70mm: From Oklahoma to Oppenheimer

[Ed Gordon]

The other day I discovered the Youtube channel, Analog Resurgence.

Analog Resurgence

Hey! I'm Noah Henderson and I've spent the past few years working in Film Labs in Toronto and I'd like to spread some knowledge to all you newcomers experiencing analog formats for the first time! This channel is all about History and How-to's about a variety of analog formats from Motion Picture to Photography. Do you have weird, expired, or obscure film that you'd like me to feature on the channel? You can send me stuff!

Here is one of the featured videos:

Contents:

00:00 - 3:14 - Introduction & The Dawn of Movies 3:15 - 4:42 - Movies on Film 4:45 - 6:25 - Sound on Film 6:26 - 9:10 - Aspect Ratio's & Early Widescreen 9:12 - 12:48 - TV vs Big Movies 12:48 - 15:30 - How 70mm Works 15:31 - 17:48 - TOD-AO 17:47 - 22:13 - Anamorphic's & Ultra Panavision 22:14 - 23:26 - Super Panavision 23:27 - 27:09 - Grand Presentations & Roadshows 27:09 - 27:47 - Intermission 27:47 - 30:43 - Blow Ups & Blockbusters 30:44 - 32:45 - Special Effects 32:46 - 34:50 - 1990's & Beyond 34:49 - 37:17 - IMAX 37:17 - 38:55 - Modern Movies 38:54 - 41:11 - Continued Dedication 41:11 - 43:53 - Looking Back 43:53 - 46:24 - Conclusion

Full video:

70mm: From Oklahoma to Oppenheimer (Or, How Very Big Film Was Used to Make Very Big Movies)

[Brian Fretwell]

No mention of the Bond 70mm blow ups or the blow ups from Vistavision anamorphic negatives (by name) of the fact that Ultra Panavision 70 was a Cinerama replacement, that I could see.

[Ed Gordon]

No mention of the Bond 70mm blow ups or the blow ups from Vistavision anamorphic negatives (by name) of the fact that Ultra Panavision 70 was a Cinerama replacement, that I could see.

There is a brief mention of blow ups at 27:47. He does not give a complete list of 35mm films blown up to 70mm. He also does not discuss the downside of blowing up a 35mm film to 70mm. The best of example of the downside of such blow ups was the re-release of Gone With The Wind:

The majority of cinemagoers found the new and bigger movie entertaining and some even overwhelming. In re-release the movie led Variety's list of box-office hits week after week, and the film had been a huge ticket seller back then.

But quite a few people didn't like the visual and aural changes of the film's new 70mm version. They were of the opinion that the changes would harm the film, and I confess that they were not entirely wrong. A lot of critics were not enthusiastic about this new version too. One critic wrote:

"Cropping the film's image in order to get the wide screen ratio has clobbered the film's visual beauty – sometimes less would be better than more, bigger isn't always better!"

Source: https://www.in70mm.com/news/2021/wind/index.htm

On the creation of Ultra Panavision 70:

History

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) approached Panavision founder Robert Gottschalk in the late 1950s to create a large-format widescreen system capable of filling the extremely wide screens of Cinerama theaters while using a single projector, and would also be capable of producing high-quality standard 70 mm and 35 mm CinemaScope prints, which Cinerama's three-strip process did not allow for. Gottschalk developed a lens system using front-mounted prisms to impart a slight 1.25x squeeze onto a 5-perf 65 mm negative, resulting in a projected ratio of 2.76:1. These prism lenses were released under the name MGM Camera 65 in 1956.

In 1962, MGM's production of Mutiny on the Bounty, which was being produced in the format, ran far over-budget, and MGM was forced to sell off many of its assets to account for the losses. This allowed Panavision to purchase the Camera 65 equipment it had developed for MGM, and the system was renamed Ultra Panavision 70. As the prism lenses were bulky, oddly shaped and optically flawed, Panavision's optical engineer Takuo Miyagishima set to work on designing a more traditional set of 1.25x lenses using cylindrical glass, which became known as the Ultra Panatar series.

In 1963, the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles became the first Cinerama theater built specifically for Ultra Panavision 70, and the theater opened with the premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which was filmed with the new Ultra Panatar lenses.

70 mm Ultra Panavision prints could be produced directly from the negative for use on flat screens, or "rectified" with increased compression towards the sides for use on curved Cinerama screens.

Panavision also developed a non-anamorphic 70 mm photographic system in 1959; this was named Super Panavision 70.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Panavision_70

[David Hardy]

Ed Gordon i remember seeing that 70mm blow up of Gone With The Wind and thought it looked bloody awful . The same opinion applies to the 70mm blow up of The Jolson Story .

[Edward Nicielnik]

I saw Edward Scissorhands 70mm blown up very clear picture

[Rob Young]

Found this a nice summary of widescreen formats. Really enjoyed it!

As an aside, I get annoyed when TV channels here in the UK blow up old 4:3 programmes to 16:9 and loose the top and bottom of frame. I understand why they do it of course (I have a friend who when we watch 4:3 always says, “Don’t you find those black bars either side annoying”.)

Nope!!!

So you can imagine my feelings on the 70mm blow up of Gone With The Wind.

I recall the big attraction of 1.85 ratio movies on 70mm movies back in the 80’s was the 6 track magnetic soundtrack. Certainly made a big difference to films like Back to the Future for example.