Minirama was the third, and final, foray into film format engineering by the talented amateur cine engineer, P. Stuart Warriner. He carried out the design and conversion of equipment as an individual working within the context of a leading UK cine club named the Widescreen Association. The club encouraged a lively culture of engagement with amateur widescreen enthusiasts through its magazine, regional groups and a national annual convention called Widex. By Warriner’s own account, Minirama came about because, having presented his earlier 16mm-based formats (Pan 16 and Point Two), Widescreen Association members had asked him: “Why don’t you do something with Super 8????” (Warriner, 1976: p. 4). His response was the strikingly original idea of turning the frame through 45 degrees – and filming in the diagonal. Although a number of systems feature horizontal-running film – in opposition to the orthodoxy of vertical-running systems – this is thought to be the unique instance in film history of a diagonally oriented format. Accordingly, Warriner made new gate apertures for a GAF Super 8 camera, and a Eumig 610D projector, and succeeded in squeezing in a frame with an extra wide projected aspect ratio of 2.64:1 – “as near a ‘true scope’ format as you are likely to get” (Warriner, 1976: pp. 4–5).

Minirama received its first – and possibly sole – public demonstration at the 1977 Widex, held at Campus West, Welwyn Garden City. The editor of Widescreen, the club magazine, reported that: “With the souped up projector the system looked really good […] Stuart must have been throwing the picture a good 50 feet [15.24m] and the brightness was staggering” (Grimes, 1977: p. 4) However, unlike Warriner’s Pan 16 format, which secured the favour and patronage of some Widescreen Association members, there is no sign of further demand having existed for Minirama. It seems, at most to have been an elegant, curious ‘show pony’. Nevertheless, a surviving letter from Warriner allows one to imagine an alternative history, in which Minirama became a successful film format. The letter was written to his friend Brian Polden, a fellow member of the Association, and its technical officer and custodian of the club museum. It recounts an interaction with the main rep from Minolta, who: “appeared very interested as it seems they are looking out for a new gimmick now everybody is on Low Light and Sound Cameras, and who knows, this may be just what they are wanting. He asked me to keep it as dark as I can for the time being, so ‘Mum’s-the-word’” (Warriner, 1975).

Apart from its sheer idiosyncrasy, a significant disadvantage of Minirama was the encroachment of film manufacturer edge markings into the image area. This issue was familiar from some other experimental formats, such as Variscope.

Warriner died in 1987, and in 2000 his local cine club, Morecambe Bay Moviemakers, of which he had been a founding member, offered his Minirama camera and projector to the National Media Museum in Bradford, England (now known as the National Science and Media Museum). The Curator of Cinematography, Michael Harvey, accepted it on the basis that it, “demonstrates the indomitable spirit of improvisation that characterised many amateur moviemakers and contrasts well with the conventional methods of producing widescreen pictures using anamorphic lenses” (Harvey, 2000).