American Motor's Circular Screen Presents "A Tour of the West"
THE BALANCE of physical and intellectual entertainment in Tomorrowland is so delicate that at times they seem to overlap. This feeling was pointed out in a New York Times review of Circarama two weeks before Disneyland opened. Written by Times Hollywood correspondent Thomas M. Pryor, this article said in part:
"For the most startling innovation in movie presentation, one will have to visit Disneyland . . . Walt Disney and the Eastman Kodak Company have hit upon the ultimate in audience participation or envelopment, via a 360-degree screen . . . The effect of viewing a motion picture that is going on all around you is fantastic. Particularly overpowering is the sense of motion, or moving with the picture."
A more thorough description of Circarama will serve as the best starting point in a description of the basic ideas and accomplishments of the three Tomorrowland shows. This is largely because Circarama called for technical research on synchronization which has been applied in all three exhibitions.
The original idea behind Circarama is fairly obvious. Bigger and wider screens are the unmistakable trend of movie presentation. The best way to predict the future of movie presentation then, was to go to the end of the line — the widest possible screen is a complete circle.
The idea was thought out far enough to establish its feasibility and turned over to a Disney development crew. Heading production of Circarama for Walt Disney Productions was William H. Anderson. Direction was under Peter Ellenshaw, with Roger Broggie acting as technical adviser and Russ Haverick as unit manager.
With so many creative engineering and technical problems to overcome, shooting the film was actually one of the easier parts of Circarama.
Typical of how the medium was evolved is the decision to use 11 cameras and projectors. The original thinking and blueprinting for the camera rig was in terms of 12 cameras, which would have been a nice, even division of the circular view. But, before going ahead with the shooting, the Disney crew felt it had better account for how Circarama would be projected.
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