“Film is becoming obsolete,” stated Steve Bishop, vice president of Science and Cinema Programs for Whitaker Center. “It’s going the way of 8-track tapes and the typewriter.”
Indeed, the way movies are made and viewed is changing, and Whitaker Center is getting ready to make the switch. By the time you read this article, IMAX movies will no longer have a home in Harrisburg. In their place will be something equally immersive and awe-inspiring: a digital technology called D3D.
Beginning Oct. 18, visitors to Whitaker Center will experience theater on a giant screen digital film set-up that comes with a more than a $1 million price tag. That may sound like a lot of money, but, according to Bishop, D3D is well worth the expense.
“If we [and other theaters] want to stay in business, we have to convert to digital,” Bishop explained.
Out with IMAX
The IMAX system, while providing an amazing visual experience, had its share of quirks. For starters, each reel of IMAX film measures 6 feet in diameter and weighs up to 600 pounds. A feature-length IMAX film reel contains 61 miles of film, making it costly to receive and ship.
Film is also very delicate and sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. Too much of either will cause the film to curl, leading to what Bishop termed “a bad hair day in the IMAX projection booth,” so that the film won’t run through the projector. On average, each film could be shown no more than 500 times before faded and scratched images ruined the picture. Then the film had to be disposed of, or in rare cases, shipped overseas to a theater that couldn’t afford a brand new copy.
Instead of miles of celluloid film, the D3D projection system is small and simple. It consists of a hard drive the size of a hardback novel that plugs into the computer projector. When the center is done showing that particular movie, the hard drive is returned for use at another theater, making it much more environmentally friendly than the IMAX system. The screen will be slightly smaller—instead of being six stories tall, it will be more like 4½ stories. The picture and sound quality will be comparable, and the ticket price will remain the same.
What might change, and for the better, are the new ways to use the theater. While the center will still show a mix of Hollywood hits and documentaries, Bishop and his staff are looking for creative ways to use the digital technology, possibly including things like live-streaming concerts and video game competitions.
“Anything on a computer screen could be put on the theater screen,” explained Bishop.
Right now, the center has a program called “Surgery Live,” where actual surgeries from Hershey Medical Center are shown to students in real time to get them interested in a career in the medical field. The surgeon, nurses and other staff talk to the students, and the students can respond back. More than 5,000 students have participated in the program over the past six years, but the current classroom can hold only 100 students at a time. If the program moved to the theater, attendance could double.
The First Films
To debut D3D, Whitaker Center theater will show two films on the new system this month: “Jerusalem” and “Watermelon Magic.”
When determining which movies to show, Bishop has a short list of criteria. He might look for a film that complements an exhibit at the science center or go by reviews from his colleagues at other museums. It is also important to find movies that “take advantage of the huge screen” and have an educational value, since “more than three-quarters of the school kids and half the families see a film” during their visit.
“Watermelon Magic” is one of those family-friendly educational films. It is a 30-minute movie that follows the story of a little girl named Sylvie as she learns how to grow watermelons on her family’s farm in Bucks County. Through amazing time-lapse photography and simple storytelling, young viewers will learn the importance of healthy food and sharing.
According to Bishop, “Watermelon Magic” is a good example of how the move away from IMAX will help filmmakers. He said that IMAX film cameras are huge, about the size of an oven, and weigh around 300 pounds. They can only hold three minutes worth of film, since each frame on an IMAX film reel is the size of a playing card, creating many stops and starts in the movie-making process. Therefore, making an IMAX movie is very expensive and time-consuming. The move to a giant digital format allows small-scale, independent filmmakers to make large-format movies at a fraction of the cost.
The second movie at the center is “Jerusalem,” a 3-D National Geographic film about the city of Jerusalem and the cultures within, as seen through the eyes of three women: Jewish, Muslim and Christian. The movie shows that, “In 1 square mile, you see how these cultures have learned to live together, and it shows that different cultures can co-exist,” according to Bishop. The movie also follows an archeologist as she searches through some of the interesting historical sites of the city.
Running in correlation with the film is a photo exhibit titled “Jerusalem: Beyond the Wall.” In 2004, photographer Jason Eskinazi distributed disposable cameras to both Israeli and Palestinian children in Jerusalem so they could document their lives through pictures. Ninety-eight of the images from the project will be on display on the lower level of the science center beginning on Oct. 18.
Since 1999, more than 1.7 million people have watched IMAX films at Whitaker Center. One man who has seen nearly all of them is Phil Russotto, co-chief projectionist. Russotto oversaw the installation of the IMAX system in 1999 and was at the final showing on Sept. 21 to say goodbye to his old friend. He says it is “bittersweet” to see the end of the IMAX era, but he’s “excited to learn the ins and outs of the new system.”
Beginning this month, you can see the changes for yourself.
Whitaker Center is located at 222 Market St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.whitakercenter.org.
