35 mm film - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

35 mm film is the film gauge

Film gauge

Film gauge is a physical property of photographic or motion picture film stock which defines its width. Traditionally the major film gauges in usage are 8 mm, 16 mm, 35 mm, and 65/70 mm...

most commonly used for chemical still photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

(see 135 film

135 film

The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...

) and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film

Photographic film

Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...

, which consists of strips 35 millimeters (about 1 3/8 inches) in width. The standard negative pulldown

Negative pulldown

Negative pulldown is the manner in which an image is exposed on a film stock, described in the number of film perforations spanned by an individual frame. It can also describe the orientation of the image on the negative, whether it is captured horizontally or vertically...

for movies ("single-frame" format) is four perforations

Film perforations

Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film. Films may have different types of perforations depending on film gauge, film format, and the intended usage...

per frame

Film frame

In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture...

along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film. For still photography, the standard frame has eight perforations on each side. To print an 80-minute feature film on 35 mm film stock

Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

can cost US$1,500 to $2,500.

A variety of largely proprietary gauges were devised for the numerous camera and projection systems being developed independently in the late 19th century and early 20th century, ranging from 13 mm to 75 mm (0.51–2.95 in), as well as a variety of film feeding systems. This resulted in cameras, projectors and other equipment having to be calibrated to each gauge. The 35 mm width was first used in 1892 by William Dickson

William Dickson (film pioneer)

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was aFrench-born Anglo-Scots inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison .-Biography:...

and Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

, using film stock

Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

supplied by George Eastman

George Eastman

George Eastman was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream...

. The 35 mm width with 4 perforations per frame became accepted as the international standard gauge in 1909, and has remained by far the dominant film gauge for image origination and projection despite challenges from smaller and larger gauges, and from novel formats, because its size allowed for a relatively good tradeoff between the cost of the film stock

Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

and the quality of the images captured. The ubiquity of 35 mm movie projector

Movie projector

A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...

s in commercial movie theater

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s makes it the only motion picture format, film or video, that can be played in almost any cinema in the world.

The gauge has been versatile in application. It has been modified to include sound, redesigned to create a safer film base

Film base

A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock...

, formulated to capture color, has accommodated a bevy of widescreen formats, and has incorporated digital sound data into nearly all of its non-frame areas. Since the mid-1990s, Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

and Fujifilm

Fujifilm

is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

have held a duopoly

Duopoly

A true duopoly is a specific type of oligopoly where only two producers exist in one market. In reality, this definition is generally used where only two firms have dominant control over a market...

in the manufacture of 35 mm motion picture negative film. However print film continues to be offered for sale by Agfa-Gevaert

Agfa-Gevaert

Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...

(a maker of Aerial films split off from Agfa Photo before the latter's insolvency).

Early history

In 1880, George Eastman

George Eastman

George Eastman was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream...

began to manufacture gelatin

Gelatin

Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...

dry photographic plates in Rochester

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Along with W. H. Walker, Eastman invented a holder for a roll of picture-carrying gelatin layer coated paper. Hannibal Goodwin

Hannibal Goodwin

Hannibal Goodwin , was an Episcopal priest at the House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey, patented a method for making transparent, flexible roll film out of nitrocellulose film base, which was used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, an early machine for viewing animation.-Biography:He was born in...

's invention of nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent. When used as a propellant or low-order explosive, it is also known as guncotton...

film base

Film base

in 1887 was the first transparent, flexible film; the following year, Emile Reynaud developed the first perforated

Film perforations

film stock. Eastman was the first major company, however, to mass-produce these components, when in 1889 Eastman realized that the dry-gelatino-bromide emulsion

Emulsion

An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible . Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Although the terms colloid and emulsion are sometimes used interchangeably, emulsion is used when both the dispersed and the...

could be coated onto this clear base, eliminating the paper.

With the advent of flexible film, Thomas Alva Edison quickly set out on his invention, the Kinetoscope

Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...

, which was first shown at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on 9 May 1893. The Kinetoscope was a film loop system intended for one-person viewing. Edison, along with assistant W. K. L. Dickson, followed that up with the Kinetophone, which combined the Kinetoscope with Edison's cylinder phonograph

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

. Beginning in March 1892, Eastman and then, from April 1893 into 1896, New York's Blair Camera Co. supplied Edison with film stock. At first Blair would supply only 40 mm (1 9/16 in) film stock that would be trimmed and perforated at the Edison lab to create 35 mm gauge filmstrips, then at some point in 1894 or 1895, Blair began sending stock to Edison that was cut exactly to specification. Edison's aperture defined a single frame of film at 4 perforations high. Edison claimed exclusive patent rights to his design of 35 mm motion picture film, with four sprocket holes per frame, forcing his only major filmmaking competitor, American Mutoscope & Biograph

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...

, to use a 68 mm film that used friction feed, not sprocket holes, to move the film through the camera. A court judgment in March 1902 invalidated Edison's claim, allowing any producer or distributor to use the Edison 35 mm film design without license. Filmmakers were already doing so in Britain and Europe, where Edison had failed to file patents.

At the time, film stock

Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

was usually supplied unperforated and punched by the filmmaker to their standards with perforation equipment. A variation developed by the Lumière Brothers

Auguste and Louis Lumière

The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers in history...

which used a single circular perforation on each side of the frame towards the middle of the horizontal axis. It was Edison's format, however, that became first the dominant standard and then the "official" standard of the newly formed Motion Picture Patents Company

Motion Picture Patents Company

The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak...

, a trust

Trust (19th century)

A special trust or business trust is a business entity formed with intent to monopolize business, to restrain trade, or to fix prices. Trusts gained economic power in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some, but not all, were organized as trusts in the legal sense...

established by Edison, which agreed in 1909 to what would become the standard: 35 mm gauge, with Edison perforations and a 1.33 aspect ratio

Aspect ratio (image)

The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...

.. Scholar Paul C. Spehr describes the importance of these developments:
The film format was introduced into still photography as early as 1913 (the Tourist Multiple) but first became popular with the launch of the Leica camera, created by Oskar Barnack

Oskar Barnack

Oskar Barnack was a German optical engineer, precision mechanic, industrial designer and the father of 35mm photography....

in 1925.

Amateur interest

The petrochemical

Petrochemical

Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane....

and silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

compounds necessary for the creation of film stock

Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

meant from the start that 35 mm filmmaking was to be an expensive hobby with a high barrier to entry for the public at large. Furthermore, the nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose

film base

Film base

of all early film stock was dangerous and highly flammable, creating considerable risk for those not accustomed to the precautions necessary in its handling. Birt Acres

Birt Acres

Birt Acres was a photographer and film pioneer.Born in Richmond, Virginia to English parents, he invented the first British 35 mm moving picture camera, the first daylight loading home movie camera and projector, Birtac, was the first travelling newsreel reporter in international film history and...

was the first to attempt an amateur format, creating Birtac in 1898 by slitting the film into 17.5 mm widths. By the early 1920s, several formats had successfully split the amateur home movies

Home movies

A home movie is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but accessibility of video production with video cameras and low cost data storage devices has made the...

market away from 35 mm: 28 mm

28 mm film

28 mm film was introduced by the Pathé Film Company in 1912 under the name Pathé Kok. Geared toward the home market, 28 mm utilized diacetate film stock rather than the flammable nitrate commonly used in 35 mm...

(1.1 in) (1912), 9.5 mm

9.5 mm film

9.5 mm film is an amateur film format introduced by Pathé Frères in 1922 as part of the Pathé Baby amateur film system. It was conceived initially as an inexpensive format to provide copies of commercially-made films to home users, although a simple camera was released shortly afterwards.It...

(0.37 in) (1922), 16 mm (0.63 in) (1923), and Pathe Rural, a 17.5 mm format designed for safety film (1926). Eastman Kodak's 16 mm format won the amateur market and is still widely in use today, mainly in the Super 16 variation, which remains popular with professional filmmakers. The 16 mm size was specifically chosen to prevent third-party slitting, as it was easy to create 17.5 mm stock from slitting 35 mm stock in two. It also was the first major format to be released with only fireproof cellulose diacetate (and later cellulose triacetate

Cellulose triacetate

Cellulose triacetate, also known simply as triacetate, CTA and TAC, is manufactured from cellulose and a source of acetate esters, typically acetic anhydride...

) "safety film" base. This amateur market would be further diversified by the introduction of 8 mm film

8 mm film

8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...

(0.31 in) in 1932, intended for amateur filmmaking and "home movies". By law, 16 mm and 8 mm gauge stock (and 35 mm films intended for non-theatrical use) had to be manufactured on safety stock. The effect of these gauges was to essentially make the 35 mm gauge almost the exclusive province of professional filmmakers, a divide which mostly remains to this day.

Still cameras

Just as the format was recognized as a standard in 1909, still film cameras were developed that took advantage of the 35 mm format and allowed a large number of exposures for each length of film loaded into the camera. The frame size was increased to 24×36 mm. Although the first design was patented as early as 1908, the first commercial 35 mm camera was the 1913 Tourist Multiple, for movie and still photography, soon followed by the Simplex providing selection between full and half frame format. Oskar Barnack built his prototype Ur-Leica in 1913 and had it patented, but Ernst Leitz did not decide to produce it before 1924. The first Leica camera to be fully standardised was the Leica Standard

Leica Standard

The Leica Standard, Model E was the fourth version to be launched from Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, Germany. The concept was conceived by their employee Oscar Barnack in 1913 at which time two prototypes were built. However, it was not until 1924 that Leitz decided to go ahead with the concept and...

of 1932.

How film works

Inside the photographic emulsion are millions of light-sensitive silver halide

Silver halide

A silver halide is one of the compounds formed between silver and one of the halogens — silver bromide , chloride , iodide , and three forms of silver fluorides. As a group, they are often referred to as the silver halides, and are often given the pseudo-chemical notation AgX...

crystals. Each crystal is a compound of silver

Silver

plus a halogen

Halogen

The halogens or halogen elements are a series of nonmetal elements from Group 17 IUPAC Style of the periodic table, comprising fluorine , chlorine , bromine , iodine , and astatine...

(such as bromine

Bromine

Bromine ") is a chemical element with the symbol Br, an atomic number of 35, and an atomic mass of 79.904. It is in the halogen element group. The element was isolated independently by two chemists, Carl Jacob Löwig and Antoine Jerome Balard, in 1825–1826...

, iodine

Iodine

Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....

or chlorine

Chlorine

Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...

) held together in a cubical arrangement by electrical attraction. When the crystal is struck with light, free-moving silver ions build up a small collection of uncharged atoms. These small bits of silver, too small to even be visible under a microscope, are the beginning of a latent image

Latent image

A latent image on photographic film is an invisible image produced by the exposure of the film to light. When the film is developed, the area that was exposed darkens and forms a visible image...

. Developing

Photographic processing

Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...

chemicals use the latent image specks to build up density, an accumulation of enough metallic silver to create a visible image.

The emulsion is attached to the film base

Film base

with a transparent adhesive called the subbing layer. Below the base is an undercoat called the antihalation backing, which usually contains absorber dyes or a thin layer of silver or carbon (called rem-jet on color negative stocks). Without this coating, bright points of light would penetrate the emulsion, reflect off the inner surface of the base, and reexpose the emulsion, creating a halo around these bright areas. The antihalation backing can also serve to reduce static buildup, which was a significant problem with old black-and-white films. The film, which runs through the camera at 18 inches (457.2 mm) per second, could build up enough static electricity to cause a spark bright enough to expose the film; antihalation backing solved this problem. Color films have three layers [note] of silver halide emulsions to separately record the red, green, and blue information (except for the Kodachrome process - see below). For every silver halide grain there is a matching color coupler grain. The top layer contains blue-sensitive emulsion, followed by a yellow filter to cancel out blue light; after this comes a green sensitive layer followed by a red sensitive layer.

Just as in black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

, the first step in color development converts exposed silver halide grains into metallic silver – except that an equal amount of color dye will be formed as well. The color couplers in the blue-sensitive layer will form yellow dye during processing, the green layer will form magenta dye and the red layer will form cyan dye. A bleach step will convert the metallic silver back into silver halide, which is then removed along with the unexposed silver halide in the fixer and wash steps, leaving only color dyes.

In the 1980s Eastman Kodak invented the T-Grain

Tabular-grain film

Tabular-grain film is a type of photographic film that includes nearly all color films, T-MAX films from Kodak , Delta films from Ilford Photo and the Fujifilm Neopan films...

, a synthetically manufactured silver halide grain that had a larger, flat surface area and allowed for greater light sensitivity in a smaller, thinner grain. Thus Kodak could solve the problem of higher speed (greater light sensitivity—see film speed

Film speed

Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system....

) which required larger grain and therefore more "grainy

Film grain

Film grain or granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons. While film grain is a function of such particles it is not the same...

" images. With T-Grain technology, Kodak refined the grain structure of all their "EXR" line of motion picture film stocks (which was eventually incorporated into their "MAX" still stocks). Fuji films followed suit with their own grain innovation, the tabular grain in their SUFG (Super Unified Fine Grain) SuperF negative stocks, which are made up of thin hexagonal tabular grains.

Other common types of photographic films

Besides black & white and color negative films, there are black & white and color reversal films, which when developed create a positive ("natural") image that is projectable. There are also films sensitive to non-visible wavelengths of light, such as infrared

Infrared photography

In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about...

Color

Originally, film was a strip of cellulose nitrate coated with black-and-white photographic emulsion

Emulsion

. Early film pioneers, like D. W. Griffith

D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

, color tinted or toned

Film tinting

Film tinting is the process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion...

portions of their movies for dramatic impact, and by 1920, 80 to 90 percent of all films were tinted. The first successful natural color process was Britain's Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...

(1908–1914), a two-color additive process that used a rotating disk with red and green filters in front of the camera lens and the projector lens. But any process that photographed and projected the colors sequentially was subject to color "fringing" around moving objects, and a general color flickering.

In 1916, William Van Doren Kelley produced the first commercially successful American color system using 35 mm film called Prizma

Prizma

The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color system, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor...

. Initially a system that used frame sequential photography and projected through additive synthesis, Prizma was refined to bi-pack photography, with two strips of film (one sensitized for red and one for blue) threaded as one through the camera. The method of projection was also changed: each record was printed and processed on duplitized stock

Duplitized film

Duplitized film stock was a type of film available through various companies used in color photography and special effects. It was introduced in the early 1910s...

, creating a successful subtractive color process. This basic principle behind color photography set the standard for many later successful color formats, such as Multicolor

Multicolor

Multicolor is a subtractive natural color process for motion pictures. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....

, Brewster Color, and Cinecolor

Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...

.

Although it had been available previously, color in Hollywood feature films became popular with Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

, whose main advantage was quality prints in shorter time than its competitors. In its earliest conception, Technicolor was a two-color system, recording red and green. Toll of the Sea, released in 1922, was the first film printed in their subtractive color system. Unlike Kinemacolor, which recorded color frame-sequentially, Technicolor's camera recorded red and green frames simultaneously through a beam splitting prism onto one strip of film. Two prints on half-width stock were processed from this negative, and one was toned red, and the other toned green. The two strips were then cemented together, forming a single strip similar to duplitized film.

In 1928, Technicolor

Technicolor

introduced imbibition printing (similar to lithography

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

) that streamlined the process. Using two matrices coated with hardened gelatin in a relief image, thicker where the image was darker, aniline color dyes were transferred onto a third, blank strip of film.

In 1934, William T. Crispinel and Alan M. Gundelfinger revived the Multicolor

Multicolor

process under the company name Cinecolor

Cinecolor

. Cinecolor enjoyed large success in animation and low-budget pictures, largely due to its inexpense and good image results. While Cinecolor used the same duplitized stock method as Prizma and Multicolor, its main advantage was inventing processing machines that could do larger quantities of film in a shorter time.

Technicolor re-emerged with a three-color process for cartoons in 1932, and live action in 1934. Using a beam-splitter prism behind the lens, this camera incorporated three individual strips of black-and-white film, each one behind a filter of one of the primary colors

Primary Colors

Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics is a roman à clef, a work of fiction that purports to describe real life characters and events — namely, Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992...

(red, green and blue), allowing the full color spectrum to be recorded. A printing matrix with a hardened gelatin relief image was made from each negative, and the three matrices transferred color dye onto a blank film to create the print.

In 1950 Kodak announced the first Eastman color 35 mm negative film (along with a complementary positive film) that could record all three primary colors on the same strip of film. An improved version in 1952 was quickly adopted by Hollywood, making the use of tri-strip Technicolor cameras and bi-pack cameras (used in two-color systems such as Cinecolor

Cinecolor

) obsolete in color cinematography. This "monopack" structure is made up of three separate emulsion layers, one sensitive to red light, one to green and one to blue.

Safety film

Although Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

had first introduced acetate

Acetate

An acetate is a derivative of acetic acid. This term includes salts and esters, as well as the anion found in solution. Most of the approximately 5 billion kilograms of acetic acid produced annually in industry are used in the production of acetates, which usually take the form of polymers. In...

-based film, it was far too brittle and prone to shrinkage, so the dangerously flammable nitrate-based cellulose films were generally used for motion picture camera and print films. In 1949 Kodak began replacing all the nitrate-based

Nitrocellulose

films with the safer, more robust cellulose triacetate

Cellulose triacetate

Cellulose triacetate, also known simply as triacetate, CTA and TAC, is manufactured from cellulose and a source of acetate esters, typically acetic anhydride...

-based "Safety" films. In 1950 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

awarded Kodak with a Scientific and Technical Academy Award (Oscar

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

) for the safer triacetate stock. By 1952, all camera and projector films were triacetate-based. Most if not all film prints today are made from synthetic polyester

Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...

safety base (which started replacing Triacetate film for prints in the early 1990s). The downside of polyester

Polyester

film is that it is extremely strong, and, in case of a fault, will stretch and not break–potentially causing damage to the projector and ruining a fairly large stretch of film: 2–3 ft or ~2 seconds. Also, polyester film will melt if exposed to the projector lamp for too long. Original camera negative

Original camera negative

The original camera negative is the film in a motion picture camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made. It is known as raw stock prior to exposure....

is still made on a triacetate base, and some intermediate films (certainly including internegatives or "dupe" negatives, but not necessarily including interpositives or "master" positives) are also made on a triacetate base as such films must be spliced during the "negative assembly" process, and the extant negative assembly process is solvent-based. Polyester films are not compatible with solvent-based assembly processes.

Academy format

In the conventional motion picture format, frames are four perforations tall, with an aspect ratio

Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...

of about 1.37:1, 22 mm by 16 mm (0.866 in × 0.630 in). This is a derivation of the aspect ratio and frame size designated by Thomas Edison (24.89 mm by 18.67 mm or 0.980 in by 0.735 in) at the dawn of motion pictures, which was an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The first sound features were released in 1926–27, and while Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

was using synchronized phonograph discs (sound-on-disc

Sound-on-disc

The term Sound-on-disc refers to a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or playback sound in sync with a motion picture...

), Fox placed the soundtrack in an optical record directly on the film (sound-on-film

Sound-on-film

Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...

) on a strip between the sprocket holes and the image frame. "Sound-on-film" was soon adopted by the other Hollywood studios, resulting in an almost square image ratio of 0.860 in by 0.820 in.

By 1929, most movie studios had revamped this format using their own house aperture plate size to try to recreate the older screen ratio of 1.33:1. Furthermore, every theater chain had their own house aperture plate size in which the picture was projected. These sizes often did not match up even between theaters and studios owned by the same company, and therefore, uneven projection practices occurred.

In November 1929, the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers set a standard aperture ratio of 0.800 in by 0.600 in. Known as the "1930 standard," studios which followed the suggested practice of marking their camera viewfinders for this ratio were: Paramount-Famous-Lasky, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, United Artists, Pathe, Universal, RKO, Tiffany-Stahl, Mack Sennett, Darmour, and Educational. The Fox Studio markings were the same width but allowed .04 in more height.

In 1932, in refining this ratio, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

expanded upon this 1930 standard. The camera aperture became 22 mm by 16 mm (0.866 in by 0.630 in), and the projected image would use an aperture plate size of 0.825 by 0.600 in (21 by 15 mm), yielding an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This became known as the "Academy

Academy ratio

The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with 4-perf pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928.The Academy ratio is...

" ratio, named so after them. Since the 1950s the aspect ratio of some theatrically released motion picture films has been 1.85:1 (1.66:1 in Europe) or 2.35:1 (2.40:1 after 1970). The image area for "TV transmission" is slightly smaller than the full "Academy" ratio at 21 mm by 16 mm (0.816 in by 0.612 in), an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Hence when the "Academy" ratio is referred to as having an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, it is done so mistakenly.

Widescreen

The commonly used anamorphic format uses a similar four-perf frame, but an anamorphic lens is used on the camera and projector to produce a wider image, today with an aspect ratio of about 2.39:1 (more commonly referred to as 2.40:1). The ratio was formerly 2.35:1—and is still often mistakenly referred to as such—until an SMPTE revision of projection standards in 1970). The image, as recorded on the negative and print, is horizontally compressed (squeezed) by a factor of 2.

The unexpected success of the Cinerama

Cinerama

Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...

widescreen process in 1952 led to a boom in film format

Film format

A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film, for either stills or movies. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary characteristic of a film format is its size and shape.In the case of...

innovations to compete with the growing audiences of television and the dwindling audiences in movie theaters. These processes could give theatergoers an experience that television couldn't—color, stereophonic sound and panoramic vision. Before the end of the year, 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

had narrowly "won" a race to obtain an anamorphic optical system invented by Henri Chrétien

Henri Chrétien

Henri Jacques Chrétien was a French astronomer and an inventor.Born in Paris, France, his most famous invention is the anamorphic widescreen process, that resulted in the CinemaScope, and the co-invention of the Ritchey-Chrétien telescope , which was anadvanced type of astronomical telescope, now...

, and soon began promoting the Cinemascope

CinemaScope

CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...

technology as early as the production phase.

Looking for a similar alternative, other major studios hit upon a simpler, less expensive solution by April 1953: using a removable aperture plate in the film projector gate, the top and bottom of the frame could be cropped to create a wider aspect ratio. Paramount Studios began this trend with their aspect ratio of 1.66:1, first used in Shane, which was originally shot for Academy ratio

Academy ratio

. It was Universal Studios, however, with their May release of Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay (film)
Thunder Bay is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western collaboration.- Plot :...

that introduced the now standard 1.85:1 format to American audiences and brought attention to the industry the capability and low cost of equipping theaters for this transition.

Other studios followed suit with aspect ratios of 1.75:1 up to 2:1. For a time, these various ratios were used by different studios in different productions, but by 1956, the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 became the "standard" US format. These flat films are photographed with the full Academy frame

Academy ratio

, but are matted (most often with a mask in the theater projector, not in the camera) to obtain the "wide" aspect ratio. This standard, in some European nations, became 1.66:1 instead of 1.85:1, although some productions with pre-determined American distributors compose for the latter to appeal to US markets.

In September 1953, 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

debuted CinemaScope

CinemaScope

with their production of The Robe
The Robe (film)
The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.It was directed by Henry Koster...

to great success. CinemaScope became the first marketable usage of an anamorphic widescreen process and became the basis for a host of "formats," usually suffixed with -scope, that were otherwise identical in specification, although sometimes inferior in optical quality. (Some developments, such as SuperScope and Techniscope

Techniscope

Techniscope or 2-Perf is a 35mm motion picture camera film format introduced by Technicolor Italia in 1963. The Techniscope format uses a two film-perforation negative pulldown per frame, instead of the standard four-perforation frame usually exposed in 35mm film photography...

, however, were truly entirely different formats.) By the early 1960s, however, Panavision

Panavision

Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...

would eventually solve many of the Cinemascope lenses' technical limitations with their own lenses, and by 1967, Cinemascope was replaced by Panavision and other third-party manufacturers.

The 1950s and 1960s saw many other novel processes using 35 mm, such as VistaVision

VistaVision

VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954....

, SuperScope, Technirama

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...

, and Techniscope, most of which ultimately became obsolete. VistaVision, however, would be revived decades later by Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....

and other studios for special effects work, while a SuperScope variant became the predecessor to the modern Super 35 format that is popular today.

Super 35

The concept behind Super 35 originated with the Tushinsky Brothers' SuperScope

Superscope

Superscope may refer to:* Superscope, an anamorphic widescreen and full screen process Also, the name of the company that developed Superscope 235: Superscope Inc., founded in 1954 by the Tushinsky Brothers....

format, particularly the SuperScope 235 specification from 1956. In 1982, Joe Dunton revived the format. for Dance Craze
Dance Craze
Dance Craze is a 1981 British documentary film about the English 2 Tone music genre.The film was directed by Joe Massot, who originally wanted to do a film only about the band Madness, who he met during their first US tour. Massot later changed his plans to include the whole 2 Tone movement...

, and Technicolor

Technicolor

soon marketed it under the name "Super Techniscope" before the industry settled on the name Super 35. The central driving idea behind the process is to return to shooting in the original silent "Edison" 1.33:1 full 4-perf negative area (24.89 mm by 18.67 mm or 0.980 in by 0.735 in), and then crop the frame either from the bottom or the center (like 1.85:1) to create a 2.40:1 aspect ratio (matching that of anamorphic lenses) with an area of 24 mm by 10 mm (0.945 in by 0.394 in). Although this cropping may seem extreme, by expanding the negative area out perf-to-perf, Super 35 creates a 2.40:1 aspect ratio with an overall negative area of 240 square millimetres (0.372 sq in), only 9 mm² (0.014 sq in) less than the 1.85:1 crop of the Academy frame (248.81 mm² or 0.386 sq in). The cropped frame is then converted at the intermediate stage to a 4-perf anamorphically squeezed print compatible with the anamorphic projection standard. This allows an "anamorphic" frame to be captured with non-anamorphic lenses, which are much more common. Up to 2000, once the film was photographed in Super 35, an optical printer was used to anamorphose (squeeze) the image. This optical step reduced the overall quality of the image and made Super 35 a controversial subject among cinematographers, many who preferred the higher image quality and frame negative area of anamorphic photography (especially with regard to granularity

Film grain

). With the advent of Digital intermediate

Digital intermediate

Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...

s (DI) at the beginning of the 21st century, however, Super 35 photography has become even more popular, since everything could be done digitally, scanning the original 4-perf 1.33:1 (or 3-perf 1.78:1) picture and cropping it to the 2.39:1 frame already in-computer, without anamorphosing stages, and also without creating an additional optical generation with increased grain. This process of creating the aspect ratio in the computer allows the studios to perform all post-production and editing of the movie in its original aspect (1.33:1 or 1.78:1) and to then release the cropped version, while still having the original when necessary (for Pan & Scan, HDTV transmission, etc.).

3-Perf

The non-anamorphic widescreen ratios (most commonly 1.85:1) used in modern feature films makes inefficient use of the available image area on 35 mm film using the standard 4-perf pulldown; the height of a 1.85:1 frame occupying only 65% of the distance between the frames. It is clear, therefore, that a change to a 3-perf pulldown would allow for a 25% reduction in film consumption whilst still accommodating the full 1.85:1 frame. Ever since the introduction of these widescreen formats in the 1950s various film directors and cinematographers have argued in favour of the industry making such a change. In particular the Swedish film-maker Rune Ericson was a strong advocate for the 3-perf system.

Ericson shot his 51st feature Pirates of the Lake in 1986 using two Panaflex cameras modified to 3-perf pulldown and suggested that the industry could change over completely over the course of ten-years. However the movie industry did not make the change mainly because it would have required the modification of the thousands of existing 35 mm projectors in movie theaters all over the world. Whilst it would have been possible to shoot in 3-perf and then convert to standard 4-perf for release prints the extra complications this would cause and the additional optical printing stage required made this an unattractive option at the time for most film makers.

However in television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

production, where compatibility with an installed base of 35 mm film projectors is unnecessary, the 3-perf format is sometimes used, giving—if used with Super 35—the 16:9 ratio used by HDTV

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

and reducing film usage by 25 percent. Because of 3-perf's incompatibility with standard 4-perf equipment, it can utilize the whole negative area between the perforations (Super 35 mm film

Super 35 mm film

Super 35 is a motion picture film format that uses exactly the same film stock as standard 35 mm film, but puts a larger image frame on that stock by using the negative space normally reserved for the optical analog sound track.Super 35 was revived from a similar Superscope variant known as...

) without worrying about compatibility with existing equipment; the Super 35 image area includes what would be the soundtrack area in a standard print. All 3-perf negatives require optical or digital conversion to standard 4-perf if a film print is desired, though 3-perf can easily be transferred to video with little to no difficulty by modern telecine

Telecine

Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....

or film scanners

Motion picture film scanner

A motion picture film scanner is a device used in digital filmmaking to scan original film for storage as high-resolution digital intermediate files.A film scanner scans original film stock: negative or positive print or reversal/IP...

. With digital intermediate

Digital intermediate

now a standard process for feature film post-production, 3-perf is becoming increasingly popular for feature film productions which would otherwise be averse to an optical conversion stage.

VistaVision

The VistaVision

VistaVision

VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954....

motion picture format was created in 1954 by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

to create a finer-grained negative and print for flat widescreen films. Similar to still photography, the format uses a camera running 35 mm film horizontally instead of vertically through the camera, with frames that are eight perforations long, resulting in a wider aspect ratio of 1.5:1 and greater detail, as more of the negative area is used per frame. This format is unprojectable in standard theaters and requires an optical step to reduce the image into the standard 4-perf vertical 35 mm frame.

While the format was dormant by the early 1960s, the camera system was revived for visual effects by John Dykstra

John Dykstra

John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. is an Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor and pioneer in the development of the use of computers in filmmaking.-Education and early career:...

at Industrial Light and Magic

Industrial Light and Magic

Industrial Light & Magic is an Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given...

, starting with Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...

, as a way of reducing granularity in the optical printer

Optical printer

An optical printer is a device consisting of one or more film projectors mechanically linked to a movie camera. It allows filmmakers to re-photograph one or more strips of film...

by having increased original camera negative

Original camera negative

area at the point of image origination. Its usage has again declined since the dominance of computer-based visual effects, although it still sees limited utilization.

Perforations

BH perfs: Film perforations were originally round holes cut into the side of the film, but as these perforations were subject to wear and deformation, the shape was changed to what is now called the Bell & Howell

Böwe Bell & Howell

Bell & Howell is a U.S.-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery, founded as Bell & Howell in 1907 by two projectionists, and headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company merged with Böwe Systec Inc...

(BH) perforation, which has straight top and bottom edges and outward curving sides. The BH perforation's dimensions are 0.110 inches (2.79 mm) from the middle of the side curve to opposite top corner by 0.073 inches (1.85 mm) in height. The BH1866 perforation, or BH perforation with a pitch of 0.1866 inches (4.7 mm), is the modern standard for negative and internegative films.

KS perfs: Because BH perfs have sharp corners, the repeated use of the film through intermittent movement projectors creates strain that can easily tear the perforations. Furthermore, they tended to shrink as the print slowly decayed. Therefore, larger perforations with a rectangular base and rounded corners were introduced by Kodak in 1924 to improve steadiness, registration, durability, and longevity. Known as "Kodak Standard" (KS), they are 0.0780 inches (1.981 mm) high by 0.1100 inches (2.794 mm) wide. Their durability makes KS perfs the ideal choice for intermediate and release prints, and original camera negative

Original camera negative

s which require special use, such as high-speed filming, bluescreen, front projection, rear projection, and matte work. The increased height also means that the image registration was considerably less accurate than BH perfs, which remains the standard for negatives. The KS1870 perforation, or KS perforation with a pitch of 0.187 inches (4.7 mm), is the modern standard for release prints.

These two perforations have remained by far the most commonly used ones. BH perforations are also known as N (negative) and KS as P (positive). The Bell & Howell perf remains the standard for camera negative films because of its perforation dimensions in comparison to most printers, thus it can keep a steady image compared to other perforations.

DH perfs: The Dubray Howell (DH) perforation was first suggested in 1931 to replace the two perfs with a single hybrid. The proposed standard was, like KS, rectangular with rounded corners and a width of 0.1100 inches (2.79 mm), and, like BH, was 0.073 inches (1.85 mm) tall. This gave it longer projection life but also improved registration. One of its primary applications was usage in Technicolor

Technicolor

's dye imbibition printing (dye transfer). The DH perf never caught on, and Kodak's introduction of monopack Eastmancolor film in the 1950s reduced the demand for dye transfer, although the DH perf persists in special application intermediate films to this day.

CS perfs: In 1953, the introduction of CinemaScope required the creation of a different shape of perforation which was nearly square and smaller to provide space for four magnetic sound stripes for stereophonic and surround sound. These perfs are commonly referred to as CinemaScope (CS) or "fox hole" perfs. Their dimensions are 0.0780 in (1.85 mm) in width by 0.0730" (1.98 mm) in height. Due to the size difference, CS perfed film cannot be run through a projector with standard KS sprocket teeth, but KS prints can be run on sprockets with CS teeth. Shrunken film with KS prints that would normally be damaged in a projector with KS sprockets may sometimes be run far more gently through a projector with CS sprockets because of the smaller size of the teeth. Though CS perfs have not been widely used since the late 1950s, Kodak still retains CS perfs as a special-order option on at least one type of print stock.

During continuous contact printing, the raw stock and the negative are placed next to one another around the sprocket wheel of the printer. The negative, which is the closer of the two to the sprocket wheel (thus creating a slightly shorter path), must have a marginally shorter pitch between perforations (0.1866 in pitch); the raw stock has a long pitch (0.1870 in). While cellulose nitrate and cellulose diacetate stocks used to shrink during processing slightly enough to have this difference naturally occur, modern safety stocks do not shrink at the same rate, and therefore negative (and some intermediate) stocks are perforated at a pitch of 0.2% shorter than print stock.

Recent innovations in sound

New digital soundtracks introduced since the 1990s include Dolby Digital

Dolby Digital

Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...

, which is stored between the perforations on the sound side; SDDS, stored in two redundant

Redundancy (engineering)

In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe....

strips along the outside edges (beyond the perforations); and DTS, in which sound data is stored on separate compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

s synchronized by a timecode track stored on the film just to the right of the analog soundtrack and left of the frame. Because these soundtrack systems appear on different parts of the film, one movie can contain all of them, allowing broad distribution without regard for the sound system installed at individual theatres.

The analogue optical track technology has also changed: in the early years of the 21st century distributors changed to using cyan dye optical soundtracks instead of applicated tracks, which use environmentally unfriendly chemicals to retain a silver (black-and-white) soundtrack. Because traditional incandescent exciter lamps produce copious amounts of infra-red light, and cyan tracks do not absorb infra-red light, this change has required theaters to replace the incandescent exciter lamp with a complementary colored red LED or laser. These LED or laser exciters are backwards-compatible with older tracks. ( The film Anything Else
Anything Else
Anything Else is a 2003 romantic comedy film. The film was written and directed by Woody Allen, produced by his sister Letty Aronson, and stars Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon and KaDee Strickland....

(2003) was the first to be released with only cyan tracks.

To facilitate this changeover, intermediate prints known as "high magenta" prints were distributed. These prints used a silver plus dye soundtrack that were printed into the magenta dye layer. The advantage gained was an optical soundtrack, with low levels of sibilant (cross-modulation) distortion, on both types of sound heads.

Modern 3D systems for theatrical 35 mm presentation

The recent success of digitally projected 3D movies has led to a demand from some theater owners to be able to show these movies in 3D without incurring the high capital cost of installing digital projection equipment. To satisfy that demand, a number of new systems have recently been proposed for 3D systems based on 35 mm film by Technicolor

Technicolor

, Panavision

Panavision

and others. These systems are the latest version of the "over-under" stereo 3D prints first introduced in the 1960s.

To be attractive to exhibitors, these schemes need to offer 3D films that can be projected by a standard 35 mm cinema projector with minimal modification, and so they are based on the use of "over-under" film prints. In these prints a left-right pair of 2.39:1 non-anamorphic images are substituted for the one 2.39:1 anamorphic image of a 2D "scope" print. The frame dimensions are based on those of the Techniscope

Techniscope

2-perf camera format used in the 1960s and '70s. However when used for 3D the left and right frames are pulled down together, thus the standard 4-perf pulldown is retained, minimising the need for modifications to the projector or to long-play systems. The linear speed of film through the projector and sound playback both remain exactly the same as in normal 2D operation.

The Technicolor system uses the polarisation of light to separate the left and right eye images and for this they rent to exhibitors a combination splitter-polarizer-lens assembly which can be fitted to a lens turret in the same manner as an anamorphic lens. In contrast, the Panavision system uses a spectral comb filter system, but their combination splitter-filter-lens is physically similar to the Technicolor assembly and can be used in the same way. No other modifications are required to the projector for either system, though for the Technicolor system a silver screen is necessary, as it would be with polarised-light digital 3D. Thus a programme can readily include both 2D and 3D segments with only the lens needing to be changed between them.

Recent proposed innovations in pull-down specifications

Due to extremely high cost of modern digital projection installations, a new projection system option, based on the proven 6 perf pull-down, first used in 3 strip Cinerama

Cinerama

is now being offered for low cost film based 3D stereoscopic presentations. It is also a means to provide a dramatic improvement in 2D (flat) 35mm brightness and resolution, approaching the look of 70mm, while still using automated 35mm projection technology. It is mainly intended for use in developing counties, and small, or isolated "first world" theater installations. Cost of prints, are less than 25% of similar running time in conventional 70mm Large Format, and only about 10% of the cost of 3D of flat IMAX

IMAX

IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...

. Image is roughly 50% brighter and more detailed than 4 perf 35mm 3D or flat projection. As of mid 2010, only about 40 theaters in a huge film market, such as India, are able to show either digital 3D or 3D IMAX

IMAX

. As the duplication and film stock is compliant with SMPTE standards, there should be no impediment to its use, other than market forces, in the concerned countries and regions.

Technical specifications

Technical specifications for 35 mm film are standardized by SMPTE

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...

16 frames per foot (0.748 in (19 mm) per frame (long pitch))
24 frames per second (frame/s); 90 feet (27.4 m) per minute. 1000 feet (304.8 m) is about 11 minutes at 24 frame/s.
vertical pulldown
4 perforations per frame (all projection and most origination excepting 3-perf)

35 mm spherical

aspect ratio: 1.37:1 on camera aperture; 1.85:1 and 1.66:1 are hard or soft matted over this
camera aperture: 0.866 by 0.630 in (22 by 16 mm)
projector aperture (full 1.37:1): 0.825 by 0.602 in (21 by 15 mm)
projector aperture (1.66:1): 0.825 by 0.497 in (21 by 13 mm)
projector aperture (1.85:1): 0.825 by 0.446 in (21 by 11 mm)
TV station aperture: 0.816 by 0.612 in (21 by 16 mm)
TV transmission: 0.792 by 0.594 in (20 by 15 mm)
TV safe action: 0.713 by 0.535 in (18 by 14 mm); corner radii: 0.143 in (3.6 mm)
TV safe titles: 0.630 by 0.475 in (16 by 12 mm); corner radii: 0.125 in (3.2 mm)

Super 35 mm film

aspect ratio: 1.33:1 on 4-perf camera aperture
camera aperture (4-perf): 0.980" by 0.735" (25 by 19mm)
picture used (35 mm anamorphic): 0.945 in (24.00 mm) by 0.394 in (10.00 mm)
picture used (70 mm blowup): 0.945 in (24.00 mm) by 0.430 in (10.92 mm)
picture used (35 mm flat 1.85): 0.945 in (24.00 mm) by 0.511 in (12.97 mm)

35 mm anamorphic

aspect ratio: 2.39:1, in a 1.19:1 frame with a 2× horizontal anamorphosis
camera aperture: 0.866 in (22.00 mm) by 0.732 in (18.59 mm)
projector aperture: 0.825 in (20.96 mm) by 0.690 in (17.53 mm)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Early history

Amateur interest

Still cameras

How film works

Other common types of photographic films

Color

Safety film

Academy format

Widescreen

Super 35

3-Perf

VistaVision

Perforations

Recent innovations in sound

Modern 3D systems for theatrical 35 mm presentation

Recent proposed innovations in pull-down specifications

Technical specifications

See also

External links