How many OAR (s) did Cinemascope have? (1 Viewer)

[John*C]

I have "Sink The Bismark" in Cinemascope only it's 2.35:1 anamorphic instead of my other Cinemascopes such as "The Robe", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" at 2.55:1 How many were there in what Aspect Ratios please?:b

 

[Damin J Toell]

While Cinemascope was 2.55:1 early on, it was restandardized to 2.35:1 after a while. For the last decade or so, it has been 2.39:1 (although many people and most DVD packages still refer to it as 2.35:1, anyway).

DJ

 

[Joe_Pinney]

It's tricky how this works. There were two primary aspect ratios used in Cinemascope, depending upon a few factors such as whether magnetic stereo audio tracks were included on the film (or optical audio tracks post-1957) or if it was shot in large format Cinemascope 55 (55.625mm Eastmancolor negative): the original 2.55:1 aspect ratio, and the later, more common 2.35:1 aspect ratio (often the result of using Panavision lenses; it should be pointed out that "Cinemascope", which was a trademarked 20th Century-Fox photographic process using anamorphic lenses, was last used in 1967 with the film In Like Flint, although it was given credit in the 1997 Fox animated version of Anastasia). Martin Hart's exhaustive American Widescreen Museum has perhaps the best research material on Cinemascope and other widescreen processes available anywhere, including a complete filmography of every title produced in Cinemascope.

Generally speaking, "true" Cinemascope has an aspect ratio of 2.55:1, although 2.35:1 aspect ratios were also common. Often it depends solely upon the title.

Modern 2.35:1/2.39:1/2.40:1 titles do not necessarily use the actual "Cinemascope" process (Fox failed to renew the trademark on the term once it expired, as it was), but can be achieved with any anamorphic lens.

If I'm mistaken in this, I'm sure Mr. Robert Harris will provide expert elucidation.

 

[Patrick McCart]

2.55:1 was used from 1953-1957 for the most part... mainly because prints featured magnetic 4-track sound.

Afterwards, it went to 2.35:1 because of optical sound being used instead.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Fox currently has a trademark on "Cinemascope" that has been active since March of 1996 with regard to film/video products and film/video production.

DJ

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

The original 1953 CinemaScope cameras used the old 1.33:1 Silent Aperture (1.33:1) and were 2.66:1 with seperate 35mm track for 6-channel sound but I believe that the prints were 2.55:1 or am I wrong?

SMPTE/Panavision changed the aperture in 1971 and the ratio changed from 2.35:1 to 2.39/40:1 to eliminate flicker between the frames.

 

[Joe Caps]

According to Fox material published in trade journals and smpte journals. CSCOPE was 2:55 whther it had the stereo or mono track on it. Fox provided prints in three formats - magnetic four track (NOT SIX TRACK), magnetic mono, and optical mono.
This was a lot of confusing inventory. When fox develped the mag optical print which carried gour track stereo and the optical track on one print, taking up more room for the soundtrack, the ratio was changed to 2:35. this was in the middle of 1956 and magoptical began with Marilyn Monroes Bus stop.
Stereo was certainly not new to films. throughout 1953 there were almost 70 movies run in interlock stereo - i.e. the stereo track was run on a separate projector. No one had figured out how to add the stereo to the main prints.
Fox hadn't got it perfected yet when the Robe opened, so it ran very early in its run in 2:66 because it did not have the soundtrack printed on it yet.
transferring these films to video can be a problem, especiallyearly wide scope. the early lenses had some problems. People would appear slightly fater in the center of the screen and would appear thinner at the far edges. This is why the fox miracle mirror curved screen was recommended. Showing this ultra wide picture on a big curved screen ironed out some of these problems.
Acceptable color can be had from these old negatives, even if they have not been restored. thee big problem is that the color does not fade venly from side to side - indeed the color tends to go completely pink on the far edge of one side and completely green on the far edge of the other side. When we did Picnic for Pioneer laserdisc, the transferred had to be zoomed in, cutting off the far left and right which eweebadly discolored, to just show the main middle which had the good color.

 

[John*C]

Mr. toell I never seen "Down With Love" I am into the action, sci-fi, and horror genre. I was really taken aback when after watching "Sink the Bismark" on disc about 38 times since I bought it that I seen the words Cinemascope yet I knew it was around 2.35:1 anamorphic. It just hit me like a ton of bricks that I knew 'now' there was more than one Aspect Ratio but I needed your confirmation, to add that to my notes I take and print. I have a file cabinet full of notes on dvd.


I wonder who made up or how they chose what aspect ratio they would film the movie in, since obviously there was more than one?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The Cinemascope credit was also included on Titan A.E. I think Don Bluth had a soft spot for Cinemascope movies.