Cinerama in your home Cinema

[Ed Gordon]

I have enjoyed several Cinerama films that have been restored and digitally formatted in the Smilebox format which simulates the curved Cinerama screen. I wondered if it was technically possible to use a curved screen with my digital projector. The answer came from David Tate, a retired projectionist, who posted a video on Youtube discussing curved screens for the home cinema.

A CURVED SCREEN FOR HOME CINEMA ?

I then went back to my Bluray of "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" and watched the special feature on " Rescuing a Fantasy Classic". There it was! Cinerama being projected onto a 146 degree curved Cinerama at Tom March's screening room in Calgary, Canada.

Digital Cinerama

There a many videos on Youtube on how to build your own curved projection screen. The time has come to replace my scope screen with a curved screen!

PS: David Tate has a Youtube channel, Dave's Digital Movies which has several interesting videos on home cinemas and other film related subjects. He wrote the book, Memories of a Cinema Projectionist.

[Graham Ritchie]

Brilliant Ed, a friend of mine built a curved screen years ago, and it always impressed me. It constructed the same way as described above. I looked at doing the same, but never went ahead with it, I look forward to you doing this and hopefully you can post some photos of its construction. I up-loaded this a couple of years ago, while sitting right in front of my flat screen, but nothing can really compare to using proper curved screen.

[Brian Fretwell]

I have seen Cinerama at the Casio in London (70mm), Pictureville in Bradford original system and an 8mm show (three projectors!!) at a Widex event in a London hotel (Rembrandt?) during a Widescreen Association "Widex" in 1974. The last was particularly impressive due to being able to see the projectors and sync equipment on stands in the auditorium.

I seem to remember that Tony Shaps had a slightly curved widescreen he used for demonstrations to cine societies.

[Lee Mannering]

Highly recommend the THIS IS CINERAMA bluray. The documentary in a guys home where he has a 3 projector setup is worth the purchase alone.
FlickerAlley Comes with dvd as well.

[Ed Gordon]

Highly recommend the THIS IS CINERAMA bluray. The documentary in a guys home where he has a 3 projector setup is worth the purchase alone.
FlickerAlley Comes with dvd as well.

Lee, you must be talking about John Harvey. Here is the video:

Cinerama theater in a home! John Harvey took out walls to install 3 projectors!

John Harvey (10/13/1936 – 5/3/2018) passed away in his sleep but made thousands of people happy during his 81 years.

[Graham Ritchie]

I remember John Harvey appeared in one of Keith Wilton tapes years ago, it included a most interesting tour of his home Cinerama cinema, most likely its the same one as above.

Ed, I have just subscribed to David Tate channel, his video on how to deal with sub-titles was most interesting, a simple effective way of dealing with some, but not all thankfully, blu-rays that have sub-titles going of the bottom of the screen. I will follow suit with the grey paint idea real soon.

[Ed Gordon]

Graham, David Tate's videos are well done, and he really knows what he is talking about.

John Harvey was a blessing to all male film collectors. If your wife were to complain about all the films, projectors, etc. in the house, you could just show her John's setup and point out that things could be far worse!

[Lee Mannering]

Cinerama will eventually be coming to S8 being on the radar. The cultural heritage must be preserved on Reel film.

[Janice Glesser]

I couldn't find David Tate's channel on YouTube. Somebody have a link please?

[Ed Gordon]

I couldn't find David Tate's channel on YouTube. Somebody have a link please?

Janet, the link is https://www.youtube.com/@davesdigitalmovies/videos

It is embedded in the "Dave's Digital Movies" text.

Dave's site has several interesting videos. Enjoy!

[Janice Glesser]

Janet, the link is https://www.youtube.com/@davesdigitalmovies/videos

It is embedded in the "Dave's Digital Movies" text.

Dave's site has several interesting videos. Enjoy!

Thank you Ed I'll check it out!.

[Phil Moors]

Cinerama is excellent, I have both ‘The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm’ and ‘How the West Was Won’ both on
Blu ray and project them using my Hitachi PJTX200 and they are both fabulous. That being said how on earth can Cinerama
come to Super 8? Presumably you don’t mean you are going to have the A B and C reels printed separately on three reels. Obviously you would need three projectors synchronised together. But to print a Smilebox image on the minuscule Super 8 frame would be pointless. Cinerama was meant to be seen using larger format film than Super 8 and the clarity just wouldn’t be
there to make it work.

[Ed Gordon]

Cinerama is excellent, I have both ‘The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm’ and ‘How the West Was Won’ both on
Blu ray and project them using my Hitachi PJTX200 and they are both fabulous. That being said how on earth can Cinerama
come to Super 8? Presumably you don’t mean you are going to have the A B and C reels printed separately on three reels. Obviously you would need three projectors synchronised together. But to print a Smilebox image on the minuscule Super 8 frame would be pointless. Cinerama was meant to be seen using larger format film than Super 8 and the clarity just wouldn’t be
there to make it work.

There is more discussion on this topic at: https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/f...er-8#post75984

Reducing the three strip Cinerama to super 8 is ironic, but on the bright side the source material to make the S8 print have a resolution greater than a 70mm source. Certainly better than those old lousy prints that have be shown on TCM for years. Regardless, like you Phil, I prefer to watch the blurays of restored Cinerama films.

[David Monard Ice]

My friend Greg Kimble, a special effects technician and Cinerama enthusiast, helped create Smilebox!

I will send him the link to your video. He will be so happy!

[Juergen Kellermann]

There was also John Mitchell (1941-2020) in Sydney, Australia, who had a 3-strip Cinerama theatre in his back-yard for about 35 years. He had a large collection of equipment and films, had all the Cinerama features in his collection and screened films regularly to his friends. He also contributed picture and sound elements to several restoration projects.

Here some information and tributes...
https://splicehere.website/blog/2017/6/18/mr-cinerama
https://www.in70mm.com/news/2012/mitchell/uk/index.htm
https://www.in70mm.com/news/2020/mitchell/index.htm

And a slide show about him...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6KppeILjkM&t=236s