History of Wide Screen Film Formats (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kline]

A fascinating article on the development of wide-screen formats can be found at:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm/magazi.../splendour.htm
Enjoy!

 

[David Rogers]

That's a pretty cool article. Thanks for the link.

 

[John Watson]

Fascinating, and will bear a closer reading.

I've long thought that the public's hostility to wide screen DVD versions of movies (the wide black bars at top and bottom) was mostly stemming from their experiences with 2.35:1 or 2.55:1 films (eg., Bridge on River Kwai).

1.85:1 film probably doesn't produce such hostility, the black bars being such a small proportion of the tv screen. The article doesn't really touch on this issue, but it is excellent background on the phenomena of widescreen.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Gotta agree thanks for that link and will read this for closer inspection as well.
Oscar

 

[David Tolsky]

For anyone interested in the history of wide screen formats, you must check out the book "Wide Screen Movies": A History and Filmography of Wide Guage Filmmaking by Robert E. Carr and R.M. Hayes. ISBN No. 0-89950-242-3 by McFarland and Co. Inc. Publishers. It's an awesome book with neat illustrations.

 

[Paul Bartlet]

Nice article, but it needs pictures - MGM W I D E S C R E E N
Oh, and link to "NEXT" page is on the bottom left, as opposed to near every other web page on the net being on the bottom right.

 

[Hendrik]

.
...more about wide-gauge widescreen here...
...and, of course, here!
. . . . . .

 

[Patrick McCart]

For anyone interested in the history of wide screen formats, you must check out the book "Wide Screen Movies": A History and Filmography of Wide Guage Filmmaking by Robert E. Carr and R.M. Hayes. ISBN No. 0-89950-242-3 by McFarland and Co. Inc. Publishers. It's an awesome book with neat illustrations.

It's a great book, but it's sadly full of errors...
Check out www.film-tech.com in their Tips section for a lengthy list of corrections for the book.

 

[Peter Kline]

Unfortunately, as Patrick states, that book and so many others are full of errors. Oh, well.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Oh yeah...just for fun...
CINERAMA IS NOT 3:1!!!!
It's 2.59:1 curved. It's one of those myths that too many think it's true.