Cinemiracle
Encyclopedia
Cinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...
developed in the 1950s. It was ultimately unsuccessful, with only a single film produced and released in the format. Like Cinerama it used 3 cameras to capture a 2.59:1 image. Cinemiracle used two mirrors to give the left and right cameras the same optical center as the middle camera. This made the joins between the projected images much less obvious than with Cinerama.
Development
In the early 1950s, the Smith-Dietrich Corporation patented a two camera process using a single mirror to combine two conventional 1.33:1 aspect ratio images to produce a seamless 2.66:1 aspect ratio image.National Theatres acquired the rights to the patents and began development of a three camera system using the same system. The resulting camera was bulky at 600 pounds (272 kg) - but had a number of interesting features:
- The right and left cameras shot through mirrors, recording a reversed image — this was corrected by projecting the reversed image through a mirror in the theatre.
- An integrated view finder with a 146 degree field of view, enabling exact compositions.
- The three Eastman KodakEastman KodakEastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
27 millimeter lenses were electronically controlled - and shifted their optical centers depending on the focus. - The mirrors had beveled edges, which feathered the edges of the images, eliminating the need for the vibrating comb "gigolos" used in Cinerama.
- The camera intermettants also employed film milled for Dubray-Howell 'long-pitch' sprockets, unlike that of either Cinerama (B-H 'short-pitch' negative perf) or Kinopanorama (K-S 'short-pitch' pos perf).
The film was shot and projected at 26 frames per second from six perforation 35 millimeter film and sound playback was from a seven track magnetic system with five front channels and two surround channels
Surround channels
Surround channels are audio channels in surround sound multichannel audio. They primarily serve to deliver ambience and diffuse sounds in a film or music soundtrack...
that could be steered to the left, right or rear wall of the theatre.
The system used a 120-degree curved screen—this is somewhat less than Cineramas 146-degree curve, and was probably because Cinerama held key patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s on the design of deeply curved screens. However the smaller curve had the advantage of being cheaper and easier to make and install.
A film was needed to showcase the format, and this came in the shape of the travelogue
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
Windjammer, about the actual voyage of a large sailing windjammer, the Christian Radich
Christian Radich (ship)
Christian Radich is a Norwegian full rigged ship, named after a Norwegian shipowner. The vessel was built at Framnæs shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway, and was delivered on 17 June 1937...
. "Windjammer" was produced by Louis De Rochemont
Louis de Rochemont
Louis de Rochemont was an American film maker known for creating, along with Roy E. Larsen from Time, Inc., the monthly theatrically shown newsreels The March of Time. His brother Richard de Rochemont was also a producer and writer on The March of Time.The newsreels defined film news from 1935 to...
and directed by his son Louis De Rochemont III. They had previously been involved with Cinerama Holiday, a travelogue in the similar Cinerama
Cinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...
multi-projector format.
Premiere
The world premiere of both Windjammer and the Cinemiracle system was at Grauman's Chinese TheatreGrauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
in Hollywood on 8 April 1958. The film ran for 36 weeks. Windjammer was later transferred to the Cinerama format, and even to Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
.
Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
of Warner Brothers expressed an interest in the system and agreed to produce a film entitled The Miracle
The Miracle (1959 film)
The Miracle is a 1959 remake of a 1912 German film Das Mirakel directed by Cherry Kearton and Max Reinhardt which in turn was based on a 1911 pantomime play of the same name by Karl Vollmöller.-Production history and reception:...
in the Cinemiracle format. However, it was later produced in Technirama
Technirama
Technirama is a screen process that was used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid 1960s...
instead. The patents for Cinemiracle were bought by Cinerama and effectively brought the format to an end.