CinemaScope

Technique

Thanks to a deforming objective (Anamorphosis), the image is compressed twice in the horizontal direction at the time of the catch of sight on traditional film; with projection, it is stretched in the same proportions, which makes it possible to find a panoramic image.

History

The optical device is based on that of the Hypergonar, invented in 1927 by French Henri Chrétien. It is mainly about a cylindrical lens placed in front of the primary education, spherical objective.

It is only in 1953 that the 20th Century Fox concludes an agreement with the inventor from the process, Henri Chrétien and presented the same year the first film made in Cinemascope the Tunic (The Robe) Henry Koster. The first public projection took place the September 16th 1953.

The first French film in Cinemascope is Nouveaux Horizons of Marcel Ichac (1953), diffused in preliminary program of the Tunic and which draws party better, by its research of the effect of depth via the dolly, of the advantages of the Cinemascope. The review Research explains: " the impression of depth disappears since the camera is static. Marcel Ichac, who had attended the United States with the projection of " This is Cinerama" , account of this characteristic had taken when it had turned Nouveaux horizons. The report of the projection of its film before the technical higher Commission (CST) indicated indeed: " The members of the CST could note during projection that Mr. Ichac had perfectly included/understood for this first film the use which can be made process of Professor CHrétien and which it knew to give to the spectators this pseudo-relief obtained by the repetition of the front dolly, back and side dolly; the spectators indeed had a strong impression of detached plans, impression which disappeared with projection from the Tunic (.) Many criticisms which had assisted in December 1953 with the projection of two films had noticed indeed that the Tunic was much less convincing from this point of view. "

Let us note that the report/ratio of the cinemascope varied since its creation. As from 1953, the sound used being magnetic, the image used all the width available of the negative one. The report/ratio was 2,55:1. The cinemascope with optical track had him, a report/ratio of 2,35:1. In 1957, the SMPTE (Society off Motion Picture and Television Engineers) standardizes dimensions of the window of projection of the cinemascope with 21,31×18,16 mm ², that is to say a ratio of 1,1734, therefore of 2,35 after de-anamorphosing. In 1970, the interimage not being large enough, the SMPTE re-examines the standards and decreases the height of the image slightly, dimensions are brought back to 21,29×17,78 mm ², that is to say with a report/ratio of with 2,39:1. In 1993, dimensions further are very slightly decreased (20,95×17,52 mm ²) but the report/ratio remains with 2,39:1.

Since, various processes based on the same principle are used, of which most known are Panavision and Technovision.

Alternatives

In 1954, the Paramount creates the process VistaVision.
In the Sixties, the Shaw Brothers in Hong-Kong invents its own cinemascope, baptized Shawscope.

References

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