FROM
TELEVISION TO 
VISTAVISION 
AND BACK AGAIN

M. BARRY LITTLECHILD, MBKS, takes a panoramic look at the professional widescreen systems that have waxed and waned since the cinema was first threatened by TV twenty- odd years ago.
 

Reproduced from the November 1972 issue of Movie Maker
Just click on one of the images to see the larger version

 

IT WAS AT THE BEGINNING of the 'fifties that the movie moguls first began to feel the chill wind of television competition whistling into the box-office. Their reaction was characteristic - they decided to try and beat their upstart rival by being bigger even if not better. So they meet the challenge from the small screen by making their theatre screens wider and wider in the hope of luring back the patrons by promising them the sort of spectacle they could never hope to see at home on the box. 

History has shown that this ploy was not the magic cure for falling attendances; the curious customer was initially tempted in by the various 'scopes and 'ramas - but then stayed away again in his millions. And as we know, thousands of cinemas around the world closed during the next 20 years. 

By a curious twist of fate, many of the epic movies made during this period are now turning up (severely cropped at the sides, of course) on TV itself, and some viewers must wonder what is meant when sparkling credits announce that the film is in Vistavision, Technirama, CinemaScope and so on. Here, then, is a run-down on the principal professional widescreen systems - both those that are still with us and those that have long since taken their place in the museum of cinematic relics. 

Cinerama(full image 37K) Three-Lens Cinerama (1952-1964) This system used three separate strips of film which were run on three projectors locked together. Each film carried a portion of the complete picture. The interesting thing about the frame illustrated (which is from the left-hand 'panel') is the six-perforation pull-down which the process employed. The sound was supplied from a separate 35mm fully-coated magnetic sound track which carried seven sound channels. 


Vistavision (full image 29K) Vistavision (1954-1962) Paramount devised this system in 1954 to provide a high-definition vertically running 35mm print, with a ratio of 1.85-1, from a horizontally running negative using an eight perforation 'pull-down'. Reduction printing was normally used to make the prints, but in a few cases, a straight contact print was made from the negative for showing on a special horizontal-type projector for special presentations. 


Technirama (1957-1967) This system was similar to Vistavision in that it used a horizontally running negative, but it also incorporated an anamorphic element during filming (1.5:1 lateral compression). It was employed mainly for high definition 35mm 'scope and 70mm prints. 


CinemaScope(full image 49K)CinemaScope, Panavision and Todd-AO 35 (1953 to the present) These are basically all the same but use lenses made by different companies. Originally described as 'the poor man's Cinerama', the system uses a normal 35mm vertically CinemaScope (or similar anamorphic system) running film, but needs an anamorphic lens (2:1 lateral compression) on the camera to squeeze a wide-angle image into the normal frame width. The reverse operation takes place during projection. The screen ratio produced when a print is made with optical sound is 2.3 5: 1. 

 


RKO Superscope(full image 34K)Superscope/RK0 Scope (1954 to 1958) RKO, having a large number of standard 1.33:1 ratio films awaiting release in the early 'fifties and anxious to jump on the widescreen bandwagon, devised a printer that cropped the top and bottom of the negative frame and squeezed it up to give an aspect ratio of 2:1 when projected. The result was called Superscope. RKO Scope followed, which was a normal anamorphic process giving a screen ratio of 2.3 5: 1. Superscope 


Cinemascope 55(full image 35K)CinemaScope 55 (1955-1957) This was in fact a negative 55mm in width which provided a frame area four times as large as 35mm. It was introduced to improve the definition of CinemaScope release prints. The King and I and Carousel were the only two films made in this format and these were later blown up to 70mm under the title of Fox Grandeur 70. 


Panavision70(full image 75K) Panavision 70 (1962 to the present) Actually this system is derived from a normal 35mm anamorphic negative which is printed up to 70mm. and 'unsqueezed' for special presentations with six channel sound by magnetic stripe, as in all 70mm systems with the exception of Imax. 


Super Panavision(full image 65K) Super Panavision and Todd-AO (1958 to the present) These are systems which use a direct contact print made from a 65mm negative (the extra 5mm on the print being for the sound tracks). These and Panavision 70 are the most commonly used for Cinerama-style presentations today, now that the old three- lens system is obsolete. The ratio provided is 2.2:1. 


Ultra Panavision(full image 43K) Ultra Panavision and Camera 65 (1959- 1966) A 65mm negative was also the basis of these Ultra Panavision systems, but an anamorphic was used during filming and projection to provide a screen ratio of 2.7: 1. They were originally developed for Cinerama presentations but the squeeze element was found to be unnecessary and the systems are now obsolete.


Techiscope(full image 38K) Techniscope (1964 to the present) This is a 35mm process which uses frames only two perforations high on the negative. These half-height frames are then blown up and squeezed to make normal 35mm 'scope release prints. The obvious advantage of the system is that negative costs are halved. 

 

 

 

 


Imax(full image 68K) Imax (1967 to the present) This 70mm. system runs the film horizon- tally in both camera and projector to produce a format which is roughly equivalent to the classic 1.33:1 - but on a massive scale. It has not yet been seen in the UK but was explained in detail in Movie Maker, February, 1972. 


The heyday of the widescreen era now seems to have past, and recent important feature films (such as The Godfather) have been shot on normal 35mm. film. Ironically, the reason for this decline of the giant panoramic screen systems is the same one that caused them to appear in the first place - television. 

Obviously producers now look on TV as another major outlet for their products and are therefore keen to ensure that a film can be satisfactorily presented in a 1.33:1 ratio for the small screen. 

That, as they say, is show business. 

But those of us who recollect the exhilarating experience of riding the roller coaster in This is Cinerama or tasting the sweat with Charlton Heston on his chariot in the Camera 65 Ben Hur, not to mention the parting of the Red Sea in the Vistavision The Ten Commandments, will grieve at the passing of the formats that made an epic a true epic.

Reproduced from the November 1972 issue of Movie Maker


This page was last updated 02 Dec 2002

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