P3D Re: Film Formats

[Marvin Jones <Campfire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Message text written by INTERNET:photo-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>"So your movie has had its theatrical run, and now you're releasing it
on video.
What do you do? You could ship it out in the original 1.33:1 format, taking
the
risk that extraneous items would sometimes be visible."
Both Techniscope and VistaVision were shot in special cameras exposing the
negative in a 1:1.85 ratio. Most of the "scope's" use an anamorphic lens,
squeezing an image on the frame. There is no "extraneous" masked
information.<<<

I missed the beginning of this thread, so I may not understand exactly what
is being discussed, but the original quote refers to a 1.33 film, and the
response suddently jumps into Techniscope and VistaVision, which is pretty
much an apples and oranges comparison. Most present day films are shot
"flat" (a term that harks back to the 3D days, but actually means
non-anamorphic). The full frame is an image of approximately 1:1.33 (3:4)
ratio, as it has been since the days of Edison. Today, however, about a
third of this image is masked in theaters to create a modern 1:1.85 image.
Usually the full frame is shot, so that the full, unmasked, image will be
available for television and video. Since few theaters have the ability to
show 1.33 images today, anyone actually shooting a film in this format will
have to accept the fact that it will be show masked in almost any theater.

Most of the various "scope" formats squeeze the image horizontally and then
stretch it in projection to achieve a screen size of around 1:2.35 or so.
Techniscope was a weird budget system that actually shot a wide image on
half of the film's normal frame area. The picture was then usually
"stretched" vertically to achieve the same effect as a "scope" film on the
release prints, but with half the negative stock being used. (Occasional
Techniscope films were released 1.85 with the edges being cropped
somewhat). VistaVision was an 8-perf, horizontal travelling film negative
that could be released, with only slitght corpping as needed, in either
1.85 or scope versions.


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