Anamorphic format

Figure 1. Shooting without an anamorphic lens, in widescreen picture format on 4-perf film; some of the film surface area is wasted on the upper/lower, black frame lines.
Figure 2. Shooting with an anamorphic lens stretches the image vertically to cover the entire film frame, resulting in a higher quality but distorted image. When projecting the film, a reverse, complementary lens (of the same anamorphic power) shrinks the image vertically to the original proportions.

Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted image is "stretched" by an anamorphic projection lens to recreate the original aspect ratio on the viewing screen. (It should not be confused with anamorphic widescreen, a different video encoding concept that uses similar principles but different means.) The word anamorphic and its derivatives stem from the Greek words meaning "formed again". As a camera format, anamorphic format is losing popularity in comparison to "flat" (or "spherical") formats such as Super 35 mm film shot using spherical lenses; however, because most film movie projectors use anamorphic projection format, spherical format negatives are commonly converted into anamorphic prints for projection.

In the years since digital cinema cameras and projectors have become commonplace, anamorphic has experienced a considerable resurgence of popularity, due in large part to the higher base ISO sensitivity of digital sensors, which facilitates shooting at smaller apertures.

History

The process of anamorphosing optics was developed by Henri Chrétien during World War I to provide a wide angle viewer for military tanks. The optical process was called Hypergonar by Chrétien and was capable of showing a field of view of 180 degrees. After the war, the technology was first used in a cinematic context in the short film Construire un Feu (To Build a Fire, based on the 1908 Jack London story of the same name) in 1927 by Claude Autant-Lara.[1]

In the 1920s, phonograph and motion picture pioneer Leon F. Douglass also created special effects and anamorphic widescreen motion picture cameras. However, how this relates to the earlier French invention, and later development, is unclear.[2]

Anamorphic widescreen was not used again for cinematography until 1952 when Twentieth Century-Fox bought the rights to the technique to create its CinemaScope widescreen technique.[1] CinemaScope was one of many widescreen formats developed in the 1950s to compete with the popularity of television and bring audiences back to the cinemas. The Robe, which premiered in 1953, was the first feature film released that was filmed with an anamorphic lens.

Development

The introduction of anamorphic widescreen arose from a desire for wider aspect ratios that maximised overall image detail while retaining the use of standard (4 perf per frame) cameras and projectors. The modern anamorphic format has an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, meaning the (projected) picture's width is 2.4 times its height, (technically it is 2.39:1, but it is known professionally as 2.40:1 or "two-four-oh"). The older Academy format 35 mm film (standard non-anamorphic full frame with sound tracks in the image area) has an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, which, when projected, is not as wide.

Anamorphic widescreen was a response to a shortcoming in the non-anamorphic spherical (a.k.a. "flat") widescreen format. With a non-anamorphic lens, the picture is recorded onto the film negative such that its full width fits within the film's frame, but so does its full height. A substantial part of the frame area is thereby wasted, being occupied (on the negative) by a portion of the image which is subsequently matted-out (i.e. masked, either on the print or in the projector) and so not projected, in order to create the widescreen image.

To increase overall image detail, by using all the available area of the negative for only that portion of the image which will be projected, an anamorphic lens is used during photography to stretch the image vertically, thereby filling the full (4 perf) frame's area with the portion of the image that corresponds to the area projected in the non-anamorphic format. Up to the early 1960s, three major methods of anamorphosing the image were used: counter-rotated prisms (e.g. Ultra Panavision),[3] curved mirrors in combination with the principle of Total Internal Reflection (e.g. Technirama),[4] and cylindrical lenses (lenses curved, hence squeezing the image being photographed, in only one direction, as with a cylinder, e.g. the original CinemaScope system based on Henri Chrétien's design).[5] Regardless of method, the anamorphic lens projects a vertically stretched (or horizontally squeezed) image on the film negative. This deliberate geometric distortion is then reversed on projection, resulting in a wider aspect ratio on-screen than that of the negative's frame.

Equipment

An anamorphic lens consists of a regular spherical lens, plus an anamorphic attachment (or an integrated lens element) that does the anamorphosing. The anamorphic element operates at infinite focal length, so that it has little or no effect on the focus of the primary lens it's mounted on but still anamorphoses (distorts) the optical field. A cameraman using an anamorphic attachment uses a spherical lens of a different focal length than he would use for Academy format (i.e. one sufficient to produce an image the full height of the frame and twice its width), and the anamorphic attachment squeezes the image (in the horizontal plane only) to half-width. Other anamorphic attachments existed (that were relatively rarely used) which would expand the image in the vertical dimension (e.g. in the early Technirama system mentioned above), so that (in the case of the common 2-times anamorphic lens) a frame twice as high as it might have been filled the available film area. In either case, since a larger film area recorded the same picture the image quality was improved.

The distortion (vertical stretching) introduced in the camera must be corrected when the film is projected, so another lens is used in the projection booth that restores the picture back to its correct proportions (or, in the case of the now obsolete Technirama system, squeezes the image vertically) to restore normal geometry. It should be noted that the picture is not manipulated in any way in the dimension that is orthogonal to the one anamorphosed.

It may seem that it would be easier to simply use a wider film for recording movies. However, since 35 mm film was already in widespread use, it was more economically feasible for film producers and exhibitors to simply attach a special lens to the camera or projector, rather than invest in an entirely new film format, which would require new cameras, projectors, editing equipment and so forth.

Naming

Cinerama was an earlier attempt to solve the problem of high-quality widescreen imaging, but anamorphic widescreen eventually proved more practical. Cinerama (which had an aspect ratio of 2.59:1) consisted of three simultaneously projected images side-by-side on the same screen. However, in practice the images never blended together perfectly at the edges. The system also suffered from various technical drawbacks, in that it required three projectors, a 6-perf-high frame, four times as much film, and three cameras (eventually simplified to just one camera with three lenses and three streaming reels of film and the attendant machinery), plus a host of synchronization problems. Nonetheless, the format was popular enough with audiences to trigger off the widescreen developments of the early 1950s. A few films were distributed in Cinerama format and shown in special theaters, but anamorphic widescreen was more attractive to the Studios since it could realize a similar aspect ratio and without the disadvantages of Cinerama's complexities and costs.

The anamorphic widescreen format in use today is commonly called 'Scope' (a contraction of the early term CinemaScope), or 2.35:1 (the latter being a misnomer born of old habit; see "Aspect Ratio" section below). Filmed in Panavision is a phrase contractually required for films shot using Panavision's anamorphic lenses. All of these phrases mean the same thing: the final print uses a 2:1 anamorphic projector lens that expands the image by exactly twice the amount horizontally as vertically. This format is essentially the same as that of CinemaScope, except for some technical developments, such as the ability to shoot closeups without any facial distortion. (CinemaScope films seldom used full facial closeups, because of a condition known as CinemaScope mumps, which distorted faces as they got closer to the camera.)

Optical characteristics

Example of blue-line horizontal anamorphic flare (February 2013)

There are artifacts that can occur when using an anamorphic camera lens that do not occur when using an ordinary spherical lens. One is a kind of lens flare that has a long horizontal line, usually with a blue tint, and is most often visible when there is a bright light in the frame, such as from car headlights, in an otherwise dark scene. This artifact is not always considered a problem. It has become associated with a certain cinematic look, and is in fact sometimes emulated using a special effect filter in scenes shot with a non-anamorphic lens. Another common aspect of anamorphic lenses is that light reflections within the lens are elliptical, rather than round as in ordinary cinematography. Additionally, wide angle anamorphic lenses of less than 40 mm focal length produce a cylindrical perspective, which some directors and cinematographers, particularly Wes Anderson, use as a stylistic trademark.

Many wide-angle anamorphic lenses render a cylindrical perspective, as simulated by this stitched panorama of Cavendish House, Leicester. Contrast the straight vertical plane with the curved horizontal plane.

Another characteristic of anamorphic lenses, because they stretch the image vertically, is that out-of-focus elements tend to blur more in the vertical direction. An out-of-focus point of light in the background (called bokeh[6]) appear as a vertical oval rather than as a circle. When the camera shifts focus, there is often a noticeable effect whereby objects appear to stretch vertically when going out of focus. However, the commonly cited claim that anamorphic lenses produce a shallower depth of field is not entirely true. Because of the cylindrical element in the lens, anamorphic lenses take in a horizontal angle of view twice as wide as a spherical lens of the same focal length. Because of this, cinematographers often use a 50 mm anamorphic lens when they would otherwise use a 25 mm spherical lens, or a 70 mm rather than a 35 mm, and so on.

A third characteristic, particularly of simple anamorphic add-on attachments, is "anamorphic mumps". For reasons of practical optics, the anamorphic squeeze is not uniform across the image field in any anamorphic system (whether cylindrical, prismatic or mirror-based). This variation results in some areas of the film image appearing more stretched than others. In the case of an actor's face, when positioned in the center of the screen faces look somewhat like they have the mumps, hence the name for the phenomenon. Conversely, at the edges of the screen actors in full length view can become skinny-looking. In medium shots, if the actor walks across the screen from one side to the other, he will increase in apparent girth. Early CinemaScope presentations in particular (using Chrétien's off-the-shelf lenses) suffered from this. Panavision was the first company to produce an anti-mumps system in the late 1950s.

Panavision used a second lens (i.e. an add-on adapter) which was mechanically linked to the focus position of the primary lens. This changed the anamorphic ratio as the focus changed, resulting in the area of interest on-screen having a normal-looking geometry. Later cylindrical lens systems used, instead, two sets of anamorphic optics: one was a more robust "squeeze" system, which was coupled with a slight expansion sub-system. The expansion sub-system was counter-rotated in relation to the main squeeze system, all in mechanical interlinkage with the focus mechanism of the primary lens: this combination changed the anamorphic ratio and minimized the effect of anamorphic mumps in the area of interest in the frame. Although these techniques were regarded as a fix for anamorphic mumps, they were actually only a compromise. Cinematographers still had to frame scenes carefully to avoid the recognizable side-effects of the change in aspect ratio.

Recent use

Although the anamorphic widescreen format is still in use as a camera format, it has been losing popularity in favour of flat formats, mainly Super 35 mm film. (In Super 35, the film is shot flat, then matted, and optically printed as an anamorphic release print.) There can be several reasons for this:

  • An anamorphic lens can create artifacts or distortions, as described above.
  • An anamorphic lens is more expensive than a spherical lens.
  • An anamorphic lens is often slower than a similar spherical lens, and thus requires more light and makes shooting low-light scenes more difficult.
  • The anamorphic-scope camera format does not preserve any of the image above or below the 'scope frame, so it may not transfer as well to narrower aspect ratios, such as 4:3 or 16:9 for full screen television.
  • Film grain has become less of a concern because of the availability of higher-quality film stocks and digital intermediates, although anamorphic format - due to its use of the full negative frame to record a smaller image - always yields higher definition than non-anamorphic format (provided the anamorphic projection lens, which is technically more demanding, is adequate).
The aperture of the lens (the entrance pupil), as seen from the front, appears as an oval.

Anamorphic 'scope as a printed film format, however, is well established as a standard for widescreen projection. Regardless of the camera formats used in filming, distributed prints of a film with a 2.39:1 theatrical aspect ratio is always in anamorphic widescreen format. This is not likely to soon change because movie theaters around the world don't need to invest in special equipment to project this format—all they need is an anamorphic projection lens, which has long been standard equipment.

Other widescreen film formats (commonly 1.85:1 and 1.66:1) are simply cropped (i.e. portions of the image are omitted) to produce a widescreen effect, a technique known as masking or matting. This can occur either during filming, where the framing is masked in the camera's gate, or in the lab, which can optically print a matte mask onto the prints. Either method produces a frame similar to that in Figure 1, and is known as a hard matte. Many film prints today have no matte, although the film is intended to be shown in a widescreen aspect ratio in motion picture theaters; this approach is called full-frame filming, since most spherical 4-perf cameras retain the silent gate. In these, the negative captures additional information that is masked out during projection (by an aperture mask in the projector's gate), and this is known as soft matte. This approach allows filmmakers the freedom to include the additional picture in an open matte 4:3 transfer of the film and thereby avoid the drawbacks of pan and scan, by protecting the frame for possible 4:3 presentation.

Aspect Ratio

One common misconception about the anamorphic format concerns the actual width number of the aspect ratio, as 2.35, 2.39 or 2.4. Since the anamorphic lenses in virtually all 35 mm anamorphic systems provide a 2:1 squeeze, one would logically conclude that a 1.375:1 full academy gate would lead to a 2.75:1 aspect ratio when used with anamorphic lenses. Due to differences in the camera gate aperture and projection aperture mask sizes for anamorphic films, however, the image dimensions used for anamorphic film vary from flat (spherical) counterparts. To complicate matters, the SMPTE standards for the format have varied over time; to further complicate things, pre-1957 prints took up the optical soundtrack space of the print (instead having magnetic sound on the sides), which made for a 2.55:1 ratio.

Anamorphic 4-perf camera aperture is slightly larger than projection aperture

The initial SMPTE definition for anamorphic projection with an optical sound track down the side (PH22.106-1957), issued in December 1957, standardized the projector aperture at 0.839 × 0.715 inches (21.3 × 18.2 mm) (aspect ratio 1.17:1). The aspect ratio for this aperture, after a 2x unsqueeze, is 2.3468…:1, which rounded to the commonly used value 2.35:1. A new definition issued in October 1970 (PH22.106-1971) specified a slightly smaller vertical dimension of 0.700 in. for the projector aperture, to help make splices less noticeable to film viewers.

Four-perf anamorphic prints use more of the negative's available frame area than any other modern format, which leaves little room for splices. As a consequence, a bright line flashed onscreen when a splice was projected, and theater projectionists had been narrowing the vertical aperture to hide these flashes even before issuance of PH22.106-1971. This new projector aperture size, 0.838 × 0.700 inches (21.3 × 17.8 mm), aspect ratio 1.1971…:1, made for an un-squeezed ratio of 2.39:1 (and commonly referred to by the rounded value 2.40:1 or 2.4:1). The most recent revision, from August 1993 (SMPTE 195-1993), slightly altered the dimensions so as to standardize a common projection aperture width (0.825-inch, or  21.0 mm) for all formats, anamorphic (2.39:1) and flat (1.85:1). The projection aperture height was also reduced by 0.01" in this modern specification to 0.825 × 0.690 inches (21.0 × 17.5 mm), aspect ratio 1.1956…:1 (and commonly rounded to 1.20:1), to retain the un-squeezed ratio of 2.39:1.[7] The camera's aperture remained the same (2.35:1 or 2.55:1 if before 1958), only the height of the "negative assembly" splices changed and, consequently, the height of the frame changed.

Anamorphic prints are still often called 'Scope' or 2.35 by projectionists, cinematographers, and others working in the field, if only by force of habit. 2.39 is in fact what they generally are referring to (unless discussing films using the process between 1958 and 1970), which is itself usually rounded up to 2.40 (with a false precision as compared to the mathematically correct 2.4). With the exception of certain specialist and archivist areas, generally 2.35, 2.39, and 2.40 mean the same to professionals, whether they themselves are even aware of the changes or not.

Lens makers and corporate trademarks

There are numerous companies that are known for manufacturing anamorphic lenses. The following are the most well known in the film industry:

Origination

Camera equipped with a Panavision Ultra Speed Mk II 24mm (SS24) anamorphic lens
  • Panavision is the most common source of anamorphic lenses, with lens series ranging from 20mm to a 2,000mm anamorphic telescope. The C-Series, which is the oldest lens series, are small and lightweight, which makes them very popular for steadicams. Some cinematographers prefer them to newer lenses because they are lower in contrast. The E-Series, of Nikon glass, are sharper than the C-Series and are better color-matched. They are also faster, but the minimum focus-distance of the shorter focal lengths is not as close. The E135mm, and especially the E180mm, are great close-up lenses with the closest minimum focus of any long Panavision anamorphic lenses. The Super (High) Speed lenses (1976), also by Nikon, are the fastest anamorphic lenses available, with T-stops between 1.4 and 1.8; there is even one T1.1 50mm, but, like all anamorphic lenses, they must be stopped-down for good performance because they are quite softly focused when wide open. The Primo and Close-Focus Primo Series (1989) are based on the spherical Primos and are the sharpest Panavision anamorphic lenses available. They are completely color-matched, but also very heavy: about 5–7 kilograms. The G-Series (2007), Panavision's latest anamorphic lens series, performance and size comparable with E-Series, in lightweight and compact similar to C-Series.
  • Vantage Film, designers and manufacturers of Hawk lenses. The entire Hawk lens system consists of 50 different prime lenses and 5 zoom lenses, all of them specifically developed and optically computed by Vantage Film. Hawk lenses have their anamorphic element in the middle of the lens (not up front like Panavision), which makes them more flare-resistant. This design choice also means that if they do flare, one does not get the typical horizontal flares. The C-Series, which were developed in the mid-1990s, are relatively small and lightweight. The V-Series (2001) and V-Plus Series (2006) are an improvement over the C-Series as far as sharpness, contrast, barrel-distortion and close-focus are concerned. This increased optical performance means a higher weight, however (each lens is around 4-5 kilograms). There are 14 lenses in this series—from 25mm to 250mm. The V-Series also have the closest minimum focus of any anamorphic lens series available and as such can rival spherical lenses. Vantage also offers a series of lightweight lenses called V-Lite. They are 8 very small anamorphic lenses (about the size of a Cooke S4 spherical lens), which are ideal for handheld and Steadicam while also giving an optical performance comparable to the V-Series and V-Plus lenses. In 2008 Vantage introduced the Hawk V-Lite 16, a set of new lenses for 16 mm anamorphic production, as well as the Hawk V-Lite 1.3x lenses, which make it possible to use nearly the entire image area of 3-perf 35mm film or the sensor area of a 16:9 digital camera and at the same time provide the popular 2.39:1 release format.
  • Carl Zeiss AG + ARRI: Master Anamorphics
  • Cooke Optics:
  • Angenieux: Angenieux first zoom for 35mm film camera, the 35-140mm, was equipped with a front anamorphic attachment built by Franscope. The 40-140 anamorphic was used on several Nouvelle Vague movies such Lola (1961) or Jules and Jim (1962). Panavision adapted the Angenieux 10x zoom for anamorphic productions. The 50-500 APZA was part of the standard anamorphic production package supported by Panavision from mid 1960s to the end of the 1970s. It has been used in numerous movies including The Graduate (1967), MASH (1970), McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971), Death in Venice (1971) and Jaws (1975). In 2013 and 2014 Angenieux released a new series of high end anamorphic zooms. These lenses, the 30-72 and 56-152 Optimo A2S are compact and weighs less than 2.5 kg.
  • Joe Dunton Camera (JDC): Manufacturer and rental house based in Britain and North Carolina, which adapts spherical lenses to anamorphic by adding a cylindrical element. Its most popular lenses are the Xtal Xpres series (pronounced "Crystal Express"), which were built by Shiga Optics in Japan from old Cooke S2/S3 and Panchro lenses. They have also adapted Zeiss Super Speeds and Standards (the Speedstar series), as well as Canon lenses. JDC was purchased by Panavision in 2007.[8]
  • Elite Optics, manufactured by JSC Optica-Elite Company in Russia and sold in the United States by Slow Motion Inc.
  • Technovision, a French manufacturer that, like JDC, has adapted spherical Cooke and Zeiss lenses to anamorphic. Technovision was purchased by Panavision in 2004.
  • Isco Optics, a German company that developed the Arriscope line for Arri in 1989.

Projection

  • ISCO Precision Optics is a manufacturer of theatrical cinema projection lenses.
  • Panamorph is a manufacturer of hybrid cylindrical / prism based projection lenses specialized for the consumer home theater industry.
  • Schneider Kreuznach, (also called Century Optics) makers of anamorphic projection lenses. The company also manufactures add-on anamorphic adaptor lenses that can be mounted on digital video cameras.

Super 35 and Techniscope

Although many films projected anamorphically have been shot using anamorphic lenses, there are often aesthetic and technical reasons that make shooting with spherical lenses preferable. If the director and cinematographer still wish to retain the 2.40:1 aspect ratio, anamorphic prints can be made from spherical negatives. Because the 2.40:1 image cropped from an Academy ratio 4-perf negative causes considerable waste of frame space, and since the cropping and anamorphosing of a spherical print requires an intermediate lab step, it is often attractive for these films to use a different negative pulldown method (most commonly 3-perf, but occasionally Techniscope 2-perf) usually in conjunction with the added negative space Super 35 affords.

However, with advancements in digital intermediate technology, the anamorphosing process can now be completed as a digital step with no degradation of image quality. Also, 3-perf and 2-perf pose minor problems for visual effects work. The area of the film in 4-perf work that is cropped out in the anamorphosing process nonetheless contains picture information that is useful for such visual effects tasks as 2D and 3D tracking. This mildly complicates certain visual effects efforts for productions using 3-perf and 2-perf, making anamorphic prints struck digitally from center cropped 4-perf Super 35 the popular choice in large budget visual effects driven productions.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Konigsberg, Ira. The Complete Film Dictionary Meridian. 1987. "Anamorphic lens" pp. 11-12
  2. ↑ Michael Svanevik and Shirley Burgett, "Menlo’s Mild-Mannered Film Wizard: Motion Picture Inventor Leon Douglass Deserves Historical Niche", Palo Alto Daily News (July 5, 2008) pp. 6-7
  3. ↑ US Grant 2890622A, Walter Wallin, "Anamorphosing system", published 11 August 1954, issued 16 June 1959, assigned to Panavision Inc
  4. ↑ US Grant 3165969A, Frank George Gunn, "Photographic production of anamorphous records", published 24 October 1955, issued 19 January 1965, assigned to Technicolor Corp of America
  5. ↑ US Grant 1829634A, Henri Chrétien, "Taking and projection of motion pictures and films therefor", published 28 January 1929, issued 27 October 1931
  6. ↑ Why is anamorphic bokeh oval?
  7. ↑ Hart, Martin.(2000). Widescreen museum "Of Apertures and Aspect Ratios" Retrieved July 8, 2006.
  8. ↑ "Panavision to Acquire Camera Assets of Joe Dunton & Company". PR Newswire. August 15, 2007. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  • "Of Apertures and Aspect Ratios". Widescreen Museum.
  • Mitchell, Rick. "The Widescreen Revolution". Operating Cameraman. Society of Camera Operators (Summer, 1994). Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
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