Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Dream is Alive [IMAX]

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Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-18-2003, 09:55 AM:

On recommendation from several film-tech members and several friends, I tracked down a copy of The Dream is Alive on DVD (pretty difficult -- no store in Huntsville had it and I finally found on in Nashville).

The entire movie was actually filmed in IMAX (I don't recall a single scene with the little small squares) and contains many great images. I particularly like the views of Earth from space. I was impressed, and agree that this is a great IMAX film, and wish I'd seen it in an IMAX theatre. I'll definitely be showing this one again.

NOTE: The brightness and color fluctuations I originally mentioned in the above paragraph turned out to be a problem with the green CRT in my rear-projection set and not a problem with the DVD transfer! Test patterns showed that the green level flickered constantly although the red and blue are rock-solid on the set. I removed the negative statements I made about the DVD transfer.

It is hard to imagine what it would be like for an astronaut to be working on something with the shuttle below him, but look up and see Earth filling most of his view. In space, the whole notion of "up and down" gets really confused.

The audio quality on this disc was much better than on "Hail Columbia". The sonic booms at the beginning and the launches shook the floor (with the bass and treble set "flat" as I keep them).

[ 03-23-2003, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: Evans A Criswell ]

Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 03-19-2003, 04:15 PM:

The DVD transfers seem better than the old LaserDisc transfers of this film as you get the while image with equal brightness. The opening shots of the shuttle coming in to land are alot clearer.
The shot of the escape line into the net looks great in IMAX.

Nice music score too on this film.
Darren

Posted by Fred Georges (Member # 505) on 03-20-2003, 12:32 PM:

This is IMHO the BEST IMAX space opus. The Laserdisc had a reference quality Dolby surround mix and agreed, the Music is good & fitting. My only brief against it is the banal narration by Walter Cronkike. Not ol' Walter,s fault. It's in the script. [thumbsup]

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 03-20-2003, 05:03 PM:

I saw this at the National Air and Space Museum shortly after the Challenger tragedy. It was breathtaking, and seemed over much too soon. I believe there may have been some 35mm footage in there because I remember it getting VERY grainy at certain points, and people around me whispering "What's wrong with the picture?" Since it involved a few isolated shots, I assumed those were blow-ups from 35mm. They were full-frame (or nearly so), making the difference that much more noticable, but I would expect not so much on the video transfer.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-20-2003, 10:27 PM:

About the graininess: I mentioned the graininess to my friend while watching the DVD. It's a shame that the grain showed through that much on a transfer from the 70mm IMAX elements to the DVD. The color and brightness fluctuations were even more distracting, though. I've seen transfers of 35mm films that looked far better on DVD than this DVD.

About it being over too soon -- it was only 36 minutes.

Posted by Lionel Fouillen (Member # 1475) on 03-20-2003, 11:00 PM:

The Dream Is Alive is the second IMAX picture I saw (it was the IMAX theatre in Brussels, can't remember the year exactly -- I was still in High School). It was a great film. I was struck by the picture sharpness and there is one particular scene showing the astronauts training that is truly vertiginous: when they let themselves fall, hanging to a rope (and the IMAX camera showed the fall from a subjective point of view).

But I really doubt this is worth watching on TV...

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-21-2003, 12:50 AM:

Before Consolidated (Pacific) bought and took over the theatre, The Waikiki Imax was owned by Destination Cinema, a company that operated the Imax theatre at the Grand Canyon as well as Niagra Falls. When it was operated by this company, I was able to buy an annual pass for about forty dollars and was able to see every IMAX film that played there for just one dollar per each performance. Because I used to make an afternoon out of it to see two regular features playing at the Waikiki Twins and the #3, there were many time when I had to kill about two hours between the two movies and seeing an IMAX movie to bridge the time even if I had seen the film many times before was a very good idea. The DREAM IS ALIVE" played at the Hawaii IMAX is it was called at that time with the in house film, "HIDDEN HAWAII" for a very long time. "HIDDEN HAWAII" is still playing along with "THE LION KING and SPACE STATION 3-D" As I said before, I saw the "DREAM IS ALIVE" at least five times at the Waikiki IMAX and never got tired of seeing it. I consider it one of the best IMAX films made.

-Claude

[ 03-21-2003, 12:59 PM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]

Posted by Fred Georges (Member # 505) on 03-21-2003, 08:16 AM:

I believe those IMAX to video transfers are made from 35mm IP's (Inter-positives) & not 15/70 IP's or Negatives. They don't look much better on Video then any other well transfered 35mm source. If a 15/70 spot scanner has been developed for direct tansfers I'm not aware of it. I think to date there are only 2 Video post houses that can do direct transfers from 65/70mm 5 perf. I welcome any corrections. [Smile]

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 03-21-2003, 08:19 AM:

Evans,

The vast majority of this film projected was stunning. About three shots seemed to be blow-ups with objectionable grain (especially when compared to IMAX originated footage). I haven't seen this on video, so I can't comment on why the entire film would appear grainy in the transfer, only that the apparent difference between the elements shouldn't be as noticable on the comparitively small video screen.

That POV shot on the rope was fantastic! The audience reaction was like that on a rollercoaster.

And about the running time, it was the first IMAX film I'd ever seen, but 36 minutes is longer than the short subjects I was used to, and even at nearly double that, I wanted more. Heck, I wanted "The Right Stuff" to continue into the Gemini program (at least)!

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 03-21-2003, 12:33 PM:

The video transfer quality on The Dream is Alive depends on which transfer you're looking at--there were two LD releases, each with its own transfer. The first one was truly hideous, done on what looked like a badly burned-in and poorly set up flying spot scanner (uneven field, poor black shading on top of that, and aliasing effects). The second LD looked better, but I've never thought of it as looking particularly good. Haven't seen the DVD version yet. Still have both LDs--I used to use the first one in my video engineering classes as an example of the kinds of things that can go wrong during a film-to-video transfer session.

The Dream is Alive remains one of my favorite IMAX films. When it came out I was working at Hughes in El Segundo, CA as a training coordinator in satellite operations. I used to take our spacecraft controller trainees to see it as it shows the deploys of two spacecraft we flew (this was before the post-Challenger eviction of commercial payloads from the STS). Also the first POV shot showing the turn coming out of the heading alignment circle at KSC is a real treat for pilots, since it shows what a nominal 21 degree (!) glidepath looks like. (Incredibly steep since a typical instrument glidepath is nominally 3 degrees.)

Also, that theater (then known as the Mitsubishi IMAX) had augmented their subwoofers with four Bose Acoustic Wave Cannons. Sonic booms and shock waves (from the double-billed Speed in its original pre-PC edit) were most satisfying in that house! [Big Grin]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-23-2003, 02:38 PM:

I bet I've seen this film 20 times at least, and it still remains my favorite of all 15/70 films in existance. That scene near the begginning where the main engines light up and the whole shuttle tips about 4 feet and then swings back for the SRB's to ignite gives me goose bumps every time I see it. I think Fred is right though...as good as my DVD of it looks it isn't from 15/70. Hopefully Imax will repay the world for paying the high admission price and build a 15/70 FSS for transfering them. After all, we are in the HDTV realm now aren't we???
Mark

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-23-2003, 10:57 PM:

The review I originally posted contained a statement about the DVD transfer containing brightness and color fluctuations. Last night, I noticed similar fluctuations on other DVDs and on TV shows. 4 test patterns: color bars, solid red screen, solid green screen, and solid blue screen, show that the green crt on the rear projector has constant brightness fluctuations, making movies on the set look like 35mm prints with color registration problems while being shown with an unsteady xenon lamp. The red and blue are rock-solid.

I edited my original post to removie the negative statements about the DVD transfer.

Now to arrange for a repair... I'm glad I bought a 5-year service plan. The problem had gotten worse in the past couple days. The set is 10 months old.

I'm posting this information because although it's not a review, it is very important since it affected statements made in my original review.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-23-2003, 11:25 PM:

Evans, What kind of set?
Mark

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-24-2003, 12:04 AM:

Sony KP-57HW40 (16:9 57" CRT-based rear-projection set)

If anyone wants to discuss more details about the set or about the problem I'm having with it, please email me rather than posting it in this thread so there won't be too much extraneous non-review stuff in here. (I don't want Brad to slap me. [Big Grin]

) If I have any interesting or unusal experience in trying to get it fixed, I'll start a thread in the new Afterlife forum.

[ 03-24-2003, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Evans A Criswell ]