Circarama

For shooting, 11 Kodak movie cameras were used, fixed on a common “rig” (support) and mechanically synchronized. Each device was equipped with a lens with a focal length of 15 mm, providing a horizontal angle of 32.7 ° ^[3] . The optical axes of adjacent apparatuses made an angle of 32 ° 43 ', while adjacent frames slightly overlapped each other ^[4] . For the projection, 11 cinema projectors designed for 16-mm film were used. The entire screen is divided into 11 equal parts, separated from each other by black vertical stripes with a width of 15 centimeters, to mask the joints between adjacent images. In the middle of the stripes were windows for projectors located in the control room, enveloping the hall with a ring. Each film projector shows its part of the image on the screen located opposite ^[4] . An odd number of films and screens allows each movie projector to be installed exactly opposite the corresponding screen and to exclude geometric distortions arising from oblique projection.

The first cinema of this system was built at Disneyland in California and had a screen with a diameter of 12 and a height of 2.4 meters ^[5] . Sound was reproduced from a separate magnetic tape with a width of 17.5 mm and contained four-channel sound supplied to separate speakers located behind the movie screen ^[4] . Such a phonogram allowed achieving volumetricity and the illusion of the sound following the image.

At the end of the 1950s , Disney Studios modernized the filming and projection system of Circus Ferams in connection with the filming of a film commissioned by FIAT about Italy ^[4] . Kodak movie cameras were replaced with Arriflex cameras with 12.5 mm Taylor-Hobson shorter-focus lenses. This made it possible to reduce the number of devices and films to 9 and also simplify the projection system. New lenses had a larger horizontal field of view angle of 40 °, and, accordingly, an increased vertical view. This allowed the use of wider screens.

The low light output of 16 mm film projectors and the poor detail of a narrow film made us use a 35 mm positive film for demonstration, which was printed with an optical method with an increase in 16 mm negative .

Circular films were short and had a specific character.

The first film, A Tour of the West , filmed using the Zircorama system, was shown on the opening day of Disneyland Park on July 17, 1955 ^[5] .

In 1958, on the territory of the American pavilion ^[6] at the World Exhibition in Brussels , a second cinema opened using this system. The diameter of the cinema was 13.5 meters, and the screen height was 2.7 meters.

The third cinema, similar to the first at Disneyland, worked in July and August 1959 at the American exhibition in Moscow . It featured the film "Journey to the West", supplemented by filming in Washington . The anticipated arrival of “Circorama” to Moscow served as an impetus for the development of the domestic circular system “ Circular cinema panorama ”, and the construction of the first Soviet panoramic cinema “Mir”, opened simultaneously with the American exhibition ^[5] .

In total, two films were shot according to the original Zircorama system (eleven 16-mm films): Journey to the West in 1955 and Beautiful America ( English America in beauty ) in 1958.

Further improvement of the “Circorama” led to the use of 35-mm film for films , on which the image was printed with negative 16-mm. The cinemas, which opened in 1960 in Turin and in 1964 in Lausanne, were equipped with nine 35-mm film projectors and worked on an updated system. The surround sound of the Zircorama at the World Exhibition in Lausanne was provided by a group of Swiss Choreophonic Sound experts, which included composer Bernard Schule, conductor Cedric Dumont and sound engineer Pitt Linder .

Over time, the “Circorama” was transformed into the Circle-Vision 360 ° system , which used a 35-mm film, including for shooting. Disneyland Cinema, closed in 1961, opened in 1967 under a new name ^[5] .

• Circle-Vision 360 °
• Circular cinema panorama

• Goldovsky E. M. From silent cinema to panoramic / N. B. Prokofiev. - M.,: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1961. - 149 p.

• I. B. Gordiychuk, V. G. Pell. Section I. Cinema systems // Directory of the cameraman / N. N. Zherdetskaya. - M.,: “Art”, 1979. - S. 61-63.

• Nikolay Mayorov. Circular cinema systems // First in the cinema .

• Circular cinema systems (rus.) . Cinema "Circular cinema panorama". Date of treatment September 7, 2012.