|
|
Author
|
Topic: Projection formats
|
|
|
Pete Naples
Phenomenal Film Handler
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/761b.jpg)
Posts: 1565
From: Dunfermline, Scotland
Registered: Feb 2001
|
posted 05-25-2002 07:32 PM
The last cinema I ran shows in had *takes a deep breath* 2.39:1 CinemaScope, 1.85:1 Widescreen, 1.75:1 Widescreen, 1.66:1 Widescreen, 1.375:1 Academy, 1.33:1 Full Frame Silent. Also hidden away in the downstairs lensboxes were 2.0:1 non anamorphic (why?!) and 2.5:1 'Scope, which if memory serves correctly was Cinemascope/4 track mag. That was a full kit, lenses, aperture plates, sprockets, and Westrex mag penthouse heads. From the days when Cinemascope was not set-up in all cinemas. In fact I recall seeing a field bulletin to Westrex engineers about modifications to the projector, required for Cinemascope. On very early Westrex 2001 projectors, they had to fit a different lens holder assembly (offset?), and the bulletin detailed filing large amounts of metal out of the front of the projector casting to allow for this!
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/268e.gif)
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 05-26-2002 03:16 PM
The bulk of my installations have:1.37 Academy 1.66 Widescreen 1.85 Wider screen 2.39 Scope 1.33 16mm 1.33 Silent 35. Silent though poses some issues in itself. I have found that since about 1916 the aperture is pretty uniform at around .680 x .910 inches (give or take a thousandth)...pre-1916 the aperture may be even taller. Some call it 1.25:1 even. I have one customer that I have termed one of their silent set of plates "Super-Silent" It is cut to .725 x .945. For whatever reason, silent seems to have a bit of a following at the moment, most of my special venue theatres want the ability to play it and most often do. Steve ------------------ "Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
| IP: Logged
|
|
Frank Angel
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/248b.jpg)
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 05-27-2002 01:04 AM
Problem with Silent 1.33 and also CinemaScope mag-only prints is that the center-lines are shifted off center -- one might say that since they came first, the other formats are the ones that are off-center, but that's another post. They present a bit more of a problem than just cutting the correct lenses and aperture plates -- you need to do something about recentering the image; In one of the first theatres I work in, the way they dealt with this issue was. a plate was attached to the floor at the rear foot of the pedestal. on the plate was an off-center cam that was machined with a handle. You moved the handle and the cam turned, pushing the rear of the pedestal just enough to move the image into the correct position. You moved the cam in the other direction, it pulled away from the pedestal and then you had to push the pedestal back into position for normal projection -- kinda crude, but it worked. We deal with silent film programs from time to time. Lots of prints have been reprinted down to standard 1.37 sound aperture, but for the ones that are original silents, we need to reposition the projectors. Although we don't have a cam rig, we basically resolve the centerline thing in the same way -- I keep a crowbar in the booth and just move the backend of the pedestal over to a line marked on the floor. As for mag-only prints, we've only come across a mag-only once -- SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. Unfortunately our CinemaScope screen didn't have the extra width that the 2.55 would have given us, so we had to loose the extra image width (cropped in the aperture plates), but we still had to reposition the centerline. Frank
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/268e.gif)
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 05-27-2002 09:23 AM
The recentering is not a big issue to overcome.As Steve mentioned, there are the various PC-Cine adapters offered by ISCO and Schneider. Turreted machines can often accomodate the shift. Century single lens machines have an eccentric upper lens guide that can deal with it and there are other tricks. Anytime you go above two formats, per projector, you are going to have centering issues. With just two, especially FLAT and Scope you can split the difference and no one will really notice. But beyond that and when you have desperite magnifications like between 1.85 and 1.37, you need to be able to move the lens about to keep the images centered. Steve ------------------ "Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
| IP: Logged
|
|
Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1171i.jpg)
Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
|
posted 06-21-2002 07:32 PM
I have new (larger) screens going in.Am I correct in assuming that ideally, our masking should hit the "1.85" line and the "Anamorphic" line on the RP-40? And what about the left/right edges? This is a fixed masking operation. Should the sides of the scope masking be guided by the arrows? What is the likelihood that I will need to use a maximizer/minimizer in order to get perfect aspect ratios with BOTH lenses on fixed masking? Is there something I should bear in mind in order to achieve this goal with primes only?
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
John Pytlak
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/331cap.gif)
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
|
posted 06-21-2002 10:10 PM
Manny asked:"Am I correct in assuming that ideally, our masking should hit the "1.85" line and the "Anamorphic" line on the RP-40? " Yes. The projectable area for 1.85:1 "flat" is 0.825 x 0.446 inches. The projectable area for "scope" is 0.825 x 0.690 inches. ------------------ John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243 e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|