A Little About Widescreen

So I was re-watching a restoration of “My Fair Lady.” A BEAUTIFUL painstaking fix on a movie that could’ve disappeared with age. Luckily, they saw the value of a movie and spent a little money fixing it to its greatness.

What makes this movie unique is that it was shot in SuperPanavision 70. This is that they shot with spherical lenses but extracted for a blow up to 70mm projection. If the picture set you back into your chairs, the sound most certainly blew you into the back of the theater. Optical 70mm sound is…ridiculous. Today’s theaters are constantly going more. More speakers. The newest being Dolby Atmos. I’m no expert, but it exceeds surround by adding in many more channels to the theater, immersing you completely into the experience. Seems to only work if say…it is a movie that required it. There’s just so much the brain can retain.

Anyway, back to SuperPanavision 70…it is an expensive format to say the least. I would say a 500 ft. roll equates to a minute of footage.  Did I mention there is also something called UltraPanavision 70? This is a squeeze process. Whereas, in anamorphic 35mm or Cinemascope…it would have an extension piece of glass placed in front of spherical to squeeze the image into the 4 perforated frame, you are now putting a piece of glass to squeeze a widescreen format into a 65mm piece of film. You are extending the side to side into wider than panoramic. Spherical 70mm which I what “My Fair Lady” was shot in, is considered “flat” which is why the corners don’t vignette. You can offset this with diopters in ‘scope. But in the case of “My Fair Lady” is is sharp from edge to edge. It is an amazing achievement, in terms of the look, considering it was a solution to get people to come out of their homes. By the way, it’s weird to consider I was alive when Audrey Hepburn still walked the Earth. She not only walked it, her life was dedicated to UNICEF. She wanted to save humanity. Talk about a real life God amongst us. Well, except for the cancer that consumed her.

It got me thinking about my next dream project. Perhaps if and when I get a budget to do so. But to shoot 15/70 film. This is 15 perforation 70mm film. This is equivalent to how I shoot medium format film. It has a…unreal quality to it. Paul Thomas Anderson used it (partially) in “The Master.” The dept of field is near non-existent. But razor sharp at the edges. And is in a shorter rectangular image than “My Fair Lady.” Since some may not even consider it traditional widescreen. It’s a different feel. Almost like “Gone With The Wind.” Which by the way, isn’t a widescreen movie. It’s actually square. In 1939, they still hadn’t developed a widescreen look. This had been introduced early 50’s, since that’s when television was introduced as well. They had to create a format they couldn’t get at home.

I guess the real point of it is, it needs to be a movie that would warrant going this way. A movie like “Interstellar” makes sense, since it’s space. I have a few ideas in mind that would be great to see if it’s possible. The other logistical issue is that, I don’t have access in post. A few rolls may set me back thousands of dollars. And the transfer would set me back just as much. It would definitely be an effort for which money people may not back. To be more truthful, MOST wouldn’t support. But I can still dream.