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When the shapes of the screen changes


Bar Solomon

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So...

 

 

With camera bodies as small as a box of cigarettes, remote focus, and camera image stitching software thats already capable of real-time array camera monitor, when do you think the industry will realize that the single 'flat' image plane method is already fast approaching it's death and that they keep trying to polish a turd with 3-D etc. etc...

 

We've been shooting in a square this entire time, and it doesn't feel right anymore.

 

The ability to shoot with 180 and 360 degree array capture would introduce a new world of visual techniques both in production and post. I'm not talking about bubble view where you see everything at once, I'm talking more about having a screen thats more like the ball point of a pen, that can rotate over an audience and shift. Editing possibilities are endless.

 

Right now it takes 300 million to make a CGI monster that can 'sort of' suck an audience in. I've been in dome immersion theaters and nobody has bothered to take advantage of one of the most awe inspiring screens we have ever produced.

 

If hollywood's tired of the world ripping off their films the day they release, why don't they adopt dome theaters? The reclined position is much more relaxing, the environment covers your full field of view and forces the imagination into the content. Animation for kids would be amazing in a dome environment. They could make a version for "flat" media for home release as well. You can't rip it off and it would fill seats and make it a spectacle again. If they don't do something soon, the idea of seeing a movie at the theater will dissapear. Maybe not in the next ten years but before our lifetimes over.

 

I'm a student writer, director, and cinematographer and I'm already bored with flat media.

 

Within the next 40 years, the screen will no longer be a flat image anyway, so people should think about it a little more. I hope that someday people will realize cinema HAS TO CHANGE before it fades away and future generations loose interest.

 

 

Anyway, just stirring the pot a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

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I love IMAX but I avoid dome OMNIMAX screens like the plague, I can't stand how washed out day exterior scenes look due to all the bouncing around of light inside a white dome. Curved screen Cinerama solved their cross-reflection problems with a ribboned screen, but those were replaced by cheaper single piece D150 screens in the late 1960's.

 

But I also feel that the art of composition relies on a frame to arrange objects within, so semi-borderless processes have limited appeal for me other than for immersive "ride films".

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Thanks David,

 

I love reading your posts and I'm happy you chimed in. You're one of the ones I wanted to chat with.

 

I do disagree on frame however. Circular compositions have their own specific art and as I was saying, no live action narrative piece has really ACTUALLY taken advantage of the surface and medium using techniques and equipment specifically geared towards it. Washed out color happens with some current setups, but this isn't really a hard problem to fix. Vikuti R/P film from 3M would fix that easily. The omnimax is outdated with it's current materials. I started this to talk about the future of the theater. Everything that starts has an end.

 

Think about what a camera really becomes when it no longer has to physically pan to capture. It's now just an infinite point. It does add another digital aspect with digital "rolls" (panning on a conventional camera) but thats small potatoes. It doesn't always need to be 360 either, you can also use techniques much like the cinerama and use arrays of anywhere from 3-7 cameras to create new looks that compliment the domes shape.

 

 

There's an art to immersive spherical framing and camera position in it self, and new compositions and movements would evolve from the new shape. Composition is perhaps even more important in an immersive environment. Also.. nobody has ever really invented a method that actually lets a DoP function with the same flat surface rectangle frame principals. A lot of concepts are similar but there is an entire new frontier that would arise. Remember in 1903 when going in for a close up was such a big deal? It had never been done...but it worked so well. Now we can't imagine a film that doesn't use that technique. The same will happen in this situation someday.

 

It doesn't HAVE to be a ride film. To think that cinema is condemned to one flat surface FOREVER is a good way to ensure cinema will disappear. Film is still in it's infancy.

 

I'm convinced you can make a truly artful cinematic film for immersive theater. This is my current goal.

Edited by Bar Solomon
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I've never been in an omnimax, but I've been in an IMAX. At one time it was my dream to shoot stuff on IMAX, but whatever.

 

I really liked IMAX, and always figured that that would be the movie going theatre experience of the future. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we're a major IMAX and film hub, there are about 11 or so, if you include the Great America IMAX theatre in the theme park.

 

There just don't seem to be that many of them, and my suspicion is that upcoming digital technology may give IMAX a run for its money.

 

I guess Omnimax is a different story.

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Interesting topic. I do think that IMAX is the ultimate Resolution to a shrinking amount of audiences.
If Cinema really has to fight against home-Cinema again, the only Chance i can think of right now, is to be bigger and more immersive. Huge stuff like IMAX is pretty good for that.

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That's why I'm so interested and really think Immersive media will come into play.

 

There's just so many things you can do with a standard square framed image and a flat screen. Even IMAX, I mean it's more immersive because it covers more of the visual field but I really think the only thing that will save big cinema from pirates is utilizing the most mind blowing immersive atmo(sphere) < ha

and making something that YOU CAN'T SEE AT HOME.

 

When everyone has a massive 4k display and surround sound, nobody will leave their couch. Even for dates. Whats better then having him/her already on your couch and watching a movie? Unless they can see something new. Dome and semi dome is the way. The fact that your rocked upwards is so relaxing and less of a strain, you can sit through a longer film laying this way and I'm convinced being off the normal axis helps suspend reality further.

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