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    9 views8 pages

    Rick Mitchell - The Operating Cameraman 1997

    Uploaded by

    Olivier Ryckebusch

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    The Anamorphic Campaign: tye RCO Bria BY RICK MITCHELL re Te eer eee a century ago, mo- A] a) Deeg ae Se Uae De MUR ag ifties and continues to this very Ce RO ees) SR eeu a Ce Cc mccoy Conon TO oun tter ofgghese fundamental alter- Sue Nee and Cee eat ced Cee ee enn Se whichgaverisetotheir Cen ad Cg Cy Prt aos Dc eho) RO ee ce) wide film in 1929-30 and the suc- Co Dee Ce Fall’92) and the congequences that De ee Maer Re ed Re ee Cree cca CR a See te od Cn ee ace CUE) Se RC Sod Te re UL Hypergonar lens, which he had > Se ee developed in France during the latter part of the Twenties. During photog- raphy, this cylindrical, “anamorphic” lenswould recore! almost twiceasmnuch horizontal information as its spherical counterpart. By optically compressing, or’squeezing” the horizonialimage by a factor of two, the anamorphic lens ‘was able to record its wider image on the same 35mm filmstock while em- ploying the same motion picture cam- eres that were already being used by the major studios. To project the widescreen image, existing theatres merely needed to equip their projec tors with a similar cylindrical lens that would unsqueeze the image and spread the picture across an approp: ately wider screen. Fox called its new process “CinemaScope” and sought to make it a new industry standard. Almost overnight, other studios, especially those withalargebacklog of unreleased spherical films, panicked In 1954... it [became] possible to make anamorphic prints from spherical negatives. and began to look for other ways to jump on the widescreen bandwagon. Many of these studios simply chose to mask off the top and bottom of the 1.97:1 photographed image during pro- jection, creating the illusion of a wider image. The resulting, and competing, aspectratiosusedby the variousstudios were 1.66:1 (Paramount, RKO, Repub- lic) 1.75:1 (MGM, Disney, WamerBres), and 1.851 (Universal, Columbia, Alllied Artists). Once they had released their inventory backlog, these studios began to establish this type of widescreen process as a standard by structing their cinematographers to compose images so that no important action wouldbe lost during projection. By 1956, the studios had decided un- officially upon 1.85:1 as the standard for this masked widescreen method. Another approach to widescreen photography and projection occurred in 1954, when both Panavision and Superscope developed lenses for opti- cal printers which made it possible to make anamorphic prints from spheri- cal negatives. The Superscope system, which had a brief spurt of popularity in the mid-’50s, transformed entire spherical features into anamorphic. The Superscope system was used under such names as Superama and Megascope until 1963, when it was-> Shoot with award winning products. Inabe 300 ERA Ae tos Pram Emmy for Oana ‘chisvorareimenoinentegGaveenient MARK V DIRECTOR'S VIEWFINDER IMAGE 300 HIGH SPEED CAMERA Because of its small size, technical precision and ease Our High Speed, 24 -300/ps. 35mm camera gives you ofuse, the Mark, 12:1 zoom has become the industry lexible creativity with its push button variable frame Standard. You can’ accurately mark exect camera posi. 'ateS. video assist and rotating mirror shutter. These fea- tions by setting the aspect ratio and zoom range adjust- {ures insure unequalled performance and dependability. ments while framing and composing scenes. The Mark Whether your need is slowly cascading breakfast cereal Vottors aspect ratio choices of 1.33"1 academy, 1.66:1, for a TV commercial, miniatures for theatrical special 1.85:1, 2.40:1 anamorphic, all video formats and 16x9 effects or car chases for dramatic action, just ask the cameramen for HDTV. Call sales, ieiies shooting Cheerios, for more, alan gordon enterprisesinc. 49 Caditac, and The information. T280 Biv, Hoflywood, GA 80026, USA \\\ Maer Game. Call Scott for ; (213) 66-208) * Fa (1) 671 2108, f rental information, E-mail to: Info@A-G £.com hitpuhiwe: A-C-E.com Page 54 The Operating Cameraman July-December 1997 Judy Garland singing with a jazz combo in Warner Bros 1954 remake of A Star Is Born. supplanted by the introduction of Techniscope by Technicolor. Techniscope was conceptually the same as Superscope, except that cam eras using this process needed to be modified topull downtwo perfsrather than the customary four. This yielded a 2.35:1 aspect ratio image that was then optically stretched and squeezed in the printing process. Inthe early 1980s Superscope was revived as “Super 35.” Because of the many cost-saving and photographic advantages of this system — spherical lenses need less light and have greater depth of field than their anamorphic counterparts — both Super 35 and its part Super 16 are widely used today in feature film and television production, Challenging the CinemaScope Standard Soon after the introduction of CinemaScope in 1952, many anamor- phic challengers began to appear on the horizon. When it set up Cinema- Scopeasa new standard, 20th Century Fox thought it had covered all legal bases, Fox intended to own the use of the process and license it to other companies. Unfortunately, Fox soon discovered its rights were limited to the patents that it had obtained from Professor Chrétienand fromH. Sidney Newcomer,an Americanwho had also Page 56 ue Operating Cameraman been experimenting with anamorphic lenses in the Twenties. The other basic design patents for anamorphic lenses were considered to be in the public domain. So, as soon as the principles behind CinemaScope were published, a number of competing manufacturers began to announce anamorphic lens systems. One of the challengers, inter- estingly enough, was Professor Emst Abbe of France, the original developer of the anamorphic lens Around this time, Fox's most seri- ‘ous challenger was Wamer Bros. Some believe that Fox beat Warners in the race for Chrétien’s patent. According to one account in Daily Variety, Jack ‘Warnerhad seen a private screening of CinemaScope long before it was pub- licly introduced, and had attempted unsuccessfully to purchase a one half interestin the process, Rebuffed, Warmer ‘was determined to develop his own process and, to that end, solicited bids from several American and European optical companies, finally making a deal with Germany's Zeiss Optical Company for a system that he would initiallycall “ WarmerSuperScope.” The announcementof thisnewcomer caused yetanother panicamong motion picture exhibitors, who were already upset by thescemingly unending stream of tech nological changes that were being foisted upon them. At the insistence of theseexhibitors, Wamershortened the Juely-December 1997 name of the ‘WarnerScope.” Although Warners originally had planned touse the Zeiss lenses on Rear Guard and the Judy Garland /James Mason remake of A Staris Born (1954), the lenses were not ready in time. In- stead, on Rear Guard, whichbeganshoot- ing in July 1953, Warners used a lens ystem called “Vistarama” that had been developed by the Simpson Opt cal Company for Carl Dudley. By Sep tember when the Zeiss lenses finally arrived at Warners, the studio tested them by shooting footage of the Holly- wood Premiere of Tie Rote which it planned touse fora sequence in A Siar is Born, When Warmers reviewed the footage, however, it found, much to its dismay, that the Zeiss lenses had poor resolution and were unsuitable for feature production Although production of A Star Is Borit had begun with the Zeiss lense ‘Warnerschose toshoot therestin phe cal three-strip Technicolor. According to the late film historian Ron Haver (who spearheaded the restoration of A Star is Born in the early ’80s), when the picture was being restored, the only version that could be located ofascene inwhich Judy Garland is seen working asacarhop was one that was shot with the WarnerScope Zeiss lenses. Tn the late ‘50s, Warners would revive the WarnerScope name for => Zeiss process to three features that actually were shot in the Superscope/Super 35 format. While the production costs were rising on A Star is Born, Warners’ treasurer, Albert Warner, who wasim- pressed by the grosses from The Robe, convinced Harry Warner to go over Jack’s head to arrange with Fox to use CinemeScope.Jack Warner wasfinally convinced by the test CinemaScope footage shot by Milton Krasner, ASC, and decided to scrap the first ten days of shooting and start over Asa part of thenew CinemaScope deal, Warners agreed to release the Vistarama Retr Gitard, now called The Command, 282 "CinemaScope” picture. Whenthepicture opened, criticsnoticed the images were not 2s sharp as those shot in conventional CinemaScope. Some ctiticseven noticed thattheimage wasdarkerneartheedgesofthe screen, an attribute noticed during the test screenings of Vistarama in 1953. Foreign Rivals Outside ofthe United States, various foreign filmcompaniesbeganto develop ‘CinemaScope-compatible anamorphic Jens systems, The quality of these sys- DO YOU HAVE ANAMORPHTC MUMPS? pavawsiors AUTO PANATAR’ Lesces PANAVISLO {An early ad for Panavision’s new lenses that eliminate anamorphic “mumps.” temswas somewhat uneven. Oneofthe mostsignificantsystemswasdeveloped in France by Professor Abbo, father of the anamorphic lens, and was called CinePanoramic. This process was the basis of the French DyaliScope and FranScope processes as well as other Director Frank €: Page 58 ‘The Operating Cameraman ind Frank Sinatra on location in Florida for A Hole in the Head. July-Decensber 1997 ¢ ignored the distor processesused on the Italian “sword ‘n’ sandal” epics of the early Sixties. An American company, Republic Pictures, arriving late to the wide- screen party, purchased rights to CinePanoramic and renamed it "Naturama.” An interesting aspect of these anamorphic lenses, which were a separate unit, was that each ana- morphic lens was collimated to work witha specific prime lens and camera ‘The Naturama system, as recently seen on a rare 16mm print of Lishon (1956), thesecond Republic film to use the process, appeared to have less of a problem with anamorphic “mumps” than CinemaScope. Mumps occur when anamorphosis decreases as the lens is focused closer. This moniker came feom the fact that actors’ faces, when photographed in closeup and then projected, appeared noticeably fatter, as though they had mumps. Al- though directors of the initial Cinema- Scope films minimized the use of closeups, which executives thought were unnecessary in the process any- way, they soon felt the need for this aspect of cinematic grammar and tions, which the public never seemed to notice. Republic's Naturama lenses had a concave distortion which was most no- ticeable in pan shots and was apparent in every focal length of lens. By con- trast, CinemaScope and Panavision lenses only caused concave distortion in their shortest focal lengths. Al- though Republic offered to license Naturama to other film companies, it found no takers. Ultimately, Republic amortized its investment by shooting, therestofits filmswithNaturama lenses, Cinemascope in Black & White One confusing name appearing on films of the Fifties is RegalScope, which is really a pseudonym for low- budget, black and white CinemaScope. Originally, Fox only licensed Cinema: Scope for “A” pictures shot in color. Yet, once the process had been estab- lished, some filmmakers wanted touse the CinemaScope lenses on dramatic pictures about subjects that were bet- tersuited toblack and white photogra- phy. In early 1955, two pictures, Trial and NicolasRay’s Rebel Without a Cause, started principle photography in black and white CinemaScope. When Fox found out, itobjected. Asa result, Trial was shot with spherical lenses, while the producers of Rebel Without a Cause elected toshoot the teen drama incolor. MGM was particularly rankled by Fox's absurd prohibition on black and white, For a while, MGM toyed with the idea of shooting pictures in color and releasing them inblack and white. Finally, in the Spring of 1956, MGM put The Power and the Prize (1956) into production onblackand whitenegative under the photographic supervision of George Folsey, ASC. This time, Fox did not object Having established the Cinema- Scope standard, Fox quietly began to modify its strict anti-black and white attitude, Fox made a deal with inde- pendent producer Robert L. Lippert for a series of anamorphic low budget “B" films. To distinguish these low budget films from higher class color CinemaScope productions, Foxcoined the name “RegalScope” afterLippert’s production company, Regal Films. Of course, Regal’s films were photo- graphed with Bausch & Lomb Cinema- Scope lenses. Curiously, the first released Regal film, Stagecoach to Fury (1956), Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges have “High Hopes” in Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head, tthe first lm to bear the screen credit “Filmed in Panavision.” bore a CinemaScope logo, though the size of the logo was much smaller ar less prominentthanit hadbeen on “A” pictures. Around the same time, Fox bogan to break its own color barrier Without fanfare, it began production onablack and white “A” picture titled Teenage Rete ‘The most famous “almost” Regal film was The Fly (1958), which Fox phucked from the Regal program when it decided to jump on the late Fifties sci-fi bandwagon, Oneyearlater, when Fox negotiated a new “B” picture con- tractwith Regel, Regal changed itsname to Associated Producers andits pictures werethen officially advertised asbeing shot in CinemaScope. As Associated Producers moved intotheSixties how- ever, it used the anamorphic process less and les Panavision’ Better Quality Lenses In 1953, Panavision was founded by Robert E. Gottschalk, who had be come interested in anamorphic len: whileheinvestigated wide-angle lenses for underwater use. Panavision first developed a set of variable * Director Frank Capra, Director of Photography William Daniels Asc, and Assistant Director Art Black on the set of A Hole in the Head. July-December 1997 The perating Cameraman Page 59 Panavision’s new anamorphic lenses made it possible for Joe MacDonald ASC to shoot a

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