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"New Magic" in 70mm Showscan |
Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter
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Written by: Brock/Trumbull Entertainment Corporation, 1984 |
Date:
26.06.2011 |
70mm
frame from the Showscan demonstration film: "New Magic". Image from the Showscan brochure.
The houselights dim. The screen comes alive with a
scratchy print of a documentary about a large fireworks display. At the
rear of the theater, the audience hears projection noises. The film goes
in and out of focus. The sound is bad. Finally, the film jams in the
projector and burns.
In a harried attempt to save the presentation, Jeremy (Gerrit Graham),
the film's projectionist, goes behind the screen to find a back-up print
of the film. Addressing (he audience with his apologies, he fumbles the
second print as well, strewing the floor with celluloid spaghetti.
Fearing for his job, he is determined to make a go of it and so uncovers
a mysterious console. It is an "illusion" device invented by his
employer, a magician named Mr. Kellar.
Jeremy swears the audience to secrecy and proceeds to demonstrate the
device, which he obviously knows little about. Recklessly pressing
buttons on the console, he activates the first illusion, a panoramic
aerial sequence that transports the audience to soaring heights over icy
mountains. As Quickly as it appears. It vanishes. Jeremy presses another
button. This time, an open road stretches before the viewers as they are
placed in a high speed sports car careening around hairpin turns. Again,
the illusion vanishes, but Jeremy is delighted. He enthusiastically
calls up illusion after illusion, until he characteristically goes too
far for one more thrill. The machine shuts itself off. The ground begins
to shake. The building trembles. Jeremy is terrified. Is it an
earthquake, or just another illusion ?
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From
the filming of the first Showscan demonstration film: "New Magic". Image from the Showscan brochure.
Jeremy cowers for fear his angry employer will
miraculously appear and discover his careless tampering. Instead, a steel
door opens before him revealing an unusual room filled with exotic
mechanical and electrical paraphernalia—a guillotine, a giant spider in a
web, an old cathedral clock, lightning machines crackling with bolts of
electricity, and modern-day robots along with a talking ventriloquist's
dummy and a self-activating puppet of an archer with bow and arrows.
True to form, Jeremy lets his curiosity get the best of him as he explores
the room. He tries to turn on a lump- it vanishes. He looks into a mirror,
instead of glass, it is made of water, and suddenly a whale jumps out!
Jeremy becomes even more frightened when he hears a siren and a police car
crashes through the room. In the next instant, all is intact. Jeremy
confidently concludes that these are just more of Mr. Kellar's tricks, so he
foolishly puts his head in the "trick" guillotine. He gets stuck, as the
archer puppet fires an arrow at the rope that holds the blade. The blade
falls, and Jeremy's head turns up on the body of the giant spider.
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Projectionist
Jeremy (Gerrit Graham) in trouble.
From the Showscan demonstration film: "New Magic". Image from the Showscan brochure.
Another illusion? Yes, but Jeremy has had enough and begs the
absent Kellar to stop, instead, a menacing shadow appears on the screen and
raises an ominous knife. Suddenly, a real knife appears slashing the screen
and cutting it down. With a bolt of lightning, the booming voice of Mr.
Kellar (Christopher L ee) speaks to the trembling Jeremy who pleads for
mercy. With another bolt of lightning, Kellar transforms Jeremy into ShowBiz'
mascot Billy Bob Brokali. Anxious for Kellar's approval, Jeremy promises to
be the best Billy Bob ever as Kellar orders him out of the theater.
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Sir
Christopher Lee explaining the Showscan concept to the audience in "New
Magic" on the curved screen at "Les Pavillons de la Communication et de
la Créativité" in Poitiers in France, 1992. Image by Thomas Hauerslev
Suddenly, Kellar
appears in person and orders up the promised fireworks—not the crude,
scratchy image seen at the beginning, but an elaborate display with all
the brilliance and clarity Showscan can offer, and in full six-channel
stereo. Once the fireworks show is over, Mr Kellar addresses the
audience again explaining the secret of his miraculous "illusion
device," the Showscan process itself. Kellar approaches the camera,
until only his eyes fill the giant screen as he promises more and
greater Showscan spectacles to come.
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28-07-24 |
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