70 mm film
Encyclopedia
70mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge, with higher resolution than standard 35mm motion picture film format. As used in camera, the film is 65 mm (2.6 in) wide. For projection, the original 65mm film is printed on 70 mm (2.8 in) film. The additional 5mm are for magnetic strips holding four of the six tracks of sound. Although more recent 70mm prints now use digital sound encoding, the vast majority of 70 mm prints predate this technology. Each frame is five perforations tall, with an aspect ratio
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...

 of 2.20:1. The vast majority of film theaters are unable to handle 70mm film, and so original 70mm films are shown with 35mm prints at these venues, in the regular Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

 / Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...

 aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

History

Films formatted with a width of 70 mm have existed since the early days of the motion picture industry. The first 70 mm format film was most likely footage of the Henley Regatta, which was projected in 1896 and 1897, but may have been filmed as early as 1894. It required a specially built projector built by Herman Casler
Herman Casler
Herman Casler — American inventor , was co-founder of the partnership called the K.M.C.D. Syndicate, along with W.K-L...

 in Canastota, New York
Canastota, New York
Canastota is a village located inside the Town of Lenox in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 4,425 at the 2000 census.The Village of Canastota is in the south part of the Town of Lenox.- History :...

 and had a ratio similar to full frame, with an aperture of 2.75 inches (69.9 mm) by 2 inches (50.8 mm).  There were also several film formats of various sizes from 50 to 68 mm which were developed from 1884 onwards, including Cinéorama
Cinéorama
Cinéorama was an early film experiment and amusement ride at the 1900 Paris Exposition devised by Raoul Grimoin-Sanson, that simulated a ride in a hot air balloon over Paris...

 (not to be confused with the entirely distinct "Cinerama
Cinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...

" format), started in 1900 by Raoul Grimoin-Sanson
Raoul Grimoin-Sanson
Raoul Grimoin-Sanson was an inventor in the field of early cinema. He was born in Elbeuf, as Raoul Sanson; he added the surname Grimoin later. He had an early interest in stage magic as well as photography....

. Two other formats, Panoramica and 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

's Grandeur, began distribution in 1929 and 1930, respectively.

The "Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

" format, introduced with the film Oklahoma! in October 1955, popularized the format for use in feature length films. The original version of the Todd-AO process used a frame rate of 30 per second, 25% faster than the 24 frames per second that was (and is) the standard. Due to the costs of 70 mm film and the expensive projection system and screen required to use the stock, distribution for films using the stock was limited, although this did not always hurt profits. Most 70 mm films were also re-released on 35 mm film for a wider distribution after the initial debut of the film.

Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...

, made in 1962, My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady (film)
My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, of the same name, based on the 1938 film adaptation of the original stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ballroom scene and the ending were taken from the previous film adaptation , rather than from...

, made in 1964, and The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music (film)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...

, made in 1965, are well-known films widely shown in 70 mm format; the clarity of their images and dramatic impact is apparent in theaters, though less so on VHS or DVD, since those formats have a comparatively much lower resolution.

70mm films were rare by the 1980s, and with the advent of small multi-cinema theaters and the availability of digital soundtrack systems for less expensive 35 mm film, they were not only made less often, but were not always shown in their original format. The 1996 Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...

 Hamlet
Hamlet (1996 film)
Hamlet is a 1996 film version of William Shakespeare's classic play of the same name, adapted and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars in the title role as Prince Hamlet...

, for example, was filmed in Super Panavision 70, but because it was largely shown in multiplex theatres, was mostly screened in 35mm reduction print
Reduction print
A reduction print is a print of a large-size format film converted to a smaller size format . Often this is necessary because not all theaters have a screen of the size required to show a film in large format, or indeed the projection equipment. This is especially true of some screens in multiplex...

s.

The number of films released in 70 mm dropped even lower in the mid-1990s.

Conversely, some famous 35mm films made during the 1960s and 70s and intended for roadshow presentation
Roadshow theatrical release
A roadshow theatrical release was a term in the American motion picture industry for a practice in which a film opened in a limited number of theaters in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco for a specific period of time before the...

 were "blown up" to 70 mm size to make them appear even more impressive on a larger screen. These included such films as Camelot
Camelot (film)
Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...

(1967), Oliver!
Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a 1968 British musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....

(1968), Cromwell
Cromwell (film)
Cromwell is a 1970 film, based on the life of Oliver Cromwell who led the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War and, as Lord Protector, ruled Great Britain and Ireland in the 1650s. It features an all-star cast led by Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I...

(1970), and Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof (film)
Fiddler on the Roof is the 1971 film adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name, with music composed by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905, about Tevye and his Daughters. It was directed by Norman Jewison. The film won three...

(1971).

70 mm has presented a difficulty in recent years for VHS and DVD releases, as telecine machines for high-level scanning have only been available in limited quantities until recently. This has unfortunately sometimes meant that films were transferred to video from their 35 mm blown-down elements instead of the high-quality full-gauge intermediates; luckily, now more and more DVD releases, such as West Side Story
West Side Story (film)
West Side Story is a 1961 musical film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno,...

and the Branagh Hamlet, are using the original-gauge source elements.

There is currently one type of digital cinema camera with a 65 mm sensor, the Phantom 65. Otti International's Phil Kroll developed the world's first 65/70 mm telecine transfer system. This has been used in Hollywood to digitally master 70 and 65 mm films.

The use of 65 mm negative film has been drastically reduced in recent years, in part due to its higher cost. For instance, Terrence Malick's
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....

 The New World used it sparingly — only in a handful of scenes — because of the high price of 65 mm raw stock and processing. Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet was the last film to date shot entirely on 65 mm stock.

A certain number of scenes in Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer.He received serious notice after his second feature Memento , which he wrote and directed based on a story idea by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Jonathan went to co-write later scripts with him,...

's Inception
Inception
Inception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...

were shot on 65 mm. This is in contrast to his previous film The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...

where several high profile scenes were shot on IMAX format.

In 2011, Ron Fricke
Ron Fricke
Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer, considered to be a master of time-lapse photography and large format cinematography. He was the director of photography for Koyaanisqatsi and directed the purely cinematic non-verbal non-narrative feature Baraka . He designed and used...

, director of the 70 mm Baraka
Baraka (film)
Baraka is a 1992 non-narrative film directed by Ron Fricke. The title Baraka is a word that means blessing in a multitude of languages....

, released a sequel entitled Samsara. It is the first feature-length film in over a decade to be shot entirely in 65 mm.

Ultra Panavision

65 mm film combined with an anamorphic squeeze allowed for extremely wide aspect ratios to be used while still preserving quality. This was used to great effect in the 1959 film Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...

, which was filmed with the MGM Camera 65 process at an aspect ratio of 2.76:1. Nearly three times wider than its height, this was one of the widest prints ever made; it required the use of a 1.25x anamorphic lens to horizontally compress the image, and a corresponding lens on the projector to uncompress it.

Special effects

Limited use of 65 mm film was revived in the late 1970s for some of the visual effects sequences in films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...

, mainly because the larger negative did a noticeably better job than 35 mm negative of minimizing visible film grain during optical compositing. Although a handful of recent films, such as Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...

, have used it for this purpose, the usage of digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...

 for compositing since the 1990s has largely negated these issues, while offering other benefits such as lower cost and a greater range of available lenses and accessories to ensure a consistent look to the footage.

IMAX

A horizontal variant of 70 mm, with an even bigger picture area, is used for the high-performance IMAX format which uses a frame that is 15 perforations wide on 70 mm film. The Dynavision and Astrovision systems each use slightly less film per frame and vertical pulldown to save print costs while being able to project onto an IMAX screen. Both are rare, Astrovision largely in Japanese planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...

s.

70 mm 3D Early use

The first commercial introduction of 70 mm single projector 3D was the 1967 release of Con la muerte a la espalda, a Spanish/French/Italian co-production which used a process called Hi-Fi Stereo 70. This process captured two anamorphic images, one for each eye, side by side on 65mm film. A special lens on a 70mm projector added polarization and merged the two images on the screen. The 1975 re-release of Warner Brothers' House of Wax, used a similar process without anamorphics called Stereovision. This format was developed by Allan Silliphant and Chris Condon
Chris Condon
Chris J. Condon was the inventor of 3D lens used by his company StereoVision, a cinematographer, and founder of Sierra Pacific Airlines.He was born in North Chicago, Illinois...

, of Stereovision International Inc., who handled all technical and marketing aspects on a 5 year special royalty basis with Warner Bros. The big screen 3D image was both bright and clear, with all the former sync and brightness problems of traditional dual 35mm 3D eliminated. Still, it took many years more before IMAX began to test the water for big screen 3D, and sold the concept to Hollywood executives.

IMAX 3D

Recently, Hollywood has released blockbusters shot in 35 mm as IMAX blow-up versions. Now many 3D films are being shown in the 70 mm IMAX format. The Polar Express
The Polar Express (film)
The Polar Express is a 2004 motion capture computer-animated film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg. Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the human characters in the film were animated using live action performance capture technique, with the...

in IMAX 3D 70 mm earned 14 times as much, per screen, as the simultaneous 2D 35 mm release of that film in the fall of 2004.

Blow-ups

Starting in the late 1950s and continuing until the mid-1990s, some 35 mm films were converted onto 70 mm prints for premiere showings in large cities or venues which could accommodate the format. This practice occurred for two reasons: The larger image area on each frame of 70 mm film allowed for clearer, brighter and steadier images, although it did not reduce film grain; and the six magnetic sound tracks available with 70 mm prints were vastly superior to the four-channel stereo sound tracks available on 35 mm prints (from 1953 to 1977, some 35 mm prints carried four-channel magnetic sound, and required special print stock with narrow perforations, type CS-1870). 70 mm prints were also used by a limited number of drive-in theater
Drive-in theater
A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.The screen can be as simple as a...

s because the larger frame area allowed use of higher intensity light to project a brighter image on their large screens. After the introduction of digital sound formats (DTS, SDDS, and Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...

), 70 mm lost one of its major advantages over 35 mm film and thus usage of this expensive format declined markedly (A 70mm film print with magnetic sound is 10 to 15 times more expensive to make than a 35mm film print with optical digital sound.)

Standard 65 mm (5/70) (Todd-AO, Super Panavision)

  • spherical lenses
  • 5 perforations/frame
  • 42 frames/meter (12.8 frame/ft)
  • 34.29 meters/minute (112.5 ft/minute)
  • vertical pulldown
  • 24 frames/second
  • camera aperture: 52.48 by 23.01 mm (2.066 by 0.906 in)
  • projection aperture: 48.56 by 20.73 mm (1.912 by 0.816 in)
  • 305 m (1000 feet), about 9 minutes at 24 frame/s = 4.5 kg (10 pounds) in can
  • aspect ratio: 2.2:1

Ultra Panavision 70

(also known as MGM Camera 65)
Same as Standard 65mm except
  • Shot with special anamorphic adapter in front of lens
  • 1.25x squeeze factor, projected aspect ratio 2.76:1

IMAX (15/70)

  • spherical lenses
  • 15 perforations per frame
  • horizontal pulldown, from right to left (viewed from base side)
  • 24 frames per second
  • camera aperture: 70.41 by 52.63 mm (2.772 by 2.072 in)
  • projection aperture: at least 2 mm (0.080 in) less than camera aperture on the vertical axis and at least 0.4 mm (0.016 in) less on the horizontal axis
  • aspect ratio: 1.35:1 (camera), 1.43:1 (projected)

IMAX Dome (formerly: OMNIMAX)

Same as IMAX except
  • special fisheye lenses
  • lens optically centered 9 mm (0.37 in) above film horizontal center line
  • projected elliptically on a dome screen, 20 degrees below and 110 degrees above perfectly centered viewers

Omnivision Cinema 180

same as standard 65/70 except:
  • photographed and projected with special fisheye lenses matched to large 180 degree dome screen
  • Theatres upgraded from 70 mm 6track analog sound to DTS digital sound in 1995.


Omnivision started in Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...

. Theatres were designed to compete with Omnimax but with much lower startup and operating costs. Most theatres were built in fabric domed structures designed by Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

 Corporation. The last known OmniVision Theatres to exist in USA are The Alaska Experience Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

, built in 1981 (closed in 2007, reopened in 2008), and the Hawaii Experience Theatre in Lahaina, Hawaii (closed in 2004). Canobie Lake Park
Canobie Lake Park
Canobie Lake Park is an amusement park located in Salem, New Hampshire, United States, about north of Boston, Massachusetts.-Description:Canobie Lake Park opened on August 23, 1902, as a trolley park for the Massachusetts Northeast Street Railway Company. The amusement park has opened every summer...

 in Salem, New Hampshire
Salem, New Hampshire
Salem is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 28,776 at the 2010 census. Salem is a marketing and distributing center north of Boston, with a major amusement attraction, Canobie Lake Park, and a large shopping mall, the Mall at Rockingham Park.- History :The...

 has a "Vertigo Theatre" that is a Cinema 180. A Cinema 180 is still operating at Rainbow's End (Theme Park)
Rainbow's End (Theme Park)
Rainbow's End is a 9.3 ha theme park in Auckland, New Zealand that opened in December, 1982. The park, wholly owned subsidiary of New Zealand Experience Ltd, is currently New Zealand's largest theme park...



One of the few producers of 70 mm films for Cinema 180 was the German company Cinevision (today AKPservices GmbH, Paderborn).

Dynavision (8/70)

  • fisheye or spherical lenses, depending on if projecting for a dome or not
  • vertical pulldown
  • 24 or 30 frames per second
  • camera aperture: 52.83 by 37.59 mm (2.080 by 1.480 in)

Astrovision (10/70)

  • vertical pulldown
  • normally printed from an Omnimax negative
  • projected onto a dome
  • almost exclusively in use only by Japanese planetariums
  • the only 70 mm format without sound, hence the only one with perforations next to the edges

See also

  • 70 mm Grandeur film
  • Cine 160
    Cine 160
    Cine 160 is a 35 mm film projection process proposed by Allan Silliphant whereby a single frame of film would occupy a length of six film perforations...

  • Cinerama
    Cinerama
    Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...

  • Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track
  • List of 70 mm films
  • List of Early Wide Gauge Films
  • List of film formats
  • Ron Fricke
    Ron Fricke
    Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer, considered to be a master of time-lapse photography and large format cinematography. He was the director of photography for Koyaanisqatsi and directed the purely cinematic non-verbal non-narrative feature Baraka . He designed and used...

  • Super Panavision 70
    Super Panavision 70
    Super Panavision 70 was the marketing brand name used to identify movies photographed with Panavision 70 mm spherical optics between 1959 and 1983.-History:...

  • Super Technirama 70
    Super Technirama 70
    Super Technirama 70 was the marketing name for films which were photographed in the 35 mm 8-perf Technirama process and optically enlarged to 70 mm 5-perf prints for deluxe exhibition....

  • Todd-AO
    Todd-AO
    Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...

  • Ultra Panavision 70
    Ultra Panavision 70
    Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were the photographic marketing brands — ca. 1957 to 1966 — that identified movies photographed with Panavision-brand anamorphic lenses using a 65mm negative and 70mm release print...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK