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Relax, and Quit Bluffing
Understanding 35mm’s Evolution,
and Its Impact On Workflows
Paul Stephen Carlin delves into 35mm film framing and aspect ratio, with
the idea that “Once you under-stand the history of 35mm’s evolution,
you have a good foundation for learning about the future.”
I have been bluffing for most of my career.
(Please don’t tell any of my employers!)
When I got my first big break as a linear on-line editor
in 1995, I was asked, “Do you know how to use the CMX
Omni?” I bluffed. While I had seen many great things at
NAB in Las Vegas, I can’t say I had much experience using
them.
What I did have was the thirst for knowledge, the
motivation and the confidence to pull it off. I quickly
adapted, applied all of my previous experience to my
Paul Stephen Carlin
Burbank, California USA
new job, and soon became very proficient. I remember
thinking at the time, “Hey, this isn’t so hard after all.”
Applying my knowledge of the fundamentals combined
with a bit of hit-the-ground learning proved to
be invaluable at the time, and has kept me going to this
day.
Recently I had the privilege to finish the 3D trailers
for “Avatar.” Did I have extensive knowledge of a stereoscopic
digital intermediate workflow? Had I completed
numerous 2K trailers before? No, and no. But I did my
Paul is a freelance Autodesk Smoke artist with numerous digital intermediate
credits to his name, including the feature films “Soul to Keep” and “Bunraku,”
and the trailers for “Avatar” and “Knight and Day.” He stays busy in all aspects of
the industry, from commercials (look for the new Starbucks-flavored Via ads) to
long-form. Paul is an Autodesk Certified Instructor, and his curiosity keeps him
up to speed on desktop software as well. He never stops learning.
26 The Asset Management and Distribution Issue — Creative COW Magazine
homework and hit the ground running —
and never looked back.
The key to success is to never stop learning.
Life is about growing and learning — only
to realize you know nothing at all. Many of us
tend to focus on one particular aspect of the
industry. We become specialists in what we
know. I have found that having knowledge
of the inner workings of other parts of the
industry proves to be invaluable, no matter
what I’m working on.
In this article, I want to cover the basics
of 35mm film framing and aspect ratios, and
some of the differences between the acquisition
and distribution film formats.
Why should you learn about 35mm film,
when it is clearly on its way to oblivion? Because
everything we use today is based on
something we did yesterday. Once you understand
the history of 35mm’s evolution,
you have a good foundation for learning
about the future.
35MM FILM
Ever since George Eastman mass-produced
the first flexible transparent motion picture
film stock in 1889, and Thomas Edison standardized
the 35mm format in 1892, not much
has changed in the world of film stock. There
were others with ideas about frame sizes and
aspect ratios, but the first round of format
wars for motion picture film ended in 1909
with the standardization of a 35mm gauge
(width), with 4 perforations per frame along
both edges and a 1.33:1 aspect ratio.
A 1.33:1 (spoken as “one point three three
to one,” or simply “one three three”) aspect
ratio means that one side of the image is 1.33
times longer than the other. This same screen
aspect ratio was later adopted by television,
known there as 4:3 (four by three).
So how did we go from this to where we
are today, with our 16:9 televisions and widescreen
movies?
FRAME SIZES AND ASPECT RATIOS
In the original Edison standard, the film was
35mm wide from edge to edge, with an image
area of 24.89 mm by 18.67 mm, surrounded
by four sprockets on each side. This is called
full aperture, or what was later referred to as
silent gate — the width of the frame in silent
movies.
When sound was introduced, room had
to be made for the optical audio tracks. The
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
decided to reduce and move the image area
to the right. The resultant aspect ratio became
1.37:1, and is called the Academy ratio.
After the phenomenal success of Cin-
Above: Panavision was started in 1953, by Robert Gottschalk, to
build anamorphic lenses for the motion picture industry. This is the
company’s latest G Series prime lenses. Note the unique cylindrical
glass element on the front of the lens. The anamorphic element can
also be located in the middle or rear of the lens.
Below: A comparison of the anamorphic scope image area vs. super
35 center cut. The anamorphic lens squeezes a 2.39:1 image into
the Academy frame, while the super 35 center cut image is simply a
2.39:1 image in the middle of the full aperture frame. Anamorphic
uses the entire vertical height, while Super 35 uses the area normally
reserved for optical audio to improve the size of the image area.
Read on for an explanation of all these terms!
erama in 1952, which involved three separate 35mm projectors to
create a 2.59:1 aspect ratio, studios began looking into other, possibly
more economical, ways to capitalize on widescreen images,
and differentiate themselves from the ever-encroaching television
screens.
(Studios also experimented with 3D, but we all know that
turned out to be nothing but a fad!)
In 1953, 20th Century Fox introduced CinemaScope, an anamorphic
widescreen format with a 2.66 aspect ratio. This was
achieved by placing an anamorphic lens in front of both the camera
and the projector to horizontally squeeze and correspondingly
un-squeeze the image at a ratio of 2:1.
This means that the full aperture image of 1.33 was multiplied
Creative COW Magazine — The Asset Management and Distribution Issue 27