Anamorphic format

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.The word anamorphic and its derivatives stem from the Greek anamorphoo ("to transform", or more precisely "to re-form"),[1] compound of morphé ("form, shape")[2] with the prefix aná ("back, again").[3] The process of anamorphosing optics was developed by Henri Chrétien during World War I to provide a wide angle viewer for military tanks.After the war, the technology was first used in a cinematic context in the short film To Build a Fire (based on the 1908 Jack London story of the same name) in 1927 by Claude Autant-Lara.Up to the early 1960s, three major methods of anamorphosing the image were used: counter-rotated prisms (e.g. Ultra Panavision),[6] curved mirrors in combination with the principle of total internal reflection (e.g. Technirama),[7] 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).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.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).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.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.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.This results in out-of-focus points of light (called bokeh[9]) appearing as vertical ovals rather than circles, as well as an increase in horizontal angle of view, both in proportion to the squeeze factor.This has led to the common claim that anamorphic lenses have shallower focus, as the cinematographer must use a longer lens to obtain the same horizontal coverage.This was largely attributed to the artifacts, distortions, light requirements, and expenses (in comparison to its spherical counterpart), in the face of the rising use of digital visual effects.Moreover, with the advent of the digital intermediate in the 2000s, film grain became less of a concern with Super 35, as the optical intermediate/enlargement process could now be bypassed, eliminating two generations of potential quality loss (though an anamorphic negative, due to its size, still retained a higher definition widescreen image for mastering).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.
Example of blue-line horizontal anamorphic flare
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.
The aperture of the lens (the entrance pupil ), as seen from the front, appears as an oval.
Anamorphic 4-perf camera aperture is slightly larger than projection aperture.
Anamorphic widescreenAnamorph (disambiguation)Henri ChrétienBausch & LombPanavisionTodd-AOCooke OpticsCarl Zeiss AGSchneider Kreuznach4-perfframe linescinematographywidescreen35 mm filmaspect ratioSuper 35ISO sensitivityanamorphicWorld War IJack LondonClaude Autant-LaraLeon F. Douglassspecial effectsTwentieth Century-FoxCinemaScopeThe Robeaspect ratios4 perf per frameUltra Panavisiontotal internal reflectionTechniramacylindrical lensesHenri Chrétien'sCinerama6 perfsynchronizationartifactslens flarespecial effectwide-angle anamorphic lensescylindrical perspectiveWes AndersonCavendish House, LeicesterChrétien'sdigital intermediatefilm grainentrance pupilcomputer animationLucasfilm Animationfull academy gateFour-perfList of anamorphic format trade namesTakuo Miyagishima3-perfAngenieuxVittorio StoraroApocalypse NowIsco OpticsArriscopeT-stopsF-stopsMicro 4/3Full FrameTechniscopeAcademy rationegative pulldownAnamorphosisCine 160LetterboxList of film formatsPan and scanCollins English DictionaryOnline Etymology DictionaryPR NewswireWayback Machinefilm formatsFilm gauges9.5 mm16 mm17.5 mm28 mm35 mm70 mmVistaVisionUltra Panavision 70Super Panavision 70KinopanoramaCinemiraclePillarboxWindowboxFullscreenOpen matteShoot and protect