The Big Picture : High-Tech Theaters With Huge Screens Place Audience in Center of Action

T he passengers grab the edges of their chairs as the prow of the steamboat Lelawala abruptly rises then drops into the swirling rapids of the Niagara River. Icy spray strikes the windows as the waves break over the iron hull and dash against the cabin. The crowd gasps as the ship jerks to starboard to avoid colliding with a towering rock.

Thousands of miles to the south and west, a helicopter flies up the side of a Hawaiian volcano. A blond woman grabs her escort’s muscular arm for support as the chopper unexpectedly dips down the steep walls of the crater, passing a waterfall that cascades hundreds of feet to the distant valley floor.

Actually no one is in danger. The people are sitting in an IMAX or OMNIMAX theater.

But the films they’ve been watching seem so disconcertingly real that the audiences feel as if they’re taking a roller-coaster ride through the scene, instead of passively sitting and watching.

Since their introduction in the early ‘70s, these large-format motion picture systems have become increasingly popular attractions at world’s fairs, technological exhibits and science museums.

Currently, there are 26 IMAX and 28 OMNIMAX theaters operating around the world, including three in California (Los Angeles, San Diego and the Pictorium in Santa Clara), another at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and a fifth at the Centro Cultural Tijuana in Mexico.

The Mitsubishi IMAX Theater, where “Behold Hawaii” opened Friday, is at the Museum of Science and Industry, Exposition Park, in Los Angeles. And the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park, San Diego, is celebrating the 15th birthday of the OMNIMAX format with an “Omnithon” of continuous screenings through the end of the month.

Outsize Film

IMAX and OMNIMAX use outsize film, giant screens and state-of-the-art sound systems to create these strikingly realistic viewing experiences. The Mitsubishi Theater has a screen 54 feet high and 70 feet wide--about three times the size of the screen in an average theater with 35mm projection.

“The big, high-quality image makes the viewing experience seem real,” Roman Kroitor, senior vice president, IMAX Systems Inc., said. “The small picture on a TV screen can give an idea of what something looks like; an IMAX image conveys a sense of its reality.”

The vertiginous pan shots in the IMAX and OMNIMAX films heighten the viewers’ sense of being in the picture. For “Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic” (currently at the Fleet Theater), the camera was mounted on the prow of a boat that churned through the rapids below the Falls.

When the dizzying helicopter shots of cliffs and beaches in “Behold Hawaii” dive, veer and bob, audience members feel as if they’re moving too.

The synergetic effect of the outsized visuals, unusual clarity, swooping camera work and steeply raked theater produce an unmatched sense of exhilaration.

The concept for IMAX originated at EXPO ’67 in Montreal. Kroitor, who was working at the National Film Board of Canada, and independent producers Graeme Ferguson and Robert Kerr, had devised multiple projector systems to create large-screen shows for the “Labyrinth” and “Man and Polar Life” pavilions. But synchronizing regular 35mm projectors created technical problems that led the three men to seek a way of showing large-scale images with only a single projector.

The IMAX system uses regular 70mm film stock, but the frames are positioned side by side, instead of one on top of the other, to accommodate the horizontal motion through the projector. Each frame is three times as large as a frame of standard 70mm film and 10 times the size of a 35mm frame.

OMNIMAX was created for the Reuben H. Fleet Theater: IMAX film is masked to expose a large ovoid in the center of the frame. The film is projected through a fisheye lens, so the image can be shown on the curving walls of the planetarium dome without distortion.

“OMNIMAX enhances the you-are-there effect,” Kroitor observes, “but you’re magnifying the image somewhat more and there’s some distortion at the edges. But the customers like the total wrap-around quality of a picture that goes over the top of their heads, behind their ears and down to their boots. About half of our viewers prefer each format.”

Each year, about 15 new theaters are built, many of them designed to be as striking as the films themselves. The Kinemax, near Poitiers, France, resembles a cluster of quartz crystals; The Keong Emas in Jakarta, Indonesia, is modeled after the spiral shell of the golden snail in Javanese legends. The $1.9-million octagonal Mitsubishi Theater in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry, ranks as one of the more conservative buildings.

“There have only been about 55 IMAX films, so we’re very anxious to have all kinds of film makers explore the artistic dimensions of the system,” Kroitor said.

“Behold Hawaii,” screens daily at 11 a.m. and 1, 3, 5 and 8 p.m. in the Mitsubishi IMAX Theater at the California Museum of Science and Industry, 700 State St., Los Angeles. “Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets” shows at 10 a.m. and 2, 4 and 6 p.m.; “The Dream Is Alive” at noon and 7 p.m.; “Chronos” and “Sacred Site” at 9 p.m. Admission: $4.75 (adults); $3.50 (seniors 60 and over); $3 (children 3-17, and students over 18 with ID), under 3 free. Information: (213) 744-2014.

The Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park, San Diego, is showing a different OMNIMAX film each day at 1, 4 and 7 p.m. as part of the “Omnithon,” celebrating the 15th anniversary of the theater. “Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic” shows daily at 11:40 a.m. and 2, 3, 5 and 8 p.m. Admission: $4.50 (adults); $3.00 (seniors 60 and over); $2.75 (juniors 5-15), 4 and under free (on lap of an adult). Information: (619) 238-1233.