Introducing a new ultra-wide native film/digital hybrid format called UltraPan8

F

freedom4kids

New member
The emerging popularity of 1.33:1 televison in the late 1940s and early 1950s spurred tremendous development in ultrawide motion picture technology. Its zenith best represented by the stupendous Cinerama and Cinemascope film based formats.


I would like to expand upon these spectacular ultrawide antecedents with the introduction of UltraPan8. Originated on film but scanned, edited and projected digitally.


It is a new ultrawide native spherical film format utilizing modified 8/16mm cameras and the entire 16mm width of 2 perf regular 8mm motion picture film with R8mm pulldown.


It's native gate dimensions are 10.52mm x 3.75mm with an aspect ratio of 2.8:1. This is wider than Cinemascope at 2.39:1 and a bit smaller than Cinerama's 2.87:1 aspect ratio. UltraPan8 represents a 39% increase in imaging area over Super 8 film and a respective 113% increase over regular 8mm film.


Standard 16mm optics provide optically centered full frame coverage.


Key design principals were the interchangeable film transports of the Bolex H8/H16 cameras and the historical engineering of both 8mm and 16mm film formats sharing identical perforation dimensions.


One of the design intents was freedom from bulky 16mm Cinemascope anamorphic projector lens setups. Here are some examples of previous ideas and testing for comparison purposes, i.e.


1. My original design for a potential adapter setup which was never implemented, i.e
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90929958@N00/423625964/in/photostream/


2. Anamorphic test shot utilizing 16mm anamorphic projector lens + stepdown ring + Beaulieu 4008. Cinematography by Justin Lovell,i.e.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrvQCV2kfn4


The camera was modified by Jean-Louis Seguin and includes a native 2.8:1 UltraPan8 viewfinder with a Cinemascope 2.4:1 mask. We have located a native UltraPan8 projector in the UK and are contemplating a HTI/Osram lamp plus ballast conversion.


The 8 bit digital overscanned files of the inaugral test roll were provided by John Gledhill of bitworks.org utilizing his sprocketless 16mm transfer bay in conjunction with a linear 12 bit imaging camera w/ 14 bit mask.


The digital deliverables included, i.e.


1. Sequential 8 bit JPEGS. Full and half resolution. No color correction applied albeit some gamma.
2. 1700x600 DIVX file.
3. 700x250 DVCPRO file.


Here are some sample frameshotsof the overscanned final output 8 bit JPEGS, i.e.


1. http://db.tt/mOoaVKp
2. http://db.tt/yQvrul9
3. http://db.tt/JSbM3IC
4. http://db.tt/qXFY2mJ
5. http://db.tt/kAhNgUU


Here are MPEG4 links to the 1700x600 DIVX file. I have added music/credits to the unedited raw footage but I have decided to display the test roll in its entirety, blemishes and all, i.e.


YouTube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJHso5-F6WM
Vimeo = http://vimeo.com/27074208


Here is an example of a recent edited UltraPan8 "sketch" utilizing Sony Vegas 10c, i.e. http://vimeo.com/27905787.


Although this was my first time filming with a Bolex I could not wipe the perpetual grin of my face as I shot this test roll, that being the fact of native UltraPan8 in the palm of my hand...a tad lighter than Kubrick's handheld 25 pound 65mm camera shots in 2001! In fact 2001 is THE original inspiration with its gorgeous 65mm Cinemascope cinematography.


Why not re-introduce film originated spectacle in these digital times? There will be forthcoming updates regarding additional footage and an inspiring academic paper detailing the important historical engineering modifications of the UK based WideScreen Association.

A DCP file has also been created and tested in a commercial cinema house.




"From the heavens sprung such images."
 
Do they even make 8mm film or cameras anymore?
I mean film is pretty much dead, 8mm is simply too low-res for today - 20 years ago this project might have made sense but now.....
 
Looking at the Kodak website, they don't offer Double-8mm film anymore. It would be easier to shoot Super-16, and mask off a bit from top and bottom to get the extreme wide format. (But looking at the prices of film today, I'll stick with video.)
 
Both Regular 8mm Ektachrome 100D and Plus-X (B/W) reversal are available from LIFT (http://lift.ca/equipment/store) in 25 ft lengths. They recently purchased the 6000ft minimum Kodak order and can also roll down 100ft lengths or greater if needed. They are the largest sellers of R8, S8 stock in Canada peaking at 500 rolls per week in summer now averaging 100-200/week in the fall.

In the US contact John Schwind, i.e. http://www.zerelda.com/internationalfilm/internationalfilm.html

Some recent Toronto stats. Sarah Polley recently wrapped up her new feature film in Toronto and they shot over 900x 50ft Super 8 film cartridges of E100D on two precision Leicina Special S8 cameras (Leitz). They had exhausted Kodak Canada's local supply and LIFT ended up supplementing their stock needs.

A retired engineer named Edward Nowill <edwardnowill@talktalk.net> will re-perforate any standard 2 perf 16mm stock into 2 perf Regular 8mm, e.g. Fuji 64, Kodak Vision3 500T, etc.

The demand for small format stock has surged globally.
 
Ken,

Masking Super 16mm to produce an equivalent aspect ratio = 2.8:1 is sub-optimal resulting in only 40x UltraPan8 frames per 16mm foot. The native UltraPan8 format produces 80x UltraPan8 frames per 16mm foot due to the 8mm pulldown effectively doubling shooting capacity.

Film stock costs are no longer the final determinate cost in professional HD video productions. Extensive post color correction and other methods to minimize artifacts regarding HD ingestion negates the original cost of film stock.

I am of the opinion that the discipline required to shot shorter rolls of film results in best efforts to maximize quality of one's cinematography. The ability to shoot many hours of HD video has diluted this classic equation, e.g. very few digital artists utilize external light meters to create supplemental lighting setups.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top