VistaVision

VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format that was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954.

Paramount did not use anamorphic processes such as CinemaScope but refined the quality of its flat widescreen system by orienting the 35 mm negative horizontally in the camera gate and shooting onto a larger area, which yielded a finer-grained projection print.

As finer-grained film stocks appeared on the market, VistaVision became obsolete. Paramount dropped the format after only seven years, although for another 40 years the format was used by some European and Japanese producers for feature films and by American films such as the first three ''Star Wars'' films for high-resolution special-effects sequences.

In many ways, VistaVision was a testing ground for cinematography ideas that evolved into 70 mm IMAX and OMNIMAX film formats in the 1970s. Both IMAX and OMNIMAX are oriented sideways, as is VistaVision.

History

As a response to an industry recession caused largely by the popularity of television, the Hollywood studios turned to large-format films in order to regain audience attendance. In 1952, the spherical format Cinerama debuted in September, and consisted of three strips of 35 mm film projected side-by-side onto a giant, curved screen, augmented by seven channels of stereophonic sound. In 1953, Twentieth Century-Fox announced the introduction of a simpler version of Cinerama using anamorphic lenses instead of multiple film strips, a widescreen process later known as CinemaScope.

By January 1953, Paramount Pictures decided to convert '' Sangaree'' (1953) into a 3D production, which had originally been filmed "flat" for the prior two weeks. When the film was screened for Paramount president Barney Balaban, he talked in length with Spyros Skouras, president of Twentieth Century-Fox, in which Balaban stated he had preferred the CinemaScope process. By the next month, Paramount Pictures devised its own system to augment its 3-D process, known as Paravision. This process utilized a screen size that yielded an aspect ratio of five units wide by three units high. The first film released by Paramount to use the Paravision process was '' Red Garters'' (1954).

This "flat" widescreen process was adopted by other studios, and by the end of 1953, more than half of the theaters in the U.S. had installed wide screens. However, because a smaller portion of the image was used and magnification was increased, excessive grain and soft images plagued early widescreen presentations. Some studios sought to compensate for these effects by shooting color films with a full aperture gate (rather than the academy aperture) and then reducing the image in Technicolor's optical printer. This process is a predecessor of today's Super 35 format, which also uses a 1.85:1 ratio but one-third more frame area than does a standard 1.85:1 matted into a 4:3 ratio.

The idea behind VistaVision originated with John R. Bishop, the head of Paramount's camera department. He had been impressed with the Cinerama process, although he took exception to the blow-up process. He told '' Popular Science Magazine'': "the negative is the bad boy. We simply can't store enough detail in its small size. Sit close to the screen, and your eyes tire. Too fuzzy, too grainy." He became interested in projecting the widescreen image in sharp detail. He installed a Leica lens in a Mitchell Camera after remembering an abandoned two-frame color system developed by the William P. Stein Company that exposed both negatives to form a single projection image. Bishop turned the camera on its side and shot a film test which proved successful. In shooting in the VistaVision process, the film was run horizontally rather than vertically, and instead of exposing two simultaneous four-perforation frames, the entire eight perforations were used for one image. The negative frame area was approximated to be 1.472 x 0.997 inches.

During its technical development, Paramount's camera technicians dubbed this process the "Lazy 8" system, by which the term "lazy" stood for the horizontal film path, and "8" for the eight-sprocket image width. Paramount trade-named the process "VistaVision" early in 1954, and the first production to utilize the camera process was '' White Christmas'' (1954). The process afforded a wider aspect ratio of 1.5:1 versus the conventional 1.37:1 Academy ratio, and a much larger image area. In order to satisfy theaters with various screen sizes, VistaVision films were shot so that they could be shown in one of three recommended aspect ratios: 1.66:1, 1.85:1 and 2.00:1.

In its lead-up to ''White Christmas'', Paramount Pictures' publicity department stressed the CinemaScope process was "uncomfortably wide", in which their "VistaVision" process would emphasize that "height is as important as width." By then, several theaters had been equipped with horizontal screen projectors for VistaVision's eight-sprocket image frame. For theater exhibitors that were not equipped, an alternate 35 mm film print was used with a compatible sound system known as the " Perspecta Stereo", encoded in the optical track. The VistaVision fanfare, heard in most of the films produced in this ratio, was composed by Nathan Van Cleave.

''White Christmas'' held its West Coast premiere at the Warner Beverly Hills Theatre on October 27, 1954. The ''Los Angeles Times'' detailed the VistaVision process was "a simple innovation, but not easy to grasp" by which they noted the "enlargement and compression process gives the picture a depth of focus which enhances its clarity." Prior to its release, in March 1954, Paramount chief engineer Loren L. Ryder believed that VistaVision would become the forerunner of widescreen projection for the following reasons:
* VistaVision could be shown at widescreen aspect ratios between 1.66 and 2.00:1.
* VistaVision could be (and most often was) further printed down to standard vertical 35 mm reels, keeping its 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio, which meant that exhibitors did not need to purchase additional projection equipment, as was often required for CinemaScope.
* VistaVision did not force the elimination of seats in any theater (as did Cinerama, and CinemaScope at first).
* VistaVision allowed patrons to see more and therefore gain more enjoyment from a film.

Following the film's release, Paramount reiterated its policy to have their standard film prints "available to play in any theatre anywhere in the world with no requirement that the exhibitor alter heirequipment in order to play a VistaVision picture." Subsequent Paramount films including ''Strategic Air Command'' (1955), '' To Catch a Thief'' (1955), '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956), '' The Ten Commandments'' (1956), '' Funny Face'' (1957), and ''Vertigo'' (1958) were filmed in VistaVision. Though it was not as prevalent as CinemaScope, rival studios adopted the VistaVision process, including MGM's ''High Society'' (1956), Warner Bros.' '' The Searchers'' (1956), and United Artists' '' The Vikings'' (1958).

By the late 1950s, VistaVision became obsolete with the industry preference for Panavision and more refinements in Eastmancolor film stock. Paramount produced their last Vistavision film, ''One-Eyed Jacks'' in 1961. By the 1960s, they adopted Technirama as its primary widescreen projection system.

Since the last American VistaVision film, ''One-Eyed Jacks'' which began shooting in 1958 but was not released until 1961, the format would not be used as a primary imaging system for a feature film until 2024. However, VistaVision's high resolution made it attractive for some special-effects work within some later feature films.

Special-effects usage

In 1975, a small group of artists and technicians (including Richard Edlund, who was to receive two Academy Awards for his work) revived the long-dormant format to create the special effects shots for George Lucas's space epic ''Star Wars''. A retooled VistaVision camera dubbed the Dykstraflex (named for special effects master John Dykstra) was used by the group (later called Industrial Light & Magic) in complex process shots. For more than two decades after this, VistaVision was often used as an originating and intermediate format for shooting special effects because a larger negative area compensates against the increased grain created when shots are optically composited. By the early 21st century, computer-generated imagery, advanced film scanning, digital intermediate methods and film stocks with higher resolutions optimized for special effects work had together rendered VistaVision mostly obsolete even for special effects work. Nevertheless, in 2008, ILM was still using the format in some production steps, such as for ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'', and a VistaVision camera was used in the semi-trailer flip scene in ''The Dark Knight'' because there were not enough IMAX cameras to cover all of the angles needed for the shot. In 2010, certain key sequences of the film '' Inception'' were shot in VistaVision, and in the film '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'', shots that needed to be optically enlarged were shot in VistaVision.

Technical specifications

;VistaVision (8/35)
* Spherical lenses, usually adapted and remounted Leica full-frame Rangefinder camera lenses; SOM Berthiot made a special zoom just for VistaVision applications, but it saw very little use.
* Eight perforations per frame.
* Horizontal pulldown from right to left (viewed from emulsion side).
* Slightly less depth of field than that of vertical pulldown 35 mm.
* Camera aperture of 1.485 inches (37.72 mm) by 0.981 inches (24.92 mm).

Films shot in VistaVision

1954's '' White Christmas'' was the first Paramount film to utilize the VistaVision method, but perhaps the most well-known film to be filmed completely in VistaVision format is Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film ''Vertigo''. The use of VistaVision faded by the beginning of the 1960s, with ''One-Eyed Jacks'' in 1961 being the last American film of the 20th Century to be shot entirely using the VistaVision process.

By the 21st century, however, the format saw a revival with '' The Brutalist'' in 2024. That same year, it was reported that Paul Thomas Anderson filmed his 2025 film '' One Battle After Another'' in VistaVision, as well as Yorgos Lanthimos's '' Bugonia'' (2025) and Alejandro González Iñárritu's untitled 2026 film starring Tom Cruise.

Legacy

The camera numbered VistaVision #1 that was used on Cecil B. DeMille's '' The Ten Commandments'' and several Alfred Hitchcock films was offered at auction on September 30, 2015 by Profiles in History with an estimated value of US$30,000 to $50,000, with a winning bid of US$65,000. (Auction took place September 30, 2015. Catalog 83MB PDF and Prices Realized List PDF available a
ProfilesinHistory.com
.) Also offered at the same auction was VistaVision High Speed #1 (VVHS1), which was used to film the parting of the Red Sea in ''The Ten Commandments'' and special effects for ''Star Wars'' (winning bid: US$60,000.) (Auction took place September 30, 2015. Catalog 83MB PDF and Prices Realized List PDF available a
ProfilesinHistory.com
.)

The RED Monstro & V-Raptor 8K VV sensors are modern incarnations of the VistaVision film format. Cameras that utilize the Monstro sensor include the Red Ranger Monstro, DSMC2 Monstro and the Panavision Millennium DXL & DXL2. Cameras that utilize the V-Raptor 8K VV sensor include the Red V-Raptor and the Red V-Raptor XL.

See also

* Technirama
* List of film formats

Notes

*

References

Bibliography

* "The Story of VistaVision" by Keith Wilson, '' Cinema Retro,'' Vol. 11, Issue 31, 2015 (on US newsstands Feb 2015), pages 40–41. Large format magazine article with nine photos, including technical.

External links

VistaVision
at in70mm

VistaVision titles
at IMDb

VistaVision Wing
at the Widescreen Museum


by Robert A. Harris

VistaVision Reference
at the Widescreen Museum


at the Widescreen Museum


in the ''Theatre Catalog 1954-55''

{{Film formats

Motion picture film formats
Paramount Pictures