CINEMATIC SPOTLIGHT

ROB HAHN is an American film director of photography and a name you should be familiar with if you love movies. He worked as cinematographer for acclaimed director Frank Oz on The Stepford Wives, The Score, and In & Out.

Working as a camera operator for Academy Award winning cinematographers Conrad Hall (American Beauty) and Owen Roizman (The Exorcist) influenced Rob's style. With a keen eye and love for exceptional sound and projection-and with help from Keith Yates Design-he built The Hahn Theater which I named Home Theater of the Decade in 2019.

In this exclusive interview, we discuss Rob Hahn's motivation to build The Hahn Theater and get detailed insights into his career, which inspired his Kaleidescape Filmmaker Spotlight-a new series of movie collections that focuses on the featured filmmakers by compiling their favorite films, other films and filmmakers that inspired their work, and some of their favorite demo movies.

S&V: Tell us about your inspiration for The Hahn Theater, the specific capabilities you wanted and why quality matters?

Rob Hahn: In 2019, my theater was chosen as the Home Theater of the Decade by AVS Forum. However, the journey of designing and building The Hahn Theater started in 1962, when I was 10 years old.

I saw Lawrence of Arabia when it opened on a huge screen in 70mm, most likely a print from the original negative. The projection was perfect: bright bulb and razor sharp. I remember the sequence where Lawrence went back into the hot desert to retrieve a man who had been left behind. It was very tense and full of suspense but the shot that made the most impression on me was an extremely wide angle of the vast desert, where right in the middle of the frame, I thought I saw a very tiny black dot. Wait, is that the man we're looking for? Couldn't be, but maybe? It mirrored what Lawrence was thinking too-the audience became Lawrence of Arabia.