CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter.
79-632: Sea Wife is a 1957 British CinemaScope drama thriller war film photographed in DeLuxe Color , based on the 1955 James Maurice Scott novel Sea-Wyf and Biscuit . Taken in Jamaica , the film follows a group of survivors from a torpedoed British refugee ship. Michael Cannon ( Richard Burton ) returns to London after the Second World War and places adverts in the personal columns of newspapers in an effort to re-unite with "Sea Wife",
158-657: A building to her death. Athanasios Skouras, member of the Greek Resistant Organisation PEAN during the Axis Occupation of Greece in the Second World War, was a relative of his. In May 1935 Spyros Skouras took the initiative for the merger of Fox Studios with Twentieth Century Pictures . He was president of the merged company 20th Century Fox from 1942 to 1962. Skouras was also a major stockholder of 20th Century Fox. In
237-406: A combination of both characteristics. CinemaScope was developed to use a separate film for sound (see Audio below), thus enabling the full silent 1.33:1 aperture to be available for the picture, with a 2:1 anamorphic squeeze applied that would allow an aspect ratio of 2.66:1. When, however, developers found that magnetic stripes could be added to the film to produce a composite picture/sound print,
316-463: A different camera system (such as Mitchell BNCs at TCF-TV studios for RegalScope rather than Fox Studio Cameras at Fox Hills studios for CinemaScope). Fox officials were keen that the sound of their new widescreen film format should be as impressive as the picture, and that meant it should include true stereophonic sound . Previously, stereo sound in the commercial cinema had always employed separate sound films; Walt Disney's 1940 release Fantasia ,
395-728: A financial interest in the process from the Mike Todd estate. Subsequent to the abandonment of CinemaScope 55, Century, which had made the 55/35mm dual-gauge projector for Fox (50 sets were delivered), redesigned this projector head into the present day 70/35mm Model JJ, and Ampex, which had made the 55/35mm dual gauge penthouse magnetic sound reproducer head specifically for CinemaScope 55, abandoned this product (but six-channel Ampex theater systems persisted, these being re-purposed from 55/35mm to 70mm Todd-AO/35mm CinemaScope). Although commercial 55 mm prints were not made, some 55 mm prints were produced. Samples of these prints reside in
474-465: A fully exposed 1.37:1 Academy ratio -area is cropped in the projector to a wide-screen aspect ratio by the use of an aperture plate, also known as a soft matte . Most films shot today use this technique, cropping the top and bottom of a 1.37:1 image to produce one at a ratio of 1.85:1. Aware of Fox's upcoming CinemaScope productions, Paramount introduced this technique in March's release of Shane with
553-437: A half-width optical soundtrack, while keeping the magnetic tracks for those theaters that were able to present their films with stereophonic sound. These so-called "mag-optical" prints provided a somewhat sub-standard optical sound and were also expensive to produce. It made little economic sense to supply those theaters which had only mono sound systems with an expensive striped print. Eventually Fox, and others, elected to supply
632-560: A lost acquaintance. Cannon publishes under the name "Biscuit." In time, he receives a letter summoning him to the Ely Retreat and Mental Home. There he meets an ill man nicknamed "Bulldog" ( Basil Sydney ), who tries to persuade Biscuit to give up the search. A flashback reveals the backstory. In 1942, people crowd aboard a ship to escape Singapore before it falls to the Japanese Army. Biscuit encounters "Bulldog", who insists
711-481: A means of promoting itself as well as the film. The deserted-island scenes for this movie were photographed at the same Ocho Rios, Jamaica , location that had previously been used in such pictures as Island of Desire (1953) and All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953). The city of Kingston stood in for Singapore during early scenes of the film; and before the episode involving the torpedoed ship
790-425: A method of coating 35 mm stock with magnetic stripes and designed a three-channel (left, center, right) system based on three 0.063-inch-wide (1.6 mm) stripes, one on each edge of the film outside the perforations, and one between the picture and the perforations in approximately the position of a standard optical soundtrack. Later it was found possible to add a narrower 0.029 in (0.74 mm) stripe between
869-476: A narrow format. It then widens to widescreen and dissolves to the old-fashioned CinemaScope logo, in color. In the 1963 Jean-Luc Godard film Contempt ( Le Mepris ), filmmaker Fritz Lang makes a disparaging comment about CinemaScope: "Oh, it wasn't meant for human beings. Just for snakes – and funerals." Ironically, Contempt was shot in Franscope , a process with a similar format to CinemaScope. During
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#1732802587789948-500: A problem that was soon referred to as "the mumps ". This problem was avoided at first by composing wider shots, but as anamorphic technology lost its novelty, directors and cinematographers sought compositional freedom from these limitations. Issues with the lenses also made it difficult to photograph animation using the CinemaScope process. Nevertheless, many animated short films and a few features were filmed in CinemaScope during
1027-455: A shareholder revolt demanding a change in management. Darryl F. Zanuck was elected president of the company while Skouras was chairman of the company for several years. In parallel with his work in the film industry, Skouras had invested in the shipping industry, where many Greek immigrants had interest. By the 1960s, his Prudential Lines owned seven ships, two tankers, and five cargo ships. In 1969, Prudential Lines bought out Grace Lines . In
1106-680: A short while, he worked as a manager for Paramount. In 1932, the Skouras Brothers (Charles, Spyros and George) took over the management of the Fox West Coast Theater chain, with more than 500 theaters. The studio was threatened with bankruptcy due to falloff in business because of the Depression. The three brothers worked to help the company survive. Skouras had several children with his wife, including sons Spyros S. Skouras, Plato A. Skouras. His daughter jumped from
1185-416: A significant amount of the principal photography was actually filmed using CinemaScope lenses. Fox eventually capitulated completely to third-party lenses. In Like Flint with James Coburn and Caprice with Doris Day , were Fox's final films in CinemaScope. Fox originally intended CinemaScope films to use magnetic stereo sound only, and although in certain areas, such as Los Angeles and New York City,
1264-483: A small life-raft . Only Number Four knows that Sea Wife is a nun; she asks him to keep that secret. It soon becomes evident that Bulldog is a racist who distrusts Number Four. Later, they encounter a Japanese submarine whose captain reluctantly gives them food and water when Number Four negotiates with him in Japanese. Eventually, the quartet land on a deserted island. Number Four finds a machete , with which he builds
1343-408: A smaller frame size of approximately 1.34" x 1.06" (34 mm x 27 mm) to allow space for the 6 magnetic soundtracks. Four of these soundtracks (two each side) were outside the perforations, which were further from the edges of the print film than in the negative film; the other two soundtracks were between the perforations and the image. The pull-down for the negative was 8 perforations, while for
1422-544: A sturdier raft, made of tropical timber. After completion of the project, Number Four insists on keeping the machete for himself, which heightens Bulldog's distrust. Meanwhile, Biscuit falls in love with Sea Wife; she is tempted, but rejects his romantic advances without telling him the reason. Finally, the four are ready to set sail. Bulldog tricks Number Four into going in search of his missing machete, then casts off without him. When Biscuit tries to stop him, Bulldog knocks him unconscious with an oar. Number Four tries to swim to
1501-487: A television screen. In the 1988 version, a comment was said in dialogue by one of the current "coolest kids in town" during Tracy's audition. In the remake of 2007, also during Tracy's audition, it was a lyric sung by Amber von Tussle, singing, "This show isn't broadcast in CinemaScope!" in the song "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs". Spyros Skouras Spyros Panagiotis Skouras ( / ˈ s k ʊər ə s / ; Greek : Σπύρος Σκούρας ; March 28, 1893 – August 16, 1971)
1580-421: A young model named Norma Jean Baker to 20th Century Fox who, after changing her name to Marilyn Monroe , rose to fame as the most famous Hollywood sex symbol of the 20th century. Monroe, who never knew her father, developed a special relationship with Skouras, and sometimes called him "Papa Skouras". During Skouras' tenure, the longest in the company's history, he worked to rescue the faltering film industry from
1659-586: Is a variation of this process. Another process called Techniscope was developed by Technicolor Inc. in the early 1960s, using normal 35 mm cameras modified for two perforations per (half) frame instead of the regular four and later converted into an anamorphic print. Techniscope was mostly used in Europe , especially with low-budget films. Many European countries and studios used the standard anamorphic process for their wide-screen films, identical in technical specifications to CinemaScope, and renamed to avoid
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#17328025877891738-523: Is one of them. She watches him leave in silence. Richard Burton accepted this acting assignment only because, at the time, Roberto Rossellini had been slotted by the Fox studio as the film's director. However, before actual shooting began in Jamaica, Rossellini, whose script would have invited censorship problems, bowed out of the production and was replaced by Bob McNaught. Sensing early during shooting that
1817-401: Is simply a hard-matted version of the others. Fox selected The Robe as the first film to start production in CinemaScope, a project chosen because of its epic nature. During its production, How to Marry a Millionaire and Beneath the 12-Mile Reef also went into CinemaScope production. Millionaire finished production first, before The Robe , but because of its importance, The Robe
1896-483: Is still so embedded in mass consciousness that all anamorphic prints are now referred to generically as 'Scope prints. Similarly, the 2016 release La La Land was shot on film (not digitally) with Panavision equipment in a 2.55:1 widescreen format, but not true CinemaScope. However, the film's opening credits do say "Presented in CinemaScope" ("presented", not "shot") as a tribute to 1950s musicals in that format. This credit appears initially in black-and-white and in
1975-404: The 65/70 mm format. The initial problems with grain and brightness were eventually reduced thanks to improvements in film stock and lenses. The CinemaScope lenses were optically flawed, however, by the fixed anamorphic element, which caused the anamorphic effect to gradually drop off as objects approached the lens. The effect was that close-ups would slightly overstretch an actor's face,
2054-557: The Earl I. Sponable Collection at Columbia University. Several 55/35mm projectors and at least one 55/35mm reproducer are in the hands of collectors. Cinemascope 55 was originally intended to have a six-track stereo soundtrack. The premiere engagement of Carousel in New York did use one, recorded on magnetic film interlocked with the visual image, as with Cinerama . This proved too impractical, and all other engagements of Carousel had
2133-593: The Skouras Brothers Co. of St. Louis. The biggest moment for the Skouras empire came when their dream of building a world-class movie palace in downtown St. Louis was realized in 1926 when they opened the $ 5.5 million Ambassador Theatre Building. In 1929, following the Stock Market Crash, the triumvirate sold out their interest to Warner Brothers and moved east, gaining executive places in
2212-704: The fourth-largest city in America and a booming industrial center. Living frugally on wages as busboys and bartenders in downtown hotels, by 1914 the brothers had savings of $ 3,500. In partnership with two other Greeks, the Skourases constructed a modest nickelodeon at 1420 Market Street; today's Kiel Opera House now occupies this site. They called their theater the Olympia, and soon acquired other theaters. The brothers incorporated in 1924 with $ 400,000 capital stock. By then more than thirty local theaters belonged to
2291-571: The live-action epic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , considered one of the best examples of early CinemaScope productions. Walt Disney Productions' Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom , which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) in 1953, was the first cartoon produced in CinemaScope. The first animated feature film to use CinemaScope was Lady and the Tramp (1955), also from Walt Disney Productions. Due to initial uncertainty about whether
2370-450: The 1.66:1 aspect ratio, although the film was not shot with this ratio originally in mind. Universal-International followed suit in May with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio for Thunder Bay . By summer of 1953, other major studios Paramount , Universal , MGM , UA , Columbia , Warner Bros. , RKO , Republic , Allied Artists , Disney , Belarusfilm , Rank , and even Fox's B-unit contractors, under
2449-621: The 1950s he, together with his brothers, controlled 20th Century Fox, National Theaters, Fox West Coast Theaters, United Artists Theaters , Skouras Theaters, Magna Corp, and Todd AO . Skouras' assets in 1952 amounted to $ 108,000,000, greater than any other theater or movie mogul, including the Schencks, Warners, Shuberts, or his countryman Alexander Pantages . Skouras oversaw the production of such classics as Don't Bother to Knock , The Seven Year Itch , The Hustler , The King and I , Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Robe . He signed
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2528-518: The 1950s, including Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp (1955). CinemaScope 55 was a large-format version of CinemaScope introduced by Twentieth Century Fox in 1955, which used a film width of 55.625 mm. Fox had introduced the original 35 mm version of CinemaScope in 1953 and it had proved to be commercially successful. But the additional image enlargement needed to fill the new wider screens, which had been installed in theatres for CinemaScope, resulted in visible film grain. A larger film
2607-413: The 1960s and 1970s were never released in stereo at all. Finally, the 1976 introduction of Dolby Stereo – which provided similar performance to striped magnetic prints albeit more reliable and at a far lower cost – caused the four-track magnetic system to become totally obsolete. The song "Stereophonic Sound" written by Cole Porter for the 1955 Broadway musical Silk Stockings mentions CinemaScope in
2686-425: The 55.625 mm film width as satisfying that. Camera negative film had larger grain than the film stocks used for prints, so there was a consistent approach in using a larger frame on the film negative than on prints. While the image area of a print has to allow for a soundtrack, a camera negative does not. CinemaScope 55 had different frame dimensions for the camera negative and struck prints. The negative film had
2765-486: The Panavision lenses to keep the plane of focus at a constant anamorphic ratio of 2x, thus avoiding the horizontally-overstretched mumps effect that afflicted many CinemaScope films. After screening a demo reel comparing the two systems, many U.S. studios adopted the Panavision anamorphic lenses. The Panavision technique was also considered more attractive to the industry because it was more affordable than CinemaScope and
2844-671: The banner of Panoramic Productions had switched from filming flat shows in a 1.37:1 format, and used variable flat wide-screen aspect ratios in their filming, which would become the standard of that time. By this time Chrétien's 1926 patent on the Hypergonar lens had expired while the fundamental technique that CinemaScope utilised was not patentable because the anamorphoscope had been known for centuries. Anamorphosis had been used in visual media such as Hans Holbein 's painting, The Ambassadors (1533). Some studios thus sought to develop their own systems rather than pay Fox. In response to
2923-406: The best three of Chrétien's Hypergonars, while Bausch & Lomb continued working on their own versions. The introduction of CinemaScope enabled Fox and other studios to respond to the challenge from television by providing a key point of difference. Chrétien's Hypergonars proved to have significant optical and operational defects, primarily loss-of-squeeze at close camera-to-subject distances, plus
3002-509: The demands for a higher visual resolution spherical widescreen process, Paramount created an optical process, VistaVision , which shot horizontally on the 35 mm film roll, and then printed down to standard four-perforation vertical 35 mm. Thus, a negative with a finer grain was created and release prints had less grain. The first Paramount film in VistaVision was White Christmas . VistaVision died out for feature production in
3081-415: The film would wind up a dud, Burton concentrated his energies on two objectives: Joan Collins, who rejected his advances, and drinking, to fight insomnia. Yet despite waking every morning at 5 am with a terrible hangover, he was still able to contribute a full day's work. During initial exhibition of Sea Wife , The Daily Telegraph distributed miniaturized copies of the personal ads placed by "Biscuit" as
3160-439: The first film with stereophonic sound, had used Disney's Fantasound system, which utilized a three-channel soundtrack played from separate optical film. Early post-war stereo systems used with Cinerama and some 3-D films had used multichannel audio played from a separate magnetic film. Fox had initially intended to use three-channel stereo from magnetic film for CinemaScope. However, Hazard E. Reeves ' sound company had devised
3239-417: The image was expanded horizontally when projected meant that there could be visible graininess and brightness problems. To combat this, larger film formats were developed (initially a too-costly 55 mm for Carousel and The King and I ) and then abandoned (both films were eventually reduction printed at 35 mm, although the aspect ratio was kept at 2.55:1). Later Fox re-released The King and I in
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3318-641: The industry, which was then based in the New York area. From 1929 to 1931 during the Great Depression , Spyros Skouras worked as a general manager of the Warner Brothers Theater Circuit in the United States. During these hard years, he eliminated losses and eventually quadrupled the profits of the chain. Despite this success, his wish to be his own boss again made him voluntarily leave the company. After that, and for
3397-464: The late 1950s with the introduction of faster film stocks, but was revived by Industrial Light & Magic in 1975 to create high quality visual effects for Star Wars and ILM's subsequent film projects. RKO used the Superscope process in which the standard 35 mm image was cropped and then optically squeezed in post-production to create an anamorphic image on film. Today's Super 35
3476-463: The lure of television. 20th Century Fox's advertising slogan, Movies are Better than Ever, gained credibility in 1953 when Spyros introduced CinemaScope in the studio's groundbreaking feature film The Robe . The wide screen CinemaScope increased the appeal of films, helping them maintain audiences against television. This new technology soon became the standard of the whole industry. Cost overruns on such films as Cleopatra (1963) resulted in
3555-404: The lyrics. The first verse is: "Today to get the public to attend the picture show/ It's not enough to advertise a famous star they know/ If you wanna get the crowds to come around/ You gotta have glorious Technicolor/ Breathtaking CinemaScope and stereophonic sound." The musical was adapted for film in 1957 and was indeed filmed in CinemaScope. (Although the song refers to Technicolor , the film
3634-427: The majority of their prints in standard mono optical sound form, with magnetic striped prints reserved for those theaters capable of playing them. Magnetic-striped prints were expensive to produce; each print cost at least twice as much as a print with a standard optical soundtrack only. Furthermore, these striped prints wore out faster than optical prints and caused more problems in use, such as flakes of oxide clogging
3713-439: The motion picture industry in his invention but, at that time, the industry was not sufficiently impressed. By 1950, however, cinema attendance seriously declined with the advent of a new competitive rival: television . Yet Cinerama and the early 3D films , both launched in 1952, succeeded in defying that trend, which in turn persuaded Spyros Skouras , the head of 20th Century-Fox , that technical innovation could help to meet
3792-438: The new anamorphic format and filling in the gap created by Bausch and Lomb 's inability to mass-produce the needed adapters for movie theaters fast enough. Looking to expand beyond projector lenses, Panavision founder Robert Gottschalk soon improved upon the anamorphic camera lenses by creating a new lens set that included dual rotating anamorphic elements which were interlocked with the lens focus gearing. This innovation allowed
3871-559: The optical center of the projected image. All of Fox's CinemaScope films were made using a silent/full aperture for the negatives, as was this studio's practice for all films, whether anamorphic or not. In order to better hide so-called negative assembly splices, the ratio of the image was later changed by others to 2.39:1 (1024:429). All professional cameras are capable of shooting 2.55:1 (special 'Scope aperture plate) or 2.66:1 (standard Full/Silent aperture plate, preferred by many producers and all optical houses), and 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 or 2.40:1
3950-618: The original anamorphic CinemaScope lenses, was contracted by Fox to build new Super CinemaScope lenses that could cover the larger film frame. Fox shot two of their Rodgers and Hammerstein musical series in CinemaScope ;55: Carousel , and The King and I . But it did not make 55 mm release prints for either film; both were released in conventional 35 mm CinemaScope with a limited release of The King and I being shown in 70 mm. The company substituted Todd-AO for its wide-gauge production process, having acquired
4029-459: The perforations (of the CS Fox-hole type) close to the edge of the film and the camera aperture was 1.824" by 1.430" (approx. 46 mm x 36 mm), giving an image area of 2.61 sq. inch. This compares to the 0.866" by 0.732" (approx. 22 mm x 18.6 mm) frame of a modern anamorphic 35 mm negative, which provides a frame area of 0.64 sq. inch. On the print film, however, there was
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#17328025877894108-442: The picture and perforations on the other side of the film; this fourth track was used for a surround channel, also sometimes known at the time as an effects channel. In order to avoid hiss on the surround/effects channel from distracting the audience the surround speakers were switched on by a 12 kHz tone recorded on the surround track only while wanted surround program material was present. This four-track magnetic sound system
4187-420: The president of 20th Century Fox , marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal 2.55:1 , almost twice as wide as the previously common Academy format 's 1.37:1 ratio. Although the technology behind the CinemaScope lens system was made obsolete by later developments, primarily advanced by Panavision , CinemaScope's anamorphic format has continued to this day. In film-industry jargon ,
4266-408: The prime lens and the anamorphic lens in one unit (initially in 35, 40, 50, 75, 100 and 152 mm focal lengths, later including a 25 mm focal length). The combined lenses continue to be used to this day, particularly in special effects units. Other manufacturers' lenses are often preferred for so-called production applications that benefit from significantly lighter weight or lower distortion, or
4345-491: The process had expired, so Fox purchased his existing Hypergonars, and the lenses were flown to Fox's studios in Hollywood. Test footage shot with the lenses was screened for Skouras, who gave the go-ahead for development of a widescreen process, based on Chrétien's invention, which was to be known as CinemaScope. 20th Century-Fox's pre-production of The Robe , originally committed to Technicolor three-strip origination,
4424-442: The process would be adopted widely, a number of films were shot simultaneously with anamorphic and regular lenses. Despite early success with the process, Fox did not shoot every production by this process. They reserved CinemaScope as a trade name for their A productions, while B productions in black and white were begun in 1956 at Fox under the trade name, RegalScope. The latter used the very same optics as CinemaScope, but, usually,
4503-489: The production of 1999's The Iron Giant , director Brad Bird wanted to advertise the film with the CinemaScope name and logo, but Fox would not allow its use. A reference to CinemaScope was included during the end credits of the 2015 " Signature Edition " re-release. In the 1988 film Hairspray and the 2007 remake , there are references to CinemaScope. In both instances, they are comments made in regard to Tracy Turnblad's weight, implying that she's too big to be seen on
4582-506: The production of such epics as Cleopatra (1963) with Elizabeth Taylor , as well as the development of Century City . Spyros Panagiotis Skouras was born in 1893 in Skourochori , Greece to a family whose father was a sheep herder. Together with his brothers Charles and George Skouras , he emigrated to the United States in 1910. The brothers settled in St. Louis, Missouri , at that time
4661-496: The raft, but is killed by a shark. Days later, the 3 survivors are picked up by ship, and Biscuit is taken to a hospital for a long recovery. By the time he is discharged, Sea Wife has gone. Here, the flashback ends, and the narrative returns to "Bulldog's" hospital room in London, where he informs Biscuit that Sea Wife died on the rescue ship. Heartbroken, Biscuit leaves the grounds and walks past two nuns without noticing that Sea Wife
4740-405: The ratio of the image was reduced to 2.55:1. This reduction was kept to a minimum by reducing the width of the normal KS perforations so that they were nearly square, but of DH height. This was the CinemaScope, or CS, perforation , known colloquially as fox-holes. Later still an optical soundtrack was added, further reducing the aspect ratio to 2.35:1 (1678:715). This change also meant a shift in
4819-451: The replay heads. Due to these problems, and also because many cinemas never installed the necessary playback equipment, magnetic-sound prints started to be made in small quantities for roadshow screenings only, with the main release using standard mono optical-sound prints. As time went by roadshow screenings were increasingly made using 70 mm film , and the use of striped 35 mm prints declined further. Many CinemaScope films from
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#17328025877894898-435: The requirement of two camera assistants. Bausch & Lomb, Fox's prime contractor for the production of the lenses, initially produced an improved Chrétien-formula adapter lens design (CinemaScope Adapter Type I), and subsequently produced a dramatically improved and patented Bausch & Lomb formula adapter lens design (CinemaScope Adapter Type II). Ultimately, Bausch & Lomb formula combined lens designs incorporated both
4977-420: The ship's black purser, later to be nicknamed "Number Four" ( Cy Grant ), evict the people from the cabin he has reserved. However, when he sees that it is occupied by hungry children and nuns, he reluctantly changes his mind. The nun with her back to him is Sister Therese, later nicknamed "Sea Wife" ( Joan Collins ). Later, the ship is torpedoed by a submarine. Biscuit, Sea Wife, Bulldog, and Number Four commandeer
5056-458: The shortened form, ' Scope , is still widely used by both filmmakers and projectionists, although today it generally refers to any 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 2.40:1, or 2.55:1 presentation or, sometimes, the use of anamorphic lensing or projection in general. Bausch & Lomb won a 1954 Oscar for its development of the CinemaScope lens. French inventor Henri Chrétien developed and patented a new film process that he called Anamorphoscope in 1926. It
5135-400: The smaller frame on the print film, it was 6 perforations. In both cases, however, the frame had an aspect ratio of 1.275:1, which when expanded by a 2:1 anamorphic lens resulted in an image of 2.55:1. A camera originally built for the obsolete Fox 70 mm Grandeur film format more than 20 years before was modified to work with the new 55 mm film. Bausch & Lomb , the firm that created
5214-404: The standard four-track stereo soundtrack (sounded on the actual film) as was then used in all CinemaScope releases. In 2005, both CinemaScope 55 films were restored from the original 55 mm negatives. Lens manufacturer Panavision was initially founded in late 1953 as a manufacturer of anamorphic lens adapters for movie projectors screening CinemaScope films, capitalizing on the success of
5293-525: The television challenge. Skouras tasked Earl Sponable, head of Fox's research department, with devising a new, impressive, projection system, but something that, unlike Cinerama, could be retrofitted to existing theatres at a relatively modest cost. Herbert Brag, Sponable's assistant, remembered Chrétien's hypergonar lens. The optical company Bausch & Lomb was asked to produce a prototype "anamorphoser" (later shortened to anamorphic) lens. Meanwhile, Sponable tracked down Professor Chrétien, whose patent for
5372-486: The trademarks of Fox . Some of these include Euroscope, Franscope, and Naturama (the latter used by Republic Pictures ). In 1953, Warner Bros. also planned to develop an identical anamorphic process called Warnerscope but, after the premiere of CinemaScope, Warner Bros. decided to license it from Fox instead. Although CinemaScope was capable of producing a 2.66:1 image, the addition of magnetic sound tracks for multi-channel sound reduced this to 2.55:1. The fact that
5451-654: The vast majority of theaters were equipped for four-track magnetic sound (four-track magnetic sound achieving nearly 90 percent penetration of theaters in the greater Los Angeles area) the owners of many smaller theaters were dissatisfied with contractually having to install expensive three- or four-track magnetic stereo, and because of the technical nature of sound installations, drive-in theaters had trouble presenting stereophonic sound at all. Due to these conflicts, and because other studios were starting to release anamorphic prints with standard optical soundtracks, Fox revoked their policy of stereo-only presentations in 1957, and added
5530-586: Was a Greek-American motion picture pioneer and film executive who was the president of 20th Century-Fox from 1942 to 1962. He resigned June 27, 1962, but was chairman of the company for several more years. He also had numerous ships, owning Prudential Lines . Skouras and two brothers came to the United States as immigrants in 1910; Spyros kept such a pronounced Greek accent in English that comedian Bob Hope would joke "Spyros has been here twenty years but he still sounds as if he's coming next week." Skouras oversaw
5609-604: Was actually made in Metrocolor .) While the lens system has been retired for decades, Fox has used the trademark in recent years for a few films films: Down with Love , which was shot with Panavision optics but used the credit as a throwback to the films it references, the Don Bluth films Anastasia and Titan A.E. at Bluth's insistence. However these films are not in true CinemaScope because they use modern lenses. CinemaScope's association with anamorphic projection
5688-485: Was also used for some non-CinemaScope films; for example Fantasia was re-released in 1956, 1963, and 1969 with the original Fantasound track transferred to four-track magnetic. CinemaScope itself was a response to early realism processes Cinerama and 3-D . Cinerama was relatively unaffected by CinemaScope, as it was a quality-controlled process that played in select venues, similar to the IMAX films of later years. 3-D
5767-511: Was halted so that the film could be changed to a CinemaScope production (using Eastmancolor , but processed by Technicolor). The use of the CinemaScope technology became a key feature of the film's marketing campaign. Two other CinemaScope productions were also planned: How to Marry a Millionaire and Beneath the Twelve-Mile Reef . So that production of the first CinemaScope films could proceed without delay, shooting started using
5846-468: Was hurt, however, by studio advertising surrounding CinemaScope's promise that it was the "miracle you see without glasses." Technical difficulties in presentation spelled the true end for 3-D, but studio hype was quick to hail it a victory for CinemaScope. In April 1953, a technique simply now known as wide-screen appeared and was soon adopted as a standard by all flat film productions in the US. In this process,
5925-409: Was not owned or licensed-out by a rival studio. Confusingly, some studios, particularly MGM, continued to use the CinemaScope credit even though they had switched to Panavision lenses. Virtually all MGM CinemaScope films after 1958 are actually in Panavision. By 1967, even Fox had begun to abandon CinemaScope for Panavision (famously at the demand of Frank Sinatra for Von Ryan's Express ), although
6004-494: Was released first. 20th Century-Fox used its influential people to promote CinemaScope. With the success of The Robe and How to Marry a Millionaire, the process enjoyed success in Hollywood . Fox licensed the process to many of the major American film studios . Walt Disney Productions was one of the first companies to license the CinemaScope process from Fox. Among the features and shorts they filmed with it, they created
6083-482: Was shot, Richard Burton participated in a cricket match with some of the actors and extras who were about to be used for that scene. As noted by the New York Times , the opening credits for Sea Wife state that the film was "adapted from the novel 'Sea-Wyf' by J. M. Scott"—but the person or persons who did the adaptation is/are not identified. CinemaScope Its creation in 1953 by Spyros P. Skouras ,
6162-426: Was that process which later formed the basis of CinemaScope. Chrétien's process used lenses that employed an optical trick, which produced an image twice as wide as those that were being produced with conventional lenses. That was done using an optical system called Hypergonar , which compressed the image laterally when the film was being shot, and dilated it when the film was projected. Chrétien attempted to interest
6241-509: Was used to reduce the need for such enlargement. CinemaScope 55 was developed to satisfy this need and was one of three high-definition film systems introduced in the mid-1950s, the other two being Paramount 's VistaVision and the Todd-AO 70 mm film system. Fox determined that a system that produced a frame area approximately 4 times that of the 35mm CinemaScope frame would be the optimal trade-off between performance and cost, and it chose
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