Welcome to the HTF, John!Firstly, my utmost respect to Bob-and the film maker he made of Richard H. ( I am the only private collector to own a print of his work)
I wish to correct some misinformation posted throughout this thread. I was my grandfather's apprentice on # 30 of the Todd-AO theaters in the USA ( and world)- at age 12 I was a capable moving picture machine operator.
I did installs and troubleshooting world-wide on 70mm- and still consult. I supervised installs of Cinerama both 3 strip and 70mm. My hands put the image on the screen.
There is an equal amount of misinformation for Ultra Panavision 70.
First- the Philips DP70 was purpose built for Todd-AO Corp. The Norelco AA-II came to be in 1964 - this was after the Todd-AO 10 year exclusive expired.
Second- Full coat 35 was used for early showings of Oklahoma! - the 10 track magnetic heads were not yet built. Magna Theatre Crop. had to start showings - cash flow!
Third- the Full coat mag was only used in England b/c of taxes- the reason Mike Todd had 1mm shaved off the edge to create a loophole. That missing 1 mm precluded mag striping. The run was 2 years.
Fourth- The Todd-AO specs required 30 fps, where 24 fps was standard for 35mm- this film speed gave a flicker-free image, and delivered more light. Oklahoma! was filmed in 2 versions 35 and 65 neg. Some scenes were shot twice and very few without sound (or MOS )were reduction printed to 35 ana- .
Mike Todd used 2 cameras, one at 30fps, the other at 24 fps- the scenes without sound were printed from the 30fps neg. - the easiest one to spot is the India sequence where the train is going over the bridge.
Fifth -printing anything from a CS55 print - is a reduction print.
Warner re-released 80 days in 1966 in 35 magnetic- I ran it again their logo was on the print as well as reel bands. The elements of 80 Days were stored in the basement of the Chicago Cinestage house.
The 70mm prints were contact printed - best quality, but can be hard on the negative - This was before the liquid gate printer. The quality of the Technicolor prints was superior- and never compromised.
Since the multi-plex and the platter - there are very few projectionists with the knowledge to run a 70mm roadshow print- or even an 8mm for that matter.
Unlike they who own disk players, I own 3 Norelco AA-II, and run 35 and 70 prints for invited friends.
Fox shot South Pacific at 24fps to easily make 35mm optical reduction prints- it was a giant step backward, a loss of light and image quality.
It is just too bad General Dweedle ( catch 22) can not have his way with the dummies responsible for the trashing of this negative- with that said--- Warner makes Scrooge Mc Duck a spendthrift. They refused to print HTWWW on 3 strip, until they got fund from the government. I loaned a 70mm print venue- Warner gladly took the minimum rental for licensing the print - they had destroyed all prints 35 and 70.
This is in no way any criticism of Bob's work, but a general reply to a reading of this thread.
I will have a 35mm magnetic print ,shortly for inspection and repairs. It is a standard anamorphic squeeze print. Cinestage 1.56 squeeze were used where 70mm machines were not installed-
There is a Cinestage mag print in Europe in a freezer.
When a Todd-AO show ran, the sale of popcorn was not allowed. Mike Todd wanted the product to be more than a trip to the movies.
My favorite 70mm projection lens is the ISCO T-Kiptagon - excellent depth and center to edge focus.
If a person has uncorrected stigmatism, the depth illusion is reduced or compromised.
If any of you have to project a faded print - a #2 cyan filter in front of the lens helps.
I have a 70mm Krakatoa print- stored at 45F and original 1966 print- Technicolor- it has minor dye loss, easily corrected a #2 cyan.
When Jan Kotte designed the sprocket pitch for the DP70- he allowed for acetate shrinkage- simply I have never lost a loop or had any problems with old prints on the DP70/AA-II
The industry justifies the disuse of 70mm prints, citing print damage. When The Master opened in Los Angeles, one print managed to be destroyed on day 1 - I have had platter monkeys- allow Simplex 70mm machines to scrape the oxide on the outside tracks b/c the intermittent shoe was worn to a knife edge.
One "expert" opined a mag track was only good for 3 months- yet I can think of A Sound of Music print that ran 2 years, 4 performances per day. The machines: DP70 - projectionists were IATSE -
Too a large loop on intermittent sprocket, on the Century JJ machines with polyester stock will cause the print to flutter to scrape against the machine - emulsion always faces lamp house.
The Century JJ were used for 1 reason - cheap. They were not designed for Xenon lamps- the spot on a carbon arc is contained in the plasma in the + carbon - the Xe light is a sphere- simply on some JJ -
un-shuttered light will cause a flicker on white scenes. This is the length of the blades allowing this.
The carbon arc Cinerama used with the JJ was the Jet-Arc or Vent-Arc - the negative carbon was solid and rotated- the positive carbon did not rotate- and was 10.5mm Very different from the Futura II.
In the day, the theaters were checked for equipment and a sound check was always done.
The last sound check I suffered was the result of Cinerama sending an Altec servicer who readjusted the 1000 CPS loops for output - BY EAR . What he did, was undo an earlier sound check I did with a loop and a meter - I came on for the evening show after the damage was done. The next morning Altec was back to correct this bleep-up.
All it takes is one dummy to undo SMPTE standards - as one tech observed- today 70mm is compromises- too many compromises.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this fascinating topic!
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