Re: [photo-3d] Journey of Man

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

Bruce & Ray  ~

The attached files are two images of 70mm print clips.  One is darker to
show the edges and the sprocket holes; the lighter one shows the images on
the films a bit clearer.

The long clip is from CFI, and shows several common 35mm and 70mm release
print formats.   Note that the image areas go almost to the edge of the
perfs themselves.   This actually is the case, even with older prints that
had magnetic tracks.  The original magnetic sound track versions had the
tracks "striped" onto the processed film as a final step.  There was a wider
stripe outside of the perfs (each of which carried two discrete tracks on
one stripe), and a narrower stripe inside the perfs with one track each.
Since these were on both sides of the film, there were a total of six
discrete stereo tracks.   Six channel surround sound back in the 1950's!

The narrow inside mag tracks were actually striped on top of the picture,
thereby cropping it slightly on each side.   Thus, the common confusion
about the actual aspect ratio of 70mm films.  Today, since there are no
magnetic stripes, the full image area can be projected.   But, it often
isn't.  This is because most 70mm projectors are still equipped with the
original aperture plates, which are rarely filed out or changed.   Actually,
there is a good reason for retaining the cropping with the narrower plates:
light leaks.   As you can see, release prints are clear outside of the
picture area, and light can leak around, except in those wonderful
projectors that have full "clamping" gates that seal the plate to the film
when it is stopped for the shutter opening.

Of the two smaller clips, the top one is from the 70mm restored "Spartacus".
The bottom one is from an over-and-under StereoVision 70mm 10 perf. true
stereoscopic 3-D print.  Every other "frame" is actually a left or right-eye
image from a stereo pair.  Two 5 perf images (a true stereo pair) are
projected simultaneously through a 70mm StereoVision projection "split-lens"
or a 70mm StereoVision StereoFlex projection attachment.  Thus, two full
size 70mm images (the same image area as in Disney and Universal two film
3-D exhibitions) are on a single film, and are projected with a single
projector.

Best,

John A. Rupkalvis
StereoScope International

P. S.  ---
After attempting to send the above attachments to you, egroups informed me
that they cannot accept any files larger than 1Mb.   Therefore, I am sending
this without the attachments, and sending them individually to keep the size
down.   You will receive them in the above order, the 35mm clips first, then
each of the 70mm.


----- Original Message -----
From: "John A. Rupkalvis" <stereoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <photo-3d@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: [photo-3d] Journey of Man


> 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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