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Screening Room

IMAX theater is state of the art By Steve Enders Just sitting in The Tech's Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater without a film on the screen is impressive. The mind, conditioned to watch films on a standard theater screen, can barely comprehend what it would be like to see a movie that nearly surrounds the audience. Soon, valley residents will know. The theater has a 9,188-square-foot screen stretched over a half-dome. The inside looks like a planetarium, and the seating is arranged on a slope that's about 50 degrees. The screen starts way overhead and drops down to the floor in front, stretching side to side and offering a full, 180-degree view. "No seat in the house is a bad seat," says The Tech's Kris Covarrubias, as she sits in one of the 295 comfy, race car-like seats. The theater is the first of its kind in Northern California, and is named after Mike and Joan Hackworth, who donated the first $1 million individual gift to Tech fund-raisers in 1992. The screen is made of aluminum, and has tiny perforations punched in each of its 340 panels. The holes comprise 23 percent of the screen and allow for better sound penetration. The 44 mammoth speakers can barely be seen behind the screen when the theater is lit. The 13,000-watt system has sub-bass sound, so low frequencies are felt, not heard. "When the camera is rolling [during filming] everyone stops and looks," says Greg MacGillivray, who produced and directed the epic documentary Everest. To make up for the camera noise, the soundtrack and all other audio is recorded separately onto a CD, which is synchronized to the film using a digital audio controller. What's to be shown in this impressive theater is equally brilliant. Standard Hollywood movies are shot for the "big screen" in 70mm on film that has a total area per frame of 1,072 square millimeters. Film shot for the IMAX Dome is also shot in 70mm, but has three times the total area of a frame of standard film. At 2,665 square millimeters per frame along with its advanced, unique recording and projection method, IMAX offers superior quality and the ability to project on enormous screens. IMAX debuted at EXPO 1967 in Montreal. The Imax Corporation developed the "Rolling Loop" process, which advances the film in a smooth, wavelike motion horizontally through the projector. Each frame is held against the rear of the lens by pins and a vacuum. The result--superior steadiness and focus. The 2,000-pound projector in the IMAX Dome rests in the theater's upper center. It emerges from 22 feet below, through the floor into the "dog house," a specially designed dust-free container. [ The Tech | Metroactive Central ]