VistaVision
VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by Paramount Pictures in 1954 and based on the Glamorama and Superama widescreen systems.
During the 1950s Paramount did not buy into anamorphic systems such as CinemaScope but rather, for competitive reasons, sought to produce finer-grained images by shooting onto a larger film negative which when printed and projected on the screen in the new flat widescreen formats, would preserve the high level of clarity seen at that time only in formats which were not magnified for variable widescreen ratios.
Owing to much higher film stock and projection costs the format was not profitable. Paramount dropped the format after only seven years, although for another forty years old VistaVision cameras were used by some European and Japanese producers for feature films and by American film studios for notable, high resolution special effects which were blended into Panavision films.
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History
Loren L. Ryder, chief engineer at Paramount, expressed four general reasons why he thought Paramount's VistaVision would be the forerunner of widescreen projection in most theaters:
- VistaVision could be shown at any widescreen aspect ratio from 1.66 to 2:00:1.
- VistaVision could be (and most often was) further printed down to standard vertical 35mm reels keeping its 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio, which meant exhibitors did not need to purchase additional projection equipment, unlike CinemaScope.
- VistaVision did not cut down the number of seats in any theater (such as Cinerama and CinemaScope).
- VistaVision allowed patrons to see more and therefore gain more enjoyment out of a feature.[1]
With all of the other major studios using CinemaScope, Paramount debuted VistaVision in 1954 with White Christmas. In shooting VistaVision, the film is run horizontally, as in a still camera, with a width of 8 perforations per frame. It was sometimes called Lazy 8 by film professionals because of its horizontal orientation on the negative. This gave a wider aspect ratio of 1.50 against the conventional 1.37, and a much larger image area. VistaVision films were shown in a number of aspect ratios, the most popular being 1.85:1 and 1.66:1. Others included 2:1 and 1.75:1.
The negative was "scribed" with a new form of cue mark, created by Paramount at the start of each 2000-foot (610 m) reel. Similar in shape to an F, the cue mark contained staffs that directed the projectionist to the top of the frame for 1.66:1, 1.85:1 and 2:1. The projectionist racked his framing so that the staff touched the top of his screen (at the appropriate ratio) and the framing was set for the rest of the reel. On many home video releases these cue marks have been touched out.
While most competing widescreen film systems utilized magnetic audio and true stereophonic sound, early VistaVision only carried Perspecta Stereo, encoded in the optical track.
White Christmas, Strategic Air Command, To Catch a Thief and The Battle of the River Plate (a.k.a. Pursuit of the Graf Spee) had very limited (two or three) prints struck in the 8-perf VistaVision format in which they were shot. Although the clarity of true VistaVision Technicolor dye transfer prints was striking, these were used mostly for premiere or preview engagements between 1954 and 1956 and required special projection equipment. This exhibition process was impractical because for the footage to travel through a projector at the normal 24 frames per second, the film had to roll at 3 feet per second, double the speed of 35 mm film and causing many technical and mechanical problems. Hence, as the process allowed, all of the titles were more often printed down in conventional vertical format and shown on standard 35 mm projectors, keeping the 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio but losing some of the fine grained clarity VistVision was meant to have.
Alfred Hitchcock used VistaVision for many of his films in the 1950s. However, the process was not profitable and made productions more risky, owing mostly to the significant cost of twice as much film stock being shot during filming, along with the additional lab work needed to make 35mm prints for most cinemas. Less expensive anamorphic systems such as Panavision and the 70 mm format became standard during the late 1950s and 1960s. Since VistaVision's last usage in the American market for One Eyed Jacks in 1961 the format has not been used as a primary imaging system for American feature films. However, VistaVision's high resolution made it attractive for some special effects work within some later feature films. Most films today are shot in Panavision, which Paramount used for Danny Kaye's On The Double (1961).
Many VistaVision cameras were sold off internationally beginning in the early 1960s, which led to a significant number of VistaVision-format productions (which did not use the trade name) in countries such as Italy and Japan from the 1960s to 1980s. The format was used infrequently for lesser-known Japanese films until at least 2000.
Special effects usage
In 1975 a retooled VistaVision camera called Dykstraflex was created for Industrial Light and Magic's use on process shots in Star Wars. After this VistaVision was often used as an intermediate format for shooting special effects since a larger negative area compensates against the increased grain created when shots are optically composited. However, with computer-generated imagery, advanced film scanning and digital intermediate work, along with film stocks optimized for special effects work and 70mm lenses and film stocks with higher resolving power, VistaVision has become mostly obsolete for special effects work, too.
Technical specifications
VistaVision (8/35)
- spherical lenses
- 8 perforations per frame
- horizontal pulldown, from right to left (viewed from base side)
- slightly less depth of field than vertical pulldown 35 mm
- camera aperture: 1.485" (37.72 mm) by 0.981" (24.92 mm)
Films shot in VistaVision
- Further information: List of VistaVision films
References
- ^ Independent Film Journal, 33:25, March 20, 1954.
- Hart, Martin (1996). "The Development of VistaVision: Paramount Marches to a Different Drummer". Retrieved on 2004-12-28.
See also
External links
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