Dirk Wright asked:
>What's the story behind the 24mmx36mm format? Was it twice the cine format
>or something? It would have made more sense to make it fit an 8x10 print,
>which would be 24mmx30mm.
and John A. Lind replied:
>Yep! You got it
> <SNIP>
The only thing I can add to John's posting (most of which was new to me too)
is that 24x36mm was (and is) also used as a cine format, known as
VistaVision.
In VistaVision, the film runs horizontally through the camera and the frame
is
exactly the same size, shape and spacing as that of 35mm still cameras.
Vistavision originated during the 50s (I think) and was short-lived, being
overtaken by the even higher aspect ratio 65mm and 35mm anamorphic formats.
However, it was resurrected by Industrial Light and Magic for use on the
first Star Wars film and has been their standard film format ever since. The
larger negative helped retain image quality through multiple generations
of optical printing and also allowed the use of 35mm still lenses and
(sometimes) bodies.
A 'Horizon' documentary many years ago on BBC showed ILM shooting the
railcart
tunnel sequence for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" using a Nikon F3
with a custom film back on a computer-controlled miniature railcart,
shooting
"go-motion" at very low frame-rates. The F3's detachable prism would have
been
a great help in such applications.
In the cinematography buisiness, standard 24x18mm format is sometimes known
as "4-perf" and 24x36mm as "8-perf", according to the number of perforations
along the side of the frame.
- Brian (I always wanted to work for ILM) Windrim
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