Anamorphic movie format

For the first time, optical anamorphization was used in tank observation devices, which made it possible to increase the horizontal view to 180 °. The first anamorphic “Hypergonar” lens was developed by the Frenchman Henri Chretien and presented to the French Academy of Sciences in 1927 ^[2] . May 20, 1930 in Paris , the premiere of the world's first wide-screen silent film "The Emergence of Fire", shot with an anamorphic lens ^[3] . The technology gained distribution only after two decades, becoming one of the alternatives to overly complex panoramic cinema systems. The first mass-wide wide-screen system using anamorphic optics for shooting and projecting films shot on a single 35 mm film was the CinemaScope format ^{[4] [5]} . The developer was the 20th Century Fox film company, which released the first film of this standard in 1953. Subsequently, “CinemaScope” became the basis for most of these formats, and the English jargon word Scope began to mean any cinematic image with a aspect ratio of 2.35: 1 and close to it. Modern standards ^{[6] of} digital cinema with a 2.39: 1 screen are also called Scope , which derives from anamorphic formats, as opposed to the Flat version with a less wide screen of 1.85: 1, which is typical for cached formats shot with spherical optics - “flat” ".

The "widescreen boom" of the early 1950s forced filmmakers to invent new formats that enhance the entertainment of cinema . The growing popularity of television made us look for new ways to improve the quality of film screenings. Anamorphic formats have replaced bulky panoramic systems that use multiple films for shooting and projection. Using one film to obtain a widescreen image was a huge advantage, because despite all the efforts, it is almost impossible to ensure the image is identical on all three films of panoramic formats. And, despite the expression “CinemaScope” is “ Cinemarama for the poor”, which was widespread in the USA in the mid-1950s, after the appearance of the first anamorphic films, the rapid development of widescreen cinema using anamorphic optics began.

Anamorphic involves obtaining images with different scales vertically and horizontally. Visually, the image on the frame of the anamorphic film looks elongated vertically. The circle is displayed on the film strip with a vertical ellipse . The most widespread method of anamorphic cylindrical lenses. The cylindrical system was built directly into the lens or was made in the form of an afocal nozzle ^[7] , which could be used with standard filming optics. This was one of the additional advantages of such wide-screen systems, since most of the movie cameras that already existed at the time of the appearance of the format were suitable for shooting with an anamorphic nozzle. In Soviet cameras, the transition from the usual format to widescreen was carried out by installing an anamorphic nozzle in front of the lens and replacing the frame frame of the film channel . Filming machines specially designed for widescreen shooting were additionally equipped with a desanamorphic magnifier, which allows the operator to observe the image in normal proportions in the viewfinder .

CinemaScope and its clones

The most famous anamorphic system using a standard 35 mm film was CinemaScope, whose earlier versions ^[8] until 1964 ^[9] had a screen aspect ratio of 2.55: 1 ^[10] , since the combined film copies had only a magnetic phonogram , recorded on four tracks.

In the USSR , its own anamorphic standard was developed, which received the domestic name "widescreen" ("Wide Screen") ^[11] , and abroad known as SovScope .

After the perestroika, the production of domestic cinema equipment was curtailed, and the SovScope system gave way to Western counterparts, mainly Panavision, which completely coincided in technical parameters with the Wide Screen. Foreign cinema systems also have only marketing value, since the need for international standardization has led to the emergence of a single format for a unified film copy that matches its parameters with most wide-screen systems with anamorphic.

Compared to the cached widescreen formats that appeared at the same time, anamorphic systems provided much higher image quality and fine grain due to the larger frame area and rational use of film. On cached film copies, a significant part of the area is spent on a wide inter-frame gap, while anamorphic uses almost the entire standard frame pitch of 19 mm for the image. At the same time, the use of 35 mm film gives a huge advantage over large-format film systems that require expensive non-standard equipment for showing films in movie theaters . When showing anamorphic film copies, it is possible to use a conventional film projector equipped with an anamorphic lens attachment. “CinemaScope” could be an exception due to non-standard ^[12] perforation and four-channel magnetic phonogram . However, a minor refinement of standard film projectors, designed for the classic format, made it possible to demonstrate widescreen films in this standard. As a result, wide formats lost anamorphic, retaining their distribution as a rental format, to this day.

The optical image given by anamorphic lenses has some features unusual for traditional optics. The most noticeable effect is the form of glare given by lenses from bright light sources. In cylindrical optics, such glare has an oval rather than a round shape and can provide additional illumination in the form of long horizontal lines, most often blue ^[13] . Such glare can be seen, for example, in the movie "Star Trek" by J.J. Abrams , shot in the format "Panavision". They are difficult to remove and very visible on the screen, especially in night scenes containing many luminous lights and car headlights ^[14] . In addition, anamorphic optics is characterized by a “cylindrical perspective ”, which is especially noticeable at small focal lengths of the shooting lens. In this case, lines parallel to the plane of the frame are often displayed by curves curved outward of the screen in the center ^[15] . The effect is a kind of barrel distortion . On the screen, the anamorphic image can also be visually distinguished from the usual one using point light sources that are not displayed in focus. In contrast to the image captured by spherical ( axially symmetric ) optics and displaying such sources with round spots , anamorphic gives an oval image of luminous points, stretched vertically. This is a consequence of the non-standard beam path in cylindrical optics.

The most unpleasant artifact in Hollywood was called "grimaces" ( English Anamorphic mumps ) and was a distortion of the actor's face when shooting close-ups from short distances. In early films shot with anamorphic optics, close-ups were avoided because of this effect. The phenomenon is explained by the inconsistency of the anamorphic coefficient, which depends on the focusing distance of the lens ^[16] . This type of defect was manifested mainly when using anamorphic nozzles on a spherical lens and was less noticeable when using special anamorphic lenses containing cylindrical elements inside. The Panavision company, which constructed a family of anamorphic lenses corrected from grimaces, was able to get rid of this distortion. The success of the company in the development of anamorphic optics, free from most distortions, led to the fact that the name "CinemaScope" gave way to the brand "Panavision". In addition to image distortions, anamorphic optics, compared with spherical optics, is characterized by a 10-15% lower resolution and lower light transmission ^[17] .

In modern cinema, anamorphic formats are used mainly for film copies. Most of these films are shot using Super-35 technology with spherical lenses free of artifacts ^[18] . Anamorphization is performed digitally when creating a master copy of Digital Intermediate for output to film ^[13] . In the case of making copies of the film for digital display, anamorphization is not required, since the projection of a widescreen frame of 2.39: 1 is a spherical lens. However, most of the artifacts of anamorphic optics over several decades have become so familiar to moviegoers that they are perceived as part of a “cinematic vision” ^[19] . Therefore, some directors and director of photography use anamorphic optics specifically to give the image a “cinemascopic” look ^[20] . In these cases, shooting is carried out in anamorphic format with cylindrical optics.

Different sources operate with at least three aspect ratios of anamorphic formats: 2.35: 1, 2.39: 1 and 2.4: 1. All these values ​​refer to the same movie systems, despite the differences. The frame of the negative shot with anamorphic in any system has an aspect ratio of 1.175: 1, which, taking into account double anamorphy, corresponds to an aspect ratio of 2.35: 1. The difference appears when projecting a film copy due to the size of the projector's frame window or the aspect ratio of the digital film. The original 2.35: 1 required such a narrow inter-frame spacing of 0.8 mm that any mounting gluing of the negative became visible on the screen. The situation was even worse in the case of gluing a clipping of a film copy, which looked like a flash, unpleasant to the audience. Therefore, in 1970, SMPTE established the new unified standard PH22. 106-1971 for 35-mm wide-screen movie projectors, reducing the height of the frame window to 17.8 mm, which since then has corresponded to an aspect ratio of 2.39: 1 ^[21] . As a result, the inter-frame gap of the film copy became large enough to “hide” its traces behind the frame with accurate gluing. The SMPTE 195-1993 standard, which remains in force today ^[9] , was introduced in August 1993 to standardize the frame width of anamorphic and cached film copies, which since then has been 21 mm in both cases. The height of the anamorphic frame is also changed to 17.5 mm, providing the same aspect ratio of the screen 2.39: 1, which is sometimes rounded to 2.4: 1.

A separate page in the history of the development of widescreen formats with anamorphic is occupied by formats with a frame that is larger than the frame of the classic and traditional widescreen formats. Such systems appeared as an attempt to improve the quality of a widescreen image and reduce its grain size, using a larger area negative. ^{[* one]}

Tehnirama

The Technirama system was developed by the Italian branch of the Technicolor company on the basis of the VistaVision format and used the same frame with a step of 8 perforations located along the entire width between the perforations along the standard film width 35 mm, but anamorphic with a coefficient of 1.5 ^{[22] [23]} . Due to the use of the mirror anamorphic “Delrama” instead of the lens one in other movie systems, the “Technirama” was almost completely eliminated from chromatic aberration , giving a sharp image even in the corners of the screen ^[24] . The aspect ratio of the contact film frame was 2.42: 1, but small runs were printed in this format ^[25] . Widespread optical printing of copies with a reduced transverse frame and additional anamorphy with a coefficient of 1.33 ×. The dimensions of such a frame corresponded to the CinemaScope format: 21.3 × 18.6 mm with an aspect ratio of 2.35: 1 ^[26] . Contact copies had a single-channel optical phonogram recorded using the Perspekt pseudo stereophonic system ^[27] . One of the films shot using the Technirama system was the first part of the comedy series Pink Panther ^[28] .

Super Technirama 70 (1959)

Technology "Super Technirama 70" ( Eng. Super Technirama 70 ) existed as a combination of large-format film copies and wide-screen system "Technirama" ^[29] . Films were printed optically on a 70 mm film with deanamorphization. The film was equipped with a six-channel magnetic phonogram deposited on film ^[30] . The technical parameters of such a film copy coincided with the formats “Todd-AO” and “Super Panavision 70”, and some of them were printed with a predistorted frame for demonstration on a strongly curved screen such as “Cinerama”. The first film to be printed using this technology was Walt Disney 's cartoon Sleeping Beauty ^[31] . With the abandonment of the use for shooting a longitudinal frame of a 35-mm film, the use of the format is stopped.

The disadvantages and high cost of heavy anamorphic optics led to the creation of production formats designed for shooting with spherical lenses, followed by optical printing of anamorphic film copies of the CinemaScope format and its variants. The two most famous technologies are called “Tehniscope” and “Superscope”.

The latter eventually transformed into the modern universal cinema system Super-35.

Along with widescreen systems on a 35 mm film, there are anamorphic formats using a wide 70 mm film. The latter can be attributed to widescreen cinema. For example, anamorphic films in the format "Ultra Panavision 70" ( Eng. Ultra Panavision 70 ) were made on a film of 70 mm wide.

The use of anamorphic large-sized frames could produce an image with a very large aspect ratio, up to 2.75: 1, close to panoramic movie systems. However, these formats did not receive further development due to the high cost and the main formats with anamorphic were CinemaScope and its variants using a standard 35-mm film.

Современный цифровой кинематограф предусматривает два основных соотношения сторон экрана: Flat (1,85:1), соответствующий кашетированным форматам , снимаемым сферической оптикой, и Scope (2,39:1), повторяющий форматы, снятые анаморфотной оптикой. Цифровые кинокамеры , оснащёнными сенсором «Супер-35», позволяют снимать как в этом формате, рассчитанном на использование сферических объективов, так и в одном из анаморфированных форматов при помощи анаморфотной оптики. Последняя технология предполагает дальнейшее цифровое дезанаморфирование изображения в случае изготовления цифровой копии фильма, поскольку в цифровых кинопроекторах используется сферическая оптика ^[13] . В конце 2000-х годов появилась тенденция выпуска анаморфотных объективов с нестандартным коэффициентом анаморфозы 1,3× вместо 2,0× для цифровых кинокамер, оснащённых сенсором формата 16:9. Это стало возможным потому, что при цифровой постобработке могут быть использованы любые коэффициенты дезанаморфирования. В то же время съёмочная оптика с коэффициентом 1,3×, впервые выпущенная компанией «Vantage», позволяет наиболее эффективно использовать площадь матрицы 16:9 при сохранении большинства эффектов анаморфотных объективов ^{[32] [33]} . Известны примеры использования анаморфотной оптики для создания изображения с конечным соотношением сторон 1,85:1. Так, оператор-постановщик фильма « Бьютифул » Родриго Приета одним из первых использовал анаморфотные объективы для съёмки такого кадра ^[14] .

• Широкоэкранный формат фильма
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