An incredible advancement has arrived for movie-goers in the City Beautiful.
The Coral Gables Art Cinema has installed a new projection screen and technology that enhances the movie-going experience. On Oct. 5, the movie house unveiled its new, larger screen with the showing of the documentary, The Rest I Make Up.
The screen was obtained by an associate of Steven Krams, Coral Gables Art Cinema president and founder, who solicited the donation of the screen from Harkness Screens. It is a specialized screen that will allow the theater to show movies in Ultra Panavision 70 like The Hateful Eight and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
“Adding the “Ultra Panavision 70” screen is part of our mission of having the technical capability to present films as they were meant to be seen,” Krams said.
As the movies are sometimes made in different formats by their creators, this screen will add to the cinema’s already impressive versatility.
This is not just an upgrade; it will be an incredible advance as the picture quality will be sharper according to Javier Chavez, associate director.
Many movies are filmed using a 35 mm film. There are films that use 70 mm reels which include more information per frame than the 35 mm.
The screen is part of a larger move to enhance the cinemas capabilities. First, there was the purchase and installation of the twin projectors in 2015. Now, the screen has been installed, and in November, the phase will end with the installation of masking.
Masking is a term for material that hangs alongside the screen to accommodate pictures that are shot in a different aspect ratio.
There was a movie called Mommy that was shot in a 1:1 aspect ratio Chavez said. So it looked like everything in the movie happened inside of a square.
Normally, when a movie is projected it looks somewhat rectangular. In a situation like Mommy, masking would hang on either side of the image so that there would not be any white areas which would serve to distract the audience.
The screen was positioned to ensure that all of the seats in the house enjoy an optimal experience. No one in the audience should have to strain to see the movie.
The cinema was closed for four days while the screen was installed and there is no plan to close again for the installation of the masking.
For ticket information, go to the website at www.gablescinema.com.
