Notes and Queries

WIDESCREEN FORMATS IN SUBSEQUENT HISTORY

Widescreen formats established in the early 1950s have continued to govern theatrical filmmaking, but other technological changes have affected films’ presentation.

Since only roadshow theaters had 70mm equipment, wide-gauge films were also released in 35mm copies for neighborhood and suburban theaters. Ryan’s Daughter (1970) ended the 70mm production cycle, but some big-budget films shot in 35mm, such as Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (both 1977) were released in 70mm, largely to provide bigger images and better sound. Until the mid-1990s, 70mm release prints were common; after that time, improvements in digital sound made them superfluous. Far and Away (1992) was the last U. S. feature shot in 70mm.

When films are shown in nontheatrical situations, they often appear in ratios drastically different from those originally intended. A 16mm print of a CinemaScope film may be anamorphic, or it may be matted to a widescreen ratio less than the correct 2.35:1, or it may be a flat version that fills the 1.37 frame. Matted and flat versions can be projected without a special lens, but they exclude much of the original image.

Broadcast television, which was designed to accord with the Academy film ratio of 1.37:1, routinely shows widescreen films in flat versions. To cover the action in a widescreen original, television engineers devised the pan-and-scan process, which introduces camera movements or cuts that were not in the original. To avoid future problems, some cinematographers shoot widescreen films with eventual television presentation in mind. This is easiest when filming “full-frame” (i. e., at the 1.37:1 ratio). This squarer image is more appropriate for versions that will appear on television and videocassette. In filming wider ratios, the cinematographer may take the television frame into account by leaving blank areas in the composition. Currently, many films are released on DVD in a letterbox format, which approximates the wider theatrical image, and even cable channels are starting to program such versions of classic widescreen films.

For a discussion of widescreen ratios of the 1950s and their continuation into the present, see John Belton, Widescreen Cinema (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992).

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REFERENCES

Sam Arkoff and Richard Trubo, Flying through Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants (New York: Birch Lane, 1992), p. 4.

Manny Farber, “Underground Films [1957],” in Negative Space (London: Studio Vista, 1971), p. 17.

FURTHER READING

Balio, Tino. “When Is an Independent Producer Independent? The Case of United Artists after 1948.” Velvet Light Trap 22 (1986): 53-64.

Belton, John. Widescreen Cinema. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Bragg, Herbert. “The Development of CinemaScope.” Film History 2, no. 4 (1988): 359-72.

Carr, Robert E., and R. M. Hayes. Wide Screen Movies: A History and Filmography of Wide Gauge Filmmaking. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1988.

Ceplair, Larry, and Steven Englund. The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930-1960. Garden City, NJ: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980. Ciment, Michel. Kazan on Kazan. New York: Viking, 1970. Doherty, Thomas. Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juveniliza-tion of American Movies in the 1950s. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988.

Finler, Joel W. Alfred Hitchcock: The Hollywood Years. London: Batsford, 1992.

Halliday, Jon. Sirk on Sirk. New York: Viking, 1972. Hardy, Phil. Sam Fuller. New York: Praeger, 1970.

Hayes, R. M. 3-D Movies: A History and Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema. Jefferson, NC: McFarland,

1989.

Huntley, Stephen. “Sponable’s CinemaScope: An Intimate Chronology of the Invention of the CinemaScope Optical System.” Film History 5, no. 3 (September 1993): 298-320.

Johnston, Claire, and Paul Willeman, eds. Frank Tashlin. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Film Festival, 1973.

Kindem, Gorham A. “Hollywood’s Conversion to Color: The Technological, Economic, and Aesthetic Factors.” Journal ofthe University Film Association 31, no. 2 (spring 1979): 29-36.

McCarthy, Todd, and Charles Flynn, eds. Kings ofthe Bs: Working within the Hollywood System. New York: Dutton, 1975.

McDougal, Dennis. The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood. New York: Crown, 1998.

Segrave, Kerry. Drive-In Theaters: A History from Their Inception in 1933. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1992.

“United States of America v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. et al.” Special issue of Film History 4, no. 1 (1992).

Waller, Fred. “The Archaeology of Cinerama.” Film History 5, no. 3 (September 1993): 289-97.

Wilson, Michael, and Deborah Silverton Rosenfelt. Salt of the Earth. New York: Feminist Press, 1978.