P3D THE ROBE

[tony <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friends,

Reference:  THE ROBE.

This film was six weeks into shooting in the old-fashioned 1.37:1 format when Sol Skurus,  then of 20th Century Fox Inc., approached Prof. Henri Chretien of Societe Technique D'Optique De Precision (in France) for the sole rights to use the latters Hypergonar lens for the production of a film in the anamorphic (squeeze/de-squeeze) technique.

Skurous then gave it the name of 'CinemaScope' and commenced re-shooting The Robe in the new expanded format.  This was done to try and produce a Cinerama-like effect but only using a single lens/camera....and also to combat the fledgling television which was then starting to make inroads into the motion picture business.

Chretien actually retained some of the 'rights' to the lens (and was awarded an Oscar in 1955,  incidentally) including that of the 8mm version.....which we  -  The Widescreen Centre  -  were then granted by his company in about 1967, or thereabouts.

However,  the film was never shot in 3-D at any time.

We have actually handled the lens that was used to make this film and had it on display for a period.

We still sell anamorphic lenses.

TONY SHAPPS



Tony Shapps
tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wscreen.demon.co.uk


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