Innovations Spotlight Day – Saturday, September 20, 2025 – Fort Worth, TX
Innovations Spotlight Day - Saturday, September 20, 2025 - Fort Worth, TX
Camera Assessment Test (2023)
In July 2023, the GSCA Innovations Committee conducted a test to show the strengths of six higher-than-6K-resolution cameras to show filmmakers how each performs in challenging situations. Under the direction of GSCA Innovations Committee Co-Chair Michael Daut and with renowned cinematographer James Neihouse, ASC, serving as director of photography using a wide variety of cameras, lenses, shooting situations, and locations, this test will provide invaluable information to filmmakers as they decide which equipment to use for different types of shoots. This is a follow-up to [...]
6 Habits of Highly Effective Theaters
Presentation of giant screen films is paramount to setting the experience apart from what a regular moviegoer experiences at a multiplex. A 1986 IMAX service manual stated, “The combination of a dedicated theatre staff and the IMAX system can provide a spectacular experience for audiences. To maintain this level of achievement, the staff and equipment involved in this unique communication process must function at optimum efficiency. This is the challenge of every performance.” Truer words have never been spoken, and as we see multiplex screens [...]
LED Technology for Digital Domes
Dome theaters have consistently faced the historic challenges of 1) low contrast due to light bounce across the dome surface, 2) the need for multiple projectors to create acceptable resolution, 3) low brightness due to low reflectivity of the dome surface to minimize light bounce and scatter, and 4) the maintenance of a complex projection system and cost of lamps and other consumables. Enter the LED dome. This breakthrough, game-changing technology addresses all of the historic concerns: 1) LED offers nearly unlimited contrast, 2) the [...]
Camera Tests
The Background A keystone of the Giant Screen Cinema Association’s (GSCA) strategic plan is to build a pipeline of quality educational and entertaining content. To fulfill that plan, GSCA, through its Technical Committee, has conducted a number of tests in the past four years to help filmmakers capture the best images possible for the giant screen. It started in 2014 with two iterations of Bring Back Our Wide Shots (BBOWS), with the main goal of testing whether images from the latest 4K digital cameras could [...]
Focus on Film Scanning
As part one of a session to be continued at another time on the giant screen, we explore the challenges of capturing high-quality and high-resolution digital scans of 65mm film. Four companies, including FotoKem, IMAX, Prasad Corp, and MacGillivray Freeman Films, share their techniques, innovations, and unique approaches to digitizing film. In part two, when we are able to meet in person, we will see examples of scans using the same film source in a head-to-head comparison in 4K, 8K, 11K, and 16K scans on [...]
High-Resolution Camera Shootout
Led by Pawel Achtel ACS of the Innovations Committee and shot by a team of ACS cinematographers, we evaluate the performance of the following state-of-the-art cameras: RED Monstro 8K, ARRI LF, Blackmagic Design 12K, Canon R5, Achtel 9x7. We see each camera’s performance in dynamic range tests, rolling shutter tests, zone charts, resolution charts, and real-world shooting locations. In part two of this session, at a future time when we meet in person, we will see the footage compared back-to-back on the giant screen. The [...]
Production and Postproduction Workflow Guidelines (P3W)
The GSCA’s Production and Postproduction Workflow (P3W) documents were designed to provide filmmakers with technical guidelines on how to produce content for the Giant Screen. There are two workflows, one for picture and one for audio. Both include a workflow diagram and a textual document providing more detailed information on the specifics of the production and postproduction processes. The GSCA Innovations Committee created these documents to help ensure films brought to our giant screens meet our historically high standards of picture and audio quality. The [...]
Aspect Ratios: The Shape of Cinema
Nothing could be as boring as aspect ratios, right? Well, you haven’t seen Jonathan Bird’s exciting and fascinating look at aspect ratios and how we got to where we are today. This short presentation looks at the history of aspect ratio in cinema, how it affected lens design, film evolution, projector design and culminated in the unique (some would say odd) 1.43:1 aspect ratio of IMAX. And while something as mundane as aspect ratio might not seem very exciting, it is in fact the very [...]
Using VR to Test and Review Content for the Giant Screen and Domes
What do you do if you can't get access to a dome to create content? Or you need a space online to teach a class and you need more than Zoom or other 2D applications can offer? In these days of continuing pandemic-related shutdowns, both VR producers and dome educators have gotten very creative as they reach out to audiences, finding solutions in the virtual world for content creators and educators in amazing ways. Presented at the GSCA 2021 Virtual Conference Presenters: Ruth Coalson, Ruth [...]