Techniscope or 2-perf is a 35 mm motion picture camera film format introduced by Technicolor Italia in 1960. The Techniscope format uses a two film-

perforation A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

negative pulldown Negative pulldown is the manner in which an image is exposed on a film stock, described in the number of film perforations spanned by an individual frame. It can also describe the orientation of the image on the negative, whether it is captured ho ...

per frame, instead of the standard four-perforation frame usually exposed in 35 mm film photography. Techniscope's 2.33:1 aspect ratio is easily enlarged to the 2.39:1 widescreen ratio, because it uses half the amount of 35 mm film stock ''and'' standard spherical lenses. Thus, Techniscope release prints are made by anamorphosizing and enlarging each frame by a factor of two.

Techniscope-photographed films

During its primary reign of 1960–1980, more than 350 films were photographed in Techniscope, the first of which was ''

The Pharaoh's Woman ''The Pharaohs' Woman'' ( it, La donna dei faraoni) is a 1960 Italian historical drama film directed by Victor Tourjansky and starring John Drew Barrymore. The film is set in Ancient Egypt during the 31st century BCE (shortly after the unificat ...

'', released 10 December 1960. Given its considerable savings in production cost but lower image quality, Techniscope was primarily an alternative format used for the production of lower-budgeted film, mainly those in the horror and western genres. It also is useful for films using many minatures such as the Gerry Anderson puppet production '' Thunderbirds Are Go'' as this format gives increased depth of focus without requiring huge amounts of light required when the aperature is made very small. Since the format originated in Italy, most Techniscope format films were European productions. In the U.S., Techniscope was used in the low-budget A.C. Lyles Westerns for Paramount Pictures, as well as in a few

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

pictures, and

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

briefly used it extensively in the mid-to-late 1960's. The Sergio Leone “Dollars Trilogy” films used Techniscope, (''

Fistful of Dollars ''A Fistful of Dollars'' ( it, Per un pugno di dollari, lit=For a Fistful of Dollars titled on-screen as ''Fistful of Dollars'') is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, al ...

'', '' For a Few Dollars More'' and ''

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' ( it, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, literally "The good, the ugly, the bad") is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Clee ...

'') and were released through

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

. Producer

Sid Pink Sidney W. Pink was an American film producer and occasional director. He has been called the father of feature-length 3-D movies. He is also noted for producing early Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget science-fiction films, and for his role in a ...

recalled that unlike Europe, the American film studios were charged by the

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

company for using Techniscope in their film prints. George Lucas shot his first two features, ''

THX 1138 ''THX 1138'' is a 1971 American social science fiction film co-written and directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Walter Murch, the film stars Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence, wi ...

'' and ''

American Graffiti ''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as Ronny ...

'', in Techniscope in order to give them a gritty, documentary-like feel. Regarding the diminished image quality, film reviewer Roger Ebert wrote about the film '' Counterpoint'' (1968): "The movie is shot in Techniscope, a process designed to give a wide-screen picture while saving film and avoiding payment of royalties to the patented processes like

Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...

. In this film, as in '' Harry Frigg'', Techniscope causes washed-out color and a loss of detail. Universal shouldn't be so cheap."Roger Ebert, ''Chicago Sun-Times'' review for ''Counterpoint''
/ref> Films shot with 2-perf 35 mm "Techniscope" since 2010 include '' I'm Yours'' (2012), ''

Silver Linings Playbook ''Silver Linings Playbook'' is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by David O. Russell. The film was based on Matthew Quick’s 2008 novel '' The Silver Linings Playbook''. It stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Law ...

'' (2012), '' Argo'' (2012), and ''

Too Late Too Late may refer to: Film and theatre *'' Too Late (1914 film)'', American film written by Winifred Dunn * ''Too Late'' (1996 film), a Romanian film * ''Too Late'' (2000 film), a Portuguese film * ''Too Late'' (2015 film), an American film * ' ...

'' (2015).

Techniscope's commercial revival

Techniscope employs standard 35 mm camera films, which are suitable for 2-perf (Techniscope), 3-perf, conventional 4-perf (spherical or CinemaScope), and even 6-perf (

Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporati ...

) and 8-perf (

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount never used anamorphic processes such as 2.55: 1, CinemaScope but refi ...

), as all of those processes listed employ the same camera and intermediate films, and positive print films intended for direct projection (although 2-, 3- and 8-perfs are not distribution formats). In 1999, in Australia, MovieLab film laboratory owner Kelvin Crumplin revived the Techniscope format renamed as MultiVision 235, attempting to commercialise it as a cinematography format alternative to the Super 16 mm format. His proposition was that it yielded a 35 mm-quality image (from which could be derived natural 2.35:1 and 1.85:1 aspect ratio images) for the same cost as Super 16 mm cinematography. Mr Crumplin established MovieLab to provide telecine and film processing and printing services, and, with engineer Bruce McNaughton of The Aranda Group, Victoria, Australia, engineered and produced Arriflex BL1 and Arriflex IIC 35 mm cameras for the Techniscope 2-perf format.Holben, Jay & Bankston, Douglas (February 2000). "Inventive New Options for Film" ''American Cinematographer Magazine'' Vol. 81, No. 2, pp.96–107. Aaton, Panavision, and Arriflex have modern 2-perf cameras. Aranda in Australia is also currently converting cameras like Arriflex 2A/B/C Arri 3, Arri BL, Mitchell, Eclair, Moviecam. The Russian cameras, Kinor and Konvas, are also converted. Factory-made kits for certain Mitchell and Mitchell-derived cameras are occasionally available on auction sites. In the specific case of a Mitchell, the kit includes a replacement aperture plate and cam for the film movement, a replacement gear for the camera body, and, for a reflex camera, a replacement focusing screen. As all Mitchell cameras incorporate the provision for a "hard mask" within the movement itself, it is often possible to keep the 4-perf aperture plate, and insert a 2-perf mask in the mask slot, as an economy measure. In 2011,

Lomography A toy camera is a simple, inexpensive film camera. Despite the name, toy cameras are fully functional and capable of taking photographs, though with optical aberrations due to the limitations of their simple lenses. From the 1990s onward, ther ...

released a movie camera, the Lomokino, capable of making short movies on standard 35 mm still photography film which uses a frame format similar to Techniscope, with two perforations for each exposure, though with no space or capabilities for the sound track, taking 144 frames on a 36 exposures roll. The camera is erroneously labeled as being " Super 35", Super 35 having three perforations per frame. Movies made with the Lomokino may not show properly without modifications on Techniscope projectors, the Lomokino is hand cranked and the frame rate is controlled manually, usually being around 2-6 FPS.

Techniscope vs. anamorphic: advantages and disadvantages

Techniscope's advantages over anamorphic CinemaScope are: * More economical: half the film stock used in 4-perforation frame cinematography; half the stock, same running time, less negative to develop. * Cinematography requires simpler, but technically superior, spherical lenses. * Film stock loads last twice as long; 2-perf stock shoots at 45 feet per minute (@24fps), while 4-perf stock shoots at 90 feet per minute. * (may be seen aesthetically as either an advantage or disadvantage:) The

circle of confusion In optics, a circle of confusion (CoC) is an optical spot caused by a cone of light rays from a lens not coming to a perfect focus when imaging a point source. It is also known as disk of confusion, circle of indistinctness, blur circle, or ...

of Techniscope is circular (due to its spherical lenses), whereas that of CinemaScope is elliptical (due to its anamorphic lenses). Techniscope's disadvantages against CinemaScope: * Two-perf 35 mm is a production-only format, that must be converted to other formats for distribution. For distribution prints for theatrical venues, the frame is enlarged from a 2-perf flat ratio to a 4-perf anamorphic ratio. Enlarging the image to the 35 mm print subsequently enlarges the negative's film grain. (Although some cineastes sought this visual feel for the story; e.g. westerns photographed to appear unpolished, thereby enhancing the period settings' verisimilitude.) This step is also an additional production expense. If the enlargement process is done optically, the

generation loss Generation loss is the loss of quality between subsequent copies or transcodes of data. Anything that reduces the quality of the representation when copying, and would cause further reduction in quality on making a copy of the copy, can be consid ...

will add even more grain and reduce the image sharpness. Alternatively, the enlargement can be done as part of the

Digital Intermediate Digital intermediate (typically abbreviated DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. Definition and overview A digital intermediat ...

(DI) process. This involves digitally scanning the 2-perf film negative. Output to film is done with a film recorder, such as the Arrilaser. * Two-perforation cameras and

telecine Telecine ( or ) is the process of transferring film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on fi ...

installations are rare. (Note: As of early 2008 Aaton is coming out with their newly designed 2-perf-native (3-perf user-switchable)

Aaton Penelope Aaton Penelope is a 35mm motion picture camera introduced by Aaton in October 2008. It is the first camera in the world designed as a switchable Techniscope or 3-perf shooting solution (2 perf-native and 3 perf user-switchable), and it is also the ...

camera. Konvas cameras have been available in 2-perf for a while, and Arri is making 2-perf gates for their Arricams soon, available only through the rental dealers though. And more and more telecine suites have 2-perf gates for their film scanners.) * The narrower frame line (between frames) emphasises imperfections (e.g. hairs in the gate, lens flares). Note: When transferring a Techniscope film to a digital video format, the 2-perf negative or 2-perf interpositive A/B rolls can be used (the original film negative from the camera, or the first-generation film elements prepared for the making of the anamorphic 4-frame 35 mm release print negative), thus bypassing any blown-up 4-perf element. Many DVD editions have been transferred this way and the results have frequently been stunning, e.g. Blue Underground's ''

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage ''The Bird with the Crystal Plumage'' () is a 1970 giallo film directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. The film has been credited with popularizing giallo, an Italian genre of thriller developed in the 1960s. It is the first in what ...

'' and MGM's special editions of Sergio Leone 's Westerns.

Specifications

* Film: 35 mm film running vertically using two perforations per frame, running at 24 frames per second. * Film area: .868" (22 mm) × .373" (9.47 mm) * Film aspect ratio: 2.33:1 * Print aspect ratio 2.39:1 (2.35:1 prior to 1970 SMPTE revision)

References

External links

Internet Movie Database (IMDb) list of Techniscope films

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Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...