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A Few Words About A few words about...™ This is Cinerama -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Steve Tannehill

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Strohmaier said:
Thanks Robert I create these trailers after the feature is all finished, I try to give them a period feel as if Cinerama actually produced it in the 1950s. Working on "7 Wonders" right now and it is in much worse shape that the others were. Dave
I never would have guessed that the trailer was created in the present day!
 

Allansfirebird

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Strohmaier said:
Thanks Robert I create these trailers after the feature is all finished, I try to give them a period feel as if Cinerama actually produced it in the 1950s. Working on "7 Wonders" right now and it is in much worse shape that the others were. Dave
You did a fantastic job on that trailer! The one I'm eager to see is "Cinerama's Russian Adventure." Would you be able to provide an update on how the restoration is coming along for that one?
 

Strohmaier

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Cinerama's Russian Adventure status The telecine of the 65mm negs is done and the 6 track mag sound is preserved and synced up to the film and we have SmileBoxed it & added the curtains. This was one of the 3 strip titles where the image across the screen is simply a "process shot" similar to the Windjammer remastering. In other words when the film went out to theaters in 1966 most Cinerama theaters had no 3 strip projectors left in the booths so the entire film (a 3 strip print) was re-photographed on a rear screen set up in 65mm at Film Effects of Hollywood, Lynwood Dunn's efx house. The result is that all three panels are there but a lot of extra grain, dirt and a lack of contrast exists and the color is not the best, also the panel alignment is built into the negs. so not much we can do about a better blend line. We had no financing at all on this title as it is not owned by Cinerama Inc. so we got a little bit of private financing to do the "bare minimum", telecine, stripe off the sound etc. Our computers were tied up doing South Seas at the time so hardly any real clean up was done on this title but you will see pretty much what you saw if you saw it in 1966 at most all the 70mm Cinerama theaters. Only one or two actually ran this title in 3 strip Cinerama as they still had the old projectors. So we call this a remastering & reconstruction from 65mm dupe elements it is not a digital restoration like the ones were are doing from original 3 panel negs. We would still need to clean up and then re-mix the tracks for 5.1 Since then the family who actually holds the copyright has contacted me and (may) decide to have it put out on DVD sometime later this year but nothing is cast in stone. check out: http://www.in70mm.com/news/2011/remaster_2/index.htm for some sample frame grabs Dave
 

Cinemark

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Seems I remember reading that the Brothers Grimm negative was severely damaged in a flood or fire. Too bad, I remember seeing that in the theater and haven't seen it since. Saw HTWWW as well.
 

24fpssean

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Dave, this is wonderful! Looking forward to building my Cinerama collection!!
 

Mike Frezon

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I really enjoyed THIS STORY (which I found in the margins of recent, related stories at Dave's site) on how elements to the Russian Adventure were found.
It sounds like Dave's status as the "Indiana Jones of Cinerama" is well-deserved.
 

Dan_Shane

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Am I seeing (or only noticing) more elongated distortion on the side panels than in previous Smilebox releases? I don't recall it being so pronounced on the other titles.
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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I picked up This is Cinerama and Windjammer and spent last night reading the reproduction booklets cover to cover. I don't like the trend of most Blu-Rays of omitting a booklet entirely or throwing some one-sheet toss-away in the case, so seeing these booklets in there was nice. Can't wait to dive into the films now.
 

Strohmaier

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Here is the new trailer for SSA: several shots in this (where we had negative missing) were scanned from LOC very magenta eastman color deposit prints. Dave
 

Timothy E

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Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
I really enjoyed THIS STORY (which I found in the margins of recent, related stories at Dave's site) on how elements to the Russian Adventure were found.
It sounds like Dave's status as the "Indiana Jones of Cinerama" is well-deserved.
"It belongs in a museum" is what Indy might say. That is a great story, and horrific to think what might have happened to the original elements if the "artist" had his way.
Kudos to you, Dave!
 

ahollis

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Strohmaier said:
Here is the new trailer for SSA: several shots in this (where we had negative missing) were scanned from LOC very magenta eastman color deposit prints. Dave
Wonderful. Can not wait to get this along with CINERAMA HOLIDAY. THANKS!!
 
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Plaudits to those involved in the restorations of This is Cinerama and Windjammer. Each were carried out as a labour-of-love. The commercial sales of each title would be limited to those who are mostly interested in those widescreen formats introduced in the 1950s.
 

revgen

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Wow.

I went to the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood yesterday and watched the newly restored Cinerama Holiday (1955). My first time watching a Cinerama movie on a real Cinerama screen. It's almost like 3D without the glasses. My favorite part was the bobsled ride. Usually you get this kind of affect in theme park rides like Disney's California Adventure ride. This was in a large theater designed to seat hundreds of people and projected on a huge 86 foot wide screen.

Bravo to Dave Strohmaier all the folks who helped to restore this film back to life.
 

Strohmaier

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Cinerama Holiday played at National Media Museum the same weekend as the TCM Festival event I was there
and it was shown on the full 146 degree louvered Cinerama screen it looked great complete with all the Cinerama effects.
Leonard Maltin's TCM report:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/movie-buff-heaven-the-tcm-classic-film-festival
Leonard says:
Another edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival has wrapped in Hollywood, and I had a great time hosting a variety of events, as a backup to the channel’s stalwarts Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz, and meeting a vast number of dedicated movie fans from all parts of the country. From opening night on the red carpet, where I saw longtime friends Ann Blyth and Jane Withers reunited, to a showing of Cinerama Holiday at the Cinerama Dome, where I interviewed two of its featured players, it was a jam-packed weekend.
on Sunday morning I greeted two charming women, Betty York and Beatrice Troller, who more than half-a-century ago accompanied their young husbands on the adventure of a lifetime. As they explained to the early-morning audience, the Cinerama Corporation chose a “typical” young American couple and sent them on their first trip to Europe, and an equally “average” European couple who had never visited America. The resulting travelogue, Cinerama Holiday, was the top-grossing box-office release of 1955, but it’s rarely been seen since then. Like This is Cinerama, it opens in black & white in a conventional nearly-square shape: then, when the Americans approach their destination in Switzerland, the screen widens to the full sweeping size of Cinerama, in color and multi-track sound. The digital restoration of this feature, with a music score by Morton Gould, looks and sounds magnificent.
 

Alberto_D

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A little revival of this topic.

In the restoration of The Best of Cinerame they restored also This is Cinerama, this time from original panels film elements. The image quality was improved considerably.



Interesting that The Best of Cinerama (a collection of sellected scenes from other cinmerama films) had no negative, as said the video, and no dupe negative was used to make prints, as they made the prints by cutting and combining original prints of the other Cinerama films . It savd money and saved image degradation of dupes.

I imagine if, while restoring the other cinerama films of this collection, the restoration team also checked the prints of The Best of Cinerama, as source for restore damaged correspondent scenes, or if just checked the prints and elements of each title.

Interesting to remamber that Cinerama was victim of the fading, since most films was shot beofre introduction of Eastman 5250 in 1962, the first with some decentt resistant to fading. That's why most films had severe color fading.
But I don't understand the case of Cinerama's Russian Adventure (1966). It was made after introduction of Eastman 5250, but also had considerable color fading.
 
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