It began life as the most normative of soap operas, a typical Nor-eastern sudser where small town intrigue and family feuds led to deception, drama…and sometimes death. Creator Dan Curtis wanted to evoke a kind of House of the Seven Gables feel, using mood and tone to differentiate his Gothic serial from the rest. Still, audiences weren’t interested, and ABC was threatening cancelation. Inspired by something his daughter said (“Why not add a ghost?”) and realizing he could jumpstart his show’s failing fortunes, Curtis offered up ‘the Lady in White.’ It wouldn’t be long before the town of Collinsport, Maine and its chief residing brood, The Collinses, were bedeviled by all manner of monsters, myths, and legends.

Indeed, over the course of its late ‘60s/ early ‘70s run, Dark Shadows would become a pure cult phenomenon, catching on with the hung-over members of the Peace Generation while inspiring a new generation of underage fright fans. Anyone who grew up in the era remembered running home from school, grabbing a snack, and sitting down in front of the TV awaiting the latest installment of the creature-driven diversion. Once he discovered that audiences would eat up a supernatural storyline, Curtis dug deep into the reservoir of dread. During it’s time, Dark Shadows would explore such classic macabre icons as Frankenstein, the Werewolf, and of course, Dracula.

For film, summer is the season of hyperbole. Everything is bigger, better, and more groundbreaking than what came just a short nine months before. Critics complain about the lack of originality and then soil themselves whenever a motion picture product proves beyond the middling and mediocre. One of the mantras you hear over and over, from the latest installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman revision to another Michael Bay explosion-fest is: ‘make sure you see it on the big screen’ - as if watching worlds collide and robots ransack the planet demands an experience 70-feet high. Sure, visual splash sells better when not compacted onto a home theater system, but for the most part, video assist has guaranteed the experience will always feel format friendly. In fact, few filmmakers today really ‘get’ the notion of playing to the silver, not the smaller venues.

There are directors, however, who comprehend the needs of the epic. They visualize their ideas in larger than life swatches, switching gears and driving their designs to the very edges of imagination. Sometimes, their narrative demands such range. In other instances, possibility and its motion picture presence are measured out in vast, viable inventions. For us, these filmmakers represent some of the best optical experts ever. Their conceits demand the kind of Herculean housing that only a movie theater can provide. While there are many more one can name (and feel free to do so in the comments section), we’ve picked the 10 that we believe best exemplify the careful balancing act of storyline and scope. If you can, catch them during their often celebrated retrospectives. You and your waning cinematic aesthetic will be glad you did.

More often than not, a legacy needs just one thing to hold it firm. Be it a voice, an idea, a line of poetry or a cinematic statement, myth can be born out of even the most minor. It can also rise from the misunderstood. Back in the early ‘80s, when rap was just getting a hold of the pop cultural zeitgeist, a trio of white boys decided to show their skills and flaunt ethnic acceptance. Initially viewed as a novelty, The Beastie Boys soon became a benchmark, a linking verb between the incendiary urban message of the current music and party animal element it would come to be known for. Indeed, the combination of East Coast antics and knucklehead novelty made the guys an initial hit. Two decades dedicated to the true art of hip hop turned them into icons.

Now, with the untimely and tragic passing of Adam “MCA” Yauch from cancer at age 47, one of the defining groups from rap’s original ascent is no more. Even worse, the death throws the eccentric offshoot of the man’s muse - Oscilloscope Laboratories - into flux. Last week, a shake-up of sorts was announced when President David Fenkel (who used to run THINKFilm) stepped down, making way for Dan Berger and David Laub to run the company. Both had previous roles in marketing, distribution and acquisitions. Oddly enough, none knew how sick Yauch really was (he had recently been a no show at the Beastie’s induction into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame). In light of current events, Fenkel announced that he will remain closely linked to the organization, acting as a consultant.

As if performing careful, clinical cuts with a scalpel, visual artist Jeff Desom deconstructed the iconic backdrop of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window for a short film essay that has been shortlisted for the 2012 Vimeo Awards. Desom used only the original footage from the 1954 work; the beloved back courtyard of Rear Window‘s Greenwich Village apartments is here in all of its glory, planted just beneath the bedroom of the film’s hobbled protagonist, L.B. Jeffries, played by James Stewart.

When you consider what he had to work with, when you realize that a similar task practically drove Mad Max‘s George Miller away from live action filmmaking for a time, you can understand the pure magic created by writer/director Joss Whedon for his take on Marvel’s The Avengers. Indeed, jerryrigging a Justice League movie for DC turned many an accomplished filmmaker into jelly. So imagine having to take six origin films of varying success rates, a group of characters already established and yet begging to be broadened, and a legion of lifelong comic book fan expectations, and somehow make them all gel, and you’ve got some idea of the undertaking. One slip up, and all was lost. If it worked, however, it could become one of the greatest superhero comic book movie of all time…and that’s just what Whedon has created.

The story centers on Loki (Tom Hiddleston) adopted brother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and last seen banished for his role in the potential overthrow of the cosmic kingdom of Asgard. Desperate for the power source known as “The Tesseract,” he opens a portal to Earth and begins amassing an army, including scientist Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and master archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). This draws the attention of team leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who sends out his ace spy assassin Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) to find Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), aka The Hulk. In the meantime, Tony “Iron Man” Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is plotting the future of his empire with gal pal Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) while Steve “Captain America” Rogers (Chris Evans) is waiting for that elusive first mission. It all comes together when Loki achieves his goals and unleashes a full scale alien invasion on New York City.