Douglas Trumbull

[Lee Stewart]

You may not recognize the name, but you have probably seen his work. He was a master of special effects for Hollywood movies:

2001 A Space Odessey
Blade Runner
Star Trek The Motion Picture.
Brainstorm

It was the last that he crafted a new motion picture format. Movies are shot at 24 frames per second. Most, in the past on 35mm film. A handful on 65mm film and shown on 70mm film. The bigger the film frame, the higher the resolution.

SHOWSCAN was his invention. shot on 65mm film at 60 frames per second and shown on 70mm @ 60 FPS. This process allows both the foreground and the background to be in focus - the same way human eyesight works. There were a handful of SHOWSCAN theaters and I was lucky enough to see one in Niagara Falls, NY. It was like nothing I have ever seen in a movie theater. It wasn't a screen - it was a giant window.