of the cleanest I have ever seen. Absolutely crystal clear, colorful, and resonant. I was also in awe of the size of the screen image. The only setback to the whole night was the curvature of the image on the screen. It didn’t 100% fill the screen leaving the areas in the lower left and right noticeably empty. I was really glad to see this film in this theater, but it was a bit of a shame that the perspective of the image was a bit off. I’m not an expert by any means, but I do have a tad of projection booth experience. I’m guessing that this question may have been answered earlier in this thread, but I’m too lazy to backtrack. Were any of these prints designed to fill that screen? Was there ever a lens designed to take standard prints and project them so it could fill the screen? It was a bit distracting. Unfortunately I will be back on the east coast when the screening of ‘2001’ takes place. I’d be interested to see if the same problem exists with that print.

Thank you Michael and to all who have responded to my question.
I have registered to join the Showmanship group and look forward to participatingin it.
Hearing of the demise of basically all reel-to-reel projection sadens me, however it'a a new world. To think, back in my day
we had as many as three projectors (and a few with four)in the booth We also had two projectionists on duty for 70mm,3-D,and studio previews and as many as 5 with Cinerama.
My, my how times have changed. I suppose the Dome and Arklight utilise one man two run both buildings. Thats how it was in Hawaii at Waikiki 1-2-3 after I retired.

That person that made those comments about the Dome’s booth operations most likely made those comments without asking his boss if he could. Some theatre chains have problems with employees using and making comments about operations on the internet. The last time I ran the Dome they still had two Century JJ 70/35mm projectors and two Christie AW-3 platters for the main house. Now they have Kinoton FP75 projectors. Most likely they replaced the second film projector with a Digital projector like the El Capitan did.

As much as I like ‘South Pacific’ (the songs in particular) – I saw a great stage production of it here in DC at Arena Stage – the film isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, but the color scheme really irked me. I’m surprised Fox hasn’t restored the Roadshow version for this presentation, that’d be the version I like to see on the big screen.

Vito,

I hope it’s not true either. But it was posted here a few months ago by an Arclight employee that the Dome no longer ran reel-to-reel. He also mentioned that the “2001” screening earlier this year was run on a platter. Although it was not a bad show, the print was not exactly in mint condition. (You can see all our comments on the show in this thread from Jan 31.) The thing is that this person is no longer a CT member, has not posted in a while, and most, if not all of his comments have been removed. So we don’t really know the whole story of what’s going on at the booth these days.

JSA

The Dome sounds like a beautiful theatre. The film “How the West was Won” was another cool film, which I saw when it first came out, as was “2001: A Space Odyssey”, which I also saw when it was quit new. Have a great time. If I lived in that area, I’d make sure I was there for both of them, and for “West Side Story” at the Castro Theatre, too.

Having seen HTWWW at the Dome a few years ago, I can only say it was way too dim and just didn’t have the power it should have. Nothing like when it was originally shown at the Warner Cinerama on Hollywood Blvd.

I’ve been told that the reason South Pacific will be digital is because Fox won’t let them platter the film. Bravo, Dome – get it together or stop the pretense.

I wonder if anyone from Arclight would be kind enough to update us in matters such as what’s on the booths, sound system, etc.

JSA

The digital projection at Arclight has been disappointing nowadays. The 1.2k DLP presentations years ago were actually better. Iron Man a few months ago looked out of focus AND the sound was just plain weak. In the same theater last week The Dark Knight in puny Dolby Digital rocked the house. What’s up with that?

So to add a twist to the South Pacific event at the Dome later this month, the in70 mm site has now added SP to the list of coming 70 mm screenings. Keep the fingers crossed: maybe it will be “film” after all…

Here’s the link: http://www.in70mm.com/now_showing/index.htm

JSA

Damon it’s about the cost to replace a new 70MM print which is much different from those 70MM release prints that you had over at Mann Theatres in Westwood. The studios only make a select number of those restored 70MM prints. Why those large number release prints from the studios had large print runs from the labs and the cost was less.