70mm Cinerama Roadshow in Seattle!
Matthew
series. Because of work schedules, I haven't been able to make it
down for any of these shows, until, that is, I went to see 2001: A
SPACE ODYSSEY with my pal Craig Hyland there last Tuesday, 2/5/08.
There was a good crowd, especially considering that this was the 4th
screening of the film over a two-week period. I'm guessing the
theatre was between half and two-thirds full.
The main thrust of this post is to review their presentation of the
film, but I'll start with some thoughts on the film itself. I've seen
the film in this theatre a total of 6 times: once in 1983 or 84 as
part of the Seattle Film Festival, in a severely faded (presumably)
original print; four times in November of 2001, brand new print; and
last Tuesday, in what the Cinerama website was calling "Original print
in 'B' condition." This was my first time seeing it on the "flat"
screen now in daily use at the Cinerama.
First off, I don't think it was an original print! I've seen lots of
Metrocolor (and Eastman color, etc.) of similar vintage, and it's
generally pretty faded. This print shown last week had excellent
color. My guess is that this was a print made for the MGM 70mm
reissue that took place in 1977, or the print made for Sundance
several years later. Most reels were in excellent condition, and I
didn't spot a single mid-reel splice. The first couple of reels had
evenly-spaced green squares that ran along the left edge of the
screen. I'm guessing that this was damage from a sprocket roller, but
that's just a guess. Similar damage appeared briefly after
intermission, as well. During the opening scenes with the primates,
there were some vertical streaks in the picture. They were not long
scratches on the film, but maybe 8 or 10 vertical marks that
paralleled each other in roughly the middle-third height of the
picture. I'm not sure what would cause those. ...and yes, the
Cinerama logo was in full view at the end of the film! :-) Most of
the film looked razor sharp, but there were a few shots where dup
materials appear to have been inserted. These would just be single
shots now and then. My friend Craig who attended with me thought that
there were some problems in the shot just before "the white room"
scenes, in which we see a milky-way type constellation that appears to
sort of gently bubble. He thought that there were some instances of
color separation, in which the green was not synched with the other
colors. I saw the green gurgling, but thought that was always there.
I bow to others' expert knowledge on that one! (I don't own the film
on any home video format.)
One projection anomaly: The center of the picture appeared to be
slightly blurred. For instance, when HAL is first introduced, there
are some shots where HAL is dead center, and a series of TV monitors
flank him on either side. The TV monitors were in perfect focus, but
I literally could not read the "HAL" insignia on the HAL unit in the
center of the picture.
In terms of the sound on the print, there was more distortion in some
of the music sections than I recalled being in the reissue of a few
years ago. However, I've never thought that this was a very good
sounding film. My guess is that during post-production, Decca,
Deutsche Grammophon, and Wergo supplied copies of the music on reel-to-
reel tape to MGM, and the quality of those tapes may have been less-
than-fantastic, or there may have been some distortion introduced
during the final sound work on the film, or even during duplication/
striping. I can also state that the Rozhdestvensky recording of
Gayane and all of the Ligeti works are far from stellar recordings to
start with, but they still could sound a lot better than they do in
this film and even in the soundtrack CDs that have been issued,
including the recent Rykodisc reissue. (I've got all of the works on
their assorted re-mastered CDs from Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and
Wergo.) The Decca recording of Zarathustra, though, is excellent in
its remastered form. It seems to me that the film could have its
soundtrack vastly improved simply be procuring proper MODERN
remasterings of these recordings from the original labels, and
remixing the soundtrack. In most cases, when there is music on the
track, there is little or nothing else going on. It should be an easy
fix, by and large, and the bass could be greatly extended on the
Zarathustra, and cleaned up to reduce distortion on the other pieces.
Zarathustra, especially, sounds very strident and thin in the film,
and it should sound full and thick, with a pedal organ tone (around 30
Hz) that shakes the building. That sound quality is missing, and I
think it's just because of the source tapes MGM possessed at the
time. I doubt that sub-par sound was the intention.
Two more sound things: 1.) My ears told me that this was a Dolby
print, which again tells me that it is not an original print. I think
that it was Dolby because on the scenes where there is silence, such
as when Poole gets killed by HAL, there really was silence, with no
bed of hiss. 2.) I had never noticed before how obvious the hard
panning was on some of the dialogue. When Heywood arrives at the
Hilton, for instance, the dialogue was clearly recorded in mono and
then crudely switched from speaker to speaker behind the screen. It
was sort of "Perspecta-esque," with the entire sound "picture" just
switching from speaker to speaker.
Now....on to the show last Tuesday!
I was seated quite close to the screen, and as the overture started, I
noticed that it was only coming from the surrounds. I didn't recall
it being that way before, but I also had never sat so close, so maybe
I just hadn't payed attention. It seemed odd, though, that there was
also no hiss coming from behind the screen, as there was plenty of
hiss in the surrounds, as there had been at other screenings. The
lights dimmed, the curtains opened fully on a blank screen (UUUGH!!!),
the MGM Logo finally appeared, and you guessed it: ONLY THE SURROUNDS
WERE ON!!!! *ZERO* sound coming from behind the screen!! I went out
to the hallway, and there was a teenage female employee dutifully
carrying her little dustpan and broom. I said, "Excuse me, but
there's no sound coming from behind the screen." She acknowledged me
and headed downstairs to tell her boss. I loitered in the stairwell,
and this is literally what I heard: "Hey, is there a place where you
can sit behind the screen and watch the movie? This guy says there's
no sound back there." I then popped downstairs and explained that
what I meant was that no sound was coming from the front speakers,
then I returned to my seat. A couple of minutes go by. Finally,
another young employee came into the auditorium and just stood there
for a minute. (If you know the film, you'll remember that there's no
dialogue at all for probably 20 minutes or more.) Finally, she walked
up to the front right edge of the screen, then out the door that's
right along side the screen. (What the heck?) A couple more minutes
go by. Finally a non-teenager (in her 20s?) appears at the rear of
the auditorium. She listens briefly, then goes into the booth with a
phone. I could watch her in there looking things over. By this time,
we are well into reel 2! Still only surrounds. She shuts the
projector down, and the film grinds to a merciful halt. Finally, she
makes a call and could clearly be seen fiddling with (or at least
thoroughly reviewing) the buttons on and next to the projector.
Finally, she flips a switch, and we have sound from the front!
Time goes by. The film is progressing nicely. Craig leans over and
asks if I think they'll have an intermission. In the scene where they
venture forth from the spaceship to replace an antenna -- in mid-scene
-- the screen goes black and the curtain closes and the lights go up,
just out of the blue. Again -- what the heck?? Apparently, it's
intermission! That's not where it goes...but that's where it is!
"Intermission" passes. I'm guessing it was about 10 minutes. The
curtains open (blank screen again, of course) and then we pick up
exactly where we had left off, with a spaceman and an antenna dangling
out in space. At this point, some very bad sprocket-hole-type damage
appeared to be on the left side of the screen, and the film was
horribly unsteady, like something was not seated or threaded
correctly. After only a few seconds, the projector is shut off.
House lights up again. After a break of maybe 1 minute, the film
starts again, and off we go. From there on out, no problems, and no,
an "intermission" card did not pop up where the intermission is
supposed to be, thank goodness.
A little editorializing here:
1. I still can't believe that the Cinerama in Seattle has a huge
Cinerama screen and chooses not to use it. It served Seattle every
day for 35 years, and should still be in service today, and could be
with a little repair work.
2. How about some union projectionists???? If there had been a
PROFESSIONAL in the booth, it's a safe bet that the curtains would
have been operated properly and none of the breakdowns would have
occurred. Instead, we get people who are clearly unfamiliar with how
to properly run 70mm, and it's a joke. What really ticks me off is
that there are people who paid to see this show who have no idea how
much better the presentation SHOULD have been. AMC should be
embarrassed.
By the way, a local theater manager who is an acquaintance of mine was
in attendance, sitting right across the aisle. I noticed that he got
up and left fairly early on. From what I hear, he chewed the manager
a new one, as they say, before demanding his money back. Good for
him! I'm glad that somebody spoke up! This kind of stuff just should
not be going on.
Matt Lutthans, Seattle
MLut...@aol.com
PS - 5 years ago tomorrow, 2/15/03, I married my wonderful wife
Jessica in the Cinerama Theatre in Seattle, with fellow RAMTer Larry
Karstens as a groomsman, all the way from Omaha. The theatre
operators may have 70mm presentation issues, but they were warm hosts
and helped us throw a great wedding! :-)
in Technicolor®
well.
Appreciate your update re: the Seattle Cinerama Theatre.
It's a shame that Arclight, AMC, etc., do not have an events person who
understands what they have. As we all know, 70mm or Cinerama® are not your
usual movie fare and should not be run as such. Supervision, guidance and
monitoring are needed to run legacy prints and roadshow presentations
because these things are rarely done and generally from an era before most
if not all the staff were born! Also, a more sophisticated and knowledgable
audience is in attendance.
I love that theatre in spite of a few of its engineering and design mistakes
and I wish Vulcan would pay more attention to it's being properly managed.
They seem to run it like the multiplex at the mall. If they aren't careful
it is going to slip into pre-restoration condition again.
I'm hoping sometime to drive up again from Portland, OR to see another
70mm/3 strip presentation festival, but each year it seems less likely.
Thanks for your exhaustive and outstanding report. Hope AMC reads it!
Morgan
"Matthew" <mlut...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:13c2a789-b217-456e...@m34g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
John
> Happy Anniversary to Matt and Jessica! And have a Happy Valentine's Day as
> well.
>
> Appreciate your update re: the Seattle Cinerama Theatre.
>
> It's a shame that Arclight, AMC, etc., do not have an events person who
> understands what they have. As we all know, 70mm or Cinerama® are not your
> usual movie fare and should not be run as such. Supervision, guidance and
> monitoring are needed to run legacy prints and roadshow presentations
> because these things are rarely done and generally from an era before most
> if not all the staff were born! Also, a more sophisticated and knowledgable
> audience is in attendance.
>
> I love that theatre in spite of a few of its engineering and design mistakes
> and I wish Vulcan would pay more attention to it's being properly managed.
> They seem to run it like the multiplex at the mall. If they aren't careful
> it is going to slip into pre-restoration condition again.
>
> I'm hoping sometime to drive up again from Portland, OR to see another
> 70mm/3 strip presentation festival, but each year it seems less likely.
>
> Thanks for your exhaustive and outstanding report. Hope AMC reads it!
>
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Matt, great to hear from you. We played that print to check quality in
early January because we had a showing scheduled in the Cinerama Dome.
After we screened the print and accepted it, Warners wanted it back
for security reasons and then sent it to Seattle. You were very
accurate with your print condition report. That was a print that was
struck by Warners in 2000. It even has a Warner copyright title after
the end credits. We played it in format 42, which is 5 stage channels
and mono surround, magnetic and it sounded great. I am totally puzzled
by the intermission because when we ran it two weeks earlier,
it had the Intermission title right after HAL is lip reading the two
in the pod. There was also 2 minutes of call back music to begin the
second act. After Warners realized what they had done with the print
we were supposed to run, they sent us another, which was even better
physically than the print you saw, but it did have some minor
ticking in the stage left channel from the track being magnitized.
PS
I believe you still have my camera.
John
peterh5322
> 1. I still can't believe that the Cinerama in Seattle has a huge
> Cinerama screen and chooses not to use it. It served Seattle every
> day for 35 years, and should still be in service today, and could be
> with a little repair work.
It's a new screen for the "resurrection" of Cinerama at the theater,
and it is not perfect.
In fact, there is not the required, and expected overlap in the strips,
and when a film is played and there is a little A/C breeze present, the
image looks as if there are a zillion (print) base scratches as the
strips move thereby exposing areas where there is no screen at all (and
which simulates the "scratches").
--
CinemaScope® - The Modern Miracle You See Without Special Glasses!
--
Peter
Matthew
wrote:
That's exactly the "repair work" I was referring to in the original
post. I've got original Cinerama strip guides sitting at home. They
could be easily replicated and installed.
Matt
jwr...@earthlink.net
(the Stanford in Palo Alto and Cinerama Dome Hollywood during a three
strip Cinerama showing come to mind...probably a few more places I
don't even know about) showmanship, something you used to just take
for granted, is truly a thing of the past in American movie theaters.
Peter
Packard also runs a rep house in San Jose.
Two AA-IIs, I've heard.
--
CinemaScope®: The Modern Miracle You See without Special Glasses!
--
Peter
jwr...@earthlink.net
> Packard also runs a rep house in San Jose.
Well not exactly a rep house. The beautifully restored California
Theater is usually home to local opera and symphony companies but
Packard put up a good part of the restoration cost with the express
condition that the theater would be equipped for films as well as
music. Pipe organ for silents too! The San Jose Cinequest Film
Festival uses it as a venue and there have been infrequent (like once
or twice a year) classic film showings, some in 70mm.
> Two AA-IIs, I've heard.
Yup and presentation (probably by the same Stanford projection crew)
has been superb. No throwing the house into total darkness for 20
seconds, opening the curtain and then starting the projector or
opening the curtain in the middle of a roadshow overture...among the
crazy things you see at San Francisco's Castro Theater...and
apparently the Seattle Cinerama too.
Here's a page with some pics of the California:
John
in Technicolor®
projectors? Flame retardant for Nitrate or something? Beer for long
roadshows?
<jwr...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:6cd54172-43b1-4b27...@s37g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
William Hooper
> Awesome website. What in the heck are those blue drums behind the
> projectors? Flame retardant for Nitrate or something? Beer for long
> roadshows?
I believe those are yer basic tanks for yer projectors with
recirculating-water-cooled gates.
I like the old Simplex ones with the radiator coils on top like GE
Calrod stovetops.
>
> <jwr2...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
Martin Hart
@n58g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>, rotoflex...@yahoo.com says...
> On Feb 16, 10:51 pm, in Technicolor® <ciner...@verizon.net> wrote:
> > Awesome website. What in the heck are those blue drums behind the
> > projectors? Flame retardant for Nitrate or something? Beer for long
> > roadshows?
>
> I believe those are yer basic tanks for yer projectors with
> recirculating-water-cooled gates.
>
> I like the old Simplex ones with the radiator coils on top like GE
> Calrod stovetops.
>
I prefer booths equipped with motor-generators to create the necessary
DC current. Not at all noisy :-)
Marty
--
The American WideScreen Museum
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/