User:LeftASlide/sandbox
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Movie camera Motion picture film format |
| Founded | 1937 |
| Founder | Fred Waller Ralph Thomas Walker |
| Successor | Cinerama Inc. |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Vitarama was film special effects pioneer Fred Waller's immersive motion picture exhibition that was first developed for demonstration at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The system involved a film shot with eleven synchronized cameras and displayed with eleven synchronized projectors onto a hemispherically curved screen. The curved array allowed audiences a 160-degree by 60-degree view to include the human eye's peripheral vision, accompanied by multi-channel stereophonic sound and live pyrotechnic flash bulbs, to give viewers a faux three dimensional experience. Waller, head of special effects for Paramount Pictures, had already been working on methods of shooting with multiple cameras for a widescreen format when he was invited to direct special projects for the World's Fair. The idea of a curved screen came in 1937 from architect Ralph Thomas Walker[1], with whom Waller collaborated on the centerpiece attraction, the Perisphere. The technology became the basis for the Waller Flexible Gunnery Trainer, a five camera/projector system used by the United States military as a combat simulator to train hundreds of thousands of anti-aircraft gunners during World War II and beyond. In the 1950's, Waller used the same technology to create Cinerama, a three camera/projector system adopted as the first widescreen format put into use by major motion picture companies and film exhibitors.
Patents
- U.S. patent 2,280,206: Motion picture theater (filed Sep 17, 1937, issued Apr 21, 1942)
- U.S. patent 2,273,074: Screen for picture projection (filed Jun 14, 1938, issued Feb 17, 1942)
See also
Notes
- ^ Walker, Ralph T. (1953) "New Screen Techniques: 26 Illustrated articles by leading authorities on 3-D and wide screen films in production & exhibition, pages 112-117"