Roman Kroitor, who gave us The Force, inspired 2001, and changed film

Wikipedia page about Roman Kroitor is pretty sparse. Here's what was written of him when he passed away in 2012[1]:

"He was not a religious man, but his large and humane spirit was the force that imbued all of his projects, both the films he made himself and those he nurtured for others.

Roman Boghdan Kroitor was born in Yorkton, Sask., on Dec. 12, 1926. His father, Peter, a teacher who had emigrated from Ukraine, died when Roman was four or five. His smart, determined and resourceful mother, Tatiana (nee Shewchuk) taught in one-room schools to support her family, moving him and his older sister from one community to another across the Prairies before settling in Winnipeg when he was of high school age.

The film board, which was such a continuing presence in his life, was also a matchmaking catalyst. Through his NFB friends, he met his wife, Janet (Ferguson's sister), in Ottawa, where she was working at the National Design Centre. They were married in December, 1955, and had five children, a son and four daughters, and nine grandchildren."

[1]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/roman-kroitor-8...

"Bigger", as in IMAX, did not come from Expo 67. It came from a long line of attempts to make really wide screen films. Cinerama (1952), Todd-AO (1953), Cinemascope (1953), etc. The really wide screen systems required custom theaters and very elaborate machinery, and never really caught on. Cinemascope requires just a lens adapter for an ordinary 35MM projector, and it went mainstream.

What to do with widescreen cinematically was a big problem in the early days. Roller coaster demo reels introduced Cinemascope [1] and Todd-AO.[2]. 3D was tried in the same time period. Theaters were trying to do things TV could not do. But how do you tell a story on a huge screen without the screen getting in the way of the story? Most of the time, the screen won. (See the ending of "How the West Was Won" (1962).[3]) Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days), not Kroitor, seems to be the director who figured that out. You make big-budget spectacles, with a plot in glorious locations. Ben-Hur and Cleopatra followed.

That's still the problem with IMax. The giant screen wins over the story.

[1] https://player.vimeo.com/video/266574534

[2] https://youtu.be/MU76gdjr-Dk

[3] https://youtu.be/8t_qToyqiOU?t=76

This article - which was a delight to read - is about the Canadian filmmaker Roman Kroitor.

Just thought I'd share that here for those of you that - like me - incorrectly assumed it was an article on George Lucas.

That being said, the title is accurate, as you'll find out :)

I REALLY do not like seeing the uptick in articles from arstechnica. Not only are they shallow in their coverage, they are insanely biased in their reporting, as well as tolerating their employees disgusting behavior: https://nationalfile.com/left-wing-ars-technica-journalist-d...

Ref: I’ve been reading Arstechnica since it was green and black.