122-460: Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146-degrees of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporation. It was the first of several novel processes introduced during the 1950s when the movie industry was reacting to competition from television. Cinerama
244-459: A polyester fabric wrapped around a plastic or metal roller. The roller may either be exposed or enclosed inside of a frame and can be placed at the top of the window recess or outside of the recess. To control the roller blind there is typically a chain or string on either side of the blind. When the side chain is pulled one direction the roller will raise, and if pulled in the opposite direction it will lower instead. Some manufacturers also produce
366-407: A 16:10 aspect ratio (e.g. 1920×1200), but nowadays they are 16:9 (e.g. 1920×1080, 2560×1440, 3840×2160). Widescreen was first used for The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897). This was not only the longest film that had been released to date at 100 minutes, but also the first widescreen film being shot on 63 mm Eastman stock with five perforations per frame. Widescreen was first widely used in
488-789: A 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing them to display a 16:9 picture without letterboxing . Japan saw its first commercially available widescreen TV models in 1992 and TV networks began broadcasting in EDTV widescreen in 1995, starting with NTV . The first widescreen TV sold in the United States was the Thomson Consumer Electronics RCA CinemaScreen, released in 1993. In Europe, the PAL and the French SECAM Standard Definition systems employed higher resolutions than
610-564: A 2:1 aspect ratio . In 1926, a Natural Vision film of Niagara Falls was released. In 1927, the Natural Vision process was used in the production of The American a.k.a. The Flag Maker . It was directed by J. Stuart Blackton and starred Bessie Love and Charles Ray , but was never released theatrically. On May 26, 1929, Fox Film Corporation released Fox Grandeur News and Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 in New York City in
732-819: A Harkins theater, then closed in 1989 to make way for the Scottsdale Galleria. Venues outside the United States included the Regent Plaza cinema in Melbourne, Australia, which was adapted for Cinerama in 1960 to show This Is Cinerama and Seven Wonders of the World . The Imperial Theatre in Montreal and the Glendale in Toronto were the Canadian homes for Cinerama. A Cinerama temporary venue
854-500: A Venetian blind. Conservatory blinds are often made with Pinoleum. In Malaysia, an outdoor blind is sometimes called a "chik". The word was carried over from India by the British during the colonial times. Faux wood blinds are an alternative to real wood blinds. Faux wood is also known by the trade name Plaswood (a portmanteau of plastic & wood ). Made of a composite of man-made materials and natural wood particles, faux wood can be
976-465: A barrier between the window surface and the room. Due to the unavailability of standardized tests, no ranking system currently exists to compare the efficacy of these blinds. Windows and doors make up for almost one-third of a home's total thermal loss, according to the Department of Energy (United Kingdom) . This applies to heat loss in winter as well as entry of undesired heat in summer. When air inside
1098-402: A bit of improvisation on the part of the film producers. It was not possible to film any scene where any part of the scene was close to the camera, as the fields of view no longer met exactly. Further, any close-up material had a noticeable bend in it at the joins. It was also difficult to film actors talking to each other where both were in shot, because when they looked at each other when filmed,
1220-415: A black slug exactly equal to the missing footage. Otherwise, the corresponding frames would have had to be cut from the other three films (the other two picture films plus the soundtrack film) in order to preserve synchronization. The use of zoom lenses was impossible since the three images would no longer match. Perhaps the greatest limitation of the process is that the picture looks natural only from within
1342-504: A broadcast as a 16:9 image letterboxed to 4:3, with a small amount of color noise in the black bars; this "noise" is actually the additional lines which are hidden inside the color signal. Clear-Vision supports an equivalent widescreen system for NTSC analogue broadcasting. Despite the existence of PALplus and support for widescreen in the DVB -based digital satellite, terrestrial and cable broadcasts in use across Europe, only Belgium , Ireland ,
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#17328443259241464-604: A ceiling which routed air and heating through small vent slots to inhibit noise from the building's ventilation equipment. It was demolished in 1994 to make way for a Barnes & Noble . The second, also called the Cooper Theater, was built in St. Louis Park at 5755 Wayzata Boulevard. The last film presented there was Dances with Wolves in January 1991. At that time the Cooper was considered
1586-451: A cord, or automated through motorization. Controls for motorized blinds can be from a wall switch or keypad, remote control, or computer, eliminating the need for cords and allowing control of otherwise inaccessible windows. A number of modern homes are integrating blind control with central C-Bus solutions. This control provides ease of use and is effective for controlling blind operation to reduce heat loss during winter or minimize heat from
1708-471: A cord. The slats are typically manufactured using a rigid material such as aluminium, plastic, or wood and move in unison through a series of wires that run through the blinds. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Venetian blinds were widely adopted in office buildings to regulate light and air. A large modern complex in the US that adopted Venetian blinds was Rockefeller Center's RCA Building (better known as
1830-453: A few days after the system premiered, film critic Bosley Crowther wrote: Somewhat the same sensations that the audience in Koster and Bial's Music Hall must have felt on that night, years ago, when motion pictures were first publicly flashed on a large screen were probably felt by the people who witnessed the first public showing of Cinerama the other night...the shrill screams of the ladies and
1952-419: A horizontal (occasionally, in custom designs, tilted) track with moving carriers and vertical strips, called vanes , hanging off the carriers (attached by clips ). The vanes can rotate, changing the amount of light entering the room, and, when in open position, traverse the track (and thus be stacked compactly on one side of the window). When closed, the vanes tightly overlap, creating a good barrier against
2074-582: A less expensive choice than natural wood. These blinds have become more popular as the products have matured, becoming cheaper and more versatile at the same time offering more of a natural wood look. Current faux wood blinds are warp resistant, have UV ratings as high as 500 and come in colors that would be hard to find in natural wood blinds. Because of their resistance to warping, faux wood window blinds are suitable for areas with extreme temperature swings or high moisture, such as bathrooms and kitchens. Venetian blinds, both horizontal and vertical, are available in
2196-474: A limited number of blockbuster films. Paramount's VistaVision was a larger gauge precursor to 70 mm film. Introduced in 1954, it ran standard 35 mm film through the camera horizontally to achieve a widescreen effect using greater negative area, in order to create a finer-grained four-perforation 35 mm prints in an era where standard monopack stock could not produce finer results. Negative frames were eight perforations wide. Eight-perf photography
2318-406: A long and continuous fabric with a cellular structure when opened and fold onto themselves when closed. The honeycomb shades were introduced in 1985. The fabric is often made from soft paper or cloth-like material and is available in a variety of different structures including single cell, double cell or triple cell. Cellular blinds work by trapping air inside the cell structure once opened and create
2440-459: A manual or remote control by rotating them from an open position, with slats spaced out, to a closed position where slats overlap and block out most of the light. There are also several types of window coverings, called shades, that use a single piece of soft material instead of slats. The term window blinds can also be used to describe window coverings more broadly. In this context window blinds include almost every type of window covering, whether it
2562-481: A measurement are cut to a specific width and drop to match the window. The advantage of ready-made blinds is their availability and cost, whereas blinds that are made to measure will be more expensive but better fit the dimensions of a window. Aside from coming in different dimensions, window blinds can also come in a variety of different styles, materials, colours and patterns. Below is a list of several popular styles of blinds: Window blinds can be drawn manually using
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#17328443259242684-504: A non-anamorphic widescreen process developed by Paramount Pictures and Technicolor which could be adjusted to present various flat aspect ratios. Masked (or flat ) widescreen was introduced in April 1953. The negative is shot exposing the Academy ratio using spherical lenses, but the top and bottom of the picture are hidden or masked off by a metal aperture plate, cut to specifications of
2806-689: A number of different materials and manufactured in a number of different ways. This usually determines the name by which the blind is commonly known. Blinds (otherwise referred to as "shades") made of fabric can either be rolled up (on a tube; Roller shades), folded up (Roman shades) or pushed up in an accordion style (Pleated and Cellular shades). Many fabrics are used including cotton, polyester, wool, viscose and silk to create these shades. A silk cloth can be present or embroidery stitch, which will give tissue varied terrain. Wooden blinds are generally known as Venetian blinds. A number of horizontal wooden slats are joined by corded pulleys which can either gather all
2928-403: A number of man-made materials (either resembling wood or metal or simply plastic). These are better suited to areas where moisture or direct contact with water is likely to cause a problem, such as bathrooms and kitchens. These blinds are often available with micro slats (as small as 16 mm or 5 ⁄ 8 in or less). The result of smaller slats is that more have to be used to obscure
3050-506: A rather limited "sweet spot." Viewed from outside the sweet spot, the picture can look distorted. Furthermore, while the screen was a continuous curve, the projected image itself was a polygonal triptych , which often resulted in the combined image appearing bent or creased. Finally, any mis-alignment of the two intersections of the three films was quite noticeable which prompted the use of a vertical element at these intersections (tree, lamp pole, etc) to hide this flaw. The system also required
3172-646: A set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than 4:3 (1.33:1). For TV, the original screen ratio for broadcasts was in 4:3 (1.33:1). Largely between the 1990s and early 2000s, at varying paces in different countries, 16:9 (e.g. 1920×1080p 60p) widescreen displays came into increasingly common use by high definitions . With computer displays, aspect ratios other than 4:3 (e.g. 1920×1440) are also referred to as "widescreen". Widescreen computer displays were previously made in
3294-414: A string. Cordless cellular shades are available to reduce the risk of strangulation for small children. One may also have the option of lowering the top of the shade down, and/or the bottom of the shade up; commonly referred to as a Top-Down-Bottom-Up mechanism. Roman shades are a type of window blind used to help block out the sun. Although often called blinds, these are actually referred to as "shades" in
3416-541: A system using a single camera and 70mm (~2.75 inch) prints. The latter system lost the 146-degree field of view of the original three-strip system, and its resolution was markedly lower. Three-strip Cinerama did not use anamorphic lenses , although two of the systems used to produce the 70mm prints ( Ultra Panavision 70 and Super Technirama 70) did employ anamorphic lenses, 35mm (~1.38 in) anamorphic reduction prints were produced for exhibition in theatres with anamorphic CinemaScope -compatible projection lenses. Cinerama
3538-415: A thicker textile. Vertical blinds became available in flat plastic (PVC), fabric, embossed PVC, also S-curved slats. A more modern modification is to offer them with wood trim at the top and bottom—sometimes midway as well—and these are usually described as "Japanese Vertical blinds" because they are often coordinated with Japanese style Shoji blinds using the same timber. Vertical blinds were most popular in
3660-488: A unique look. Super gauges – The full negative frame, including the area traditionally reserved for the sound track, is filmed using "full" aperture, which was standard for silent, but also common for most anamorphic negatives. The print is then shrunk and/or cropped in order to fit it back onto release prints, which include a sound track. The aspect ratio for Super 35 , for example, can be set to virtually any projection standard. Large gauge – A 70 mm film frame
3782-510: A variety of materials; some expensive and some less so. Less expensive blinds are usually made in polyester, aluminum, or PVC. These are inexpensive materials that are all easily accessible and yet durable at the same time. A window blind is a means of screening a window, achieving similar results to those obtained by fitting curtains. Blinds are typically the same width and height as the window itself or slightly wider and taller—depending on whether they are fixed inside (Recess) or outside (Facefix)
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3904-498: A version of roller blinds with two layers of fabric, sometimes referred to as double roller blinds, for even greater control of light filtration through a window. Typically, one layer will be made of a sheer fabric that can be used to reduce glare, with a second layer that typically includes a blackout lining for even greater filtration when necessary. A Venetian blind is a type of window blind made from overlapping horizontal slats that are typically lowered and drawn together by pulling
4026-401: A vertical Venetian blind , to prevent light projected to each end of the screen from reflecting to the opposite end and washing out the image. This was a big-ticket, reserved-seats spectacle, and the Cinerama projectors were adjusted carefully and operated skillfully. To prevent adjacent images from creating an over-illuminated vertical band where they overlapped on the screen, vibrating combs in
4148-553: Is a hard or soft material; i.e. shutters, roller shades, cellular shades (also called honeycomb shades), wood blinds, Roman shades, standard vertical, and horizontal blinds (also called Venetians). In the United Kingdom , awnings are sometimes called blinds or shades. Window blinds are generally sold as either ready-made or made to measure . As the names suggest, blinds that are ready-made are manufactured to set sizes based on typical window dimensions, whereas blinds that are made to
4270-473: Is a type of window covering . There are many different kinds of window blinds which use a variety of control systems. A typical window blind is made up of several long horizontal or vertical slats of various types of hard material, including wood, plastic or metal which are held together by cords that run through the blind slats. Vertical blinds run along a track system which can tilt open and closed and move side-to-side. Window blinds can be manoeuvred with either
4392-457: Is frankly and exclusively "sensational," in the literal sense of that word. While observing that the system "may be hailed as providing a new and valid entertainment thrill," Crowther expressed some skeptical reserve, saying "the very size and sweep of the Cinerama screen would seem to render it impractical for the story-telling techniques now employed in film...It is hard to see how Cinerama can be employed for intimacy. But artists found ways to use
4514-541: Is not clear why the name is used unless the nonlinear stretch alludes to a curved screen. (Ironically, some widescreen cinema processes—not Cinerama—displayed a fault known as "anamorphic mumps," which consisted of a lateral stretch of objects closer to the camera). In the U.S., RCA does not appear to have registered the word Cinerama as a trademark; conversely, a number of trademarks on Cinerama, e.g. SN 74270575, are still "live" and held by Cinerama, Inc. Widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within
4636-733: Is not only twice as wide as a standard frame but also has greater height (five perfs versus four perfs). Shooting and projecting a film in 70 mm therefore gives more than four times the image area of non-anamorphic 35 mm film providing a major improvement in image quality. Few major dramatic narrative films have been filmed entirely on this format since the 1970s; the three most recent are Kenneth Branagh 's Hamlet , Paul Thomas Anderson 's The Master and Quentin Tarantino 's The Hateful Eight . For many years, large budget pictures shot anamorphically used reserve stocks of 70 mm film for SFX shots involving CGI or blue-screen compositing as
4758-435: Is nothing new about these stereophonic sound effects. The Bell Telephone Laboratories and Professor Harold Burris-Meyer of Stevens Institute of Technology demonstrated the underlying principles years ago." Kaempffert also noted: There is no question that Waller has made a notable advance in cinematography. But it must be said that at the sides of his gigantic screen there is some distortion more noticeable in some parts of
4880-468: Is obsolete. The original screen ratio for TV broadcasts was 4:3 (1.33:1). This was the same aspect ratio as most cinema screens and films at the time TV was first sold commercially. 1930s and 1940s films in 4:3, such as Gone with the Wind , have always been displayed on television in 4:3, filling the entire frame. When preparing a film that was originally intended to be displayed in widescreen for TV broadcast
5002-418: Is provided to widescreen TVs either in high-definition format, which is natively 16:9 (1.78:1), or as an anamorphically-compressed standard-definition picture. Typically, devices decoding Digital Standard-Definition pictures can be programmed to provide anamorphic widescreen formatting, for 16:9 sets, and formatting for 4:3 sets. Pan-and-scan mode can be used on 4:3 if the producers of the material have included
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5124-511: Is sometimes used for shooting special effects in order to produce a finer-grained matte that can be used in optical printing without image degradation, and is notable for its use in Lucasfilm 's original three Star Wars films, among others. Another similar system with horizontal orientation was MGM's Arnoldscope . Multiple lens camera/multiple projectors – The Cinerama system originally involved shooting with three lens camera, and projecting
5246-720: Is used for CinemaScope , Panavision , and several other equivalent processes. The film is essentially shot "squeezed", so that the actors appear vertically elongated on the actual film. A special lens inside the projector unsqueezes the image so that it will appear normal. Films shot in CinemaScope or Panavision are usually projected at a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, though the historical aspect ratio can be 2.66:1 (original separate magnetic sound aspect ratio), 2.55:1 (original four-track magnetic sound aspect ratio) or 2.35:1 (original mono optical sound aspect ratio, and much later "stereo variable-area" aspect ratio, also called Dolby Stereo). The negative
5368-442: Is usually 2.66:1 or, in rare cases, 2.55:1 or 2.35:1. The sole purpose of the change to 2.39:1 and, later, to 2.40:1, was to better hide so-called "negative assembly" splices (splices employed in the composited camera negative. This was not a production change, rather it was a recommended projection change.) A Chilean film, Post Mortem , used anamorphic lenses with 16 mm film , to be projected at an ultra-widescreen 2.66:1 for
5490-457: The 70 mm Fox Grandeur process. RKO Radio Pictures released Danger Lights with Jean Arthur , Louis Wolheim , and Robert Armstrong on August 21, 1930 in a 65 mm widescreen process known as NaturalVision, invented by film pioneer George K. Spoor . On November 13, 1930, United Artists released The Bat Whispers directed by Roland West in a 70 mm widescreen process known as Magnafilm. Warner Brothers released Song of
5612-542: The Fox Grandeur process. Other films shot in widescreen were the musical Happy Days (1929) which premiered at the Roxy Theater , New York City, on February 13, 1930, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell and a 12-year-old Betty Grable as a chorus girl; Song o' My Heart , a musical feature starring Irish tenor John McCormack and directed by Frank Borzage ( Seventh Heaven , A Farewell to Arms ), which
5734-501: The Great Depression had forced studios to cut back on needless expense and it was not until 1953 that wider aspect ratios were again used in an attempt to stop the fall in attendance due, partially, to the emergence of television in the U.S. However, a few producers and directors, among them Alfred Hitchcock , were reluctant to use the anamorphic widescreen size featured in such formats as Cinemascope . Hitchcock used VistaVision ,
5856-876: The Netherlands , Austria , Germany , the Nordic countries and the UK have adopted widescreen on a large scale, with over half of all widescreen channels available by satellite in Europe targeting those areas. The UK, in particular, began moving to widescreen with the advent of digital terrestrial television in the late 1990s, and commercials were required to be delivered to broadcasters in widescreen as of 1 July 2000, on their widescreen " C-Day ". Widescreen televisions are typically used in conjunction with Digital , High-Definition Television (HDTV) receivers, or Standard-Definition (SD) DVD players and other digital television sources. Digital material
5978-463: The Southcenter Mall of Tukwila, Washington. It closed in 2001. Cinerama also purchased RKO-Stanley Warner (consisting of theaters formerly owned by Warner Bros. and RKO Pictures ) in 1970. Stanley Warner Corporation acquired 35 percent of the company—as well as the exhibition, production and distribution rights to Cinerama—in 1953 during the production of Seven Wonders of the World , which
6100-532: The "flagship" in the Plitt theatre chain . Efforts were made to preserve the theatre, but at the time it did not qualify for national or state historical landmark status (as it was not more than fifty years old) nor were there local preservation laws. It was torn down in 1992. An office complex with a TGI Friday's on the west end of the property is there today. The third super-Cinerama, the Indian Hills Theater ,
6222-422: The 26 frames/s of traditional Cinerama. The following feature films have been advertised as being presented "in Cinerama": RCA uses the word "Cinerama" to refer to a display mode which fills a 16:9 video screen with 4:3 video with, in the words of the manufacturer, "little distortion." Manuals for products offering this mode give no detailed explanation. One online posting says it consists of "a slight cropping at
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#17328443259246344-692: The Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won , were filmed in three-camera Cinerama, and several sequences from the latter were actually filmed in Ultra-Panavision . With the exception of a few films created sporadically for use in specialty Cinerama theaters, the format is effectively obsolete. A non-Cinerama, three-projector process was pioneered for the final reel of Abel Gance 's epic film Napoléon ( 1927 ) The process, called Polyvision by Gance, consisted of three 1.33 images side by side, so that
6466-662: The Brothers Grimm ) before switching to a 70mm single lens in December 1963, and the Royalty had two runs of Brothers Grimm separated by a run of The Best of Cinerama before also switching to 70mm single lens in mid-1964. These London venues were directly operated by Cinerama themselves; elsewhere in the UK three-strip Cinerama venues were operated by the two main UK circuits, ABC at ABC Bristol Road, Birmingham and Coliseum, Glasgow, Rank at Gaumont, Birmingham, and Queens, Newcastle and by independents at
6588-743: The Bulge (1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Khartoum (1966). The less wide but still spectacular Super Panavision 70 was used to film the Cinerama presentations Grand Prix (1966); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which also featured scenes shot in Todd-AO and MCS-70); Ice Station Zebra (1968); and Krakatoa, East of Java (1969), which also featured scenes shot in Todd-AO. The other 70 mm systems used for single film Cinerama (Sovscope 70 and MCS-70) were similar to Super Panavision 70. Some films were shot in
6710-520: The Flame and Kismet (both 1930) in a widescreen process they called Vitascope . In 1930, after experimenting with the system called Fantom Screen for The Trail of '98 (1928), MGM came out with a system called Realife. MGM filmed The Great Meadow (1930) in Realife. However, it is unclear whether it was released in that widescreen process due to declining interest of the movie-going public. By 1932,
6832-558: The Park Hall, Cardiff, Theatre Royal, Manchester and Abbey, Liverpool. Most of these conversions of existing cinemas came just as Cinerama was switching to single lenses and thus had short lives as three-strip venues before switching to 70mm. Roman Cinerama Theater (now Isetann Cinerama Recto ) at Quezon Boulevard in Recto, Manila and Nation Cinerama Theater in Araneta Center , Quezon City were
6954-648: The Radio City building) in New York City , completed in the 1930s. One of the largest orders for Venetian blinds ever placed was to the Burlington Venetian Blind Co., of Burlington, Vermont , which supplied blinds for the windows of the Empire State Building in New York City. In 1994, a design for Venetian blinds integrated with window glass panels was patented. This new type of blind overcomes
7076-433: The UK during the 1990s, since then sales have slowed as they lost popularity with a younger generation. Stationary vertical blinds are hung in the doorways of some homes and businesses which generally leave the door open. Movement of the blind may signal a change in airflow, or someone entering the doorway. More commonly, however, these vertical blinds are made of thick plastic. In the cold rooms of food businesses, this slows
7198-472: The US NTSC Standard Definition system, which meant the quality issues of letterboxed or matted movies on TV were not as severe. There is also an extension to PAL, called PALplus , which allows specially equipped receivers to display a PAL picture as true 16:9 with a full 576 lines of vertical resolution, provided that the station employs the same system. Standard PAL receivers will receive such
7320-479: The Ultra Panavision 70 widescreen process (which yielded a similar 2.76 aspect ratio to the original Cinerama, although it did not simulate the 146-degree field of view). Optically "rectified" prints and special lenses were used to project the 70 mm prints onto the curved screen. The films shot in Ultra Panavision for single lens Cinerama presentation were It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Battle of
7442-615: The Waller Gunnery Trainer, was used during the Second World War. The word "Cinerama" combines cinema with panorama, the origin of all the "-orama" neologisms (the word "panorama" comes from the Greek words "pan", meaning all , and "orama", which translates into that which is seen , a sight , or a spectacle ). It was suggested in the documentary Cinerama Adventure (2002) that Cinerama could have been an intentional anagram of
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#17328443259247564-656: The West Was Won had its World Premiere at the Casino on November 1, 1962, and ran until April 1965 after which the Casino switched to 70mm single lens Cinerama. London had two other three-strip venues, making it the only city in the world with three Cinerama theatres. These were the Coliseum Cinerama , from July 1963, and the Royalty Cinerama from November 1963, like the Casino, both converted live venues. The Coliseum played only one film in three-strip ( The Wonderful World of
7686-400: The West Was Won (1962) for exhibition in true Cinerama theatres around the world. In 2008, a Blu-ray disc of How The West Was Won was released, offering a recreation of Cinerama for home viewing. The three Cinerama images were digitally stitched together so that the resulting image does not have the visible seams of older copies. Furthermore, as a second viewing option, 3D mapping technology
7808-478: The anamorphic format creates problems with said effects. It has also been used to sometimes strike 70 mm blow-up prints for "roadshow" tours in select cities from the 35 mm camera negative in order to capitalize on the extra sound channels provided. The introduction of digital sound systems and diminishing number of installed 70 mm projectors has made a 70 mm release largely obsolete. However, blowups from 35 mm formats to IMAX have been used for
7930-409: The audience, to prevent light scattered from one end of the deeply curved screen from reflecting across the screen and washing out the image on the opposite end. The display is accompanied by a high-quality, seven-track discrete, directional, surround-sound system. The original system involved shooting with three synchronized cameras sharing a single shutter. This process was later abandoned in favor of
8052-684: The camera at an angle, move away at an angle, and then repeat the process on the other side of the screen. The first Cinerama film, This Is Cinerama , premiered on September 30, 1952 at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The New York Times judged it to be front-page news. Notables attending included New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey , violinist Fritz Kreisler , James A. Farley , Metropolitan Opera manager Rudolf Bing , NBC chairman David Sarnoff , CBS chairman William S. Paley ,; Broadway composer Richard Rodgers , and Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer . In The New York Times
8174-447: The center picture met the side pictures, resulting in what appeared to many viewers to be jittering vertical lines at one-third and two-thirds of the way across the screen as the two touching images constantly moved around relative to each other. Cinerama projectors used a device to slightly blur the join lines to make the jitter less noticeable. Future systems such as Circle-Vision 360° would correct for this by having masked areas between
8296-423: The company with Mike Todd, was still raving about the process in his memoirs thirty years later. In addition to the visual impact of the image, Cinerama was one of the first processes to use multitrack magnetic sound. The system, developed by Hazard E. Reeves , one of the Cinerama investors, played back from a fully coated 35 mm magnetic film with seven tracks of sound targeting a speaker layout similar to
8418-481: The extreme top and bottom cropped slightly to hide anomalies". He further comments on the unreliability of "numerous websites and other resources that will tell you that Cinerama had an aspect ratio of up to 3:1." In theaters, Cinerama film was projected from three projection booths arranged in the same crisscross pattern as the cameras. They projected onto a deeply curved screen, the outer thirds of which were made of over 1,100 strips of material mounted on "louvers" like
8540-579: The finest venues in which to view Cinerama films. The theaters were designed by architect Richard L. Crowther of Denver, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects . The first such theater, the Cooper Theater, built in Denver, featured a 146-degree louvered screen (measuring 105 by 35 feet (32 by 11 meters)), 814 seats, courtesy lounges on the sides of the theatre for relaxation during intermission (including concessions and smoking facilities), and
8662-506: The following venues: The modern Cinerama company exists as an entity of the Pacific Theatres chain. Cinerama Adventure (2003), a documentary directed by David Strohmaier, looked at the history of the Cinerama process, as well as digitally recreating the Cinerama experience via clips of true Cinerama films (using transfers from original Cinerama prints). Turner Entertainment (via Warner Bros.) has struck new Cinerama prints of How
8784-446: The full unmasked frame is sometimes used for television, known as an open matte . In such an instance, a photographer will compose for widescreen, but "protect" the full image from things such as microphones and other filming equipment. Standardized "flat wide screen" ratios are 1.66:1, 1.75:1, 1.85:1, and 2:1. The 1.85:1 aspect ratio has become the predominant aspect ratio for the format. 35 mm anamorphic – This type of widescreen
8906-588: The heat leakage into the cold room. In warmer climates, vertical blinds discourage flies and some other insects from entering the building. In certain areas of the UK window blinds are used to disguise the fact that offices have PCs in them and are used as a burglary deterrent. Other varieties of window blinds include mini blinds (typically aluminum, Venetian-Style blinds with very narrow slats, usually 25 mm or 1 inch wide), micro blinds (usually 13 mm or 1 ⁄ 2 inch wide), louvers , jalousies , brise soleil and pleated blinds . Blinds can be made in
9028-457: The house than in others. The three projections were admirably blended, yet there were visible bands of demarcation on the screen. Although existing theatres were adapted to show Cinerama films, in 1961 and 1962 the non-profit Cooper Foundation of Lincoln, Nebraska, designed and built three near-identical circular "super-Cinerama" theaters in Denver, Colorado; St. Louis Park, Minnesota (a Minneapolis suburb); and Omaha, Nebraska. They were considered
9150-525: The human field of vision, including peripheral vision. The image was photographed six sprocket holes high, rather than the usual four used in conventional 35 mm processes. The picture was photographed and projected at 26 frames per second rather than the usual 24 FPS. According to film historian Martin Hart, in the original Cinerama system "the camera aspect ratio [was] 2.59:1" with an "optimum screen image, with no architectural constraints, [of] about 2.65:1, with
9272-440: The image, the left camera shooting the right part of the image, and the center camera shooting straight ahead. The three cameras were mounted as one unit, set at 48 degrees to each other. A single rotating shutter in front of the three lenses assured simultaneous exposure on each of the films. The three angled cameras photographed an image that was not only three times as wide as a standard film but covered 146 degrees of arc, close to
9394-530: The late 1920s in some short films and newsreels , and feature films, notably Abel Gance 's film Napoleon (1927) with a final widescreen sequence in what Gance called Polyvision . Claude Autant-Lara released a film Pour construire un feu ( To Build a Fire , 1928) in the early Henri Chrétien widescreen process, later adapted by Twentieth Century-Fox for CinemaScope in 1952. The experimental Natural Vision widescreen process developed by George K. Spoor and P. John Berggren used 63.5 mm film and had
9516-441: The material was often edited with the sides truncated, using techniques such as center cut or pan and scan . Sometimes, in the case of Super 35, the full film negative was shown unmasked on TV (that is, with the hard matte removed). However, this causes the 4:3 image not to be what the director intended the audience to see, and sometimes boom mics, edited out of the shot when the picture is matted, can be visible. Current TVs feature
9638-401: The more modern SDDS . There were five speakers behind the screen, two on the side and back of the auditorium with a sound engineer directing the sound between the surround speakers according to a script. The projectors and sound system were synchronized by a system using selsyn motors. The Cinerama system had some obvious drawbacks. If one of the films should break, it had to be repaired with
9760-457: The movement of inner lift cords. Some vehicles include or are retrofitted with sun blinds for rear and rear side windows. See also car glass . These blinds are used to protect the vehicle and the passengers from direct sunlight. Car shades are another common way to protect the vehicle. The shades for the rear and front windows are designed to be unfolded and sit against the window. They can be made of plastic or cardboard. The shades that go on
9882-524: The movie. They may well give us something brand-new here." A technical review by Waldemar Kaempffert published in The New York Times on the same day hailed the system. He praised the stereophonic sound system and noted that "the fidelity of the sounds was irreproachable. Applause in La Scala sounded like the clapping of hands and not like pieces of wood slapped together". He noted, however, that "There
10004-490: The necessary panning data; if this data is absent, letterboxing or centre cut-out is used. HD DVD and Blu-ray players were introduced in 2006. Toshiba ceased production of HD DVD players in early 2008. Consumer camcorders are also available in the HD-video format at fairly low prices. These developments will result in more options for viewing widescreen images on television monitors. Venetian blind A window blind
10126-516: The only Cinerama theaters built in the Philippines in the 1960s. Both theaters are now defunct as Roman Super Cinerama burned down in the late 1970s and became Isetann Cinerama Recto in 1988 while Nation Cinerama closed down in the early 1970s it is now Manhattan Parkview Residences built by Megaworld Corporation. The last Cinerama theater built was the Southcenter Theatre in 1970, opening near
10248-418: The pop-eyed amazement of the men when the huge screen was opened to its full size and a thrillingly realistic ride on a roller-coaster was pictured upon it, attested to the shock of the surprise. People sat back in spellbound wonder as the scenic program flowed across the screen. It was really as though most of them were seeing motion pictures for the first time...the effect of Cinerama in this its initial display
10370-414: The problems related to damaging and fouling. Usually, magnets are used for motor transmission in order to preserve the sealing inside the insulating glass. Vertical blinds were introduced in 1948 (Flexible Blind Company, Hunter Douglas ), and gained acceptance as an alternative to draperies due to the streamlined look, versatility, energy efficiency, large variety of finishes. The construction includes
10492-408: The projectors, called "jiggolos," alternately blocked the image from one projector and then the other; the overlapping area thus received no more total illumination than the rest of the screen, and the rapidly alternating images within the overlap smoothed out the visual transition between adjacent image "panels." Great care was taken to match color and brightness when producing the prints. Nevertheless,
10614-431: The resultant image showed the actors appearing to look past each other, particularly if they appeared on different films. Early directors sidestepped this latter problem by only shooting one actor at a time and cutting between them. Later directors worked out where to have the actors looking to create a natural shot. Each actor was required not to look at their fellow actor, but at a predetermined cue place instead. Finally,
10736-531: The room comes in contact with windows, it is cooled or warmed. By convection , this air then circulates around the room. Cell shapes in the blinds hold trapped air and create a barrier between the window surface and the room, thus lessening the transfer of heat. Shades, however, provide only slight control of air infiltration. In common with all blinds, cellular shades can reduce solar gain in summer and provide room darkening or blackout for sleeping. Like most other window treatments, they are raised and lowered with
10858-498: The same booth.) Due to the small number of Cinemiracle theatres, specially converted prints of Windjammer were shown in Cinerama theaters in cities which did not have Cinemiracle theaters, and ultimately Cinerama bought up the process. Only two films with traditional story lines were made, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won . In order to make these films compatible with single film systems for later standard releases, they were shot at 24 frames/s, not
10980-414: The same way as their horizontal counterparts (i.e. instead of drawing upwards to reveal the window, they draw to one side gathering in a vertical bunch). Pinoleum blinds are made up of small wooden twigs laid horizontally which are joined by vertical threading. The resulting weave is, as a result, only flexible vertically and can be drawn upwards once manufactured as a roller blind or in a similar fashion to
11102-475: The screens. The jitters continued, but viewers were less aware of them with the adjoining pictures no longer so close together. The impact these films had on the big screen cannot be assessed from television or video, or even from 'scope prints, which marry the three images together with the seams clearly visible. Because they were designed to be seen on a curved screen, the geometry looks distorted on television; someone walking from left to right appears to approach
11224-400: The seams between panels were usually noticeable. Optical limitations with the design of the camera itself meant that if distant scenes joined perfectly, closer objects did not. ( parallax error). A nearby object might split into two as it crossed the seams. To avoid calling attention to the seams, scenes were often composed with unimportant objects such as trees or posts at the seams, and action
11346-439: The side windows of a vehicle are usually attached using either suction cups or static cling. Solid fabric and slat car blinds have given way to cheaper and more flexible, folding, wire-framed "dark-stocking" synthetic blinds. These are used where the car owner has not dark-tinted the glass of the car windows enough, or during the day, by drivers or passengers seeking more privacy. Most commercial airliners feature window blinds in
11468-653: The slats at the top of the window to reveal the view or simply angle the slats while allowing some light to travel through the blind yet retaining some level of privacy. Wooden blinds come in a number of finishes (determined by the type of wood used, which ranges from painted to most types of solid oak varieties) and sizes (determined by the width of each slat which is usually available in one of three widths—25 mm [1 in], 35 mm [ 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 in], or 50 mm [2 in]). Wooden Venetian blinds are also available as vertical blinds. These are usually made up of wider slats and operate in virtually
11590-489: The somewhat lower resolution Super Technirama 70 process for Cinerama release, including Circus World (1964) and Custer of the West (1967). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cinerama name was used as a film distribution company, ironically reissuing single strip 70 mm and 35 mm Cinemascope reduction prints of This Is Cinerama (1972). In recent years, surviving and new Cinerama prints have been screened at
11712-641: The strangulation hazard; however, children have strangled on retrofit kits since 1995. The US CPSC recommends using cordless or cord-free window coverings where children live or visit. For window coverings that use continuous-loop cord systems, like vertical blinds, a wall cord cleat can be used to anchor the cord tightly to the wall and prevent children from having access to the dangling cord loop. Window blinds slats are held together with cords that allow for tilting slats, raising or lowering, and these are potentially dangerous if loose. As an added precaution, cord stops should be installed correctly and adjusted to restrict
11834-427: The sun during summer. Panel blinds, sometimes referred to as Japanese blinds as they are based on Japanese shōji , are thin blinds in a panel shape that run along a track. Almost any fabric or paper can be employed, although 90% of all shoji blinds use white polyester to imitate ' washi ' Japanese paper. Cellular shades or cellular blinds, sometimes referred to as honeycomb shades, are a type of window blind made of
11956-527: The sunlight penetration in summer and energy loss in winter. Unlike horizontal blinds, vertical blinds are less likely to collect dust because they stand vertically. Since they draw to the side rather than lifting and lowering, they are easier and faster to operate. They operate best on patio doors and sliding windows that slide from side to side. In the 1970s there were few choices of fabric- usually beige or white, which had to have stiffener embedded to prevent fraying, rather like on roller blinds fabric but using
12078-464: The theater's screen, in the projector . Alternatively, a hard matte in the printing or shooting stages may be used to mask off those areas while filming for composition purposes, but an aperture plate is still used to block off the appropriate areas in the theater. A detriment is that the film grain size is thus increased because only part of the image is being expanded to full height. Films are designed to be shown in cinemas in masked widescreen format but
12200-477: The three cameras. Consequently, Cinerama discontinued the three film process, except for a single theater (McVickers' Cinerama Theatre in Chicago) showing Cinerama's Russian Adventure , an American-Soviet co-production culled from footage of several Soviet films shot in the rival Soviet three-film format known as Kinopanorama in 1966. Cinerama continued through the rest of the 1960s as a brand name used initially with
12322-417: The three individual films would jitter and weave slightly as the films moved through the projectors. This normal frame-to-frame movement is typically imperceptible to cinema audiences where only a single projector is in use. However, in Cinerama, this resulted in the center picture constantly moving slightly relative to each of the side pictures. The shifting displacements were perceivable at the two points where
12444-450: The three resulting films on a curved screen with three synchronized projectors, resulting in an ultrawide aspect ratio of 2.89. Later Cinerama movies were shot in 70 mm anamorphic (see below), and the resultant widescreen image was divided into three by optical printers to produce the final threefold prints. The technical drawbacks of Cinerama are discussed in its own article . Only two narrative feature films, The Wonderful World of
12566-420: The top & bottom combined with a slight stretch at only the sides," and praises it. The posting suggests that other vendors provide a similar function under different names. Mitsubishi calls it "stretch" mode. The RCA Scenium TV also has a "stretch mode" as well as a 4:3 picture stretched straight across. There is no obvious connection between this video mode and any of the Cinerama motion picture processes. It
12688-565: The total aspect ratio of the image is 4:1. The technical difficulties in mounting a full screening of the film, however, make most theaters unwilling or unable to show it in this format. Between 1956 and 1957, the Soviets developed Kinopanorama , which is identical in most respects to the original three-camera Cinerama. Anamorphic 70 mm – 70 mm with anamorphic lenses, popularly known as " Ultra Panavision " or " MGM Camera 65 ", creates an even wider high-quality picture. This camera process
12810-456: The tradition, although its screen is taller and often less wide. All but two of the feature-length films produced using the original three-strip Cinerama process were travelogues or episodic documentaries such as This Is Cinerama (1952), the first film shot in Cinerama. Other travelogues presented in Cinerama were Cinerama Holiday (1955), Seven Wonders of the World (1955), Search for Paradise (1957) and South Seas Adventure (1958). There
12932-419: The window completely. Conservatory blinds (i.e. ceiling fixed via a number of horizontal pulleys) are often made of man-made materials. Corded window blinds present a strangulation hazard to children, causing 184 deaths in the United States between 1996 and 2012. Recalls of window covering products have not significantly reduced the number of deaths since 1980. Retrofit kits have been used since 1995 to "reduce"
13054-460: The window covering industry. They are often referred to as Romans or Roman blinds in the UK . When opened, the Romans stack up evenly; when covering the full window height, they are smooth without overlapping. Roman blinds can be purchased with a blackout lining on the back to fully block out sunlight. However, there will always be small light gaps on the edges of the blinds if mounted on the inside of
13176-411: The window frame or peeking out from behind the blind if mounted on the frame around the window. Unlike other blinds, such as certain fabrics used for roller shades, vinyl vertical blinds, or vinyl horizontal blinds, Roman shades are not an ideal option for areas with a lot of moisture, such as bathrooms or windows above a kitchen sink. Roller blinds are a type of window blind that is typically made from
13298-414: The window's reveal (i.e. the wall recess within which the window itself is fixed). Window blinds have varying thermal effects: they can block unwanted heat of the summer sun and they can keep in heat in cold weather. But in both of these applications, they also reduce light to varying degrees, depending on the design. Many kinds of blinds attempt varying balances of privacy and shade. Blinds can be made of
13420-410: The word American; but Dick Babish, present at the meeting when it was named, says this is "purely accidental, however delightful." The photographic system used three interlocked 35 mm cameras equipped with 27 mm lenses, approximately the focal length of the human eye. Each camera photographed one-third of the picture shooting in a crisscross pattern, the right camera shooting the left part of
13542-421: Was also one commercial short, Renault Dauphine (1960). Even as the Cinerama travelogues were beginning to lose audiences in the late 50s, the spectacular travelogue Windjammer (1958) was released in a competing process called Cinemiracle which claimed to have less noticeable dividing lines on the screen thanks to the reflection of the side images off mirrors. (This also allowed all three projectors to be in
13664-416: Was blocked to center actors within panels. This gave a distinctly " triptych -like" appearance to the composition even when the seams themselves were not obvious. It was often necessary to have actors in different sections "cheat" where they looked to appear to be looking at each other in the final projected picture. Enthusiasts say the seams were not obtrusive; detractors disagree. Lowell Thomas, an investor in
13786-586: Was built in Omaha, Nebraska. It closed on September 28, 2000 as a result of the bankruptcy of Carmike Cinemas and the final film presented was the rap music-drama Turn It Up. The theater was demolished on August 20, 2001. A fourth, the Kachina Cinerama Theater, was built in Scottsdale, Arizona by Harry L. Nace Theatres on Scottsdale Road opened on November 10, 1960. It seated 600 people. It later became
13908-582: Was built on the location of the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, for the whole duration of the fair, from April until October 1958. This Is Cinerama received its London premiere on September 30, 1954, at the Casino Cinerama Theatre (now the Prince Edward Theatre ), Old Compton Street, formerly a live theatre. The film ran for 16 months and was followed by the other three-strip travelogues. How
14030-430: Was invented by Fred Waller (1886–1954) and languished in the laboratory for several years before Waller, joined by Hazard "Buzz" Reeves, brought it to the attention of Lowell Thomas who, first with Mike Todd and later with Merian C. Cooper , produced a commercially viable demonstration of Cinerama that opened on Broadway on September 30, 1952. The film, titled This Is Cinerama , was received with enthusiasm. It
14152-436: Was planned as the follow-up feature. Rising costs of making three-camera widescreen films caused Cinerama to stop making such films in their original form shortly after the first release of How the West Was Won . The use of Ultra Panavision 70 for certain scenes (such as the river raft sequence) later printed onto the three Cinerama panels, proved that a more or less satisfactory wide-screen image could be photographed without
14274-447: Was presented to the public as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs, and audience members often dressed in their best attire for the evening. The Cinerama projection screen, rather than being a continuous surface like most screens, is made of hundreds of individual vertical strips of standard perforated screen material, each about 7 ⁄ 8 inch (~22 millimeters) wide, with each strip angled to face
14396-513: Was shipped from the labs on March 17, 1930, but never released and may no longer survive, according to film historian Miles Kreuger (the 35 mm version, however, debuted in New York on March 11, 1930); and the western The Big Trail (1930) starring John Wayne and Tyrone Power, Sr. which premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on October 2, 1930, all of which were also made in
14518-703: Was the first film photographed in the Cinerama process in almost 50 years. This sequence is part of a 12-minute production filmed entirely in the three-panel process. The new film, In the Picture , was presented at a Cinerama festival at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, California on September 30, 2012. Cinerama successors, Todd-AO , CinemaScope, and the various 70 mm formats, all attempted to equal or surpass its grandeur while avoiding its problems to greater or lesser degrees of success. The large format IMAX system continues
14640-510: Was the outgrowth of many years of development. A forerunner was the triple-screen final sequence in the silent Napoléon (1927) directed by Abel Gance ; Gance's classic was considered lost in the 1950s, however, known of only by hearsay, and Waller could not have viewed it. Waller had earlier developed an eleven-projector system called "Vitarama" at the Petroleum Industry exhibit in the 1939 New York World's Fair . A five-camera version,
14762-428: Was used for the remake of Ben-Hur (1959), resulting in an aspect ratio of 2.76:1, one of the widest projected images ever used for a feature film. The 70 mm anamorphic format was not commonly used, due to the very high production costs, although it was favored for epic films such as Ben-Hur in order to capture wide panoramic landscapes and high-budget scenes with thousands of extras and enormous sets. This system
14884-549: Was used to produce an image that approximates the curved screen, called "SmileBox". Since then, other Cinerama films, including The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm , The Golden Head , and South Seas Adventure have also had "SmileBox" edition blu ray home-media releases. On January 14, 2012, an original Cinerama camera was used to film a sequence at the Lasky-DeMille Barn , the original home to Famous Players–Lasky , later to be renamed Paramount Pictures . This
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