WIDE SCREEN MOVIES CORRECTIONS - Rev
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WIDE SCREEN MOVIES CORRECTIONS - Rev. 2.0 - Revised December, 2004. © Copyright 1994-2004, Daniel J. Sherlock. All Rights Reserved. This document may not be published in whole or in part or included in another copyrighted work without the express written permission of the author. Permission is hereby given to freely copy and distribute this document electronically via computer media, computer bulletin boards and on-line services provided the content is not altered other than changes in formatting or data compression. Any comments or corrections individuals wish to make to this document should be made as a separate document rather than by altering this document. All trademarks belong to their respective companies. ========== COMMENTS FOR VERSION 1.0 (PUBLISHED APRIL, 1994): The following is a list of corrections and addenda to the book Wide Screen Movies by Robert E. Carr and R.M. Hayes, published in 1988 by McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC and London; ISBN 0-89950-242-3. This document may be more understandable if you reference the book, but it is written so that you can read it by itself and get the general idea. This document was written at the request of several individuals to document the problems I found in the book. I am not in the habit of marking up books like I had done with this particular book, but the number of errors I found was overwhelming. The corrections are referenced with the appropriate page number and paragraph in the book. I have primarily limited my comments to the state of the art as it was when the book was published in 1988. Since most subjects are discussed in multiple areas in the book, there is quite a bit of duplication in my comments. Some errors occur many times through the book (such as the 2.05 x 1 aspect ratio for 70mm) but I have given comments only where it seemed suitable. I have also pointed out some simple spelling errors. This is not meant to be nitpicking, but rather to ensure that the reader is not misled. It should also be mentioned that the lists of films in the various formats are organized alphabetically by year of release rather than by actual order of release. There are probably many other errors in the book which I have missed. Hopefully they will be included in a later revision of this document. I have researched the subjects of film, video and audio technology for many, many years. This was due to my fascination with these topics and my desire to resolve the many contradictions in the literature. (In fairness to the authors, almost every general reference on the subject has errors.) My interest is primarily from an engineering standpoint: What the specifications were, how did a format change, what were the limitations, etc. This involved research into physical, mechanical, electrical, psychological, and historical aspects of the technology. In reality, the evolution of film technology was governed by many other factors including several technological developments. For example, sound films became more practical after the common availability of quality audio amplifiers. Cinerama became more appealing when Eastman color negative became available. Multiple track sound recording became common after high quality magnetic recording became available. Letterboxed video became common when videodiscs with their higher bandwidth became more popular. I have also included addendum material that probably should have been included in the book. This includes missing specifications and information on additional formats. There are many other subjects that could be included but then this already lengthy document would turn into a book. Some subjects including the apertures of the formats used in 1930, the evolution of aperture sizes, video formats & technology, HDTV, special screens, motion base technology, experimental systems, and additional special venue presentations will have to wait until I do publish a book. There are some necessary limitations in the formatting of this document due to designing it for general computer use. I would have preferred to use italics and paragraph indentions, but I wished to keep this document in a general format. I would appreciate any comments or corrections from any readers. I can be reached via e-mail as [email protected]. You can also find my mailing address in the Directory for Members issued annually as a supplement to the SMPTE Journal published by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. I am also a member of the British Kinematograph Sound & Television Society (BKSTS) and they should be able to provide my mailing address as well. -Daniel J. Sherlock 1 ================== COMMENTS FOR VERSION 1.1 (PUBLISHED AUGUST, 1994): The new version incorporates some minor additions and corrections to the April, 1994 version as well as some grammatical changes to improve readability with less need to reference the book for understanding. I would like to thank Steven Guttag for pointing out some minor errors in the first version, and Joseph Kaufman for providing additional information about the Illusion-O viewer. Some of the clarifications were due to additional explanations given by R.M. Hayes in the magazine Widescreen Review. ================== COMMENTS FOR VERSION 1.2 (PUBLISHED DECEMBER, 1997): The new version started out as incorporating some minor additions and corrections to version 1.1 that was published August 24, 1994. These include corrections to the frame rate for the Grandeur format; that the 7-track sound format was used for all Cinerama showings including the premiere showings at the Broadway Theater; prologues were used for all of the Cinerama travelogues except for Search For Paradise; the dimensions of the original Cinerama screen; De Luxe Tour does not appear to have been shown to the public at all, particularly not in 55mm; the addition of The March of Todd-AO and Hello, Dolly! to the Todd-AO film list; corrections to the titles for The Monte Carlo Story in Technirama and Water, the Source of Life in Stereospace; Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack was apparently shown in Sensurround in Japan; and other small fixes to the original text. I also decided to add about two dozen items to the list. There are additional errors for which I have not yet found definitive information for corrections. For example, almost all of the dates given in Chapter I are incorrect, and some of the films listed in the Panavision list were filmed with spherical lenses. Also, I have not addressed in this version the many missing movies from the film listings. Examples include the CinemaScope version of Oklahoma!, the Superscope film Jet Pilot, the VistaVision film The Court Jester, and the Technirama film Davy. It should also be noted by readers that if a film is listed as a 70mm Blowup it is usually not listed in the process listing. Thus, for example, to get a listing of all Panavision films it would be necessary to review both the Panavision list as well as the 70mm Blowup list. ================== COMMENTS FOR VERSION 2.0 (PUBLISHED DECEMBER, 2004): The new version incorporates some additions and corrections to version 1.2 that was published in December, 1997. In the ten years since the first version was published, additional resources including, most importantly, the internet, have become available to help check and confirm many of the remaining questionable items. There may still be many errors in the book not covered by these corrections. This is because in many cases there was insufficient evidence to identify the item as an error. For example, there are many films listed in the 70mm Blowup listing that cannot be confirmed as having been released in the United States in 70mm. The major additions to this version are the dates given for Chapter 1; a clarification of the specifications for Cinerama, Cinemiracle, and Kinopanorama; clarifications on Dimension 150; clarifications to the 70mm split surround format; and added info about VistaSonic stereo. In addition, I have attempted to add missing films to several of the format lists. This has been a particularly challenging task, since many of the available references disagree on details or even on the existence of a film title. The film listings I have added to this document have some confirming evidence to support the dates and formats given in the lists. Many more films could be added to the film listings with some additional research, but most of the major omissions have been included. Titles have been deleted from the authors’ film listings only if there is substantial evidence to disprove the listing. It should be emphasized that the dates given for the premieres of various movies can be different depending upon the source. For example, the dates could be for a public premiere, or a press premiere, or an invitational premiere, or a trade demonstration, or even just a copyright date. For the most part, the dates given in this document reflect the first performance labeled as a “premiere” for the given film; otherwise, it is the date of the first public performance. It should also be noted that the dates given for the films in the book are for the US premiere dates; 2 the films may have played earlier in other countries. The corrections to the lists have been limited to the years covered by the authors, which is typically up to 1985 or 1986. This version now identifies over 600 errors (not counting dozens of times the errors are repeated in the book), over 250 titles missing from the film lists, and provides over 500 clarifications and additions to the material in the book. Technology developments made after 1986 are generally not included in this document, except for some special cases.