The journey will be divided into two parts:
DISCOVER THE LOST FILMS OF CINERAMA
The giant-screen experience, the legendary ASC cameramen who worked with it, and the digital restoration of the historic widescreen-format films that changed the face of motion pictures.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Cinerama’s large, curved-screen, travel-adventure extravaganzas were top box-office champions, and now for the first time the lost accomplishments of several legendary cameramen have been digitally restored. Cinerama was the forerunner of today’s IMAX and required three synchronized cameras to shoot and three synchronized projectors to exhibit; the process also featured a seven-channel surround-sound system. Most of these films have not been seen in any form for over 55 years.
A restored scene from "Cinerama South Seas Adventure" (1958).
The legendary land divers of Pentecost Island.
John F. Warren, ASC
Flying through the Swiss Alps.
Gayne Rescher, ASC
The presentation will profile the ASC cameramen involved with Cinerama and the challenges they encountered while shooting in such a format. It will also detail the difficult restoration process used to bring these images back from total obscurity. The session will feature Douglas Knapp, SOC, who will discuss the historical side of the Cinerama process and the original ASC cameramen who worked with it, and Dave Strohmaier, who will explain, with many examples, how the complicated restoration process is accomplished. Jon D. Witmer, associate editor of American Cinematographer magazine, will moderate the session, which will conclude with a presentation of several digitally restored scenes from classic Cinerama features.
A brief question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
MAKING A FILM IN CINERAMA
For last year’s 60th anniversary of the Cinerama process, one of the original three-headed Cinerama cameras was restored to operating condition and used to make a 30-minute short film called In The Picture. This was the first time the legendary three-panel widescreen system had been employed to make a film since 1962 – and it’s almost certain to be the last time, too. This seminar will reveal the unique production problems encountered while undertaking this historical adventure, and the difficulties associated with resurrecting and working with a long-lost film format. The presentation will conclude with a screening of the award-winning, 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary called The Last Days of Cinerama.
John Hora, ASC and Ken Stone of Stone Cinema Engineering
examine the 60-year-old Cinerama camera body
The intrepid Cinerama crew with the restored camera on the first day of shooting "In The Picture,"
the first film photographed in Cinerama since 1962.
Hosted by Jon D. Witmer, associate editor of American Cinematographer magazine, the session will feature Cinerama restoration director David Strohmaier in conversation with cameraman and widescreen-format historian Douglas Knapp, SOC.
A brief question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
The Cinerama adventure is organized by Camerimage Festival, American Cinematographer and Cinerama Inc.
21st Camerimage will be held in Bydgoszcz from the 16th through 23rd Nov
More about Bydgoszcz can be found here: www.visitbydgoszcz.pl
Camerimage Festival Office
www.camerimage.pl
