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- Published: 05 Nov 2010
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- Author: oalternativo
Just as VistaVision had a few flagship engagements using 8-perf horizontal contact prints and special horizontal-running projectors, there is a bit of evidence that horizontal prints were envisioned for Technirama as well (probably with 4-track magnetic sound as in CinemaScope), but to what extent this was ever done commercially, if at all, remains unclear.
The name Super Technirama 70 was used on films where the shooting was done in Technirama and at least some prints were made on 70-mm stock by unsqueezing the image. Such prints would be compatible with those made by such 65-mm negative processes as Todd-AO and Super Panavision. The quality would have been very good but perhaps a bit less than those processes, because the negative was not quite as large and needed to be printed optically.
Technicolor had some of its famous 3-strip color cameras, obsolete after the coming of color negative film in the early 1950s, converted into Technirama cameras. These units became the standard Technirama cameras, which were supplemented by VistaVision cameras fitted with anamorphic optics.
These 8-perf Technirama cameras were actually hand-me-down Technicolor VistaVision cameras, rendered obsolete by the demise of Three-Strip Technicolor in 1955 and converted by Technicolor to VistaVision to satisfy its customers.
The 8-perf movements were supplied by Mitchell Camera Corporation, the same company that supplied the movements for the Three-Strip cameras in the first place, and the Technirama movements are the same as the VistaVision movements.
Once the Mitchell VistaVision cameras appeared in 1956 (first used in "The Ten Commandments") the Technicolor VistaVision cameras (ca. 1955) became obsolete immediately, and all were converted into Technirama cameras, as were several of the Paramount VistaVision-process plate camera, by the addition of an anamorphic lens and other changes.
The logistical advantage of using 35mm film, end-to-end, should not be underestimated.
A few 8-perf titles have been preserved on 65mm film, but most have been preserved on 35mm film or are considered unprintable.
The color was enhanced through the use of a special development process that was used to good effect in the films The Vikings (1958) and The Music Man (1962). However, fewer than 40 films were produced using this process in the United States. It was more popular and longer-lasting in Europe. Walt Disney Productions used the process twice for full length animated features: Sleeping Beauty (1959), and The Black Cauldron (1985). The 2008 DVD and Blu-Ray release of Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty was shown at its true CinemaScope aspect-ratio of 2.55:1 for the first time.
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