8mm Forum: Symphony Cinema

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 16, 2011, 06:56 PM:

Last night was truly a night to remember. No, not the 1953 British film about the Titanic. My wife and I went to see a Symphony Cinema concert, with the 80 piece Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra playing to new 35mm prints of scenes from some classic Oscar winning films . The amazing thing was that they had digitally removed the actual film orchestral accompaniment, while preserving the dialogue and sound effects. How they did this I have no idea, but the effect was amazing., it was like attending the original scoring of these films. The Producer of the show was John Goberman who is noted in the USA for producing the Live from Lincoln Center series on PBS. There was a sit down discussion before the show and Mr. Goberman explained that he had found a method of keeping the Orchestra in dead sync with the screen action by using a special stop clock. In watching the scenes from all the films, his method obviously worked, because the orchestra stayed in dead sync all the way through the 2 hour show.
The Bob Carr theatre was packed to its 3,500 seat capacity, and it was wonderful to see all these people responding to the projection of these great classic films on a big screen. The feeling in the theater was one of great love and respect for these incredible classic films. Even the RKO logo at the start of Citizen Kane produced a murmur of appreciation and a round of applause, and the 1939 MGM Lion’s roar reverberated through the auditorium at the start of The Wizard of Oz, where miraculously the Philharmonic Orchestra somehow kept in perfect step with Ray Bolger’s rubbery dancing. And the playing of Max Steiner’s Tara theme from Gone with the wind, in the scene where Scarlett swears “ never to be hungry again”, was very emotional indeed and the orchestra received thunderous applause for their magnificent playing.
An amusing touch was the showing of Oscar Levant’s tour de force Gershwin Piano Concerto from An American In Paris. This was the one sequence that the orchestra did not play to, but at the end of it the Conductor and Orchestra stood up to receive applause anyway!.
Mr. Goberman said during the pre-show talk that his next Symphonic Cinema production is going to be the full length feature Singin’ in the Rain!
Can’t wait!
.

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on October 16, 2011, 07:45 PM:

That must have been a terrific show. What a great idea.

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