Public Program Grant Application for National Endowment for the Humanities_06.01.1973T HE C IT Y OF f POET
�a
DUBUQUE =�T'
F
G I L B E R T D. C H A V E N E L L E n m
CITY MANAGER �Po ev
T yT
O'NMUNITV �
June 1, 1973
Mr. Gilbert D. Chavenelle
City Manager
City of Dubuque
City Hall
Dubuque, Iowa
Dear Gil:
DEPARTMENT OF
H O U5I NG AND REDEVELOPMENT
G E N T M, W 1 T T E N B E R G B❑ 1 R E C T O R
SUITE 10-8 FISCHER BUILDING PHONE 319 Sae-0019
D U B U Q U E. 1 O W A 5 2 O O 1
We enclose for your file a copy of a Public Program Grant
Application submitted by Five Flags to The National
Endowment for the Humanities requesting a financial grant
for the multi -media center.
The application is specifically for funds to provide the
presentation (the 45 minute show) and for the software
(projectors, screens, speakers, etc.) to be included in
space designed as an auditorium in the lower level of the
proposed Exhibitions -Arts Building.
We also enclose correspondence from the multi -media con-
sultant and from which much of the material contained in
the application was obtained.
Sincerely yours,
Gent M. Wittenberg
GMW/vt
Enclosures
Audio Visual Presentations
Apr i 130, 1973
Wayne A. Norman
General Chairman
Five Flags Center Fund
256 West Fifth Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001
Dear Wayne:
Enclosed is the information concerning the multi -media presentation. There is a "pre-
amble" about the Five Flags Multi -Media Presentation, excerpts from my speech to the
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers in Chicago, proposed screen layout
for the Five Flags center, an audio and visual diagram of the proposed layout, an
equipment cost analysis and presentation cost analysis.
I might say that we have taken a screen and equipment format which is very expensive.
Also, it substantially increases the cost of building the soft ware for the presentation.
The fact that you want to use this material as a fund raising device seemed to us to
dictate that we use the maximum possible equipment and program proposal. Obviously,
this project can be substantially scaled down. In consulting with our own architectural
firm on figures for constructing the auditorium we find that $40 per square foot should
be adequate. Consequently, if your budget direction is toward $700,000 the $250,000
equipment and soft ware proposal may not be too far out of line. Since the room
proposal is approximately 70' x 80' this would mean 5,600 square feet or a construction
cost of approximately $224,000. Obviously, the cost could go up substantially but that
still leaves an adequate margin. If you feel, however, that the proposal should be
substantially changed for our fund raising purposes, please let me know and I.will adjust
them to whatever level you feel is reasonable. We do think that the screen configuration
could be very exciting. We have worked into our estimates for equipment, the sound
system, a glass 1/2" lens screen wall which is 10' high and 75' long and which is in
five modules. Also, we have worked into the proposal an entire scaffolding area to
house projectors. This, of course, could be done in a number of ways including having
the scaffolding built 'n. We felt that we should add the scaffolds to the equipment
since the equipment could only be funded separately from the building.
Our technical consultant on this project is Midwest Visual Education Services, Inc., of
Des Moines, and we feel they are an extremely competent firm. Their technical experts
have indicated an interest in working with Ron Bowen. (This is the firm that worked
on the SUI Center.) Also, at a later date, we shoull probably include a service
contract into the total equipment budget.
Audio Visual Presentations M A Division of The De ,� Moines Register and Tribune
715 Locust StreetU Des Moines, Iowa 5030413 Area Code 515/284-8282
Audio Visual Presentations
Wayne A. Norman
April 30, 1973
Page Two
One other comment, our screen configuration was designed to allow the use of the
room for other groups -- the symphony as an example.
As you know, the proposal does contain a great deal of "blue sky", but we feel that
under the umbrella proposed here we could do an extraordinary job for the Dubuque
Five Flags Center and develop a multi -media presentation which would be one of the
highlights of the entire Midwest.
Sincerely,
Roy Follett
RF:meh
Enclosure
Audio Visual Presentations ® A Division of The Des Moines Register and Tribune
715 Locust Street0 Des Moines, Iowa 503043Area Code 515/284-8282
Audio Visual Presentations
FIVE FLAGS
MULTI -MEDIA CENTER
DUBUQUE, IOWA
Audio Visual Presentations M A Division of The Des Moines Register and Tribune
715 Locust St.,eet[3 Des Moines, Iowa 503041]Area Code 515/284-8282
The Five Flags presentation will be an environmental experience
to visitors of the center. This 45-minute presentation will lead the
audience through the early history of the Upper Mississippi Valley. It
will take them through the explorations of Marquette and Jolliet and
bring them to the significant revolutionary war battle at the lead mines
of Dubuque. Students will learn of the exploits of Jean Marie Cardinal
who warned St. Louis of the impending British attack. The ultimate
defeat of the British at St. Louis established the western border of the
United States at the Mississippi. The presentation of the colorful
history of Dubuque will continue through the 19th century when the
cultural center of the Upper Midwest had 20 legitimate theaters in
operation. This multi -projector presentation will convey to the
audience the experience of participating in history. The impact of a
theater built as an environmental experience will then be distributed
to other parts of the state of Iowa and surrounding areas through the
means of "audio -visual -vans." The story \vilI be told to school groups
in all parts of Iowa and adjacent areas of Wisconsin and Illinois.
It is planned that this extension of the project will be accomplished sub- t
sequent to the bi-centennial year 1976 at which time the multi -media
presentation will be run continuously in the Five Flags multi -media center.
Also, ii is contemplated that a series of smaller slide presentations, con-
taining similar information, would be made available to the schools for use
throughout the state.
This may be one of the first such historical multi -media centers
built entirely for historical education in the Midwest.
THE MULTI -MEDIA PRESENTATION
(Excerpts from a speech to the Society
of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers)
Multi -media presentations are unusual creatures. Just as films
and slide films, a multi -media presentation is basically a communication
device. It is designed to either entertain or tell the audience a fact or
a series of facts you want communicated. However, multi -media presenta-
tions have an added dimension. The added dimension of showmanship.
Certainly memorability can be achieved in films and slide presentations,
but the memorability achieved by multi -media presentations has the im-
pact of an environmental experience. The viewer can feel -as if he is a
total part of the presentation surrounded on all sides by the sights and
sounds, and the motion of both pictures and image position. The multi-
media presentation can move laterally and vertically as well as move
inside the individual frame of each picture through the use of slide dis-
solves and motion pictures.
The impact of a multi -media presentation is greatly enhanced by
the size and number of images. Utilization of a variety of still pictures
dissolving with lap dissolves, quick cuts, slow dissolves, integrated with
motion pictures and a variety of optical treatments of slides giving
various shapes to those slides can create an awesome impact. Coupled
with the sheer size, the multi -media presentation can be a tool to com-
bine impact of television, major graphic sits, motion pictures, slides,
and even three dimensional materials.
Therefore, when building a structure to house a presentation
there must be certain basic considerations. One of those is the width and
height of the presentation area (screen). No matter how clever and skill-
ed the multi -media presentation if it is played on a too small area it will
lose a large part of its impact. Also, the total flexibility of the
presentation area must be a major consideration. Since one of the
strengths of a multi -media presentation is movement of the visual image,
then the presentation area must have the adaptability to allow the visual
image to. move in a variety of locations and directions. This indicates
the necessity for either a projection booth which is parallel in size and
width to the presentation area (screen) or if a rear screen is utilized
then the projection area behind the screen should be the full width of
the presentation area.
In order to better explain what is involved in this concept, let
me discuss a portable rear screen presentation which was developed for
a specific use. The conceptual idea and the methods and considerations
of room sizes should clarify the discussion of the presentation arena.
When the Des Moines Register and Tribune decided to build a
major multi -media presentation it was because of a unique need. The
newspapers, though the lbth largest in the United States, are published
in a community that's the 112th largest in the United States. New York,
-2-
Chicago, and Detroit advertising agencies had the tendency to consider
the Des Moines newspaper market much smaller than it actually was.
Therefore, it was most important to get a major audience of top ad-
vertising agency creative and media people attending the presentation.
Small slide presentations, and motion picture presentations seldom
gained an audience of more than one or two agency executives when
shown by the Register's salesmen.
It was the plan of the Register and Tribune to have -the president
of the corporation, the advertising director and the national advertising
manager introduce the multi -media presentation. The presentation
would be held in conjunction with luncheon at major hotels in the cities
where the presentation was to be traveled. It was felt that with a
concerted effort a top quality audience could be influenced to come to
the presentation. Secondarily, the fact that the multi -media
presentation would be big and spectacular would give stature to the
organizat ion producing it. The memorability of such a presentation
would go beyond smaller sales presentations and give an added dimension
to the sales information contained within it. Also, a good many more
"environmental photographs" of the state a= Iowa -- the market which the
Register and Tribune operated within -- could be shown in a multi -screen
presentation within the time requirement w!iich was set at 15 minutes.
-3-
With all of these considerations agreed upon at the outset it was
then the job of the audio-visual division of the Register and Tribune to
put together a presentation that could be transported to New York,
Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, and St. Louis,
with a minimum of expense and manpower.
At this point, the consideration of locations of the showings be-
came paramount. Obviously, showing the presentations in hotel ball-
rooms dictated the size, and type of presentation. The size of the
audience, the luncheon capability of the hotel, and the functional
facilities of the room were primary.
The audiences were determined to be in the range of 250 people
per luncheon which meant a room approximately 80' x 45' in size. How-
ever, putting a great deal of apparatus in the midst of an audience would
be distracting not only because of the activity of the equipment but also
the noise of the functioning of that equipment. It was, therefore, de-
cided that a rear screen projection would be most applicable. Also,
rear screen would allow us to do away with any sight problems with the
audience in front of the projectors. It would also allow us to have the
audience closer to the screen in crowded r)om conditions. The rooms
were then booked with the consideration t") ceiling height and total
width. The screen size of the presentation was then developed according
to the smallest room on the tour. This happened to be the Starlight
Roof of the Waldorf Astoria.
Prior to any consideration of building a screen a consideration of
what was going to appear on the screen was paramount. Utilizing
the dimensional characteristics of 35 mm slides and 16 mm motion
pictures to lay out a screen configuration that would fit within the
dimensions of the room, we laid out a screen area which we felt
would communicate the story and allow the greatest flexibility in pre-
sentation of slides and motion pictures. This screen layout is as shown
on diagram A.
The two wing screens were 20' by 10' high with a 4' skirt underneath
and the center screen was 34' wide by 10' high. As you will note, on
the left wing screen we had one horizontal 35 mm and one vertical 35 mm.
In the center screen, four 35 mm horizontals appeared on the left with a
vertical 35 mm in the center and four 35 rnm horizontals on the right.
-5-
The for right wing screen had one vertical 35 mm, one horizontal 35 mm,
overlaid by a horizontal 16 mm motion picture. These 13 screen positions
had three dissolve positions. In other words two Carousels were used on
the largest horizontal 35 screen numbers 1 and 13 on this chart and one
dissolve was used in the upper lefthand horizontal in the center screen
which is number 3 on this chart. This accounted for 16 ektagraphic
carousels and one 16 mm arc projector. This layout cnd the room size
permitted a screen 74' long and 14' high. When this determination
was made then the screens were contracted for through Commercial
Picture Equipment here in Chicago. The secondary consideration that
determined whether or not this screen configuration could be used
was whether or not the distance behind the screens was adequate to
allow projection of the size images we had laid out in our screen
format. Utilizing a series of 1.4 Buehl lenses we found that it would
need a depth behind the center screen of 8' and approximately 16'
on the side screens. The wing screens could be moved closer to the
audience to give this additional depth behind the screen. One of the
major considerations, of course, was to have all of the projectors in
the same plane behind the screen. If the projectors are in different
planes c ne projector will tend to block the image of another projector,
and consequently the screen configuration would have to be altered.
go
This single plane also allowed us to use an extensive scaffolding
network to hold various projectors and center them in the middle of
the image area for our layout.
• • e
•
• eo•
Diagram B shows you where the projectors were located in order
to center them inside these image areas and as you can see it required
vertical height of some 12' for those projectors centered in the upper
horizontal positions of the center screen and horizontal width of ap-
proximately 60 feet. As I indicated, the smallest room was at the
Waldorf Astoria. The Waldorf room unfortunately was only 34' wide
though 180' long. We decided to go ahead with our screen layout re-
gardless and set it up the long way with a long narrow audience con-
figuratic n. Obviously, the field of vision could not take in the
( whole 74' screen with a person sitting 10' prom it, but we realized
that seldom would we be filling the entire screen at the same time and
-7-
the pictures would move along the screen and allow the person to follow
them. We did try to minimize the back and forth action of the pictures
so that we did not have the distracting problem of moving from left to right
and right to left on a continuing basis.
The total hardware for this presentation filled completely one panel
van and was trooped around the country by two men who assembled it. It
required six hours set up -and five hours takedown with an extensive align-
ment project involved in each case. The 17 projectors were strung together
with 4 Spindler Sauppe Quadra Que programmers and three Spindler Sauppe
dissolves. The program was "driven" byy-a 4-track TEAC tape player. The
power of the rooms was one of the major critical areas.
Now a word about the soft ware. Developing the presentation format
came first as I've indicated, but the basic sales presentation was the key to
the success of the audio-visual presentation. The ultimate result had to be a
selling multi -media presentation. The sales presentation was written as if it
were a one -projector presentation and then storyboarded to allow the best
visual representation possible to illustrate each of the sales points. This
particular presentation was developed around a hot air balloon which was
purchased by the Register and Tribune and flown throughout the state during
the summer of 1972. Motion picture photographers and still photographers
followed the balloon and its flight around the state to develop a scenic pre-
sentation of Iowa as the balloon passed ov.:r the various areas. Then the
specific sales material was developed for tie latter part of the multi -media
presentation. After the initial script was put together layout configuration of
the screen was drawn on the left side of the script much as a television
storyboard. Each picture was developed into that screen's position to
give a rough estimate of what would go on the screen at each specific
time. The presentation was then put together with single slides to
illustrate each specific idea in the story line. Augmentation cf the
single slide -- for instance, when we were talking about green land-
scape we augmented one slide with a number of others with dissolves,
quick cuts and a variety of other techniques -- and then once the
series of slides was laid out, the programming began. The programming
C.
required something in excess of 4 days an d nights, with four to five
people working constantly on this function. Anyone who tells you it's
simple to program a multi -media presentation should explain to me
how it's done. We've programmed dozens of them and none has been
a simple operation. The Quadra Ques were set up and played like a
keyboard and certain functions were accomplished by formating tape
pulses and simply dubbing them on our tape..
In this particular presentation the music bed was put on the
voice track prior to programming. We find when the music is down
first it gives us a much greater feeling of what should be done on the
( screen. We set up the projectors in miniature, front projecting them
-9-
z`
on a small screen vh ich is not over 10' in width. This gives us the
ability to quickly get to the projectors without having to cross an
entire room to change slides, back up projectors, que them, and so
forth.
This is a description of only one portable multi -media pre-
sentation, but it demonstrates clearly the problems confronting all
multi -media presentations. At Audio Visual Presentations we tend
to lean toward rear screen presentations because of the same reason-
ing used in developing this Register and Tribune presentation. That
is, keeping equipment out of sight behind the screen and also the
fact that the sight line can be carried clear to the floor without
worrying about the audience sitting in front of it.
These considerations can also be handled by front projections.
However, we find that the ambient light situation in a room can
greatly hurt front projection and rear projection also gives the added
benefit of surprise with the picture appearing with no clue because of
a light beam projected from a booth. However, the added illumina-
tion of front projection is a specific benefit in that means of presenta-
tion.
Author's note: An environmental presentation for Five Flags
which would be of historical educational value for people of all age
-10-
i`
groups can be handled in a variety of ways. One of the most ex-
citing could very well be developed with people standing or sitting
in the room looking at a presentation that surrounds them with
the feeling that they are in the area when history itself is made.
This environmental feeling that you are there when the event
happens, and are participating in the event is certainly one of the
major benefits of utilizing multi -media.
C
PROPOSED SCREEN CONFIGURATION FOR FIVE FLAGS CENTER, DUBUQUE, IOWA
00
o,2
z
C)
H
U
w
N
J
O
F--
z
0
U
z
O
U
UJ
V)
O
Q
N
Y
J
Y Q
0Q)z
~
Q J
Q
cc
r O
=
W
o
V
Ez�
ON°<U<
W
Q V N
OJ N
w
w
F—
IN
w
Q
v
P
60
w
°
bDlvlds
NWnlOJ
:n K
w :Dl
> 0,4
Om OQO'
.p
K (V 0
O4�
W
w
Q 'o
` = w
/O CU 0
J
O
r
z
O
U
mC
�UN
Duazi
N
W
r
I
�
�
uj
O
r
N
w
J�
_
O
N
N
W.
J �
m
Q
ga
U
QO
w
Qa
>
7_
O
O
O�F
N i
w
U
r
Z o
J
Mm
O
a
K
a
0Q
o
OU
O
U
r
Z
W z
Q
r
O �
NO
UJ
0U
� O
Q Z
E
U�?
1
Z.
O r
�
N
00 �i
_
Equipment List for Dubuque
1.
1 -
MCI 24-channel Rec/ Deck
$ 23,750.00
2.
2 -
Bozak CMA-6-2S Stereo Pre -Amp @ $495.00
990.00
3.
4 -
Bozak CMA-1-120 Power Amp @ $375.00
1,500.00
4.
5 -
Bozak CM-109-I8 Colm.Speakers @ $495.00
1,980.00
5.
5 -
Bozak CM-199-4 Bass Speakers @ $450.00
2,250.00
6.
8 -
Bozak CM-109-2 Ceiling Speakers @ $97.50
780.00
7.
4 -
Input Pre -Amp Cards @ $18.00
72.00
8.
500'
Speaker Wire
25.00
9.
18 -
3M Digi-Que Pro-9 @ $869.95
15,659.00
10.
35 -
Spindler Dynamic Dissolve @ $594.00
20,790.00
11.
70 -
Ektagraphic AF-2 No lens @ $202.00
14,140.00
12.
70 -
Buhl 1.4" Lens @ $80.00
5,600.00
13.
2 -
Kodak AV-295 Marc 300 16 mm @ $1, 595.00
3,190.00
14.
2 -
Buhl Ecurp Lens @ $180.00
360.00
15.
4 -
3M AV-21 Power Control @ $99.95
399.80
16.
70 -
Carousel Cables @ $8.00
560.00
17.
20 -
Recorder Connectors @ $10.00
200.00
18.
35 -
Pro-9 TO Dissolve Cords @ $11.00
385.00
19.
Scaffolding
10,000.00
20.
5 -
LS 60/180 x 1/2 Hydur Finish
10' x 15', 150 sq . ft . @ $6, 157.00
30, 785.00
Sub -total
$133,415.80
Installation of above system, excluding
screens -- 2 men 2 weeks + parts, etc.
5,000.00
Miscellaneous
5,000.00
Total
$143, 415.80
11
o
COST PROPOSAL FOR MULTI -MEDIA PRESENTATION
FIVE FLAGS CENTER, DUBUQUE, IOWA
We anticipate that the Five Flags Multi -Media presentation based upon the
screen configuration and equipment analysis presented in this proposal will re-
quire the composite talents of ten people on a full time basis for 6 months. These
people include a producer, a director, copywriter, technical director, programmer,
three artists, and two photographers.
This total indicates a "man hour" time of approximately 10,000 hours. Coupled
with a $10,000 estimate for materials (film, slide mounts, etc.) and a 10% cost in-
crease factor over the next two years we anticipate the entire "soft ware" package
at $120,000. Admittedly this estimate could be reduced if the screen configuration
was simplified.
TOTAL COST ESTIMATES
Equipment ....................................... $143,415.80
120,000.00
Presentation...................................... t_
$263,415.80