Actually video and film is not too far afield for ARSC. Although we
didn't do that counterproductive next step that IASA did and change the
name of the organization to The International Association of Sound and
Audio-Visual Archives (a change I was able to delay for about seven
years), ARSC will consider and study these allied fields.
I am so envious of the L.A. screenings. Is that the the domed Cinerama
Theater I saw in LA last year at the time of ARSC? I had heard they no
longer have Cinerama capabilities. For the ARSC in Seattle my hotel was
a block away from the Cinerama Theater and I had no idea at the time
that they still had their Cinerama equipment. I saw several of the
Cinerama films in their late 1950s run in Newark, NJ -- we went on
several class field trips!! I also saw Oklahoma! in the original
Todd-AO run at the Rivioli in NYC when I was ten in 1956, and also saw
Carousel and The King and I in Cinemascope 55 and The Seven Little Foys
in horizontal VistaVision. I remember not being too impressed about
VistaVision since it was not very wide!
You are right about the print of How the West Was Won being technicolor
IB. In fact, he discussed the defect that is in that print. The
theater in London was missing about 100 feet of one of the reels and
BEGGED for him to send it over for copying. And sure enough, the ruined
that segment he sent so now his print has a dupe for that segment, and
he uses it to display how good the original print is compared with
anything they can do now.
Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cinerama Screenings (was archiving slide-tape
shows, was voca-film technology)
From: "Scott D. Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, August 07, 2012 12:00 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
OK, this topic is getting a bit far afield now, but since Mike started
it it, I figured I might as well follow up...
For those interested in Cinerama, the Arclight Theaters in Hollywood
will be presenting another run of all the Cinerama titles (some with new
prints), running from September 28th to October 4th. See:
https://www.arclightcinemas.com/news/promotion-cinerama?promo=spotlightM1
If you've never had the opportunity to view these films in their
original format, you don't want to miss this. While some of the titles
will unfortunately have to rely on digital projection (in 4K, I hope),
many will be projected in the original Cinerama three-projector film
format. Although there are still Cinerama system in Seattle and Moscow,
it is highly unlikely that all of these titles will be presented
together at showing anytime in the near future, so see 'em now while you
can.
FYI: The screenings that Mike alludes to were done by John Harvey at the
New Neon Cinema, which had been extensively remodeled for the run. What
started out as a special one month run ended up going for 3 1/2 years
before they finally had to shut it down! (BTW: The print of "How the
West Was Won" was an original Technicolor IB print, and was not faded in
the least. Some of the other titles though, such as "Roman Holiday",
were unfortunately Eastman color prints, which had gone severely
magenta).
It was John who was responsible for putting Cinerama back on the screen,
and is owed a huge debt of gratitude by the entire film community. When
I first met John, he had assembled full Cinerama system in the living
room of his home in Dayton, where we were treated to a private screening
of "How the West Was Won" (with all three projectors run single-handedly
by John)! While I had seen the film in it's original Chicago run, I was
really too young to appreciate it (or even remember it, for that
matter...) It was stunning.
Fortunately, I was not the only one who was enthralled to see the
original presentation of the film, and soon John had a steady stream of
visitors arriving at his door in Dayton, which prompted him to mount a
special run at the New Neon theater (with lots of assistance from Larry
Smith). Sadly, John has suffered from a series of strokes, which has
severely curtailed his activities. A huge loss, IMHO.
For those who are interested in more information on Cinerama, see:
Martin Hart's excellent site
at:http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingcr1.htm, along with
Thomas Hauerslev's site:
http://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/1997/49/afterglow/index.htm These two
guys have assembled a massive amount of material-you could spend days on
their sites.
RE: 30 FPS Todd-AO, we have the original Norelco projectors (along with
the curved gates), just no venue to set them up with a curved screen!
Sorry to get so far astray on this thread, but thought it might be of
interest to some...
--Scott
Scott D. Smith CAS
Chicago Audio Works, Inc.
On 8/6/2012 6:21 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> About 10 to 15 years ago there was a theater in Dayton, Ohio which had a
> local collector re-do the theater for Cinerama, and they had weekly
> showings using original prints. Unfortunately most were not Technicolor
> so have faded to magenta. But it was still great to be able to have
> Leah experience it. There are about four or five theaters that can still
> show it including one in Seattle, and Moscow, Russia, and I understand
> that the one in London does not use original equipment. Now, if only
> there was some place to see original curved-negative, 30 fps Todd-AO.
>
> Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] archiving slide-tape shows (was voca-film
> technology)
> From: "Randy A. Riddle" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, August 06, 2012 6:10 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 2:11 PM, Richard L. Hess
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> The point I think I was originally trying to make was that properly
>> archiving one of these shows is very difficult to retain full impact.
> Any kind of audio-visual preservation is only giving the viewer and
> listener and approximation of what the original experience of the
> media was like.
>
> With film, it's really impractical to set up a Cinerama system without
> a great deal of basic funding and maintenance. Even a chemical or
> digital based restoration of an old film isn't going to have the same
> look and feel of original nitrate or Technicolor elements. It's can
> be a compromise in some cases to save something and make it available
> for later researchers versus not having it in a viewable form at all.
>
> Doing a plan for a "proof of concept" for one of these multimedia
> slide shows would make an interesting journal article or presentation
> that might look at the relative costs, advantages and disadvantages of
> doing it through a 4K or 6K master versus a computer controlled
> version using multiple high-def projectors and some approaches with
> the major audio-track formats used to control the systems.
>
> rand
>
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