This is CINERAMA & Windjammer - September 25, 2012 Pre-orders

[Indian Hills Theater]

This is CINERAMA Blu-ray



Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich Blu-ray

UPDATE: Now for September 17 2012 release.


Because the rights owner (Pacific) was dragging it's feet on a deal, both of these on Blu will not be happening at this time. Another company would have paid for the mastering and split the $ with Pacific. Wish I had better news. I meant to post this when I first got the news 2 months ago. Sorry this is so late.



IHT

[ambientcafe]

Would've made a couple of nice companion pieces to my lonely copy of 'HTWWW'....was 'Battle of the Bulge', also avail on BD, a true 3-panel Cinerama feature? The BD cover states a 2.76 AR -- from a 'Super-Cinerama' print, I suspect.

[EricJ]

I didn't even know they were in the WORKS...
Yes, both movies were ahead in line for extending HtWwW's "Smilebox" into a recurring commonplace element for Cinerama restorations, and "This Is" clearly had more priority, but hopefully one little bit of rights issues won't throw them off the horse for other iconic-Cinerama Smileboxes.

(Specifically: "...NOW can we have that 'Brothers Grimm' restoration, huh, now can we, huh, can we, can we, huh? ")

[Indian Hills Theater]

The first few days of filming "The Greatest Story Ever Told" were shot in Cinerama. When they decided to drop the process because of the huge expense, Cinerama died a quick death.

IHT

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Indian Hills Theater

The first few days of filming "The Greatest Story Ever Told" were shot in Cinerama. When they decided to drop the process because of the huge expense, Cinerama died a quick death.
IHT

After those early days of shooting, the rest of the movie was filmed in Ultra (not Super) Panavision 70, with an aspect ratio of 2.75:1 (varied from 70mm theater to 70mm theater, depending on the shape and curvature of the available screen). This was the same process that was used to film a few scenes in How the West Was Won, shots for which the Cinerama three camera set-up was considered too cumbersome.

I saw Greatest Story projected in Ultra Panavision 70 on the original Cinerama screen in San Francisco's first Cinerama theater, the Orpheum. It looked great, considerably better than the Ultra Panavision 70 shots in HTWWW, as seen in the same theater, on the same screen. In HTWWW, the 70mm shots were intercut with three-camera shots that had a bit more film area devoted to the image on the three original negatives, and the 70mm shots looked inferior by contrast. Or, maybe they just did a slightly poorer transfer of the 70 mm to the three strips used in the theater than they did when printing from the three true Cinerama strips used in most of the movie. In the 70mm shots there was a bit of vignetting that I never saw in any other 70mm movie. Also, the phenomonon psychologists of perception call adaptation level may have had something to do with the U.P. 70 shots in HTWWW not looking so good; once we saw the bright and beautiful three camera shots, the U.P. 70 suffered in what amounted to an A-B test. In Greatest Story there was no immediate comparison. Another factor would be that all shots in true Cinerama would be shot with a 145 degree angle of coverage (that's the angle the 3 camera lenses took in), and would benefit from the increased sense of depth that wide angle shooting provides. None of the U.P.70 lenses have that wide a view (although they get pretty wide compared to other processes, except for the original Todd-A0, which had one lens wider than U.P. 70 -- the 128 degree "Bug Eye").

Despite all of the above, I think they did the right thing in filming Greatest Story in Ultra Panavision 70 -- IMO, the join lines inherent in the three-camera system would have been distracting in a film as somber as Greatest Story. The film had many quiet, meditative, contemplative moments, and an introspective score. I think we needed the intimacy of a join-line free image. That having been said, despite a thoughtful performance by Max von Sydow, and beautiful, if idiosyncratic, cinematography, the film didn't work too well, even in 70mm. I'm not sure why. But it was a noble effort. The best comment in this regard is the title given the booklet that comes with the soundtrack CD: Christus Approximus

Originally Posted by ambientcafe

Would've made a couple of nice companion pieces to my lonely copy of 'HTWWW'....was 'Battle of the Bulge', also avail on BD, a true 3-panel Cinerama feature? The BD cover states a 2.76 AR -- from a 'Super-Cinerama' print, I suspect.

I believe that Battle of the Bulge was filmed in 70 mm -- Ultra Panavision 70, again -- but released to theaters that had the patented Cinerama screen, when such theaters were available. If you can't see traces of the join lines or a very slight misalignment in any shot in a film, either they did a fantastic job of hiding them, or it wasn't in three-camera Cinerama. I went to the premiere of Battle of the Bulge in San Francisco, but didn't go inside to see the film, due to a temporary lack of funds. Outside, I met the great sculptor Benny Buffano, who was attending for some reason. Why I don't know. He had sent a body part (part of a finger?) to the President to "help with the war effort" during the previous war.

[Kirsty_Mc]

Shame... they would have been a nice addition to HTWWW. Hopefully some time!!!

[Superwonderscope]

Actually, Windjammer has been digitalized and will be shown at the Widescreen Film Festival in Bradford (UK) at the end of march 2010 (along with a 70 mm print of Battle of the Bulge and This is Cinerama shown in 3 strips!). I'll be there!

The people behind this restauration hope that a Blu ray release will follow (so do I...).

To see a few scenes thru Smilebox :

http://www.davidstrohmaier.com/review/WindJTEST.mp4

[Superwonderscope]

Just back from Bradford where I saw the digital version of Windjammer.
As the original source was more than mediocre, the final result is not (unfortunately) exceptionnal, far from it.
But discovering the movie on the big Pictureville curved screen was a great moment and David Strohmaier indicated that the blu ray shall finally be released in 2011 (thru Image, as far as I understood) and he hoped that many bonuses will be included.
No news (sigh) from a Blu version of This is Cinerama. But the 3-pannels Cinerama projection was absolutely stunning!

[Indian Hills Theater]

Dave and I have several friends in common. I haven't talked to him since 2001. That was the year the Indian Hills Theater was demolished.

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Superwonderscope

Just back from Bradford where I saw the digital version of Windjammer.
As the original source was more than mediocre, the final result is not (unfortunately) exceptionnal, far from it.

The original release of Windjammer was in Cinemiracle, a slight variation on Cinerama that used precisely adjusted mirrors to align the three images, purportedly better than with Cinerama. Although the souvenir programs we bought in the theater ($1 hardbound) detailed and trumpeted the Cinemiracle process, I believe they were projecting it for us in conventional Cinerama at the Orpheum in San Francisco.

The image was just a bit softer than the previous Cinerama films, but still was very detailed (much more so than 35 mm!) and sharp enough. Most scenes tended to have sort of a "Hi Key" effect, with the exception of the great sequence filmed by Wegee. Overall, I remember thinking, even though I knew that this was not true, that Windjammer had the look of Ektachrome or Anscochrome, rather than a high contrast emulsion like Kodachrome. That's only because I was familiar with those emulsions. I wasn't working in CPS then, but it would have looked more like that than Kodacolor. I realize that the film actually used was one of the negative motion picture emulsions I had never worked with, probably one of the Eastman Color motion picture films.

[dbradionow]

May 13, 2010

From the producer, this date...

We just finished Windjammer for Home video and are starting out on This Is Cinerama as we speak.
These are home video remasterings not photo chemical ones.


Dave

check out Norway screenings:

http://www.in70mm.com/news/2010/windjammer/index.htm


Here is some information on the remastering you can
read about.

http://www.in70mm.com/news/2009/windjammer/index.htm
http://www.in70mm.com/news/2009/wind...eden/index.htm
http://www.in70mm.com/news/2009/wind...cine/index.htm

Remastering presentation:
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.u...sp?filmid=8823
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.u...sp?filmid=8823

Early film test clips:
(you will need Quicktime installed to play)
http://www.davidstrohmaier.com/review/WindJTEST.mp4

Trailer with original mono optical English trailer sound track:
http://www.davidstrohmaier.com/review/Windj_Trailer.mp4

[nEoPOL]

We're now in 2011 and still no talk of an actual Blu-ray release. Does anyone know what's happening with this title?

[rondanto]

Too bad the forth coming blu ray release of The Greatest Story Ever Told" does not offer a smilebox option like HOW THE WEST WAS WON

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by rondanto

Too bad the forth coming blu ray release of The Greatest Story Ever Told" does not offer a smilebox option like HOW THE WEST WAS WON

Greatest Story Ever Told was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70, a 70mm process that used an aspect ratio of about 2.76:1. It was probably intended for release to Cinerama theaters wherever possible; indeed, we saw it at the Orpheum Cinerama theater in San Francisco on the same screen on which all of the previous three panel true Cinerama films had been projected. They had recently installed 70 mm projectors to replace the three booths and 3 panel Cinerama system. I think that The Scent of Mystery by Mike Todd Jr., in 70 mm Todd-AO (naturally!) was the first 70 mm film to be shown there after they took true Cinerama out. In later years such 70 mm films as Circus World (Super Technirama 70) were shown there quite successfully. None of the above 70 mm films were distorted, even though the Cinerama screen was more deeply curved than most screens in 70mm houses.

Even though Greatest Story looked fine @ 2.76:1 on the Cinerama screen, I preferred Kubrick's choice of 2.2:1 for 2001 in 70mm on a Cinerama screen, actually advertised as being in Cinerama, even though it did not have three panels. In this case the 70 mm was projected on a deeply curving screen 85 feet wide @ Century 21 in San Jose. 2.2:1 is just a more pleasing ratio, IMO.

[Tns49]

Okay thread starter changed Thread name. After a several year delay, the two mentioned titles are now available for pre-order from Flicker Alley.

This is Cinerama
WINDJAMMER: The Voyage of Christian Radich

[Deciazulado]

This is CINERAMA Blu-ray

Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich Blu-ray

[Tns49]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

This is CINERAMA Blu-ray

Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich Blu-ray

Currently Amazon is showing the at MSRP. Hopefully they will match Flicker Alley's preorder price.

[PowellPressburger]

OUCH! Spet 25th is just a killer day. The Hitchcock Set and the BOND 50 Set. I will for sure buy these but I may have to wait a while. I am thrilled they have pre-orders up :-)

[Tns49]

Originally Posted by Indian Hills Theater

The first few days of filming "The Greatest Story Ever Told" were shot in Cinerama. When they decided to drop the process because of the huge expense, Cinerama died a quick death.

IHT

Did they use any of the footage that was in true Cinerama?

p.s. I was stationed at Offutt in the early 70's and saw a number of pictures at Indian Hills. Very sad that decided to just tear it down.

[24framesasecond]

Originally Posted by Tns49

Did they use any of the footage that was in true Cinerama?

No. Cinerama and Ultra Panavision 70 were completely incompatible formats.