THIS IS CINERAMA BLURAY

[g***@hotmail.com]

David Stohmaier and his team must be congratulated on their efforts to bring THIS IS CINERAMA to bluray for the first time.The bluray certainly looks remarkable considering that it was made from a 70mm print.It is not without its flaws however. The La Scala opera scenes, particularly the first , had almost the entire top part of the picture missing.Maybe it was the elements that they had to work with? It looked more like a 'scope picture rather than a smilebox one. For those of us who had a copy of the original 3 panel film made by the BBC in the United Kingdom many years ago,will have noticed that the entire picture is not present on the bluray. (neither was it on the 70mm print).If you look carefully at the opening of the Venice scene,you will not see Lowell Thomas making a cameo appearance on the right side of the picture in the St Mark's square scene.You can see him in the 15.min documentary but not in the bluray of the feature film. Why was this so? You will also notice at least one of the Vienna boys choir members barely visible on the left.Most people will be happy to get any copy of TIC regardless of the quality,so we must be sincerely grateful for David and his team for the efforts made in this respect. It would have been nice to have had the European prologue as an extra as this was different to the American version.Did anyone notice that David Strohmaier talks to the side of the camera when he was being filmed for the 15 min documentary? It looked strange.

[cinemad]

David Stohmaier and his team must be congratulated on their efforts to bring THIS IS CINERAMA to bluray for the first time.The bluray certainly looks remarkable considering that it was made from a 70mm print.It is not without its flaws however. The La Scala opera scenes, particularly the first , had almost the entire top part of the picture missing.Maybe it was the elements that they had to work with? It looked more like a 'scope picture rather than a smilebox one. For those of us who had a copy of the original 3 panel film made by the BBC in the United Kingdom many years ago,will have noticed that the entire picture is not present on the bluray. (neither was it on the 70mm print).If you look carefully at the opening of the Venice scene,you will not see Lowell Thomas making a cameo appearance on the right side of the picture in the St Mark's square scene.You can see him in the 15.min documentary but not in the bluray of the feature film. Why was this so? You will also notice at least one of the Vienna boys choir members barely visible on the left.Most people will be happy to get any copy of TIC regardless of the quality,so we must be sincerely grateful for David and his team for the efforts made in this respect. It would have been nice to have had the European prologue as an extra as this was different to the American version.Did anyone notice that David Strohmaier talks to the side of the camera when he was being filmed for the 15 min documentary? It looked strange.

As you are aware they used a 65MM interneg as the source, which has an aspect ratio of 2.21:1 whereas 3-strip is 2.59:1 so naturally you will lose some picture information.
Regards,
Peter Mason

[g***@hotmail.com]

I knew that,Peter, but I was expecting the transfer to bluray to be better than the video that the BBC made in the U.K.in the ninties. .

[Derek Gee]

Post by g***@hotmail.com
I knew that,Peter, but I was expecting the transfer to bluray to be better
than the video that the BBC made in the U.K.in the ninties. .

When and why did the BBC do a transfer of TIC? Are copies of this BBC
broadcast circulating?

Derek

[g***@hotmail.com]

Having just watched This Is Cinerama I was very impressed with the bluray with the exception of the La Scala sequences and Lowell Thomas missing from the Venice sequence.The film always bored the hell out of me ever since first seeing it back when it was originally released. One question: did anybody notice somebody's hand which was seen during the closing credits.It was in the original film but is missing from the bluray.

[g***@hotmail.com]

No ,it was never intended to be sold.The copy was good and had great color.It was made about the time that Bradford cinerama opened.However it didn't take long before videos of this public domain film were circulated around the world and later transferred to dvd.Surprisingly it was never the most sought after cinerama film on dvd.That was Windjammer,especially in Germany.If Flicker Alley ever released the German language dvd of WINDJAMMER, they would have massive sales.

[g***@hotmail.com]

It was never made by the BBC for broadcasting,Derek.However I understand that it will be shortly broadcast in USA on TV.Correct me if I am wrong.

[Neil Midkiff]

Post by g***@hotmail.com
It was never made by the BBC for broadcasting,Derek.However I
understand that it will be shortly broadcast in USA on TV.Correct me
if I am wrong.

The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) schedule for the USA shows "This is
Cinerama" to be broadcast on Thursday, October 18 (7 pm Pacific, 10 pm
Eastern time).

There's no indication on the TCM site whether this is the BBC transfer
or some other video version.

-Neil Midkiff

[h***@gmail.com]

Post by Neil Midkiff

Post by g***@hotmail.com
It was never made by the BBC for broadcasting,Derek.However I
understand that it will be shortly broadcast in USA on TV.Correct me
if I am wrong.

The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) schedule for the USA shows "This is
Cinerama" to be broadcast on Thursday, October 18 (7 pm Pacific, 10 pm
Eastern time).
There's no indication on the TCM site whether this is the BBC transfer
or some other video version.
-Neil Midkiff

You can count on TCM to be airing the Blu Ray version.

[Neil Midkiff]

Post by Neil Midkiff
The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) schedule for the USA shows "This is
Cinerama" to be broadcast on Thursday, October 18 (7 pm Pacific, 10 pm
Eastern time).

Many congratulations to David Strohmaier, the Smilebox people, and
everyone involved in the "Cinerama Adventure" documentary and the new
video version of "This Is Cinerama" as shown last night on TCM! I noted
Martin Hart's name in the credits too; if I missed any others here I
apologize for not mentioning them individually.

I was a young boy during the last part of the original Cinerama era
(born in 1956) but vividly remember HTWWW and Grimm in their roadshow
presentations. I had also seen This Is Cinerama in a true Cinerama
re-release, but had not seen any of the other travelogues.

The documentary gave a fascinating peek at sections of those and whetted
my appetite to see more. I expect that having this featured on TCM will
greatly increase the demand for Blu-Ray and DVD sales of whatever can be
made available.

Thanks all around for a wonderful re-introduction to this classic era of
great moviemaking!

-Neil Midkiff

[Mutley]

Post by Neil Midkiff

Post by Neil Midkiff
The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) schedule for the USA shows "This is
Cinerama" to be broadcast on Thursday, October 18 (7 pm Pacific, 10 pm
Eastern time).

Many congratulations to David Strohmaier, the Smilebox people, and
everyone involved in the "Cinerama Adventure" documentary and the new
video version of "This Is Cinerama" as shown last night on TCM! I noted
Martin Hart's name in the credits too; if I missed any others here I
apologize for not mentioning them individually.
I was a young boy during the last part of the original Cinerama era
(born in 1956) but vividly remember HTWWW and Grimm in their roadshow
presentations. I had also seen This Is Cinerama in a true Cinerama
re-release, but had not seen any of the other travelogues.
The documentary gave a fascinating peek at sections of those and whetted
my appetite to see more. I expect that having this featured on TCM will
greatly increase the demand for Blu-Ray and DVD sales of whatever can be
made available.
Thanks all around for a wonderful re-introduction to this classic era of
great moviemaking!
-Neil Midkiff

Yes it is a great restoration. I got the BD a couple of weeks ago and
watched it last weekend. The PQ was really great though my HT system
couldn't do justice to the sound as I remember it.

I hope some of the other travalogs get restored..

[Derek Gee]

Post by g***@hotmail.com
It was never made by the BBC for broadcasting,Derek.However I understand
that it will be shortly broadcast in USA on TV.Correct me if I am wrong.

So what was the circumstance surrounding this BBC transfer? Did they
transfer the Bradford print?

And as others have commented TCM will be running what I presume is the new
Blu-ray of TIC.

Derek

[g***@hotmail.com]

As the film is in the public domain,they would not have to pay for copyright in order to screen the film - unless they use the smilebox version which would probably enable David Stromaier to receive a payment which could go towards having the other 3 strip films released on bluray.

[g***@hotmail.com]

It wasn't a transfer-they just videotaped it .Who knows what they wanted it for-probably to use some footage to be incorporated into a TV special on Bradford's opening? Five of the 3 panel cinerama documentaries were videotaped in the mid ninties either for cast members or friends of people who made the copies.Cinerama fans and scores of people who worked on or appeared in the films from 1949 till 1958, in 22 countries were able get them on dvd as a result.Even one of the co-inventors of Cinerama managed to acquire copies. Windjammer was the only one to ever be televised (center panel only).Even the Christian Radich Society sold German language videos of Windjammer very briefly in the ninties as well as on the ship.WINDJAMMER stands tall as being the best of all the travelogues. Thanks to the work of David Strohmaier we are finally getting the chance to get reasonble copies of 2 of the titles on bluray.Hopefully more titles will follow in the future.

[Derek Gee]

Post by g***@hotmail.com
It wasn't a transfer-they just videotaped it .Who knows what they wanted
it for-probably >to use some footage to be incorporated into a TV
special on Bradford's opening?

That makes sense. Thanks!

D

[g***@hotmail.com]

It would cost many thousands of dollars ( maybe even tens of thousands)to restore the original negatives,if that were at all possible after the damage that they sustained due to bad storage.
The blurays were not restorations-only remastering from 35 mm and 70mm prints.A lot of digital work was done to improve the picture but only as much as could be done within the confines of the budget.That is why there are so many dark sections in many scenes.Just take a look at the 2 La Scala sequences and observe just how much of the picture is missing in many places.Same with Windjammer but to a lesser extent. Any copy is better than no copy however so we have to be grateful for the copies that we have.Because you don't see all 3 panels fully on the bluray, you miss a lot - ie Lowell Thomas's cameo in the St Marks Sq ,Venice sequence. I don't know why you thought that the blurays were so good and call them restorations?

[cinemad]

It would cost many thousands of dollars ( maybe even tens of thousands)to restore the original negatives,if that were at all possible after the damage that they sustained due to bad storage. The blurays were not restorations-only remastering from 35 mm and 70mm prints.A lot of digital work was done to improve the picture but only as much as could be done within the confines of the budget.That is why there are so many dark sections in many scenes.Just take a look at the 2 La Scala sequences and observe just how much of the picture is missing in many places.Same with Windjammer but to a lesser extent. Any copy is better than no copy however so we have to be grateful for the copies that we have.Because you don't see all 3 panels fully on the bluray, you miss a lot - ie Lowell Thomas's cameo in the St Marks Sq ,Venice sequence. I don't know why you thought that the blurays were so good and call them restorations?

It will be interesting to see Seven wonders of The World and Search for Paradise
on Blu-Ray. These were restored from the original camera negatives so we should see a big improvement in picture quality.
Regards,
Peter Mason