A museum IMAX theater, the kind of venue where giant-format films are shown (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base museum, Ohio) Photo: DavidDDean / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Most Evanston residents have probably never walked past the company that makes some of the biggest movies in the world. Giant Screen Films, based in the city since 1997, produces large-format and 3D films for IMAX-style theaters, most of them installed in museums, science centers and aquariums rather than multiplexes.
Brothers Don and Steve Kempf founded the company. Don Kempf, a former history teacher, serves as president, according to trade coverage of the firm. The screens are far larger than a standard cinema’s, which changes how the movies are made. Large-format film runs through the camera at a punishing rate, so a single canister holds only a few minutes of footage, and a production can burn through a great deal of stock to capture a short scene.
Films aimed at museums and classrooms
The company’s audience is mainly institutional. Its titles have played at venues such as the Smithsonian in Washington, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Chicago’s Field Museum. Many of the films come with educational guides that teachers can use in class, keyed to national education standards.
Three of its recent 3D releases as of 2014 were Wild Ocean, a look at marine life off South Africa’s Wild Coast; Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, which follows researchers piecing together clues about Egyptian mummies; and Dinosaurs Alive, which runs from the earliest dinosaurs of the Triassic to the giants of the Cretaceous. The company has said the three together took in more than $100 million at the box office worldwide. Mummies was among the films nominated for Giant Screen Cinema Association awards, the industry’s own version of the Oscars, with categories that include Best Film, Best Film for Lifelong Learning and Best Cinematography.
Why Evanston
Much of the work happens far from Evanston, in the field and at theaters around the world. Kempf has said the city suits the business because it offers an urban setting without the traffic headaches of Chicago, and that he could not picture the company anywhere else. He has also said he is surprised more companies do not take advantage of what the city offers.
The company’s catalog and upcoming projects are listed at gsfilms.com.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
