Page 11 - 2014-09

As finer-grained film stocks appeared on the
market, VistaVision became obsolete.
Paramount dropped the format after only
seven years, although for another forty years
the format was used by American film studios
for high resolution special effects sequences.

Diagram showing the way in which the VistaVision
image could be cropped for various aspect ratios
during projection

camera gate and doubling the exposed area of
film per frame.
When printed down to a normal sized 35mm
projection print, this process produced a finer-
grained image.
Because of the horizontal orientation on the
negative, the VistaVision camera utilised a
strange
threading
pattern. Often
called a Lazy
8 pattern.
VistaVision
films were
shot with The Century VistaVision projector. The film ran
nothing from the bottom spool to the top spool, running
important in left to right through the mechanism, as seen
the top and bottom of the frame, so as the image
could be “cropped” in such a way that they
could be shown in one of three recommended Horizontal VistaVision Screenings
aspect ratios: 1.66:1, 1.85:1 and 2.00:1. A After months of trade screenings, Paramount
number of different cameras were used over introduced VistaVision to the public at Radio
time. City Music Hall on October 14, 1954, with
their first film shot in the process, White
White Christmas was shot on a modified camera Christmas.
from the silent era. Later films were shot on a Although open to conjecture, it appears that
specially designed Mitchell camera, which, the only features screened in the 8 perforation
because of its odd appearance, became known format were White Christmas, Strategic Air
as the elaphant ear camera. Command, To Catch a Thief, Richard III, and
The Battle of the River Plate. They had a very

REEL DEALS September 2014 11