Three Strips are Better Than One

Tuesday, November 01, 2005, at 03:16AM

By Eric Richardson

So as mentioned previously, Kathy and I went to the Arclight on Friday to see How the West Was Won in Cinerama. It was a full-on three hour movie with an intermission and more than its share of big stars.

Watching Cinerama and the three strips is interesting. One of the articles I linked to in that last point noted that you start getting interested in seeing what creative set dressing they use to hide the overlap lines. It's obvious that the three panels are separate, but for the most part that didn't bother me. Some of the shots were just amazing -- in particular the Indian attacks and the buffalo stampede. The level of detail is kind of absurd.

I also really enjoyed the sound. The whole concept of filming with live surround (literally seven mics set up with placement resembling that of the speakers in the theater) is very low-tech cool.

After the show they let people walk through the projection booths and gave out little samples of film (four strips -- three picture plus one sound). The projectionists (not your average multiplex button-pushers) hung out to tell stories and answer questions. Pictured is one of the projectors (Charlie, in Cinerama parlance). Also interesting are pictures of the camera lenses and the rear of the camera with its multiple magazines.