Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 591 Anamorphic widescreen

Jeffrey L. Kimball is a middle-aged photographer with messy hair. He has a mustache and big clear plastic glasses. He speaks very organized and logical.

"Anamorphic widescreen has a unique temperament. I am watching some old films to learn the shooting skills of this type of film. Can you teach me anything?" Ronald asked him.

"Anamorphic widescreen has something that viewers call 'cinematic', but that's just a misunderstanding of some filmmakers. The so-called 'cinematic' is actually just some flaws of anamorphic widescreen lenses. The optical technology at that time used anamorphic Lenses can cause serious distortions, so directors and DPs often use tricks to mask them in order to avoid them.

Over time, audiences are familiar with and accustomed to blockbuster movies with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and they always have some special feelings, so they default to the way commercial blockbusters will be shot, which is the so-called 'movie feel'. "

"Very good, I can understand what you said, but I can't understand what the previous candidates said." Ronald smiled at Kimball.This technical expert-type candidate for photography director seems to be the most suitable for him.

"Let's find a time when the time comes, and you tell me all the taboos about using anamorphic widescreen."

"Actually, the lens distortion is much better now. It's nothing more than that when the actors enter and exit the frame, they should be careful not to step on the corner of the lens distortion. And when the camera is pushed, pulled and panned, don't go too fast. There is also anamorphic width. The screen shots have a more dramatic horizontal stretching effect on the actors, and those actors who are not very thin should not take close-ups of their faces."

"Okay, we'll talk then." Ronald and Kimball shook hands and sent off the expert, who was so willing to share his knowledge.

This spirit of sharing made Ronald feel good.Kimball's temperament is similar to that of his mentor Walter Murch, and he has the spirit of an old-fashioned hippie.

"How?" Bruckheimer, one of the producers, came over and asked Ronald, the candidate for the director of photography.

"Just him," Ronald nodded, agreeing to choose Kimball as the director of photography.The main reason for choosing this middle-aged man who doesn't have much experience in directing cinematographic cinematography is for Ronald's sake.

This was the first time Ronald had shot a 2.35:1 anamorphic film, which required the cooperation of an expert director of photography who was familiar with the situation.Kimball has worked in various positions such as lab technician, negative film editor, stills photographer, second group director of photography, etc., and is familiar with anamorphic widescreen shooting, printing, and editing.

As for the artistic grasp, the two producers are very convinced of the texture of the Saab commercial shot by Ronald, and believe that there is no one in Hollywood who is 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 50s in order to resist the competition from televisions.In order to attract audiences to the cinema, Hollywood at that time made 3D movies, but the effect was not good, and the audience did not buy it.

Panavision, on the other hand, took a different approach and created a widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35 to 1. Obviously, audiences have a better acceptance of this kind of screen spectacle that can be seen without glasses.They were able to see a wider picture on the screen than in old-fashioned movies.

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

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

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

"Okay then, let's make Kimball. If Don doesn't object, I'll go watch David Lean's movie."

"Or go to Spielberg's?"

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

Spielberg began to take a vacation. He is often busy and has a rare opportunity to go to a foreign country for vacation with his fiancée.

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

Spielberg is a fan of David Lean, and David Lean has always shot 2.35 to 1 anamorphic widescreen. Watching the creation of the master can let Ronald learn a lot of anamorphic widescreen skills .

Christopher Columbus waits for Ronald in his studio next to Universal Studios Spielberg.He was responsible for the security of the copy, and cameo projectionist, showing Ronald the film.

"Are you working on a new film again?" Ronald dragged Columbus to go to the screening room at the back, and went with him.The two were good friends, and it was inappropriate for him to be a projectionist, so they simply went to the projection hall to chat and watch.

"Yes, the last movie I wrote in Amberlin is already shooting." Columbus was very happy with Ronald's friendly gesture, and vomited a lot of bitterness to Ronald.

After writing two films, "Gremlins" and "Young Holmes," Columbus was unappreciated by Amblin's manager, Kathleen Kennedy, who was assigned another screenwriting job, It's "The Goonies" being filmed

This is another children's adventure story. Columbus racked his brains to come up with a lot of plots that are different from Little Monsters, and he wrote this movie very interestingly.

But he didn't get the chance to direct, and An Bolin also gave him the job of screenwriting.This made Columbus feel dissatisfied. It happened that he was unhappy living in Los Angeles, and he thought about returning to his hometown in New York.

"You have to know that An Bolin is a small studio, and they can't take risks. Since you have shown a very good talent as a screenwriter, their safest way is to let you continue to be a screenwriter. But your talent will be People have seen it, I think someone from the seven major studios is already thinking about you, giving you the opportunity to independently direct a small-budget film."

Ronald admires Columbus very much. It is very difficult to write a good screenplay for children's movies. This may be the reason why Amberlin is 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, so there is no chance. Besides, I have nothing here. Friends, parties are loud and noisy, and I want to go back to New York and find a job where I can be quiet, plus my wife wants to go back to New York."

Ronald had to pat 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 that this is the movie that gave him the idea of ​​being a director. You'd better go to the screening room and watch it. I'll come over 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 thinking into the historical story." Ronald began to look at the screen. "Lawrence of Arabia" is a blockbuster imitation of classical drama, with a five-minute break in between.

"I borrowed these movies mainly because Lean made a lot of anamorphic wide-screen movies. I'll learn about them." After the intermission, Ronald chatted with Columbus who sat in front.

"That's right, I've watched it many times. Amberlin is also the latest 'The Goonies', and only started to use anamorphic widescreen. The previous ET, and the little monsters are all 1.85. You see, the framing is actually very interesting. This There are close-ups of three characters in a row in the shot."

Columbus pointed to the lens on the screen. Generally, the 1.85 widescreen is full of three close-ups of characters, but the 2.35 anamorphic widescreen still has more than one-third of the blank space.

Ronald nodded, and remembered this knowledge. Since the anamorphic widescreen is claimed to be specially developed for the spectacle of the screen, we must remember to give the audience enough spectacle.In his notebook, he made a few strokes of the rear of a fighter jet, and then drew a much longer flame behind the engine.The composition here can actually open up some patterns.

……

"Actually, I've seen you a long time ago," Kimball followed Ronald to the Navy's Miramar base after signing on as the director of photography for "Top Gun" to check out the camera modified by Grumman on the Tomcat fighter jet lens.

"Oh, how do you say it?" Ronald couldn't remember seeing this person before.

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

"Hahaha..." Ronald laughed a little awkwardly, and Kimball saw the scene where he was jealous.

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

"Yeah, what do you think of the heroine McGillis's performance in front of the anamorphic camera?" Fortunately, Kimball is a technology freak, and the conversation always revolves around technology.

"She is very good, but not all angles are suitable. Her right face is more suitable for the scene, and the view is slightly sideways, which is also in line with the shooting characteristics of the anamorphic wide screen lens. It happens that Tom Cruise's left face is more photogenic. They shot Couple scenes are the most suitable, they won’t steal the other’s limelight, and they will be in harmony. If you find two stars whose more photogenic faces are in the same direction, it will be bad.”

The two discussed the technical details all the way to the tarmac.There, Grumman's engineers were waiting for Ronald to come over and accept the modification project.

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

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

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

Ronald hurried to the ladder with Grumman's engineer and asked Kimball in the cockpit, "What's going on?"

"Look," Kimball twisted his body left and right, "the space in the cockpit is very small, and your camera can't fit here. We may not be able to shoot 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 worked." The engineer took out the modified drawing and pointed it at the camera in the back seat of the cockpit. Space, explain to the two of them. "

"We are using anamorphic wide-screen lenses." Ronald's face was gloomy. He did not have a strong technical background and forgot the super-large size of anamorphic wide-screen lenses.

Anamorphic wide-screen negatives, or 35mm normal film color film.In order to produce the 2.35:1 super widescreen effect on the negative, the equipped camera lens will create a distorted picture.

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

Therefore, the anamorphic lenses are all aspheric lens groups, and the volume is much larger than the normal 1.85 wide-screen spherical lens, which cannot fit in the cockpit at all.

"What should I do? How about you shoot this air combat lens with a normal lens, and then zoom in to 2.35 when printing?" The engineer suggested.

"That won't work. The distortion of the anamorphic lens is very unique, and its focus is also different from that of a normal spherical lens. The audience can tell the difference at a glance. There is going to be a play here." Ronald patted on the chair in the cockpit .

The engineer just modified according to Ronald's ideas, and the director of photography is the person who understands photography most deeply from the overall level.

Ronald looked at Kimball.If he was allowed to join earlier and start to take charge of the technical issues 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 spherical lenses on 35mm film to shoot and store shots with an aspect ratio of 2.35."

"Is this impossible?" Ronald looked at Kimball, "There is a synchronous audio track next to the 35mm film, and the width that can really be used to store images is narrower than that of the film, and it cannot fit a 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 small spherical lens of the Super 35 to shoot the subjective shots of this set of pilots. When we are post-printing, we can also use optical The method of purging, using an optical printer equipped with an anamorphic lens, is developed and printed on 35 film with an audio track."

"Really?" Ronald was overjoyed. It would be nice to have a technical expert, "Take me to have a look, let's experiment once."

(End of this chapter)