- Technirama
Technirama is a screen process that was used by some film production houses as an alternative to
CinemaScope . It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid 1960s. The process was invented byTechnicolor and is an anamorphic process with a screen ratio the same as revisedCinemaScope (2.35:1).__NOTOC__Technical
The Technirama camera used a film area twice that of the CinemaScope cameras, this resulted in a less grainy and sharper picture. Cameras used 35 mm film, running it horizontally and utilizing an 8 perforation frame, double the normal size, exactly the same as
VistaVision .VistaVision cameras were sometimes adapted. Technirama used a 1.5:1 anamorphic (squeeze) lens in order to take in a wider image. In the lab, the 8 perf horizontal negative would be "blown down" with a further 1.33 : 1 squeeze to create normal 4 perf normal (vertically running) prints with images having a squeeze ratio of 2:1, the same asCinemaScope . These prints could be shown with the same projection lenses asCinemaScope productions but would have greatly improved clarity owing to the double sized original negative.Just as
VistaVision had a few flagship engagements using 8-perf horizontal contact prints and special horizontal running projectors, there is a bit of evidence that horizontal prints were envisioned for Technirama as well (probably with 4-track magnetic sound alaCinemaScope ) but to what extent this was ever done commercially, if at all, remains unclear.The name
Super Technirama 70 was used on films where the shooting was done in Technirama and at least some prints were made on 70 mm stock by unsqueezing the image. Such prints would be compatible with those made by such 65 mm negative processes asTodd-AO andSuper Panavision . The quality would have been very good but perhaps a bit less than those processes due to the negative being not quite as large and the need for optical printing.Technicolor had some of its famous 3-strip color cameras, obsolete after the coming of color negative film in the early 1950s, converted into Technirama cameras. These units became the standard Technirama cameras supplemented by VistaVision cameras fitted with anamorphic optics.These 8-perf Technirama cameras were actually hand-me-down Technicolor VistaVision cameras, rendered obsolete by the demise of Three-Strip Technicolor in 1955 and converted by Technicolor to VistaVision to satisfy its customers.
The 8-perf movements were supplied by Mitchell Camera Corporation, the same company which supplied the movements for the Three-Strip cameras in the first place, and the Technirama movements are the same as the VistaVision movements.
Once the Mitchell VistaVision cameras appeared in 1956 (first used in "The Ten Commandments") the Technicolor VistaVision cameras (ca. 1955) became obsolete immediately, and all were converted into Technirama cameras, as were several of the Paramount VistaVision process plate camera, by the addition of an anamorphic, and other changes.
The logistical advantage of using 35mm film, end-to-end, cannot be underestimated.
A few 8-perf titles have been preserved on 65mm film, but most have been preserved on 35mm film, or are "unprintable".
The color was enhanced through the use of a special development process that was used to good effect in the films "The Vikings" (1958) and "The Music Man" (1962). However, fewer than 40 films were produced using this process in the
United States . It was more popular and longer-lasting in Europe.Walt Disney Productions used the process twice for full length animated features: "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) and "The Black Cauldron" (1985).pecifications
*Film: 35 mm running horizontally using eight perforations at 24 frames per second.
*Film area: 1.496" (38 mm) × 0.992" (25.2 mm).
*Anamorphic power: 1.5
*Aspect ratio: 2.35:1.Films
:"See
List of Technirama films ".ee also
*
List of film formats External links
* [http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingtr1.htm Widescreen museum Technirama page.]
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