Cinerama
Could a war possibly impinge on an entertainment industry? Bizarre, isn’t it?
But it did! Post-war United States saw the average family growing in affluence, creating new societal trends. The film industry wanted to aim at the youth. They wanted to create tales of rebellion and rock n’ roll instead of traditional, idealised portrayals of characters.
This was the age where the television was laying its foundation in popular culture. The era when the idiot box tried to encroach upon the cinema’s expansive turf, stealing a major chunk of its viewers. The time when there was a dramatic plunge in ticket sales and box-office receipts.
The film industry had 4 major campaigns involving technical advances with wide-screen experiences viz., colour and scope, the VistaVision, Smell-o-Vision/Aroma-Rama, Cinemascope and the Cinerama.
The VistaVision is a high resolution, widescreen alternative of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was developed by Paramount Pictures’ engineers in 1954. Unlike the Cinemascope, this technique did not use anamorphic processes. Aroma-Rama, also known as Smell-o-Vision, was a system that discharged odor during the projection of the film so that the viewer could “smell” what was happening in the movie. CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used for shooting widescreen movies. These lenses, theoretically allowed an image to be created up to a 2.66:1 aspect ratio, almost twice as wide as the regular 1.37:1 ratio.
Apart from these 3 campaigns, Cinerama was the one in the limelight.
Invented by Fred Waller, Cinerama (coined from the words Cinema and Panorama), was a one of a kind novel process introduced during this period, when the antagonism between the movie and the television industries was at its peak. He was of the opinion that a sense of depth and realism could be achieved by a wide curved screen that included the viewer’s peripheral vision. Waller had realised that normal human vision is actually arch shaped. The way our eyes are fixed in our head gives us a curved view of the world around us. With its extremely broad angle of view, Cinerama system aimed to achieve an image similar to the human eye. A person watching a picture covering the same area, but projected on a curved screen, would feel as if he were living the scene.
An incidental anagram of American, Cinerama, was a revolutionary process that included 3 screens, each of which was projected upon by separate interlocked 35 mm projectors. The screen was deeply arched and subtended an angle of 146 degrees. Made up of hundreds of 22 mm wide vertical strips of a perforated material, it prevented the reflection of light coming from one end of the screen from falling onto the other.
A multi-track discrete and directional magnetic surround-sound system, developed by Hazard E. Reeves, was employed in this process for the first time. Five of the speakers were behind the screen, two on the sides and one at the back of the auditorium. A sound engineer was given a particular script according to which he directed the sound between the speakers.
The photographic system used cameras equipped with 27 mm lenses, approximately the focal length of the human eye. Every camera photographed a third of the picture, the right camera shooting the left part of the image, the left camera shooting the right part of the image and the central camera shooting straight ahead.
The first film made using the three-strip Cinerama process was ‘This is Cinerama’ (1952), a travelogue of the world’s legendary vacation spots, with a thrilling roller-coaster ride. This sequence was so realistic that many people became seasick when they saw it on the huge screen. It was the biggest box office hit of 1952 and it was playing only in one cinema, for three months.
Although Fred Waller’s initiative was awe-inspiring, it lacked in certain aspects.
Firstly, having skilled projectionists was essential as the projectors had to be moved at precise time intervals. In case one of the screens tore, it had to be replaced with a black slug exactly equal to the missing footage to provide synchronisation. Zoom lenses could not be utilised for movies made for Cinerama, since it would lead to distortion and the harmonisation would be lost. The cost alone of modifying the existing theatres, to accommodate Cinerama, was between $25,000 and $75,000 which simply could not be afforded by most of the theatres.
The films made using Cinerama required skillful improvisation on the part of the directors, producers as well as the actors. Filming actors that were interacting with each other in the same screen was cumbersome as well because of the different fields of view. The actors seemed to be looking past each other, making the scene bizarre. The portion where two screens merged had to be occupied by an insignificant object like a tree or a car to avoid the distortion of an actor’s body.
The chief disadvantage of them all was that the picture looked natural from a rather constricted “sweet spot”. The “sweet spot” for viewing Cinerama was at the crossover point of the projection beams from the three cameras. The directional stereophonic sound accompanying the film, extended its realism for the audience. The central screen would jitter and weave leading to its relative movement with respect to the side screens, which caused distraction to the audience.
When all’s said and done, Waller’s perspective of cinema was a masterstroke and provided a new entertainment thrill. Waller and his team were so absorbed in making Cinerama happen, that they overlooked the most crucial part, the realisation. Cinerama proves to be a classic example of an innovation falling short because it was ahead of its time.
The prevalent 3-D glasses which were created with a similar perspective, enhance the illusion of depth perception, hence adding a third dimension. This paraphernalia modifies your vision unlike the Cinerama that altered the screen, providing a much effortless solution!
Cinerama and the 3-D glasses both were gimmicks devised to combat the uprising of the television. Isn’t it astounding to know that these glasses were originated in the same period as the Cinerama, and are rampant even today? Don’t we wish we could experience this breathtaking work of art, the Cinerama?
