Zdenek Stepanek

Sie werden uns Mitte nächster Woche Ausrüstung für Sensurround bringen. 8x Subwoofer mit je 1500W Leistung und 8x Subwoofer mit je 1200W Leistung. Dazu zwei NEXO AMP4X4 Verstärker mit einer Leistung von bis zu 16 kW. Glaubst du das wird reichen? Für Sensurround Mod-II und III lassen wir die originale Steuerbox reparieren. Unser Freund hat ein komplett neues Steuersystem für Sensurround Mod-I gemacht. Centrum Panorama Varnsdorf

Bald in Warnsdorf.

Dear Friends, Let me introduce our 70mm projector Zeiss-Ikon Favorit 70. We made short demonstration video about this nice machine. Reconstruction of the Zeiss-Ikon Favorit 70 film projector from year 1967. This projector was been repaired at the cinema Centrum Panorama in Varnsdorf in 2019 and will be used together with a second machine for occasional screening of 70mm movies in the garden cinema, mainly as part of the regular 70mm Weekend Varnsdorf. http://youtu.be/xOhp0FprTyc

Dear Friends, Let me introduce our 70mm projector Zeiss-Ikon Favorit 70. We made short demonstration video about this nice machine. Rekonstruktion des Filmprojektor Zeiss-Ikon Favorit 70 aus dem Jahr 1967. Dieser Projektor wurde im Kino Centrum Panorama in Varnsdorf in Jahr 2019 repariert und wird zusammen mit einer zweiten Maschine für die gelegentliche Vorführung von 70-mm-Filmen im Gartenkino eingesetzt, hauptsächlich als Teil des regulären 70mm Weekend Varnsdorf. http:// https://youtu.be/xOhp0FprTyc

Dear friends, let me react to Bauer-U2 report about 70mm Weekend in Varnsdorf. Sorry for English Last Year some other peoples asked us for why We lighting-up dimmed side lights too early. As I heard from many visitors, customs are different in different countries. Please, describe what is best for "roadshow". Thanks you. For this year We installed better Dolby A/SR equipment as last year. My fail, I agree. I was have more than 3 CD of pause music, I tested it many times. I do not know for why you must listen first song in loop. Cooperation with local schools and municipatory is mandatory for us. Showing Grand-Prix for students seems to be good idea, but as you can see, Students will be grateful with nothing... Information about "The last performance" comes from printholder. It is not our responsibility what the owner tells the audience. Now seen? For the forst time in 70mm? As we repeat, our creed is to bring also rarities. Sorry for your experience, but J-P many times goes to projection booth for changing of volume. Not in this movie? I personally many times chcecked it and there is no problem in my eyes. Other viewers did not complain. Can you explan what you mean with "Roadshow-Experience"? Unfortunately, lot of vintage archival prints are uncomplete, with shuffled leaders and so on. Now we got into hands reel with music after final leader. We select to screen shuffled parts to someone who perfectly know this movie. And We must wait to they arrival. What is better? Make short test during pause or risk of screening shuffled parts or ommit important music? Opening-hours of FilmPoint bar was been shortened for regular visitors. There is hard to coordinate end of sport in television and end of screening. When buffet was been offered, all other guests was been out. Unfortunately, We do not understand your remarks about smaller buffet in situation, when several kilos of food were left. And also, We are very sorry that you ommit information about costfree festival-beer will be in small glasses. And regular non-free beer will be in standard glasses. Not only one. We was have 100L of beer for free for festival visitors. It is good information for us, about lack of informations for visitors. For this year We ommit film-program in FilmPoint bar. I may say that We have idea to prepare at least Favorit 70 for FilmPoint, but no more time left. We hardly work outside on summer cinema. You may come in summer to see Favorit 70 in action in the open air. Thanks you. You only repeat that 10 people have 12 opinions... We want to thank to all visitors. Fifth anniversary of 70mm Weekend is result of long-time effort and reconstruction of hardly dilapated cinema. Long-time effort and what preceded to 70mm screening you may see in video:

Dear Friends, Let me react to further discussion. Meine Deutsch ist so schlecht, dann Ich schreibe in Englisch, aber ich kenne zu lessen in Deutsch, mit Google translator. GETTYSBURG: We have no information about better print. We have only one source of this title. If you have information where is better print and if you are able to provide contact, we will be very happy. But in any other case, there is no possible to change program two weeks before screening because obtainong of screening rights is question about minimal two months. And be sure taht We have screening rights for all movies. If anybody will be able to provide better print, We will hapilly repeat this title in future. FINIANS RAINBOW: As I wrote earlier, We are ready to assemble complete print in future months and same as with Gettysburg: We are ready to screen whole movie. APACHE´S LAST BATTLE: Are you sure that We screened incomplete print? As I wrote, our (borrowed) print is full of glue splices, but no tape-splices. We assume that this was been special, very rare and strongly shortened print. I personally know this movie and I partly know what is missing, but I must say that it is somethin strange. No lot of scenes are missing, but whole movie is significantly faster than as usual. Scenes seems to be shortened, but no missed. It is question. I only may repeat: If you know who have better print in English and if yo can provide contact, We will be very happy to repeat whole movie in future. Everything is based on availability of prints. It is no possible to repeat 10 70mm masterpieces on any 70mm festival every year. Approx 15 70mm highlights on approx 35 screening in one year (Karlsruhe, Varnsdorf, Krnov).

Dear friends, Greetings from Varnsdorf. What to say? We are very happy that too many people visit us. And unfortunately one other thing: Yes, We know our problems and We apologize for them. Let me ract to some critics from "Angrist". Unfortunately, We do not from who and from where... Can you uncover himself? Technical state of Gettysburg was been unpleasant surprise also for us. We obtain print two weeks before screening and there is no much option how to solve this situation in this short time. We have not this information in advance. We consider that print is screenable and We not to want change program. We emphasize screening of rare movies and I hope that You may agree with us that Gettysburg is rare movie on 70mm festivals. I have no record about screening this title during last 11 years on big screen. Despite bad technical state, screening of this title was been done without any problem. Technical state, vinegar syndrome, noisy sound and so on, it all is undividable part of 70mm prints. I was informed owner about this and today, with a scare, I obtain information from print owner that he have not this print in freezer. We self hold this print in freezer. Before screening and after, including this time. Unfortunately, we did not see any unambiguous reactions for our technical test of mag-preamps. On Thursday We screened with Dolby MPU-1 and rest of 70mm Weekend We use our refurbished Tesla AKT mag-preamps with added Philips based noise reduction circuit. From this We consider that Tesla AKT is not so bad as Dolby. Very diferrent systems from different years, but with very similar result. We will inform you about this test and we expect some discussion. Old Shatterhand: It is very hard to know what exactly is on print while We not wont doing unnecessary test screening of any movies. It is not so good for rare archival prints. We know that print is strongly shortened. And because our borrowed print was been in English and with English credits, I was take "1 hr 29 min (89 min) (USA)" information from IMDB. And I also use USA´s name of this movie "Apache's Last Battle" on some places, where space for it will be. This print was been full of glued splices, also on head and tail. It seems to be some festival´s version on something similar. Scene from digital presentation of Murder on the Orient Express was been selected absolutely randomly. It is very funny (or sad...) if it was been most important scene of whole movie. I was simply start screening and clicking to FastForward many times without any thinking. I do not want to screen credits. I want to apologize for uncover of the killer, but also in real life, it is often question of coincidence. During screening, immediately after motor start before changeover, tape splice between leader and picture broke. Tape splice, I must repeat. From another cinema, not our work. But I agree, our problem. No harm was been done on print. Really. During San Sebastian We also made some mistakes. One bad threading was been done. We add steel covers to maghead for lowering disturbing effects from machines, but unfortunately projectionist overlook this sheet metal. Sad mistake, but once more, no harm on print. We modify covers overnight to avoid this problem for further days. We do test screening of Lawrence in Saturday, but not on late Friday night - This is what exactly was been happened. We also did test of 2001 due to wish of owner. Based on these tests we avoid problem with sound on 2001 and decide to use color filter for Lawrence. Owner of this print warned us to vinegar syndrome and he feared floating sharpness. But you were see very sharp picture due to gently curved film-path in UM70/35. We were discussed about using old slightly unsharp lenses with not so good focus distance, but with longer depth of field. It was useless. Print of Close Encounters was been very unsharp, I also was not been satisfied. But you was seen sharp subtitles and also scratches, of course. After screening I was asked Czech visitors to theirs remembers for screening of this title before many years in former Czechoslovakia and all of them said that prints of COETK was been extremely unsharp also before many years. Change of reels during screening of Lawrence was been only result of heavy tired projectionists. No other apologize... We screened all four reels from owner´s print Finian´s Rainbow. Noone reel was been missed. But yes, some scene are missing. We hear that We screened exactly this missing part last reel during previous 70mm Weekend 2017. I personaly do not remember what We screened, but your projectionist found his remarks from 2017. We screened second reel. And missing parts was been directly in first reel. No changeover was been done. But We will promise that We try to find what exactly is missing and try to add missing scenes from another source. It will be a long job. When and if We complete this print, We are able to screen it once more in future years. Criticism to timing of curtains, lights and so on is small surprise for me. We have white marks on edge of reels for timing on curtain. Closing/opening time of white curtain is exactly 27 seconds. I remember this altough it is not my work. We open curtain exactly on start of main picture and closing it exactly 27 secs before dowser close (and sound off) on end of movie. We heard some discussion for what We close curtain too early last years, visitors wants credits and music without disturbing... But of course, We all are only peoples and everything is depended on pressing buttons in right time. If you have some ideas when we may open and close curtains, please tell us. We can talk about it and change it for future. Finally, two tape splice broke, nothing else. No broken print, no scratches... We hope that owners of prints may be satisfied. Now let me explain for what it all was been happened: We promised you new bigger screen, new seats and many other news. And we also need to do some other things. Shelf in FilmPoint bar must been done before screening. Unfinished shelf would be more bad than empty shelf. But unfortunately, two months ago all of secured things have been cancelled. Two coworkers (bricklayers) cancelled contract. Then delay with new seats was happened. Screen was been changed two weeks before 70mm Weekend. I personally was been on curtain rails on Thursday 1 AM and making electrical switchers. Exponats on shelf in FilmPoint bar we installed Thursday morning. Lot of things was been done few hours/minutes before first visitors arrived. Owner of the cinema himsef sewed curtains on stage on old Singer sewing machine. He pushes us all to hard work, to solve all promised things. But unfortunately, it was been too much for us. We have a very limited budget, significantly low than other 70mm events and with this it is hard to hire more people for marceting, technical preparation outside projection booth. Despite this We offer lowest entry fee than other 70mm screening. My personal friends were do some small works only for pizza for free. We all worked very hard for you and We promise that on next year We will be better. For what else many peoples visit us repeatedly? Ask them for what... Know you another person who gave his whole many-year income to refurbish dilapated cinema? Know you another 70mm cinema with 7.4m height and 18.2m width curved screen? 130m2 in 2.21 aspect ratio. Know you another cinema with pizzeria, restaurant and bar? Ask him personally for what He bought dilapated cinema and for what invest huge amount of money to lossy bussiness? Because Centrum Panorama is only one 70mm cinema in Czech Republic which was been directly constructed for 70mm screening. All of this was and is possible only due to that owner (Pevel Nejtek) work also in another specialization and for international companies. He is neon-maker. One of his customer was been British company TESCO, in times when they builds their supermarkets in Czech Republic and in Slovakia. And be sure, that TESCO cooperate only with solvent suppliers. At this time, owner´s firma (www.elektroneon.com) making neons also for German architects, because, there is no other neon-making company in germany. Have you cinema neon signs? We can read lot of criticism above, with many of them We can agree, but for what We did not read about our good things? About what we managed well? Zdenek Stepanek technician

PDF version for print: http://www.centrumpanorama.cz/gallery/5579/plakat_a4_s_filmy_en.pdf

Hello friends, Hello from Varnsdorf, from city with cinema with 130m2 (2.20:1) curved screen. Now I see where We make mistake regarding 2001: A Space Odyssey. As you may know, We first announced Orpheus in der Unterwelt. Unfortunately, even though we had a signed contract, the archive did not lend us print Orpheus finally with words that is in unscreenable technical state. We must decide to another movie. After very long negotiations, in which very helped us "cinerama", which still not ends (!!!) We decide for 2001. Immediately after this decision We set start of 2001 to 15.15. Unfortunately, due to lack of freshness of all staff, old time (16.00) remain on some places. It is our mistake. Our final plan: Old Shatterhand 89 minutes Start: 13.15 End: 14.45 30 minutes break 2001 149 minutes Start: 15.15 End: 17.45 15 minutes break Orient Express 114 minutes Start: 18.00 End: 20.00 Yes, We know that breaks is very short and We count with small delay before Orient Express, but 15 minutes maximally, We hope. English version of our official 70mm poster soon. Yellow time schedule is not official for 70mm Weekend!

Dear Frineds, Last react... There is many views how to repair a prints. One preferr less of tape and even not on picture or mag stripes. Due to less disturbance when screening. And second one preferr gluing tape on both side and preferring safe screening. There is differencies in point of view of spectator and projectionist. In my eyes, and in eyes of projectionist, tape on only one side causes sharp bending of print before film gate and in case of bigger damage of perforation it may cause even bigger demage on intermittent reel. Ve never use foreign vintage archival prints as test material without agree of owner, We do not making test screening of whole movie, as another 70mm cinema, which use UM70/35... But I repeat it many times ago... But this is past. We are now concentrating on Dunkirk.

Hi Friends, I must react to "something" about perforation damage on last reel on Flying Clipper. As you may seen, screening of Flying Clipper was been done without any problem. Print is on polyester material and way to damage of polyester is very, very hard. As I said, screening was been done without any problems. The print has been inspected in hand on rewind table by our projectionist and he said that print is fully okay, like new. Is possible that he may miss small damage. But it must be on print before screening. Owner of cinema (Pavel Nejtek) mean that some damage on last reel may occur when screening from platter. This is a reason for what we hate platter system. And some other reasons: On changeover system We clean and may fine-tune projector during screening on each changeover. For this year We change both mirrors and also use significantly better lenses (Schneider+ISCO). There was been only one damage of print on whole 70mm Weekend - on West Side Story. But I must strongly said that Jean-Pierre disagree with our style of preparation of vintage archival prints and he forbade fixing bad splices in print. You seen result on screen. We apologize, but it is not our fault. Our plan for upcoming 70mm Weekend 2018: - Even better Lenses: ISCO+ISCO - New middle part of seats (better than in upper part of auditorium) - New bigger screen (We hope. Pray for us.) - And some others things... May I ask you how many of you want to see Dunkirk in our cinema? From 70mm of course. We negotiating with local distributor. Please, know that We solve problem with DTS sound on UM70/35 projectors, instead of other cinema which use same projectors. Zdeněk Štěpánek Centrum Panorama

Hi Friends, Greetings from Varnsdorf. Sorry for English, but I hope that you all will be understand me. Thanks for words of praise and recognition and also for real and meaningful critics. I want to explain some things what preceded 70mm Weekend 2017 in Varnsdorf. Mainly in matter of optics. On all previous screening we use old ISCO T-Kiptagon´s. Yes, it is old lenses, but at any time best pair what we have. We've always declared that we want to use better lenses. We need very specific focus-length (something between 65 to 68mm). For year 2017 we got borrowed significantly better optic. And it was been visible. We must agree with "cinerama" regarding light distribution. With these new lenses, light distribution was been _significantly_ better than anytime before. Practically same light on whole screen, also in corners. Also enlightenment in auditorium from white screen was been higher than before. I see the difference. Aperture of new lenses is significantly better than before. But this is not only due to new lenses. Also some other new things are in lighth path. For example, we solved problem for what ISCO lenses were totally unusable last year. On whole 70mm Weekend we use current on xenon lamp about 30A lower than before and despite this, brightnes of "The Agony and The Ecstasy" was been high - current was been on minimum for 6kW xenon lamp. We did not want to risk spontaneous extinction or damage. Back to the optics. We got them only few days before 70mm Weekend and unfortunately it was not been lot of time for long testing. And so on, some other problems excited. Mainly DTS players, problem with curtains (10 years without problem...), print preparations, and many, many other things. You surely know that preparation of so complicated event is very exhaustive. During 70mm Weekend we got borrowed some other lenses and we tested them on monday. We were all shocked what details we seen on screen. We now know that we still have a lot of work to do until next anniversary. You have something to look forward to. Really. It is sad that we did not have it before 70mm Weekend. All is not only about optics. We did not screen DTS soundtrack until 2009. I'll cut the whole story. At the end, thanks to friends also from this forum four DTS players was been in our cinema and none of them did not work correctly. Holly craps... I had to combine two players into one to get functional one. But finally we screened Flying Clipper without any errors in sound. Unlike most other projectors, DTS have real problem on UM70/35. Without special modification it produce hizzles every approx 10 minutes. As Thomas Hauerslev wrote here: http://in70mm.com/news/2017/kino_mir_70/index.htm Or hear you some mistakes in DTS soundtrack? We've also installed more subwoofers for better enjoyment of movies like Tora! Tora! Tora! or Amadeus. I personally must react to "Dann hätte vmtl. der Fokus des Spiegels verändert werden müssen, was auch kein großer Akt gewesen wäre. Allerdings wurden vor Ort alle Versuche der Verbesserung abgelehnt: no changes during festival.". These are my words. After Thursday screening, We (with some of you) spent lot of hours in projection booth. We all was been terribly tired, We go into bed at 3 a.m. with dismantled projectors. Result was been start of "Fall of the Roman Empire" totally unsharp. No more! Never! I very appreciate your offer of help, but We all must feel differencies between official screening for audiences and private testing and setting. We will be very glad if you want to come to our in another time to testing and making improvements. Really. In our eyes, We made a big step, but We know that We are not on top. Thanks for your visit and sorry to as long post :-) Zdeněk Štěpánek Centrum Panorama www.centrumpanorama.cz https://www.facebook.com/70mmvarnsdorf