Information about Vistavision

VistaVision is a variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format created by Paramount Pictures in 1954 based on the Glamorama and Superama widescreen systems.

Paramount, who did not buy into the anamorphic systems available, such as CinemaScope, looked for a more satisfying alternative. Paramount's intention was to create finer-grained negatives through shooting with larger surface area on film, which when printed and projected on the screen in the new flat widescreen formats, would register as clear as those which were not magnified for variable ratios.

History

Loren L. Ryder, chief engineer at Paramount, expressed four general reasons to why Paramount's VistaVision would be the forerunner of widescreen projection in most theaters:

• VistaVision may be shown at any widescreen aspect ratio from 1.66 to 2:1.
• VistaVision does not require the purchase of additional equipment (unlike CinemaScope).
• VistaVision will not cut down the number of seats in any theater (such as Cinerama and CinemaScope).
• VistaVision will permit the 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 is sometimes colloquially called "Lazy 8" among film professionals because it is "lying down".) This gave a wider aspect ratio of 1.5 against the conventional 1.37, and a larger image area. The film was usually then matted to a standard aspect ratio and optically printed onto vertical reels. VistaVision films were shown in a number of aspect ratios, the most popular being 1.85:1. 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 perfectly set for the rest of the reel. On many home video releases, these cue marks on the "heads" of the print reels have been touched out.

Whereas most competing widescreen film systems utilized magnetic audio, 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 as the films were shot. Generally, these were for premiere or preview engagements and required special projection equipment. This process was impractical as the footage traveling through the projector at the normal 24 frames per second resulted with a traveling rate of 180 feet per minute, double the speed of normal 35 mm film and opening itself up to many technical problems. As the process specified, all of the titles were printed in the conventional vertical format and could be shown on the standard 35 mm projector.

Alfred Hitchcock took to the format and used it for many of his films in the 1950s. However, the process saw limited usage, as it required considerable labwork including optical printing and matting down to a conventional aspect ratio on vertical film (with the exception of a very small number of theaters between 1954 and 1956), as well as the cost of twice as much film stock during filming. VistaVision lost out in the general market to the less expensive, anamorphic systems such as Panavision and the more capable 70 mm format. Since its last usage in the American market for One Eyed Jacks in 1961, it has virtually disappeared as a primary imaging system for feature films. Most films today are shot in Panavision, which Paramount used for Danny Kaye's On The Double (1961).

Many of the VistaVision cameras were sold internationally since the 1960s, which led to a significant number of VistaVision productions (not using the trade name) in countries such as Italy and Japan from the 1960s to 1980s. Modern primary usage of the format is nearly moribund, although it was still used infrequently in lesser-known Japanese films up until at least 2000.

Special effects usage

In 1975, Dykstraflex, a retooled VistaVision camera, was created for Industrial Light and Magic's use on process shots in Star Wars. Since then, the format has enjoyed a brief renaissance as an intermediate format used for shooting special effects, since the larger negative area compensates against the increased grain created when shots are optically composited. However, the advent of computer-generated imagery, advanced film scanning and digital intermediate work, film stocks optimized for special effects work, lenses and film stocks with higher resolving power, and usage of 70 mm for similar optical compositing work has largely rendered this usage of VistaVision obsolete as well.

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

See also

• List of film formats

External links

• List of VistaVision titles at the Internet Movie Database
• Widescreen Museum — The VistaVision Wing