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Widescreen BLACK-&-WHITE Movies

WIDESCREEN BLACK-&-WHITE FILMS: by year:

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2002 lecture on widescreen format: (collected notes)  

• widescreen:
• reaction to competition from TV:
  • new optical format:
    • attempt to exploit size of screen image
• Cinemascope system: based on anamorphic distorting lens:
  • invented by Dr. Henri Chrétian:
    • for tank periscopes during WWI
• anamorphic lens: a lens which squeezes a wide image to fit the dimensions of a standard 35mm film frame; in projection, an anamorphic lens on the projector reverses the process & redistributes the wide image on the screen
• aspect ratios:
  • standard screen aspect ratio: "Academy ratio": 1.33:1
  • standard widescreen aspect ratio: 1.85:1
  • Cinemascope, Panavision widescreen ratios: 2.35:1
    • also other permutations: Panavision-70, e.g.
• advantage of Cinemascope:

  • over Cinerama: which used multiple cameras & screens:

• required only special lenses & wider screen
• but: disadvantage of Cinemascope:
  • initially: certain distortions of focus & composition:
    • caused by lenses
• but: Cinemascope brought widescreen revolution to world of everyday movies:
  • because it was cheap, flexible & simple to use
  • most important: public loved it
• scattered experiments w/anamorphic lens:
  • THE BIG TRAIL (1930):
    • B/W-C western w/John Wayne
  • but pressure from comprtition of TV in early 1950s:
    • made it more an imperative then: than in 1930
• Sept. 1953: 20th C Fox: THE ROBE: 1st Cinemascope film:
  • indifferent Biblical spectacle: but people adored it:
    • 3rd most financially successful film in history of classic Hollywood:
      • after BIRTH OF A NATION & GONE WITH THE WIND
• after THE ROBE: 1954: anamorphic process took Hollywood by storm:
  • Fox leased Cinemascope lenses to rival studios
    • widescreen took off from there: so popular that:
  • films still shot in old aspect ratio of 1.33:1
    • cropped for exhibition: tops & bottoms cut off: GWTW reissue
• widescreen ultimately:
  • standardized at 1.85:1
  • problems of distortion solved
  • spread to all studios: only holdout:
    • Paramount: introduced its own widescreen process:
      • VistaVision: not anamorphic process: superior images
• adjusting to widescreen:
  • parallels to introduction of sound in films:
    • financially troubled industry turned to technology:
      • result revolutionized narrative form of cinema
  • problems:
    • c/u's: vast size of image sometimes made then ludicrous
    • montage: size of screen threatened perceptual disorientation
    • composition & lighting: different than for 1.33:1 aspect ratio
      • problem: how to fill all that space
    • 1st widescreen films:
      • static & theatrical: heavyhanded emphasis on spectacle
  • these intital assumptions wrong: problems got straightened out:
    • c/u's: multiple chars could be in c/u at onc
      • w/o cutting back & forth
        • b/g's used to anchor chars
    • widescreen process:
      • greatly enhanced image's capacity for depth:
        • & for spectator involvement
  • increased capacity for depth of field:
    • use of big, brightly lit sets or shooting outdoors in bright sunlight:
      • apertures stopped down: great depth achieved
    • major emphasis shifted from cutting to shooting:
      • long take & mise-en-scène rather than editing
    • for some critics: long take more "realistic than cutting to c/u, e.g.
• 1952: Cinerama: "wrap-around screen":
  • 3 synchronized 35mm cameras linked together in an arc:
    • simultaneously recording wide-field image
  • projected image: 6 times size of standard 35mm film
    • required costly outfitting of theaters
  • early Cinerama films: 1st: offered spectacle, rather than narrative:
    • 1952: THIS IS CINERAMA
    • 1958: CINERAMA SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE:
      • wild rides, exotic travelogues: no stories
  • 1st story films in Cinerama:
    • 1962: HOW THE WEST WAS WON
      • WONDERFUL OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM
    • multiple-camera process: too clumsy & costly for production of narratives
  • 1963: driven by economic necessity:
    • Cinerama switched to wide-film widescreen system: Ultra Panavision 
• adapting widescreen format to TV:
  • aspect ratio of most TV screens: 1.33:1:
    • when films shown full frame:
      • sides of widescreen film cut off:
        • causing filmaker's original shots to be distorted
        • causing viewer to miss up to half of the image
  • bad solution to problem:
    • "pan-&-scan":
      • TV camera scans image:
        • horizontal back-&-forth movement:
          • distracting & distorting
          • prevents interaction of elements:
            • 1 side of screen always "off"
  • good solution to problem:
    • letterboxing: entire image from film maintained:
      • black bands appear at top & bottom of TV screen
    • disadvantage: when viewed on small TV
  • best solution to problem:
    • widescreen 16 x 9 format TV monitor

For additional information about aspect ratios consult:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35mm_film
• http://www.reelclassics.com/Techtalk/aspectratio-article.htm

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