“Almost like a real web site”
 

IN7OMM.COM
Search | Contact
News | e-News
Rumour Mill | Stories
Foreign Language
Auf Deutsch

WHAT'S ON IN 7OMM?

7OMM FESTIVAL
Karlsruhe | Gentofte
Krnov | Varnsdorf
Banská Bystrica
Oslo | Bradford

TODD-AO PROCESS
Films | Premiere
People | Equipment
Library | Cinemas
Distortion Correcting
DP70 / AAII Projector
 

VISION, SCOPE & RAMA
1926 Natural Vision
1929 Grandeur
1930 Magnifilm
1930 Realife
1930 Vitascope
1952 Cinerama
1953 CinemaScope
1953 Panavison
1954 VistaVision
1955 Todd-AO
1955 Circle Vision 360
1956 CinemaScope 55
1957 Ultra Panavision 70
1958 Cinemiracle
1958 Kinopanorama
1959 Super Panavision 70
1959 Super Technirama 70
1960 Smell-O-Vision
1961 Sovscope 70
1962
Cinerama 360
1962 MCS-70
1963 70mm Blow Up
1963 Circarama
1963 Circlorama
1966 Dimension 150
1966
Stereo-70
1967 DEFA 70
1967 Pik-A-Movie
1970 IMAX / Omnimax
1974 Cinema 180
1974 SENSURROUND
1976 Dolby Stereo
1984 Showscan
1984 Swissorama
1986 iWERKS
1989 ARRI 765
1990 CDS
1994 DTS / Datasat
2001 Super Dimension 70
2018 Magellan 65

Various Large format | 70mm to 3-strip | 3-strip to 70mm | Specialty Large Format | Special Effects in 65mm | ARC-120 | Early Large Format
7OMM Premiere in Chronological Order

7OMM ON EARTH

Australia | Brazil | Canada | China | Denmark | England | France | Germany | Holland | India | Iran | Israel | Ireland | Mexico | Norway | Poland |  Russia | Spain | Sweden | Turkey | USA |

LIBRARY
7OMM Projectors
People | Eulogy
65mm/70mm Workshop
The 7OMM Newsletter
Back issue | PDF
Academy of the WSW

7OMM NEWS
• 2026 | 2025 | 2024
2023 | 2022 | 2021
2020 | 2019 | 2018
2017 | 2016 | 2015
2014 | 2013 | 2012
2011 | 2010 | 2009
2008 | 2007 | 2006
2005 | 2004 | 2003
2002 | 2001 | 2000
1999 | 1998 | 1997
1996 | 1995 | 1994
 

in70mm.com Mission:
• To record the history of the large format movies and the 70mm cinemas as remembered by the people who worked with the films. Both during making and during running the films in projection rooms and as the audience, looking at the curved screen.
in70mm.com, a unique internet based magazine, with articles about 70mm cinemas, 70mm people, 70mm films, 70mm sound, 70mm film credits, 70mm history and 70mm technology. Readers and fans of 70mm are always welcome to contribute.

Disclaimer | Updates
Support us | Staff
Testimonials
Table of Content
 

 
 
Extracts and longer parts of in70mm.com may be reprinted with the written permission from the editor.
Copyright © 1800 - 2070. All rights reserved.

Visit biografmuseet.dk about Danish cinemas

 

Scanning Cinerama Films

Read more at
in70mm.com
The 70mm Newsletter
Written and photographed by: Tom March, USADate: 21.09.2011
John Sittig, director of Cinerama Inc. at Arclight Cinemas has authorized the Restoration of four Cinerama films as part of a 60th anniversary Cinerama preservation project. These films are "Cinerama Holiday" (1955), "Seven Wonders of the World" (1956), "Search for Paradise" (1957) and "South Seas Adventure" (1958). John has been working closely with Michael Forman from Pacific Theatres, the owners of Cinerama. Michael, a long time board member of the American Film Institute, is very concerned about film preservation, and has funded the digital scanning of these 3-strip Cinerama travelogue negatives.
 
More in 70mm reading:

Historic Big Screen Films Get Major Digital Makeover

The Cinerama page

Dave Strohmaier

Internet link:

Pacific Theatres
Arclight Cinemas
Image Trends Inc.
David Strohmaier

Hulahut
 
Image Trends, Inc. is an innovative digital software products developer and high-quality film scanning service in Austin, Texas. It has partnered with Cinerama Inc. to participate in this massive Cinerama three-strip travelogue digital restoration project. The Image Trends scientists and engineers who invented the computerized process called Digital ICE™ have now begun the lengthy digital scanning task. It is notable that only Image Trends’ Digital ICE has the capability of restoring original filmed images from beneath all the dirt and scratches that accumulate over time and it is accomplished in a completely automated and transparent way. Dan Sullivan, Image Trends’ CEO, commenting on the opportunity to restore these priceless and irreplaceable films, said, “Image Trends is proud to be a part of this historic effort.”
 
 
Dave Strohmaier and Dan Sullivan, CEO & President of Image Trends at Airport

Now that the digital scanning of the negatives has begun, Dave Strohmaier and I were invited to the Image Trends Lab to observe the progress of the restoration work. We took a flight early Wednesday, September 7th, from LAX and planned to return the following day. Upon arrival in Austin, Dan Sullivan was there to meet us at the airport.
 
 
A guided tour of Austin conducted by Dan Sullivan

The first item on the agenda was lunch. Dan took the scenic route and we were treated to a guided tour of downtown Austin. He pointed out that the normally clear blue sky was shrouded by smoke from nearby wildfires that day.
 
 
Lunch at the Hula Hut. Dan, Dave, Tom

The restaurant of choice was The Hula Hut, a Tahitian-style outdoor dining experience in keeping with the current Cinerama film being scanned – South Seas Adventure. Hula Hut is located right on Lake Austin.
 
 
Arrival at Image Trends. Dave Strohmaier, Dan Sullivan

After lunch it was a short drive to visit Image Trends. Their offices are at One Bridgepoint Tower overlooking Lake Austin in the heart of Austin’s 'Silicon Hills,' home to the development centers for many technology corporations.
 
 
The Big Meeting. Dan Sullivan, Dave Strohmaier, Martin Potucek-Senior Hardware Engineer, Michael Wilder-Senior Engineer, Wayne Galella-VP of Engineering

In the board room, Dan Sullivan and the project engineers reported on the stages of progress in the various phases of the restoration – the scanning, the color normalization, the dirt and scratch removal and the combining of the three image panels. There were numerous problems encountered due to the unusual “Cinerama” filming process and the age of the original negatives.
 
 
Evaluating a reel of "South Seas Adventure" negative under a microscope.

A recurring problem with all four travelogues being scanned is that they were lacquer coated many years ago to protect the emulsion. This coating, over the years, has deteriorated and is streaked in various places on the negatives. In an attempt to deal with this problem and find the best scanning solution, the negatives have been studied under a microscope in the film lab.
 
 
Dave Strohmaier with Dr. Edgar (CTO).

Dr. Albert Edgar (CTO) applied his imaging skills in the joining of the three image panels, shaping the panels and blending of the join lines to produce a near perfect result. Dr. Edgar, the holder of over 100 patents is deeply involved in the science of imaging. It was interesting to see framed copies of his patents lining the hallways and corridors at Image Trends.
 
 
Dave and Marty observing the ScanMaster 4000 as it scans SSA.

The heart of the scanning operation is Image Trends’ ScanMaster 4000™ with Digital ICE. The Digital ICE automatic defect detection and correction technology ensures dust and dirt-free images. Marty Potucek, Senior Hardware Engineer, points out that Image Trends had to develop a special 6-perf gate to scan the unique Cinerama frames.
 
 
SSA Negative being scanned in 6-perf gate and photographed with Hi-Res camera on right.

A “state of the art” film transport system moves the Cinerama negative through at about one frame per second. An advanced 16 megapixel Princeton Instruments industrial CCD camera produces archival quality digital images with a high dynamic range equal to the image quality of the film. The camera is mounted on a large granite slab to ensure it is vibration-free.
 
 
Server Room, Michael Wilder DSC01475a.jpg

A single 35mm Cinerama frame when scanned at 3K is saved as a 72MB file in the server. The scanning of these large files results in massive data accumulation. A Cinerama movie consists of more than 500,000 frames so the total data being stored in the server is over 40TB.
 
 
Combined Frame from South Seas Adventure, The Te Vega at Port.

All this effort ensures that the Cinerama travelogues will be presented again in their best light in 2012. "South Seas Adventure" will be the first film to complete the scanning process and will be featured at the 18th Bradford International Film Festival in March. We were shown movie clips and sample frames from SSA during our visit. The images look wonderfully restored.
 
 
First Archive LTO-4 Tape and First 2TB Hard Drive delivered by Image Trends both loaded with Cinerama scanned images.

We left Austin the following morning and carried back the first lot of restored images from "South Seas Adventure". Dave Strohmaier will continue with the restoration completing any additional touch-ups to the images and finally assembling them into the complete roadshow presentation with surround sound and all the extras.
 
 
  
Go: back - top - back issues - news index
Updated 28-07-24