INTRODUCTION
Widescreen is an all encompassing term. Today it is taken to mean the commonly available
16 by 9 option found on many Cameras and Projection devices. It has, however, a much more
complex and at times colourful history. The ancient Greeks, it has been said, knew of
"optical occurence of a distorted object appearing undistorted from a particular angle or
point of view." 1 Indeed the word "Anamorphic"'a term widely used in Widescreen
technology, comes from the combination of two Greek words, which literaly translate as
"Changing Form" or "Reforming"
The Anamorphic properties of curved or cylindrical glass were well known to the painters of the Renaissance Period. Hans Holbein's famous 1533 painting "The Ambassadors" has a highly distorted objected, in the foreground. 2 Upon closer inspection with a suitable piece of cylidrical glass, it is revealed to be a human skull. 2 These "Anamorphic" figures were draughted into a painting using a complex and calculated scale designed to distort the figure in a certain plane, the proper proportion being restored when a suitable cylindrical piece of glass was passed over it. 2
The advent of Photography, renewed interest in Panoramic and Anamorphic images. From the 1880's onwards various devices were invented to project, shoot, and finally film in Widescreen. It was during this period that Widescreen technology seemed to go down several different paths.
MODERN USAGE
One of those paths was based on Sir David Brewster's 1862 theory of "Anamorphosis" 3 which culminated in the Ernest Abbe and Carl Zeiss lens 4 used in still photography in 1890. 5 Henri Chretien took this a step further in an 1927 exhibition in Paris when he unveiled his version of an Anamorphic lens, that became the forerunner to the famous "Cinemascope" lens. 6
Another path taken was to use wide film, and wide camera and projector apertures, much wider in the horizontal plane than the vertical. Enoch J Rector used this techninique to film the Corbet-Fitzsimmons boxing match of 1897, using 63mm film and an aperture ratio of 1.73:1. 7
A third method arose from a 1927 Paris exhibition, by Abel Gance. He used 3 projectors locked in sync, to produce a screen ratio of 3.75:1, in what he termed "Polyvision". 8
The Depression and World War 2 tended to stymie interest in Widescreen films. It wasn't till the 1950's, when cinema had to compete with television that interest in Widscreen films picked up. For a closer look at that colourful and turbulant period in history, please got to the Widescreen Museum site in the links page.
Today as far as film equipment goes, there are three methods for achieving widescreen. The singular approach uses either an Anamorphic Lens, or modifications to the camera and projector to achieve widescreen. The combined approach uses a combination of modified cameras, wider filmstock and anamorphic lenses. The third method, which by and large, still remains unchanged, is the three camera setup in sync to film, and three synchronised projectors to project, in what is now known as "Cinerama"
© Copyright INTO 8MM FILM 2007. All Rights Reserved. Author accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions contained in this article.
