Re: [photo-3d] Journey of Man

["John A. Rupkalvis" <stereoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce & Ray  ~

Interesting dialog re: Imax 3D and the 65/70mm formats.   A little more
insight on the formats:

70mm as an acquisition format was used for origination for theatrical
applications only in Russia.   In the United States, only certain special
purpose industrial and military cameras were actually 70mm, and these used a
70mm film that had a different perforation pitch than that of either 65mm
camera stock or 70mm release prints.

All theatrical production in the U.S. and other parts of the world other
than Russia has been on 65mm wide film stock for the cameras (including
conventional 5 perf., Iwerks' 8 perf., StereoVision's 10 perf., and Imax's
15 perf.).  The film was then printed (either directly or through an I.P.)
onto a 70mm wide release print.  The image size on the 70mm release print is
exactly the same size (often contact printed) as the image on the 65mm
camera original, as is the perf. spacing (the added 5mm is outside of the
perfs).

The extra 5mm was for magnetic sound stripes, not optical.   At one time
(around the time of the introduction of Dolby SVA optical tracks on 35mm
release prints) there was some talk of putting optical tracks on 70mm
theatrical prints.  However, although there were some lab tests, I don't
think any theatrical prints were released that way.  Most 70mm (and 35/70mm)
projectors were already equipped with mag head penthouses, and this would
have required an additional or replacement optical head.

Today, the preferred release method for many "flagship" or "roadhouse"
theaters is that of digital tracks, either on film or on separate disc (such
as Imax).   This is true of many 35mm and nearly all 70mm release prints of
recent productions.

When I printed the restoration of "Spartacus" for Universal, I modified a
70mm camera to take 65mm film (added "guide rails" next to the drive and
follower sprockets).  I also had to modify a VistaVision camera mechanism to
drive the RGB seps as a projection head on the highly modified optical
printer.  The original camera negatives were in the Technirama format
(anamorphically squeezed VistaVision).   The new release prints were
conventional 70mm.

I have some clips of frames of 70mm prints that I will look for, and e-mail
as a follow-up.

Regards,

John A. Rupkalvis,
StereoScope International
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray Zone" <r3dzone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <photo-3d@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 12:03 PM
Subject: [photo-3d] Journey of Man


> Bruce Springsteen wrote:
>
> <I've never balked at any price for a Ray Zone product  - well, maybe
> on eBay - and I am otherwise pretty frugal, so this speaks for itself.>
>
> Ray Zone responds:
>
> Thank you Bruce.  I appreciate your support.
>
> Bruce: Incidentally, there is no photo credit on the two demo pairs of the
> movie schlubs - I am assuming they were shot by Ray with a Realist
> format camera?
>
> Ray: No, those demo pairs were shot with a Nimslo Stereo camera by John
> Hora, ASC, who was the director of photography on the "Banquine" sequence
of
> Journey of Man.  For the stereo pairs in the magazine I pulled the first
and
> fourth frames from the 4 captured by the Nimslo camera.
>
> Bruce: I do look forward to seeing the film for sure!  I'm a big Cirque du
> Soleil fan, though never having been to a live show.  They overcome
> my misgivings about traditional circuses (circi?) that deal in
> miserable animals and gaudy outfits.  A costumer friend of my wife's
> answered an ad they put in the trade classifieds for a wardrobe worker
> with good swimming skills to help in their underwater Vegas show (if I
> remember right for a change).  How can you not love an enterprise
> that creates jobs like that?
>
> Ray: The underwater performers are in one of the amazing opening acts of
> Journey of Man.  The technical details of the complex lighting and 3-D
> filming of this underwater act are covered in the American Cinematographer
> article.
>
> Bruce: I do have a technical question.  The Iwerks theater our club just
> visited gave us a little backstage tour (thanks, Dave Williams) and
> the guy described the system as 15/70 format.  In the article, Ray
> refers to the 15/65 camera.  Is that really the same format - I'm
> guessing the former refers to the total film width of 70, the latter
> to an image height of 65?
>
> Ray: IMAX 3-D and all 70mm release prints are originated on 65mm film and
> then optically printed to 70mm film with the additional width provided for
> the optical sound track.  15/65 or 15/70 refers to the number of
> perforations per frame for the horizontally travelling film which creates
a
> very large image area 1.913 x 2.740 inches.  5/65 mm or 5/70 is vertically
> travelling film with 5 perforations along the side for each frame and an
> image area of 1.913 x 0.868 inches (aspect ratio of 2.2:1).
>
> Bruce: It will be interesting to see the results of the new adjustable
> convergence/interocular/window camera.  The history-in-your-lap effect at
> "Mark Twain's America" was a bit overwhelming after a while.
>
> Ray:  Up to Journey of Man, the IMAX 3-D films were shot with the twin
> lenses of the camera in parallel.  As a result the stereo window was at
> infinity and all of the imagery came off the screen.  This has been the
> unspoken IMAX 3-D philosophy to date and the feeling has been that the
large
> screens are so wide that the peripheral vision doesn't really notice
> violations of the stereo window or "banding" at the edge of the field of
> view.  With the new converging lenses on the IMAX 3-D camera the DP and
> Director can now use screen space behind the stereo window.
>
> With the exception of the forest sequence shot with the Iwerks 3-D rig all
> of Journey of Man was shot with a fixed interocular of 2.85"  The new film
> "Ultimate G's" or "The Flying G's" to be released soon uses a variable
> interocular as well as adjustable convergence.
>
>
>
>
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