Cine-View(c.1973–c.1977)

Cine-View was an obscure format developed to occupy a niche space between theatrical 35mm and portable 16mm. It worked like a miniature IMAX format, with platters of 16mm running horizontally through the projector gate. It is likely that it was intended for retail and museum use (as well as provincial exhibition), as it offered superior image quality alongside compact projection equipment. Discussion of the format can be found in the Linwood Dunn and Elmo Williams papers at the Margaret Herrick Library. 

Mehrdad “Mel” Azarmi collaborated with Linwood Dunn, as an employee at Dunn’s company Film Effects of Hollywood (FEOH), which created optical effects for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and the Star Trek television series (1966–9), among others. In 1975, exploiting Azarmi’s Iranian background, FEOH courted various leaders of Iran’s cultural institutions, including Minister of Culture Mehrdad Pahlbod, with the aim of exporting visual effects equipment, including optical printers, to increase the capacity for genre-film production in Iran, while expanding FEOH’s market (Don Weed, 1975). They also discussed assisting with the construction of a domed screen exhibition space, located in Tehran, modeled on the Space Theater in San Diego in California, which would have employed FEOH’s large-format 8/70 film, their Dynavision system and Sensurround audio. The same 1975 correspondence indicates that a version of the 16mm Cine-View format was developed for the US department-store chain Sears Roebuck and the Chicago-based agricultural and construction equipment company International Harvester. Azarmi also indicated that the format had already been in use at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry for over two years (Azarmi, 1974). Company sales records indicate a successful $30,000 sale of Cine-View systems to Iran, along with 35mm equipment intended for US–Iranian co-productions such as Caravans (1978), produced in Iran by Hollywood editor and producer Elmo Williams.