Chances are you know the drill: Climb the steep aisles; plop down into a high-back seat. Now, the Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX psychodrama really starts. The five-story dome lights up to reveal a cluster of six massive speakers. The infamous light tunnel starts the show in surreal fashion. I wonder if the family Lindner realizes what a reefer-madness moment this truly is. A couple of trailers of upcoming features give the impression that you're at the local multiplex. But then the nervy fun really starts.
On a recent October afternoon, I sat with a small audience to re-watch the OMNIMAX movie Dolphins. Like I remembered, there were no surprises. Dolphins is no different than most OMNIMAX adventures. The film is equal parts nature documentary, wildlife conservation advocacy and underwater adventure. The mind trip occurs when the spotted dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and dusky dolphins start to leap out of the screen. When a bottlenose dolphin appears to be tickling your nose, you know that the OMNIMAX technology is doing its job.
Now, our local OMNIMAX theater is gearing up for a really big show.
To help celebrate the Museum Center's 10th anniversary, The OMNIMAX is showing a giant-screen film festival featuring eight of the most popular OMNIMAX films shown in Cincinnati over the past 10 years.
The festival will run daily through Nov. 22. All of which means you have plenty of time to re-live the distinct thrills of The Living Sea, Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets, Stormchasers, Ring of Fire, Everest, The Living Sea, Blue Planet, Tropical Rainforest and Mysteries of Egypt.
OMNIMAX films tend to have a long shelf life, and the Museum Center owns a copy of every film they've shown over the years. So it was easy to plan for this OMNIMAX festival. Basically, it was a matter of finding the right time. And in everyone's opinion, a tenth-year anniversary is the right time.
Still, despite the fact that we're talking about moving platters of film from one side of a room to another, the OMNIMAX Film Festival is the most ambitious programming the Museum Center OMNIMAX has ever done There are upwards of 14 shows, comprised of eight different films, every day. Of course, there is greater chance for mistakes. More importantly, for the sake of personal health, the Museum Center purchased a forklift to help them move the 300-lb. platters of film.
As a film critic, I can tell you that the latest OMNIMAX movie is not something I look forward to with great anticipation. Basically, my tastes lie away from family-friendly, education films. Apart from the hi-tech gimmickry, I never thought there was much substance to an OMNIMAX movie. Then again, it dawned on me that perhaps I needed to tweak my own OMNIMAX experience. I've lived in Cincinnati throughout the entire run of the OMNIMAX theater, and I finally realized that I wanted to see things from the other side of the glass projection booth. This would be my 10th-year OMNIMAX birthday present to myself. I wanted to push buttons, twist knobs and pull levers. I wanted to know just what makes this dome tick. Then, maybe, I would see these OMNIMAX movies in a whole other light.
I promised Dave Duszynski, vice-president of theaters, and Jim Kral, chief projectionist, that I would not give away any trade secrets. Still, there are a couple of details worth noting. An OMNIMAX film is about three times larger than the average 35mm stock used on major Hollywood movies. Each 40-minute OMNIMAX movie weighs more than 250 pounds and is about the diameter of a tractor-trailer tire. In the past, Duszynski and his staff would need three people to lift one platter of film. The film spools upward to an enormous, water-cooled projector. Still, for the festival, the Museum Center purchased a forklift. Still, it's safe to say that there will be plenty of groans.
Little has changed at Cincinnati's OMNIMAX theater over the past 10 years. For a theater that doesn't allow snacks into the its auditorium, wear and tear is kept at a minimum. The dome screen has been cleaned twice. Some seats and carpeting have been replaced. Basically, it's the same theater that opened its doors 10 years ago. It's also the only large-format theater in Cincinnati. Elsewhere, the landscape has changed significantly with expansion of IMAX and 3-D IMAX screens in America and overseas. Unlike the OMNIMAX dome, an IMAX has a large, flat screen. It makes for a slightly different moviegoing experience, although Duszynski believes that the OMNIMAX dome allows audiences to better immerse themselves.
"There is a theater in Barcelona that has both an OMNIMAX dome and an IMAX screen," Duszynski says. "They raise the dome whenever they want to use the IMAX screen. But their manager has told me that audiences prefer the dome. In fact, they call in advance to confirm which format they're showing the current movie."
An OMNIMAX dome can't be converted into IMAX 3-D. Still, as long as the Museum Center offers the only large-format theater in town, it's safe to say that the theater will continue to be the popular draw it always has been with school groups, tourists and out-of-town guests. The challenge is to compete with the Internet and home-entertainment and continue to attract local audiences on a regular basis
The success of Disney's Fantasia 2000 earlier this year has enticed other Hollywood studios to consider product for the large-theater format. Luckily, I had the opportunity to watch Fantasia 2000 out of town. Like most science museums, Cincinnati said no to Disney because it would not give Fantasia 2000 a four-month exclusive run. Duszynski has few regrets about passing on the film. He would have liked to have made it available to Cincinnati audiences. But he couldn't agree to Disney's programming restrictions. On the horizon, the OMNIMAX is going to bring in more commercial OMNIMAX films that play to a specialized audience. Jordan to the Max, a documentary about the basketball superstar Michael Jordan's rise to fame, is on the OMNIMAX schedule. All Access, a concert documentary featuring Carlos Santana and the Dave Matthews Band is also being considered.
If the OMNIMAX crew were ever interested in sponsoring the Steve Ramos, one-film, film festival, my hands-down winner would have to be Everest.
An Imax journey to the top of the famed frozen peak in the Himalayas, Everest gained extra attention when eight people died on the mountain in an expedition directly preceding the Imax crew's ascent. Personally, I like the film because it tells a narrative story instead of a typical nature documentary. Like I said earlier, my tastes run different from the typical family fare that play most large-format theaters.
Increased competition from Internet entertainment will probably push all feature films into large-format theaters. In a need to remain distinct, sometime in the near future, the Museum Center will have to complement the OMNIMAX with a new attraction. Maybe an IMAX theater, or maybe a state-of-the-art planetarium. Either way, it's safe to say it will be big. As far as the movies this improved OMNIMAX will be showing at its 20th-anniversary fest, I predict it will be the latest Steven Spielberg spectacular. The one lesson we've learned over the past 10 years is that bigger is always better. ©
