Screaming at screening

Press, 20 August 1983, Page 2

Screaming at screening

Screams are likely to greet the ears of anyone who passes the large orange and white dome tent at the Canterbury Industries Fair. The tent is the only portable movie-dome in the Southern Hemisphere and offers movie viewing with a difference. Part of the dome is a large, curved screen, several metres deep which rises from the floor to the ceiling. By standing within the curve of the screen, viewers are partly surrounded by a giant moving picture. A projector, fitted with a large fish-eye lens, shows two 12-minute films of roller coaster rides, helicopter flights, and speeding cars designed to make the viewers “experience” what they see.

School children at a

special screening yesterday screamed from the beginning of one film to the end of the other as they were “flung” around corners, “spun” through the loops on a roller coaster ride, and “sped” through busy city streets. The photograph shows a section of the film screened yesterday morning.

On one film, the audience “rode” a fire engine speeding through suburban streets. Many children almost toppled forward after a woman and pram stepped into their path and the fire engine screeched to a halt.

Some children with weaker stomachs had to move away from the screen while others chose to look at the ground rather than the “moving experience” on the screen.