Innovation of Widescreen

There were many innovations made in the film industry between 1930 and 1960, most of which occurring in the 1950’s. After World War 2 many people filled there leisure time with out door activities instead of sitting around at the movies. This lead production companies to invest and develop new styles of filming that would draw large crowds back into the movie theaters. Each production company had its own new style to film or bring sound to the theater, which they thought would bring in more post-war audiences. Introduction of the big-screen was the most prominent change in movie theaters across the country. It wasn’t until 1950’s when color was used in by the entire film industry. Some of the other innovations that production companies tried to use to appeal crowds was 3-D film and deep focus cinematography.

Widescreen was used to make audiences feel like they were more apart of the movie they were watching. 3-D also tried this approach by making audiences believe they were just as much in the film as the actors were by “putting the movie in their laps”, but was short-lived, lasting only eighteen months. Widescreen movies helped to exaggerate climatic moments in films by allowing large images to be projected for audiences, making them feel closer.

Paramount experimented with their version of widescreen films by using a technique called Magnascope. Magnascope required special wide-angled projection lens, which would magnify the image to a tremendous 30 by 40 foot screen, from a mere 15 by 20 foot image previously used.

Cinerama was the next technique that was used to try to take over the widescreen sensation, though it was developed outside the film industry. This technique appealed to the audiences’ peripheral vision, using three inter-locked 35 mm cameras, equipped with 27mm wide-angled lenses, angled 48 degrees to one another. Three inter-locked projectors in three separate booths were used to project three separate images onto one, deeply curved screen. These theaters also required a sound control engineer to playback six microphones to seven speakers in the theater. The first Cinerama film grossed over $32 million, even though it played in a small number of theaters due to its high requirements needed to play. Three-strip Cinerama lasted until 1963, when Ultra Panavision replaced it. Ultra Panavision, a 70mm. process that condensed Cinerama’s view to a single strip.

The most accomplished technique for widescreen films was developed my 20^th Century Fox. Cinemascope used a similar approach to that of Cinerama, but on a single 35mm. strip. Cinemascope used magnetic oxide striping to place four tracks on a single 35mm. strip. All this information for condensed and compressed by Fox engineers. In order to fit the information one strip, the frame area was redesigned and the size of perforations on both sides of the strip were reduced. With Cinemascope allowing sound and image on the same strip eliminated the need for a sound control engineer in the theater. By the end of 1954 Cinemascope quickly became the industry standard, every studio, except for Paramount who developed their own version of Cinemascope (VistaVision), had implemented the Cinemascope format. By 1967 Fox retired Cinemascope in favor of Panavision due to the development of Paramount’s high-quality anamorphic lens.

Widescreen films shown in color overwhelmed audiences right from the get-go, with their large curved screens and magnetic sound that was played along with the film. Audiences still appeal to the larger than life movie being played in front of them. If it weren’t for wide movie screens most people would not have been drawn back to the movie theaters after World War 2, which could have brought a sudden halt to the American film industry. Innovations such as widescreens are still used today in most movie theaters around the world, along with the re-introduction of 3-D technology. If not for widescreen movies most of the public would be perfectly content watching films and television from the comfort of the their home.