Krugovaya Kinopanorama, Circular cinema in Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, Russia.
Krugovaya Kinopanorama is a circular cinema located on the grounds of the VDNKh exhibition complex in Ostankinsky District, Moscow. Eleven projectors work at the same time to cast images onto a screen that covers the full 360 degrees around the viewer.
The cinema opened in 1959, at a time when the Soviet government was keen to show new technology at major exhibitions. The projection system was developed specifically for this building and had no direct equivalent anywhere else at the time.
The films shown here are documentaries shot specifically for this round format, often featuring aerial views of Moscow and the Russian countryside. Visitors stand during the screening, since there are no seats, which makes the 360-degree image feel more direct and physical.
The cinema is inside the VDNKh complex, which is easy to reach by metro from central Moscow. Once inside the hall, standing near the center gives the most balanced view of the screen on all sides.
A specially built camera mount was fixed to helicopters to capture aerial footage in the wide format needed for the screen. All eleven cameras had to run in exact sync, because any small delay between them would have shown as a visible seam on the wraparound image.
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