Cinerama Adventure

Last updated
Cinerama Adventure
Directed byDavid Strohmaier
Story byDavid Strohmaier
Produced byRandy Gitsch
CinematographyGerald Saldo
Edited byDavid Strohmaier
Production
company
C.A. Productions
Turner Entertainment
Distributed by Warner Home Video
Release date
  • 2002 (2002)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Cinerama Adventure is a 2002 documentary about the history of the Cinerama widescreen film process. It tells the story of the widescreen process' evolution, from a primitive multi-screen pyramid process to a Vitarama format that played a big part in World War II, to the three-screen panoramic process it eventually became. The film includes interviews with surviving cast and crew who personally worked on the Cinerama films, plus vintage interviews with late creator Fred Waller.

To simulate the Cinerama experience for The Cinerama Adventure, a special three-panel telecine process termed SmileBox (a registered trade mark of C.A. Productions), was developed by video and film expert Greg Kimble for use in this film; it was later utilized for TV broadcasts and Blu-ray releases of Cinerama-formatted films such as This is Cinerama and How the West Was Won .

It was written, produced, directed, edited and narrated by David Strohmaier; produced by Randy Gitsch; executive produced by David's wife, Carin-Anne Strohmaier; and was presented in association with the American Society of Cinematographers. The running time is 97 minutes.

In 2008, the documentary was released as an extra feature on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the movie How the West Was Won by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Cast


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Letterboxing (filming)</span> Black bars below and above an image

Letter-boxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting video-graphic image has mattes of empty space above and below it; these mattes are part of each frame of the video signal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Widescreen</span> Aspect ratio of a displayed image

Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios 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).

<i>How the West Was Won</i> (film) 1962 film

How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film directed by Henry Hathaway, John Ford and George Marshall, produced by Bernard Smith, written by James R. Webb, and narrated by Spencer Tracy. The story depicts the travails of a family and their descendents as they explore and settle the American frontier of the United States.

<i>This Is Cinerama</i> 1952 American documentary film

This Is Cinerama is a 1952 American documentary film directed by Mike Todd, Michael Todd Jr., Walter A. Thompson and Fred Rickey and starring Lowell Thomas. It is designed to introduce the widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the aspect ratio so that the viewer's peripheral vision is involved. This Is Cinerama premiered on September 30, 1952, at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darryl F. Zanuck</span> American film producer (1902–1979)

Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. Best known as a co-founder of 20th Century Fox, he played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors. He produced three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CinemaScope</span> Early widescreen filming system

CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinerama</span> Widescreen, curved screen projection process

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Criterion Collection</span> American home video distribution company

The Criterion Collection, Inc. is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A de facto subsidiary of arthouse film distributor Janus Films, Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and documentary content about the films and filmmakers. Criterion most notably pioneered the use of commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,200 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via The Criterion Channel, an online streaming service that the company operates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd-AO</span> American post-production company

Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company retains one facility, in the Los Angeles area.

A roadshow theatrical release or reserved seat engagement is the practice of opening a film in a limited number of theaters in major cities for a specific period of time before the wide release of the film. Roadshows would generally mimic a live theatre production, with an upscale atmosphere as well as somewhat higher prices than during a wide release. They were commonly used to promote major films from the 1920s–60s and build excitement.

<i>Windjammer</i> (1958 film) 1958 widescreen film

Windjammer is a 1958 documentary film that recorded a 17,500-nautical-mile (32,400 km) voyage of the Norwegian sail training ship Christian Radich. Windjammer was produced by Louis de Rochemont and directed by Louis de Rochemont III. It was the only film to be shot in the widescreen Cinemiracle process, which came with a seven-track stereophonic soundtrack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinemiracle</span> Widescreen cinema format

Cinemiracle was a widescreen cinema format competing with Cinerama developed in the 1950s. It was ultimately unsuccessful, with only a single film produced and released in the format. Like Cinerama it used 3 cameras to capture a 2.59:1 image. Cinemiracle used two mirrors to give the left and right cameras the same optical center as the middle camera. This made the joins between the projected images much less obvious than with Cinerama.

The Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, was a movie theater built in 1962 showcasing films in the Cinerama wide-screen format. Its location was at 8601 West Dodge Rd. The theater's screen was the largest of its type in the United States. Despite the protests of local citizens, Hollywood legends, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the theater was demolished in 2001 by Nebraska Methodist Health System for a parking lot.

Kinopanorama is a three-lens, three-film widescreen film format. Although Kinopanorama was initially known as Panorama in the Soviet Union the name was later revised to include its current name prior to the premiere screenings in Moscow in 1958. In some countries, including Cuba, Greece, Norway and Sweden, it was usually marketed as Soviet Cinerama. When Great Is My Country and The Enchanted Mirror, were exhibited at the Mayfair Theatre in New York City in 1958, it was briefly advertised as Cinepanorama. Kinopanorama is for the most part identical in operation to that of Fred Waller's American-designed Cinerama format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultra Panavision 70</span> 65 mm motion picture widescreen process

Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were, from 1957 to 1966, the marketing brands that identified motion pictures photographed with Panavision's anamorphic movie camera lenses on 65 mm film. Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were shot at 24 frames per second (fps) using anamorphic camera lenses. Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65's anamorphic lenses compressed the image 1.25 times, yielding an extremely wide aspect ratio of 2.76:1.

<i>The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm</i> 1962 film by George Pal, Henry Levin

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American biographical fantasy film directed by Henry Levin and George Pal. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest-grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional Academy Awards. The cast included several prominent actors—including Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Böhm, Jim Backus, Barbara Eden and Buddy Hackett.

<i>Scent of Mystery</i> 1960 American smell-o-vision film by Jack Cardiff

Scent of Mystery is a 1960 American mystery film directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Denholm Elliot and Peter Lorre. It was the first film to use the Smell-O-Vision system to release odors at points in the film's plot, and the first film in which aromas were integral to the story, providing important details to the audience. It was produced by Mike Todd Jr., who, in conjunction with his father Mike Todd, had produced such spectacles as This Is Cinerama (1952) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).

<i>Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry</i> 2005 American animated film

Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry is a 2005 American animated action-adventure racing comedy film featuring the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment Co., it is the third made-for-video Tom and Jerry film. Alongside Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars, the release of the film coincided with the 65th anniversary of the cat-and-mouse team's debut in 1940.

<i>Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars</i> 2005 American film

Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars is a 2005 American animated science fiction comedy-adventure film starring the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment Co., it is the second made-for-video Tom and Jerry film.

The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height. It is expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, in the format width:height. Common aspect ratios are 1.85:1 and 2.40:1 in cinematography, 4:3 and 16:9 in television, and 3:2 in still photography