Re: [photo-3d] Old movies in 3D

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

ers@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Part of the impact issue for modern showings may relate to the
> format of the film. Some of the older films were preserved as
> side by side images on a single strip of film. Others may exist
> only as tandem 16mm, while yet others are pretty far gone prints.
> ....
> The over/under modern films like Spacehunter could still be projected
> successfully in 3D, but would probably best be viewed in a relatively
> small theater. They're essentially wide format 16m films, and won't
> take a huge amount of enlargement.

Some comments on the above.  Although there were a very few of the 1953 era
films copied to dual strip 16mm (mostly for schools), these were not widely
shown; only a couple of commercial theaters that I am aware of ever
projected these 16mm prints.

Most of the 1953 films were either black & white or Technicolor I.B., either
of which store quite well for long periods of time.  However, that is a moot
point, since precious few theaters can project dual strip today.  Most of
the original prints that did not end up in the hands of collectors have
either been broken up into separate left eye and right eye sets for
redistribution flat, or have been intentionally destroyed to reclaim shelf
space in storage.  Most stereoscopic re-issues today are new prints
reprinted to one of the single strip formats.

Spacehunter was originally shot in twin strip 35mm, although it was released
as an over-and-under single strip.  This film should not be used to judge
over-and-under print quality, since the prints are very soft, and short of
scale.  They are nowhere near as sharp as the prints from negatives
originally shot in StereoVision over-and-under single strip.

Over-and-under films shot in the StereoVision system should not be compared
to 16mm.   They have a full Super 35mm film width, the same width as films
like "Titanic" were shot in.   Yes, the height of each eye view is less, but
the full image height is projected, not cropped off as conventional flat
films are when they are projected to the typical widescreen aspect ratios of
most modern projection screens.  In actual projection, since both eye views
are projected simultaneously, each time the projector shutter opens, the
film area seen is greater than the area of most conventional flat film
images (more pixels per second on the screen).

In terms of sharpness, they can be enlarged as much as any other 35mm film.
The limitation to enlargement is really brightness, since this is reduced
twice (once through the polarizers on the projector, and once again through
the polarizing viewing glasses).

Regarding prints made from 1953 era films, one of the best examples is the
StereoVision single strip 70mm print of "House of Wax".  Both of the
original 35mm negatives are printed full size, side-by-side on 70mm release
film.  Also, the original WarnerSound stereophonic sound tracks are both
reproduced on this single 70mm print.  Since the actual film area of two
35mm images totals up to nearly that of a single 70mm, this works out very
nicely.   In my opinion, this is the way that all twin strip 35mm 3-D films
should be restored.

JR