Widescreen images are images that are displayed within a set of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35 mm film.
35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width of the 35 mm format photographic film, which consists of strips 1.377 ± 0.001 inches (34.976 ± 0.025 mm) wide. The standard image exposure length on 35 mm for movies is four perforations per frame along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film.
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film; other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical film-making, or for low-budget motion pictures. It also existed as a popular amateur or home movie-making format for several decades, alongside 8 mm film and later Super 8 film. Eastman Kodak released the first 16 mm "outfit" in 1923, consisting of a camera, projector, tripod, screen and splicer, for $335. RCA-Victor introduced a 16 mm sound movie projector in 1932, and developed an optical sound-on-film 16 mm camera, released in 1935.
A camera is an optical instrument used to capture an image. At their most basic, cameras are sealed boxes with a small hole that allows light in to capture an image on a light-sensitive surface. Cameras have various mechanisms to control how the light falls onto the light-sensitive surface. Lenses focus the light entering the camera, the size of the aperture can be widened or narrowed to let more or less light into the camera, and a shutter mechanism determines the amount of time the photo-sensitive surface is exposed to the light.
A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. While there are still dedicated digital cameras, many more cameras are now incorporated into mobile devices like smartphones, which can, among many other purposes, use their cameras to initiate live video-telephony and directly edit and upload images to others. High-end, high-definition dedicated cameras are still commonly used by professionals and those who desire to take higher-quality photographs.
Telecine is the process of transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on film stock, to be viewed with standard video equipment, such as television sets, video cassette recorders (VCR), DVD, Blu-ray Disc or computers. Initially, this allowed television broadcasters to produce programmes using film, usually 16mm stock, but transmit them in the same format, and quality, as other forms of television production. Furthermore, telecine allows film producers, television producers and film distributors working in the film industry to release their products on video and allows producers to use video production equipment to complete their filmmaking projects. Within the film industry, it is also referred to as a TK, because TC is already used to designate timecode. Motion picture film scanners are similar to telecines.
A movie camera, film camera or cine-camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on an image sensor or on a film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images; each image constitutes a "frame". This is accomplished through an intermittent mechanism. The frames are later played back in a movie projector at a specific speed, called the frame rate. While viewing at a particular frame rate, a person's eyes and brain merge the separate pictures to create the illusion of motion.
Negative pulldown is the manner in which an image is exposed on a film stock, described in the number of film perforations spanned by an individual frame. It can also describe the orientation of the image on the negative, whether it is captured horizontally or vertically. Changing the number of exposed perforations allows a cinematographer to change both the aspect ratio of the image and the size of the area on the film stock that the image occupies.
Film look is a process in which video images are altered in overall appearance to appear to have been shot on film stock. The process is usually electronic, although filmizing can sometimes occur as an unintentional by-product of some optical techniques, such as telerecording. The effect is the exact opposite of a process called VidFIRE.
CineAlta cameras are a series of professional digital movie cameras produced by Sony that replicate many of the same features of 35mm film motion picture cameras.
Aaton Digital is a French motion picture equipment manufacturer, based in Grenoble, France.
Techniscope or 2-perf is a 35 mm motion picture camera film format introduced by Technicolor Italia in 1960. The Techniscope format uses a two film-perforation negative pulldown per frame, instead of the standard four-perforation frame usually exposed in 35 mm film photography. Techniscope's 2.33:1 aspect ratio is easily cropped to the 2.39:1 widescreen ratio, because it uses half the amount of 35 mm film stock and standard spherical lenses. Thus, Techniscope release prints are made by anamorphosizing and enlarging each frame by a factor of two.
Super 35 is a motion picture film format that uses exactly the same film stock as standard 35 mm film, but puts a larger image frame on that stock by using the space normally reserved for the optical analog sound track.
The Genesis is Panavision's high-end digital movie camera, which uses a proprietary, full frame 35 mm-width, 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio, 12.4-megapixel, RGB filtered CCD. It was first used by a feature crew to shoot Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and was shortly followed up thereafter by the World War I film Flyboys. However, the CG-heavy nature of these two movies meant that ultimately the comedy Scary Movie 4 was the first theatrically released feature sourced primarily from the Genesis camera.
A motion picture film scanner is a device used in digital filmmaking to scan original film for storage as high-resolution digital intermediate files.
Arri PL is a lens mount developed by Arri for use with both 16 mm and 35 mm movie cameras. The PL stands for "positive lock". It is the successor mount to the Arri bayonet; unlike the bayonet mount, however, it is incompatible with older Arri-mount lenses, due to the larger diameter.
Spirit DataCine is a telecine and/or a motion picture film scanner. This device is able to transfer 16mm and 35mm motion picture film to NTSC or PAL television standards or one of many High-definition television standards. With the data transfer option a Spirit DataCine can output DPX data files. The image pick up device is a solid state charge-coupled device. This eliminated the need for glass vacuum tube CRTs used on older telecines. The units can transfer negative film, primetime, intermediate film and print film, stock. One option is a Super 8 gate for the transfer of Super 8 mm film. With a sound pick up option, optical 16mm and 35mm sound can be reproduced, also 16mm magnetic strip sound. The unit can operate stand alone or be controlled by a scene by scene color corrector. Ken Burns created The Civil War, a short documentary film included in the DVD release, on how he used the Spirit DataCine to transfer and remaster this film. The operator of the unit is called a Colorist or Colorist Assistant. The Spirit DataCine has become the standard for high-end real-time film transfer and scanning. Over 370 units are used in post production facilities around the world. Most current film productions are transferred on Spirit DataCines for TV, Digital television, Cable television, Satellite television, Direct-to-video, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, pay-per-view, In-flight entertainment, Stock footage, Dailies, Film preservation, digital intermediate and digital cinema. The Spirit DataCine is made by DFT Digital Film Technology GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany.
The Nikon D3S is a 12.1-megapixel professional-grade full frame (35mm) digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) announced by Nikon Corporation on 14 October 2009. The D3S is the fourth camera in Nikon's line to feature a full-frame sensor, following the D3, D700 and D3X. It is also Nikon's first full-frame camera to feature HD (720p/30) video recording. While it retains the same number of pixels as its predecessor, the imaging sensor has been completely redesigned. Nikon claims improved ultra-high image sensor sensitivity with up to ISO 102400, HD movie capability for extremely low-lit situations, image sensor cleaning, optimized workflow speed, improved autofocus and metering, enhanced built-in RAW processor, quiet shutter-release mode, up to 4,200 frames per battery charge and other changes compared with the D3. It was replaced by the D4 as Nikon's high speed flagship DSLR.
The Ciné-Kodak was the first 16mm camera, introduced in 1923 by the Eastman Kodak Company. It was intended to be used for home movie making.