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Chapter 221: Anamorphic Wide Screen

Jeffrey L. Kimball is a middle-aged photographer with messy hair. He has a mustache and large transparent plastic glasses. His speech is very organized and logical.

"Anamorphic widescreen has a unique temperament. I am watching some old films to learn the shooting techniques of this format of film. Is there anything you can teach me?" Ronald asked him.

"The anamorphic screen has something that viewers call a 'movie feel', but that is just a misunderstanding by some filmmakers. The so-called 'movie feel' is actually just some flaws of the anamorphic widescreen lens. The optical technology at that time used anamorphic

The lens will cause serious distortion, so directors and photography directors often use some techniques to cover up the distortion in order to avoid it.

Over time, the audience has become familiar and accustomed to blockbusters with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and they always have some special feeling, so they default to the way commercial blockbusters are shot, which is the so-called ‘movie feel’.”

"Very good, I can understand everything you said. I couldn't quite understand what the previous candidates said." Ronald smiled at Kimball. This technical expert candidate for photography director

, seems to be the most compatible with me.

"We will find a time then, and you can tell me all the taboos about using anamorphic widescreen."

"Actually, lens distortion has improved a lot now. It's just that when scheduling actors entering and leaving the frame, be careful not to step on the corners of the lens distortion. Also, when the camera is panning, don't go too fast. There is also the anamorphic width.

The lens of the screen has a more drastic horizontal stretching effect on the actors. Those actors who are not very thin should not take close-ups of their faces."

"Okay, we'll talk about it then." Ronald shook hands with Kimball and sent away this expert who was very willing to share his knowledge.

This spirit of sharing made Ronald feel good about him. Kimball's temperament was similar to that of his mentor Walter Murch, with the spiritual dominance of an old-school hippie.

"How's it going?" Bruckheimer, one of the producers, came over and asked Ronald, the choice for the director of photography.

"Just him." Ronald nodded and agreed to choose Kimball as the director of photography. The main reason why he chose this middle-aged man who didn't have much experience in directing photography for theater movies was for Ronald's sake.

This is the first time Ronald has shot a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen film, and he needs an expert director of photography who is familiar with the situation. Kimball has previously worked as a lab technician, film editor, and stills photographer.

The second group of photography directors and other different positions are all familiar with the one-stop technology of anamorphic widescreen from shooting to developing and editing.

As for their artistic grasp, the two producers were very convinced of the quality of the Saab commercials shot by Ronald, and believed that there was no one in Hollywood who was better at shooting fighter jets than him.

The so-called anamorphic widescreen is a new technology that Hollywood used on a large scale in the 1950s to resist competition from television sets. In order to attract audiences to movie theaters, Hollywood at that time made 3D movies, but the results were not good and the audience did not buy it.

Panavision took a different approach and created a wide screen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Obviously, the audience is more receptive to this kind of screen spectacle that can be viewed without wearing glasses. They can watch it on the screen

See a wider picture than old-school movies.

This is higher than the 1.37 to 1 in the golden age of Hollywood, and the 1.85 to 1 that was also used a lot later, and is more acceptable to the audience. Because the technology is relatively expensive, this model is generally only used in blockbusters.

"Where's Don?" Ronald asked Bruckheimer about the whereabouts of his partner.

"He went to negotiate with Paramount's new CEO. Frank Mancuso didn't trust Ned Tanin's vision very much, so he summoned Don and asked him to report on the progress of the crew."

"Well, let's make a decision on Kimball. If Don doesn't object, I'll go watch David Lean's movie."

"Or go and see Spielberg?"

"Yes, he has the most complete collection. Steven agreed to lend me his studio screening room."

Spielberg began to take a vacation. He was often busy and rarely had the opportunity to go on vacation abroad with his fiancée.

Ronald asked him for help, and Steven agreed to lend him all the copies of David Lean's films he had in his collection.

Spielberg is a fan of David Lean, and David Lean has always shot 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Watching the master's creations allowed Ronald to learn many anamorphic widescreen techniques.

.

Christopher Columbus was waiting for Ronald in the studio next to Spielberg's Universal Studios. He was responsible for the security of the prints and was a guest projectionist to show Ronald the movie.

"Are you working on a new movie again?" Ronald pulled Columbus, who was going to the screening room at the back, and went with him. The two were close friends, so it was inappropriate for him to work as a projectionist, so they simply went to the screening room together.

Watch and chat there.

"Yes, my last screenwriter's movie in Ambergris is already filming." Columbus was very happy with Ronald's friendly gesture and vomited a lot of bitterness to Ronald.

After writing two films, "Gremlins" and "Young Sherlock Holmes," Columbus was not appreciated by Amblin's manager, Kathleen Kennedy, and was assigned to write another film.

It’s the filming of “The Goonies”

This is another children's adventure story. Columbus racked his brains and came up with many different plots from the little monsters, making this movie very interesting.

But he didn't get the chance to direct, and Amblin wanted to give him a job as a screenwriter. This made Columbus dissatisfied. It happened that he was unhappy living in Los Angeles and wanted to return to his hometown in New York.

"You have to know that Amblin is a small studio and they can't take risks. Since you have shown great talent in screenwriting, their safest way is to let you continue to be a screenwriter. But your talent will be

As people can see, I think someone from the seven major producers is already interested in you, giving you the opportunity to independently direct a small-budget film."

Ronald admired Columbus very much. It was very difficult to write a children's movie well. This may be why Amblin was reluctant to let him direct.

"It's a pity that my screenwriters are all children's films. My agent told me that the top seven in Hollywood now think that children's films are Mr. Spielberg's specialty. Others want to make them, but there is no chance. Besides, I have nothing here.

Friends, parties are noisy and noisy. I want to go back to New York and find a job where I can be quiet, and my wife also wants to go back to New York."

Ronald had no choice but to tap Columbus on the shoulder, and David Lean's masterpiece "Lawrence of Arabia" appeared on the screen.

"Do you like David Lean's movies?" Ronald asked.

"It's okay. Steven likes it very much. He said this was the movie that gave him the idea of ​​becoming a director. You'd better go to the screening room and watch it. I'll sit here later. Steven has upgraded the automatic projector. You can watch it.

Go to midfield and change."

"I like it too, but I don't know how to shoot this kind of masterpiece that inserts my own thoughts into the historical story." Ronald began to look at the screen. "Lawrence of Arabia" is a blockbuster that imitates classical drama. In the middle

There is still five minutes of rest time.

"I borrowed these movies mainly because Lean shot a lot of anamorphic widescreen movies, and I came to learn from them." After the intermission, Ronald chatted with Columbus, who was sitting in the front.

"That's it, I've seen it many times. Amber Lin is also the latest 'The Goonies', and only started to use anamorphic widescreen. The previous ET, and Gremlins were both in 1.85. You see, the framing is actually very interesting. This

There are close-ups of three people in a row in the shot."

Columbus pointed to the shot on the screen. Normally, a 1.85 wide screen would be full with three close-ups of characters, but in a 2.35 anamorphic wide screen, more than one third of the screen would be blank.

Ronald nodded and wrote down this knowledge. Since the anamorphic wide screen is said to be specially developed for screen spectacles, it must remember to give the audience enough spectacles. In his notebook, he drew the second half of a fighter jet with a few strokes, and then

A much longer flame was drawn behind the engine. The composition here can actually open up some patterns.



"Actually, I've seen you before." After Kimball signed on as the director of photography for "Top Gun," he followed Ronald to the Navy's Miramar base to check out the cameras modified by Grumman on the Tomcat fighter jets.

lens.

"Oh, what should I say?" Ronald didn't remember seeing this person before.

"My last job was as a director of photography on 'The Legend of Billie King,' and when you came and scared Christian Slater away, I was behind the camera watching the whole thing."

"Hahaha..." Ronald laughed a little awkwardly, and Kimball saw his jealous scene.

"Helen is a girl who is very suitable for filming. Her appearance and face shape do not look big even when shot with a 2.35 anamorphic lens. She is a natural screen beauty."

"Yeah, what do you think of the performance of the heroine McGillis in front of the anamorphic widescreen lens?" Fortunately, Kimball is a technology geek, and the conversation always revolves around technology.

"She is very good, but not all angles are suitable. The right side of her face is more suitable for the photo, and the framing is slightly sideways, which is also in line with the shooting characteristics of the anamorphic widescreen lens. It just so happens that the left side of Tom Cruise's face is more photogenic, and they shot

A couple scene is the most suitable, as it won't steal the other's limelight and will be harmonious. If you find two celebrities whose more photogenic faces face the same direction, that would be terrible."

The two discussed the technical details all the way to the tarmac, where Grumman engineers were waiting for Ronald to come over to inspect the modification project.

Kimball climbed under the landing gear, carefully inspected the external pod, and even broke it twice hard. The lens of the pod did not move at all. He gave Ronald a thumbs up, which was a very good sign.

Then he climbed into the cockpit of the plane and sat in the radar officer's position in the back seat, which is where the actors would stay during filming.

"Ronald, there's a big problem here," Kimball shouted from above.

Ronald quickly climbed up the ladder with the Grumman engineer and asked Kimball in the cockpit, "What's going on?"

"Look," Kimball twisted his body from side to side, "the space in the cockpit is very small, and your camera can't fit here. We may not be able to capture the pilot's subjective perspective in the air battle you mentioned."

"No, I specially selected Alai's new model camera for modification. Their camera is one size smaller than Panavision's. I tried it and it works." The engineer took out the modification drawing and pointed it at the camera in the back seat of the cockpit.

Give them some space to explain."

"We are using an anamorphic lens," Ronald looked gloomy. He did not have a strong technical background and had forgotten the huge size of the anamorphic lens.

The anamorphic film is still a 35mm normal film color film. In order to produce a 2.35:1 super widescreen effect on the film, the photographic lens equipped will create a distorted picture.

The normal scene was intentionally distorted by an anamorphic lens and stored on the film with an aspect ratio of 35mm. When it was shown in the cinema, a restoration anamorphic lens was added in front of the projector to restore the distorted picture to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

Normal proportions.

Therefore, the anamorphic lenses are all aspherical lens groups, which are much larger than the normal 1.85 widescreen spherical lenses and cannot fit in the cockpit.

"What should we do? How about you use a normal lens to shoot this air combat shot, and then enlarge it to 2.35 when developing it?" The engineer came up with an idea.

"That won't work. The distortion of the anamorphic lens is very unique. Its focus is also different from that of a normal spherical lens. The audience can see the difference between the two at a glance. There is something going on here." Ronald patted the chair in the cockpit.

.

The engineer only modified it according to Ronald's ideas, but the director of photography was the person who had the deepest understanding of photography from an overall perspective.

Ronald looked at Kimball. If he had been asked to join earlier and start to take charge of the technical problems of photography during the preparatory stage, there might be a solution.

"I have a way. There is a new technology called Super 35, which can use a spherical lens to shoot and store 2.35 aspect ratio shots on 35mm film."

"Is this impossible?" Ronald looked at Kimball. "There is a synchronized audio track next to the 35mm film. The width that can actually be used to store images is narrower than the film. It cannot fit the 2.35 picture unless

you……"

"Yes, unless the audio track is removed. This is the method used by the Super 35. You first use the Super 35's small spherical lens to shoot this set of subjective shots of the pilot. When we develop and print in the later stage, we can also use optical

The purge method is to use an optical printer equipped with an anamorphic lens to develop and print onto 35 film with a sound track."

"Really?" Ronald was overjoyed. It would be good to have a technical expert. "Take me to see it and let's do an experiment."


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