One of the things we miss very much is going to see a film on the big screen. We mean THE BIG SCREEN, not just not television and not the screens you normally get at your local multiplex, but actually something huge and immersive and wonderful. Something that could even be curved!
There are many different systems for wide screen filming: yes, nowadays we have IMAX, but in the old days there was Panavision, Cinemascope, VistaVision, 70mm, Ultra Panavision…
Our favourite, on the very rare occasions we ave seen it in all its glory, was Cinerama. There are still Cinerama theatres in the world. We once went to the one in Seattle.
If you don’t know, Cinerama used three cameras to film a wide screen view, and three projectors to show it back. Films like How The West Was Won appeared using this format (mostly) and you can see where the three strips meet when you watch the tv version.
We thought that this video about restoring Cinerama films was very interesting: