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35 mm film



 
 
35 mm film is the basic film gauge
Film gauge

Film gauge is a physical property of film stock which defines its width. Traditionally the major film gauges in usage are 8 mm film, 16 mm film, 35 mm film, and 70 mm film ....
 most commonly used for both still photography
Photography

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an ....
 and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson
William Dickson (film pioneer)

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was anEngland-Scottish inventor who devised an early film movie camera under the employ of Thomas Edison ....
 and Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb....
, using film stock
Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which Film are shot and reproduced....
 supplied by George Eastman
George Eastman

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of the film stock in 1888 by world's first filmmaker, Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers L?on Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumi?re Brothers and Georges M?li?s....
. The photographic film
Photographic film

Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and of the film....
 is cut into strips 35 millimeters (about 1 3/8 inches) wide — hence the name.






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Anamorphic Digital Sound
35 mm film is the basic film gauge
Film gauge

Film gauge is a physical property of film stock which defines its width. Traditionally the major film gauges in usage are 8 mm film, 16 mm film, 35 mm film, and 70 mm film ....
 most commonly used for both still photography
Photography

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an ....
 and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson
William Dickson (film pioneer)

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was anEngland-Scottish inventor who devised an early film movie camera under the employ of Thomas Edison ....
 and Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb....
, using film stock
Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which Film are shot and reproduced....
 supplied by George Eastman
George Eastman

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of the film stock in 1888 by world's first filmmaker, Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers L?on Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumi?re Brothers and Georges M?li?s....
. The photographic film
Photographic film

Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and of the film....
 is cut into strips 35 millimeters (about 1 3/8 inches) wide — hence the name. The standard negative pulldown
Negative pulldown

Negative pulldown is a characteristic of motion picture film formats. It refers to the number of film perforations that each film frame occupies, as well as whether they are pulled horizontally or vertically....
 for movies ("single-frame" format) is four perforations
Film perforations

Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film....
 per frame
Film frame

A film frame, or just frame, is one of the many single photographys in a film. The individual frames are separated by frame lines. Normally, 24 frames are needed for one second of film....
 along both edges, which makes for exactly 16 frames per foot (for stills, the standard frame is eight perforations).

A wide variety of largely proprietary gauges were used by the numerous camera and projection systems invented independently in the late 19th century and early 20th century, ranging from 13 mm to 75 mm (0.51–2.95 in). 35 mm was eventually recognized as the international standard gauge in 1909, and has remained by far the dominant film gauge for image origination and projection despite threats from smaller and larger gauges, and from novel formats, because its size allows for a relatively good tradeoff between the cost of the film stock
Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which Film are shot and reproduced....
 and the quality of the images captured. The ubiquity of 35 mm movie projector
Movie projector

A movie projector is an optics-mechanics device for displaying Film by projecting them on a movie screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras....
s in commercial movie theater
Movie theater

A movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing film ....
s makes it the only motion picture format, film or video, that can be played in almost any cinema in the world.

The gauge is remarkably versatile in application. In the past one hundred years, it has been modified to include sound, redesigned to create a safer film base
Film base

A film base is a Transparency substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock....
, formulated to capture color, has accommodated a bevy of widescreen formats, and has incorporated digital sound data into nearly all of its non-frame areas. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational corporation public company which produces imaging and photography materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing....
 and Fujifilm
Fujifilm

is a Japanese company known for its photographic film and cameras. Fujifilm is the world?s largest photographic and imaging company . Fuji operates 223 subsidiary companies for research, manufacture and distribution of products, with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and the United States of America....
 have held a duopoly
Duopoly

A true duopoly is a specific type of oligopoly where only two producers exist in one market. In reality, this definition is generally used where only two firms have dominant control over a market....
 in the manufacture of 35 mm motion picture film.

Early history


In 1880, George Eastman
George Eastman

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of the film stock in 1888 by world's first filmmaker, Louis Le Prince, and a decade later by his followers L?on Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumi?re Brothers and Georges M?li?s....
 began to manufacture gelatin
Gelatin

Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and mostly bones. It has been commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceutical, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing....
 dry photographic plates in Rochester
Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, New York State, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area....
, New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
. Along with W. H. Walker, Eastman invented a holder for a roll of picture-carrying gelatin layer coated paper. Hannibal Goodwin
Hannibal Goodwin

The Reverend Hannibal Goodwin , an Episcopal Church in the United States of America priest at the House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey patented a method for making transparent, flexible roll film out of nitrocellulose film base, which was used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, an early machine for viewing animation....
's invention of nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent....
 film base
Film base

A film base is a Transparency substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock....
 in 1887 was the first transparent, flexible film; the following year, Emile Reynaud developed the first perforated
Film perforations

Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film....
 film stock. Eastman was the first major company, however, to mass-produce these components, when in 1889 Eastman realized that the dry-gelatino-bromide emulsion
Emulsion

An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids. One liquid is dispersion in the other . Many emulsions are oil/water emulsions, with dietary fats being one common type of oil encountered in everyday life....
 could be coated onto this clear base, eliminating the paper.

With the advent of flexible film, Thomas Alva Edison quickly set out on his invention, the Kinetoscope
Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope is an early film exhibition device. Though not a movie projector?it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components?the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it creates the illusi...
, which was first shown at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on May 9, 1893. The Kinetoscope was a film loop system intended for one-person viewing. Edison, along with assistant W. K. L. Dickson, followed that up with the Kinetophone
Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope is an early film exhibition device. Though not a movie projector?it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components?the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it creates the illusi...
, which combined the Kinetoscope with Edison's cylinder phonograph
Phonograph

The record player, phonograph or gramophone was the most common device for playing Sound recording and reproduction sound from the 1870s through the 1980s....
. Beginning in March 1892, Eastman and then, from April 1893 into 1896, New York's Blair Camera Co. supplied Edison with 1 9/16–inch filmstock that would be trimmed and perforated at the Edison lab to create 35 mm gauge filmstrips (at some point in 1894 or 1895, Blair began sending stock to Edison that was cut exactly to specification). Edison's aperture defined a single frame of film at 4 perforations high. Edison claimed exclusive patent rights to his design of 35 mm motion picture film, with four sprocket holes per frame, forcing his only major filmmaking competitor, American Mutoscope & Biograph
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short films and twelve feature films....
, to use a 68 mm film that used friction feed, not sprocket holes, to move the film through the camera. A court judgment in March 1902 invalidated Edison's claim, allowing any producer or distributor to use the Edison 35 mm film design without license. Filmmakers were already doing so in Britain and Europe, where Edison had failed to file patents. A variation developed by the Lumière Brothers used a single circular perforation on each side of the frame towards the middle of the horizontal axis. It was Edison's format, however, that became first the de facto standard and then, in 1909, the "official" standard of the newly formed Motion Picture Patents Company
Motion Picture Patents Company

The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film, Eastman Kodak....
, a trust
Trust (19th century)

A special trust or business trust is a business entity formed with intent to Monopoly business, to Restraint of trade, or to Price fixing....
 established by Edison. Scholar Paul C. Spehr describes the importance of these developments:

The film format was introduced into still photography as early as 1913 (the Tourist Multiple) but first became popular with the launch of the Leica camera, created by Oskar Barnack
Oskar Barnack

Oskar Barnack was a German people precision mechanic and industrial designer.Between 1913 and 1914 he was head of development of the camera company Leitz in Wetzlar, Hesse, Germany....
 in 1925.

Amateur interest

The petrochemical
Petrochemical

Petrochemicals are chemical products made from raw materials of petroleum or other hydrocarbon origin. Although some of the chemical compounds that originate from petroleum may also be derived from coal and natural gas, petroleum is the major source....
 and silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
 compounds necessary for the creation of film stock meant from the start that 35 mm filmmaking was to be an expensive hobby with a high barrier to entry for the public at large. Furthermore, the nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent....
 film base
Film base

A film base is a Transparency substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock....
 of all early film stock was dangerous and highly flammable, creating considerable risk for those not accustomed to the precautions necessary in its handling. Birt Acres
Birt Acres

Birt Acres , born in Richmond, Virginia, Virginia, United States of English parents was a photographer and film pioneer.He was the inventor of the first British 35 mm moving picture camera, the first daylight loading home movies camera and Movie projector, Birtac, was the first travelling newsreel reporter in international film history...
 was the first to attempt an amateur format, creating Birtac in 1898 by slitting the film into 17.5 mm widths. By the early 1920s, several formats had successfully split the amateur market away from 35 mm — namely 28 mm
28 mm film

28 mm film was introduced by the Path? Film Company in 1912 under the name Path? Kok. Geared toward the home market, 28 mm utilized cellulose diacetate film stock rather than the flammable nitrocellulose commonly used in 35 mm film....
 (1.1 in) (1912), 9.5 mm
9.5 mm film

9.5 mm film is an amateur film format introduced by Path? Fr?res in 1922 as part of the Path? Baby amateur film system. It was conceived initially as an inexpensive format to provide copies of commercially-made films to home users, although a simple camera was released shortly afterwards....
 (0.37 in) (1922), 16 mm (0.63 in) (1923), and Pathe Rural, a 17.5 mm format designed for safety film (1926). Eastman Kodak's 16 mm format won the amateur market and is still widely in use today, mainly in the Super 16 variation which remains very popular with professional filmmakers. The 16 mm size was specifically chosen to prevent third-party slitting, as it was very easy to create 17.5 mm stock from slitting 35 mm stock in two. It also was the first major format to be released with only non-flammable cellulose diacetate (and later cellulose triacetate
Cellulose triacetate

Cellulose triacetate, also known simply as triacetate, is manufactured from cellulose and acetate. Triacetate is typically used for the creation of fibres and film base....
) "safety film" base. This amateur market would be further diversified by the introduction of 8 mm film
8 mm film

File:8 mm film types.jpg8 mm film is a film film formats in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8mm or double 8mm, and Super 8 mm film....
 (0.31 in) in 1932, intended for amateur filmmaking and "home movies". By law, both 16 mm and 8 mm gauge stock (as well as 35 mm films intended for non-theatrical use) had to be manufactured on safety stock. The effect of these gauges was to essentially make the 35 mm gauge almost the exclusive province of professional filmmakers, a divide which mostly remains to this day.

How film works


Inside the photographic emulsion are millions of light-sensitive silver halide
Silver halide

A silver halide is one of the Chemical compound formed between silver and one of the halogens — silver bromide , silver chloride , silver iodide , and two forms of silver fluorides....
 crystals. Each crystal is a compound of silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
 plus a halogen
Halogen

|}The halogens or halogen elements are a chemical series of nonmetal chemical element from Periodic table group International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry of the periodic table, comprising fluorine, F; chlorine, Cl; bromine, Br; iodine, I; and astatine, At....
 (such as bromine
Bromine

Bromine , , meaning "stench " ), is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. A halogen element, bromine is a reddish-brown Volatility liquid at Standard conditions for temperature and pressure that is intermediate in reactivity between chlorine and iodine....
, iodine
Iodine

Iodine , is a chemical element that has the symbol I and atomic number 53. Naturally-occurring iodine is a single isotope with 74 neutrons....
 or chlorine
Chlorine

Chlorine...
) held together in a cubical arrangement by electrical attraction. When the crystal is struck with light, free-moving silver ions build up a small collection of uncharged atoms. These small bits of silver, too small to even be visible under a microscope, are the beginning of a latent image
Latent image

A latent image on photographic film is an invisible image produced by the exposure of the film to light. When the film is Photographic processing, the area that was exposed darkens and forms a visible image....
. Developing
Photographic processing

Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and photographic paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive ....
 chemicals use the latent image specks to build up density, an accumulation of enough metallic silver to create a visible image.

35mm Undevel
The emulsion is attached to the film base
Film base

A film base is a Transparency substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majority of the thickness of any given film stock....
 with a transparent adhesive called the subbing layer. Below the base is an undercoat called the antihalation backing, which usually contains absorber dyes or a thin layer of silver or carbon (called rem-jet on color negative stocks). Without this coating, bright points of light would penetrate the emulsion, reflect off the inner surface of the base, and reexpose the emulsion, creating a halo around these bright areas. The antihalation backing can also serve to reduce static buildup, which was a significant problem with old black and white films. The film, which runs through the camera at per second, could build up enough static electricity to actually cause a spark bright enough to expose the film; antihalation backing solved this problem. Color films have three layers of silver halide emulsions to separately record the red, green, and blue information. For every silver halide grain there is a matching color coupler grain. The top layer contains blue-sensitive emulsion, followed by a yellow filter to cancel out blue light; after this comes a green sensitive layer followed by a red sensitive layer.

Just as in black-and-white
Black-and-white

Black-and-white is a number of monochrome forms in visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses....
, the first step in color development converts exposed silver halide grains into metallic silver – except that an equal amount of color dye will be formed as well. The color couplers in the blue-sensitive layer will form yellow dye during processing, the green layer will form magenta dye and the red layer will form cyan dye. A bleach step will convert the metallic silver back into silver halide, which is then removed along with the unexposed silver halide in the fixer and wash steps, leaving only color dyes.

In the 1980s Eastman Kodak invented the T-Grain
Tabular-grain film

Tabular-grain film is a type of photographic film that includes Kodak T-MAX films from Kodak , Ilford Delta films from Ilford Photo and the Fujifilm Neopan films....
, a synthetically manufactured silver halide grain that had a larger, flat surface area and allowed for greater light sensitivity in a smaller, thinner grain. Thus Kodak was able to break the problem of higher speed (greater light sensitivity — see film speed
Film speed

Film speed is the measure of a photographic film sensitivity to light. Film with lower sensitivity requires a longer exposure and is thus called a slow film, while stock with higher sensitivity can shoot the same scene with a shorter exposure and is called a fast film....
) which required larger grain and therefore more "grainy
Film grain

Film grain or granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film due to the presence of small grains of a metallic silver developed from silver halide that have received enough photons....
" images. With T-Grain technology, Kodak refined the grain structure of all their "EXR" line of motion picture film stocks (which was eventually incorporated into their "MAX" still stocks). Fuji films followed suit with their own grain innovation, the tabular grain in their SUFG (Super Unified Fine Grain) SuperF negative stocks, which are made up of thin hexagonal tabular grains.

Other common types of photographic films


In addition to black & white and color negative films, there are black & white and color reversal films, which when developed create a positive ("natural") image that is projectable. There are also films sensitive to non-visible wavelengths of light, such as infrared
Infrared photography

In infrared photography, the film or used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the visible spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging....
.

Attributes


Color


Originally, film was a strip of cellulose nitrate coated with black-and-white photographic emulsion
Emulsion

An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids. One liquid is dispersion in the other . Many emulsions are oil/water emulsions, with dietary fats being one common type of oil encountered in everyday life....
. Early film pioneers, like D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark "D. W." Griffith was a premier pioneering Academy Award-winning American film director. He is best known as the director of the groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance ....
, color tinted or toned
Film tinting

Film tinting is the process of adding color to black and white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion....
 portions of their movies for dramatic impact, and by 1920, 80 to 90 percent of all films were tinted. The first successful natural color process was Britain's Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co....
 (1908–1914), a two-color additive process that used a rotating disk with red and green filters in front of the camera lens and the projector lens. But any process that photographed and projected the colors sequentially was subject to color "fringing" around moving objects, and a general color flickering.

In 1916, William Van Doren Kelley produced the first commercially successful American color system using 35 mm film called Prizma
Prizma

The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor....
. Initially a system that used frame sequential photography and projected through additive synthesis, Prizma was refined to bi-pack photography, with two strips of film (one sensitized for red and one for blue) threaded as one through the camera. The method of projection was also changed: each record was printed and processed on duplitized stock
Duplitized film

Duplitized film stock was a type of film available through various companies used in color photography and special effects. It was introduced in the early 1910s....
, creating a successful subtractive color process. This basic principle behind color photography set the standard for many later successful color formats, such as Multicolor
Multicolor

Multicolor is a Subtractive color natural color process for Film. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
, Brewster Color, and Cinecolor
Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
.

Although color was available for years prior, color in Hollywood feature films became popular with Technicolor
Technicolor

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
, whose main advantage was quality prints in shorter time than its competitors. In its earliest conception, Technicolor was a two-color system, recording red and green. 1922's Toll of the Sea was the first film printed in their subtractive color system. Unlike Kinemacolor, which recorded color frame-sequentially, Technicolor's camera recorded red and green frames simultaneously through a beam splitting prism onto one strip of film. Two prints on half-width stock were processed from this negative, and one was toned red, and the other toned green. The two strips were then cemented together, forming a single strip similar to duplitized film.

In 1928, Technicolor introduced imbibition printing (similar to lithography
Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface. By contrast, in intaglio a plate is engraving, etching or mezzotint to make cavities to contain the printing ink, and in woodblock printing and letterpress ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images....
) that streamlined the process. Using two matrices coated with hardened gelatin in a relief image, thicker where the image was darker, aniline color dyes were transferred onto a third, blank strip of film.

In 1934, William T. Crispinel and Alan M. Gundelfinger revived the Multicolor
Multicolor

Multicolor is a Subtractive color natural color process for Film. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
 process under the company name Cinecolor
Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
. Cinecolor enjoyed large success in animation and low-budget pictures, largely due to its inexpense and good image results. But while Cinecolor used the same duplitized stock method as Prizma and Multicolor, its main advantage was inventing processing machines that could do larger quantities of film in a shorter time.

Technicolor re-emerged with a three-color process for cartoons in 1932, and live action in 1934. Using a beam-splitter prism behind the lens, this camera incorporated three individual strips of black and white film, each one behind a filter of one of the primary colors
Primary Colors

Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics is a 1996 in literature novel by "Anonymity" ....
 (red, green and blue), allowing the full color spectrum to be recorded. A printing matrix with a hardened gelatin relief image was made from each negative, and the three matrices transferred color dye onto a blank film to create the print.

In 1950 Kodak announced the first Eastman color 35 mm negative film (along with a complementary positive film) that could record all three primary colors on the same strip of film. An improved version in 1952 was quickly adopted by Hollywood, making the use of tri-strip Technicolor cameras and bi-pack cameras (utilized in two-color systems such as Cinecolor
Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
) obsolete in color cinematography. This "monopack" structure is made up of three separate emulsion layers, one sensitive to red light, one to green and one to blue.

Safety film


Although Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational corporation public company which produces imaging and photography materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing....
 had first introduced acetate
Acetate

An acetate, or ethanoate, is either a salt or ester of acetic acid.In chemistry, the abbreviation Ac refers to the acetyl group. The anion and the functional group may be written as -OAc and AcO-, or OAc respectively....
-based film, it was far too brittle and prone to shrinkage, so the dangerously flammable nitrate-based cellulose films were generally used for motion picture camera and print films. In 1949 Kodak began replacing all of the nitrate-based
Nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent....
 films with the safer, more robust cellulose triacetate
Cellulose triacetate

Cellulose triacetate, also known simply as triacetate, is manufactured from cellulose and acetate. Triacetate is typically used for the creation of fibres and film base....
-based "Safety" films. In 1950 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures....
 awarded Kodak with a Scientific and Technical Academy Award (Oscar
Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers....
) for the safer triacetate stock. By 1952, all camera and projector films were triacetate-based. Most if not all film prints today are made from synthetic polyester
Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate ....
 safety base (which started replacing Triacetate film for prints in the early 1990s). Ironically, the downside of polyester
Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate ....
 film is that it is extremely strong, and, in case of a fault, will stretch and not break–potentially causing damage to the projector and ruining a fairly large stretch of film: 2–3 ft or ~2 sec. Also, polyester film will melt if exposed to the projector lamp for too long. Original camera negative
Original camera negative

The original camera negative is the film in a motion picture movie camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made....
 is still generally made on a triacetate base.

Common formats


See list of film formats
List of film formats

This list of film formats catalogues formats developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures, ranging from the Chronophotographe format from 1888, to mid-20th century formats such as the 1953 CinemaScope format, to more recent formats such as the 1992 IMAX#IMAX_HD format....
 for a comprehensive table of known formats


Academy format

In the conventional motion picture format, frames are four perforations tall, with an aspect ratio
Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements, such as the length and diameter of a rod....
 of about 1.37:1, 22 mm by 16 mm (0.866 in × 0.630 in). This is a derivation of the aspect ratio and frame size designated by Thomas Edison (24.89 mm by 18.67 mm or 0.980 in by 0.735 in) at the dawn of motion pictures, which was an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The first sound features were released in 1926–27, and while Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world's largest film producer of film and television.It is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York City....
 was using synchronized phonograph discs (sound-on-disc
Sound-on-disc

The term Sound-on-disc refers to a class of sound film processes utilizing a phonograph or other disc to record or playback sound in sync with a film....
), Fox placed the soundtrack in an optical record directly on the film (sound-on-film
Sound-on-film

Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture....
) on a strip between the sprocket holes and the image frame. "Sound-on-film" was soon adopted by the other Hollywood studios, resulting in an almost square image ratio.

In 1932, to restore a more rectangular image ratio, the picture was shrunk slightly vertically, with the line between frames thickened. Hence the frame became 22 mm by 16 mm (0.866 in by 0.630 in) with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This became known as the "Academy
Academy ratio

The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with negative pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although it was used as early as 1928....
" ratio, named so after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures....
. Since the 1950s the aspect ratio of theatrically released motion picture films has been 1.85:1 (1.66:1 in Europe) or 2.35:1 (2.40:1 after 1970), so the "Academy" ratio was relegated to usage primarily for television. The image area for "TV transmission" is slightly smaller than the full "Academy" ratio at 21 mm by 16 mm (0.816 in by 0.612 in), an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Hence the "Academy" ratio is often mistakenly referred to as having an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, referring to the TV transmitted area, instead of the actual 1.37:1 ratio of the full "Academy" area.

Widescreen

The commonly used anamorphic format uses a similar four-perf frame, but an anamorphic lens is used on both the camera and projector to produce a wider image, today with an aspect ratio of about 2.39 (more commonly referred to as 2.40:1. The ratio was 2.35:1 — and is still quite often mistakenly referred to as such — until a SMPTE revision of projection standards in 1970). The image, as recorded on the negative and print, is horizontally compressed (squeezed) by a factor of 2.

Film Frames Nba
The unexpected success of the Cinerama
Cinerama

Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146? of arc....
 widescreen process in 1952 led to a boom in film format
Film format

A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film, for either stills or movies....
 innovations in order to compete with the growing audiences of television and the dwindling audiences in movie theaters. These processes could give theatergoers an experience that television couldn't-- color, stereophonic sound and panoramic vision. Before the end of the year, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, or simply Fox, is one of the six Worldwide major film studios....
 had narrowly "won" a race to obtain an anamorphic optical system invented by Henri Chrétien
Henri Chrétien

Henri Jacques Chr?tien was a France astronomer and an inventor.Born in Paris, France, his most famous invention is the anamorphic widescreen process, that resulted in CinemaScope, and the co-invention of the Ritchey-Chr?tien telescope type of astronomical telescope....
, and soon began promoting the Cinemascope
CinemaScope

CinemaScope was a widescreen movie format used from 1953 to 1967. Anamorphices allowed the process to project film up to a 2.66:1 Aspect ratio , almost twice as wide as the conventional format of 1.37:1....
 technology as early as the production phase.

Looking for a similar alternative, other major studios hit upon a simpler, less expensive solution by April 1953: using a removable aperture plate in the film projector gate, the top and bottom of the frame could be cropped to create a wider aspect ratio. Paramount Studios began this trend with their aspect ratio of 1.66:1, first used in Shane, which was originally shot for Academy ratio
Academy ratio

The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with negative pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although it was used as early as 1928....
. It was Universal Studios, however, with their May release of Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay (film)

Thunder Bay is a 1953 in film United States adventure film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western movie collaboration....
 that introduced the now standard 1.85:1 format to American audiences and brought attention to the industry the capability and low cost of equipping theaters for this transition.

Other studios followed suit with aspect ratios of 1.75:1 up to 2:1. For a time, these various ratios were used by different studios in different productions, but by 1956, the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 became the "standard" US format. These flat films are photographed with the full Academy frame
Academy ratio

The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with negative pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although it was used as early as 1928....
, but are matted (most often with a mask in the theater projector, not in the camera) to obtain the "wide" aspect ratio. This standard, in some European nations, became 1.66:1 instead of 1.85:1, although some productions with pre-determined American distributors compose for the latter in order to appeal to US markets.

In September 1953, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, or simply Fox, is one of the six Worldwide major film studios....
 debuted CinemaScope
CinemaScope

CinemaScope was a widescreen movie format used from 1953 to 1967. Anamorphices allowed the process to project film up to a 2.66:1 Aspect ratio , almost twice as wide as the conventional format of 1.37:1....
 with their production of The Robe
The Robe (film)

The Robe is a 1953 in film Bible epic film that tells the story of a Roman Empire military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus....
 to great success. CinemaScope became the first marketable usage of an anamorphic widescreen process and became the basis for a host of "formats," usually suffixed with -scope, that were otherwise identical in specification, although sometimes inferior in optical quality. (Some developments, such as SuperScope and Techniscope
Techniscope

Techniscope or 2-Perf is a 35mm motion picture camera film format introduced by Technicolor Italia in 1963. The Techniscope format uses a two film-film perforations negative pulldown per frame, instead of the standard four-perforation frame usually exposed in 35mm film photography....
, however, were truly entirely different formats.) By the early 1960s, however, Panavision
Panavision

Panavision is a motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and photographic lens, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California....
 would eventually solve many of the Cinemascope lenses' technical limitations with their own lenses, and by 1967, Cinemascope was retired in favor of Panavision and other third-party manufacturers.

The 1950s and 1960s saw many other novel processes utilizing 35 mm, such as VistaVision
VistaVision

VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm film format which was created by Paramount Pictures in 1954 and based on the Glamorama and Superama widescreen systems....
, SuperScope, Technirama
Technirama

Technirama is a screen process that was used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid 1960s....
, and Techniscope, most of which ultimately became obsolete. VistaVision, however, would be revived decades later by Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm Limited is an United States film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman, and Micheline Chau is the president and Chief operating officer....
 and other studios for special effects work, while a SuperScope variant became the predecessor to the modern Super 35 format that is popular today.

Super 35

The concept behind Super 35 originated with the Tushinsky Brothers' SuperScope
Superscope

'Superscope' may refer to:* Superscope, an anamorphic widescreen and full screen process* Superscope, an extension to the Microsoft DHCP* Nintendo Super Scope, a computer pointing and controlling device ...
 format, particularly the SuperScope 235 specification from 1956. In 1982, Joe Dunton revived the format for Dance Craze
Dance Craze

Dance Craze is a 1981 British documentary film about the England 2 Tone music genre.The film was directed by Joe Massot, who originally wanted to do a film only about the band Madness , who he met during their first US tour....
, and Technicolor
Technicolor

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
 soon marketed it under the name "Super Techniscope" before the industry settled on the name Super 35. The central driving idea behind the process is to return to shooting in the original silent "Edison" 1.33:1 full 4-perf negative area (24.89 mm by 18.67 mm or 0.980 in by 0.735 in), and then crop the frame either from the bottom or the center (like 1.85:1) to create a 2.40:1 aspect ratio (matching that of anamorphic lenses) with an area of 24 mm by 10 mm (0.945 in by 0.394 in). Although this cropping may seem extreme, by expanding the negative area out perf-to-perf, Super 35 creates a 2.40:1 aspect ratio with an overall negative area of 240 square millimetres (0.372 sq in), only 9 mm² (0.014 sq in) less than the 1.85:1 crop of the Academy frame (248.81 mm² or 0.386 sq in). The cropped frame is then converted at the intermediate stage to a 4-perf anamorphically squeezed print compatible with the anamorphic projection standard. This allows an "anamorphic" frame to be captured with non-anamorphic lenses, which are much more common, less expensive, faster, smaller, and optically superior to equivalent anamorphic lenses. Up to 2000, once the film was photographed in Super 35, an optical printer was used to anamorphose (squeeze) the image. This optical step reduced the overall quality of the image and made Super 35 a controversial subject among cinematographers, many who preferred the higher image quality and frame negative area of anamorphic photography (especially with regard to granularity
Film grain

Film grain or granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film due to the presence of small grains of a metallic silver developed from silver halide that have received enough photons....
). With the advent of Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate

Digital intermediate describes the process of digitizing a motion picture and manipulating color and other image characteristics to change the look, and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie before Distribution in movie theater....
s (DI) at the beginning of the 21st century, however, Super 35 photography has become even more popular, since the cropping and anamorphosing stages can be done digitally in-computer without creating an additional optical generation with increased grain. As DI becomes less expensive and more popular, it is likely to render Super 35 optical conversions completely obsolete in the near future.

3-Perf

Most motion pictures today are shot and projected using the 4-perforation format, but cropping the top and bottom of the frames for an aspect ratio of 1.85 or 1.66. In television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 production, where compatibility with an installed base of 35 mm film projectors is unnecessary, a 3-perf format is sometimes used, giving — if used with Super 35 — the 16:9 ratio used by HDTV
High-definition television

High-definition television is a digital television broadcasting system with higher than traditional television systems . HDTV is digitally broadcast; the earliest implementations used analog broadcasting, but today digital television signals are used, requiring less Bandwidth due to digital video compression....
 and reducing film usage by 25 percent. Because of 3-perf's incompatibility with standard 4-perf equipment, it can utilize the whole negative area between the perforations (Super 35 mm film
Super 35 mm film

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 negative space normally reserved for the optical analog sound track....
) without worrying about compatibility with existing equipment; the Super 35 image area includes what would be the soundtrack area in a standard print. All 3-perf negatives require optical or digital conversion to standard 4-perf if a film print is desired, though 3-perf can easily be transferred to video with little to no difficulty by modern telecine
Telecine

Telecine is the process of transferring film film into video form. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the process.Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on film, to be viewed with standard video equipment, such as televisions, VCR or computers....
 or film scanner
Motion picture film scanner

A motion picture film scanner is a device used in digital filmmaking to scan original Photographic film for storage as high-resolution digital intermediate files....
s. With digital intermediate
Digital intermediate

Digital intermediate describes the process of digitizing a motion picture and manipulating color and other image characteristics to change the look, and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie before Distribution in movie theater....
 increasingly becoming a standard process for post-production, 3-perf has become more popular with productions which would otherwise be averse to an optical conversion stage.

VistaVision

Vistavision 8 Perf 35 Mm Film
The VistaVision
VistaVision

VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm film format which was created by Paramount Pictures in 1954 and based on the Glamorama and Superama widescreen systems....
 motion picture format was created in 1954 by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production company and distribution company, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California....
 in order to create a finer-grained negative and print for flat widescreen films. Similar to still photography, the format uses a camera running 35 mm film horizontally instead of vertically through the camera, with frames that are eight perforations long, resulting in a wider aspect ratio of 1.5:1 and greater detail, as more of the negative area is used per frame. This format is unprojectable in standard theaters and requires an optical step to reduce the image into the standard 4-perf vertical 35 mm frame.

While the format was dormant by the early 1960s, the camera system was somewhat revived for visual effects by John Dykstra
John Dykstra

John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. is a two-time Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor and pioneer in the development of the use of computers in film making....
 at Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light and Magic

Industrial Light & Magic is a Film visual effects company that was founded in 1975 in film by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given the green light for his production of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope...
, starting with Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is an Cinema of the United States 1977 in film space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It was the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: Star Wars#Original trilogy continue the story, while a Star Wars#Prequel trilogy contributes backstory, primarily for the troubled charac...
, as a means of reducing granularity in the optical printer
Optical printer

An optical printer is a device consisting of one or more film projectors machine linked to a movie camera. It allows filmmakers to re-photograph one or more strips of film....
 by having increased original camera negative
Original camera negative

The original camera negative is the film in a motion picture movie camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made....
 area at the point of image origination. Its usage has again declined since the dominance of computer-based visual effects, although it still sees very limited utilization.

Perforations

BH perfs: Film perforations were originally round holes cut into the side of the film, but as these perforations were subject to wear and deformation, the shape was changed to what is now called the Bell & Howell
Böwe Bell & Howell

B?we Bell & Howell is a United States-based former manufacturer of motion picture machinery.According to its charter, Bell & Howell Company was incorporated February 17, 1907....
 (BH) perforation, which has straight top and bottom edges and outward curving sides. The BH perforation's dimensions are 0.110 inches (2.79 mm) from the middle of the side curve to opposite top corner by 0.073 inches (1.85 mm) in height. The BH1866 perforation, or BH perforation with a pitch
Film perforations

Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film....
 of , is the modern standard for negative and internegative films.

KS perfs: Because BH perfs have sharp corners, the repeated use of the film through intermittent movement projectors creates strain that can easily tear the perforations. Furthermore, they tended to shrink as the print slowly decayed. Therefore, larger perforations with a rectangular base and rounded corners were introduced by Kodak in 1924 to improve steadiness, registration, durability, and longevity. Known as "Kodak Standard" (KS), they are 0.0780 inches (1.981 mm) high by 0.1100 inches (2.794 mm) wide. Their durability makes KS perfs the ideal choice for intermediate and release prints, as well as original camera negative
Original camera negative

The original camera negative is the film in a motion picture movie camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made....
s which require special use, such as high-speed filming, bluescreen, front projection, rear projection, and matte work. The increased height also means that the image registration was considerably less accurate than BH perfs, which remains the standard for negatives. The KS1870 perforation, or KS perforation with a pitch
Film perforations

Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film....
 of , is the modern standard for release prints.

These two perforations have remained by far the most commonly-used ones. BH and KS are also are known as N (negative) and P (positive) perforations, respectively. The Bell & Howell perf remains the standard for camera negative films because of its perforation dimensions in comparison to most printers, thus having the ability to keep a steady image compared to other perforations.

DH perfs: The Dubray Howell (DH) perforation was first suggested in 1931 to replace both the BH and KS perfs with a single standard perforation which was a hybrid of the two in shape and size, being like KS a rectangle with rounded corners and a width of 0.1100 inches (2.79 mm), but with BH's height of 0.073 inches (1.85 mm). This gave it longer projection life but also improved registration. One of its primary applications was usage in Technicolor
Technicolor

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
's dye imbibition printing (dye transfer). The DH perf never caught on, and Kodak's introduction of monopack Eastmancolor film in the 1950s reduced the demand for dye transfer, although the DH perf persists in certain special application intermediate films to this day.

CS perfs: In 1953, the introduction of CinemaScope required the creation of a different shape of perforation which was nearly square and smaller to provide space for four magnetic sound stripes for stereophonic and surround sound. These perfs are commonly referred to as CinemaScope (CS) or "fox hole" perfs. Their dimensions are 0.0780" (1.85 mm) in width by 0.0730" (1.98 mm) in height. Due to the size difference, CS perfed film cannot be run through a projector with standard KS sprocket teeth, but KS prints can be run on sprockets with CS teeth. Shrunken film with KS prints that would normally be damaged in a projector with KS sprockets may sometimes be run far more gently through a projector with CS sprockets because of the smaller size of the teeth. Though CS perfs have not been widely used since the late 1950s, Kodak still retains CS perfs as a special-order option on at least one type of print stock.

During continuous contact printing, the raw stock and the negative are placed next to one another around the sprocket wheel of the printer. The negative, which is the closer of the two to the sprocket wheel (thus creating a slightly shorter path), must have a marginally shorter pitch between perforations (0.1866 in pitch); the raw stock has a long pitch (0.1870 in). While cellulose nitrate and cellulose diacetate stocks used to shrink during processing slightly enough to have this difference naturally occur, modern safety stocks do not shrink at the same rate, and therefore negative (and some intermediate) stocks are perforated at a pitch of 0.2% shorter than print stock.

Recent innovations in sound


35mm Film Audio Macro
New digital soundtracks introduced since the 1990s include Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital

File:Dolby-Digital.svgDolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy data compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories....
, which is stored between the perforations on the sound side; SDDS, stored in two redundant
Redundancy (engineering)

In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical wikt:Components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe....
 strips along the outside edges (beyond the perforations); and DTS, in which sound data is stored on separate compact disc
Compact Disc

A Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store Data , originally developed for storing digital audio. The CD, available on the market since October 1982, remains the standard physical medium for sale of commercial Sound recording and reproduction to the present day....
s synchronized by a timecode track stored on the film just to the right of the analog soundtrack and left of the frame. Because these soundtrack systems appear on different parts of the film, one movie can contain all of them, allowing broad distribution without regard for the sound system installed at individual theatres.

The optical track technology has also changed: distributors and theaters are changing to cyan dye optical soundtracks instead of black and white (silver) tracks, which are less environmentally friendly. This requires replacing the incandescent exciter lamp with a complementary colored red LED or laser, which is backwards-compatible with older tracks. (The cyan tracks do not register well through older photo-sensors.) The film Anything Else
Anything Else

Anything Else is a 2003 romantic comedy film. The film was written and directed by Woody Allen, produced by his sister Letty Aronson, and stars Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Erica Leerhsen, Adrian Grenier and Danny DeVito....
 (2003) was the first to be released with only cyan tracks. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2007 and has already happened in most multiplexes.

Technical specifications


Technical specifications for 35 mm film are standardized by SMPTE
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers or SMPTE, , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in the United States of America, of engineers working in the motion imaging industries....
.

  • 16 frames per foot (0.748 in (19 mm) per frame (long pitch))
  • 24 frames per second (frame/s); per minute. is about 11 minutes at 24 frame/s.
  • vertical pulldown
  • 4 perforations per frame (all projection and most origination excepting 3-perf)


35 mm spherical

  • 1.37:1 A.R. on camera negative; 1.85:1 and 1.66:1 are hard or soft matted over this
  • camera aperture: 0.866 by 0.630 in (22 by 16 mm)
  • projector aperture (full 1.37:1): 0.825 by 0.602 in (21 by 15 mm)
  • projector aperture (1.66:1): 0.825 by 0.497 in (21 by 13 mm)
  • projector aperture (1.85:1): 0.825 by 0.446 in (21 by 11 mm)
  • TV station aperture: 0.816 by 0.612 in (21 by 16 mm)
  • TV transmission: 0.792 by 0.594 in (20 by 15 mm)
  • TV safe action: 0.713 by 0.535 in (18 by 14 mm); corner radii: 0.143 in (3.6 mm)
  • TV safe titles: 0.630 by 0.475 in (16 by 12 mm); corner radii: 0.125 in (3.2 mm)


Super 35 mm film

  • 4:3 A.R. on camera negative
  • camera aperture: 0.980" by 0.735"
  • picture used (35 mm anamorphic): 0.945 in (24.00 mm) by 0.394 in (10.00 mm)
  • picture used (70 mm blowup): 0.945 in (24.00 mm) by 0.430 in (10.92 mm)
  • picture used (35 mm flat 1.85): 0.945 in (24.00 mm) by 0.511 in (12.97 mm)


35 mm anamorphic

  • 2.39:1 A.R., from a 1.19:1 frame with a 2× horizontal squeeze
  • camera aperture: 0.866 in (22.00 mm) by 0.732 in (18.59 mm)
  • projector aperture: 0.825 in (20.96 mm) by 0.690 in (17.53 mm)


See also

  • 16 mm film
    16 mm film

    16 mm film refers to a popular, economical film gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film....
  • 35 mm still photography film (135 film)
    135 film

    The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for Film cartridge film 35 mm wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format....
  • 70 mm film
    70 mm film

    70 mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge, with higher resolution than standard 35 mm List of film formats. As used in camera, the film is 65 mm wide....
  • Color film (motion picture)
    Color film (motion picture)

    This article discusses the evolution and technology behind color photographic film, with specific focus on motion pictures....
  • Filmstock
  • Film perforations
    Film perforations

    Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film....
  • History of the art and technique of making films
    History of film

    The history of film spans over a hundred years, from the latter part of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st. Motion pictures developed gradually from a carnival novelty to one of the most important tools of communication and entertainment, and mass media in the 20th century....
  • Original camera negative
    Original camera negative

    The original camera negative is the film in a motion picture movie camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made....
  • Still photography film formats


Lists

  • List of film formats
    List of film formats

    This list of film formats catalogues formats developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures, ranging from the Chronophotographe format from 1888, to mid-20th century formats such as the 1953 CinemaScope format, to more recent formats such as the 1992 IMAX#IMAX_HD format....
  • List of motion picture film stocks
    List of motion picture film stocks

    This is a list of motion picture camera films. Those films known to no longer be available have been marked as "". This article includes color and black-and-white negative films, reversal camera films, intermediate stocks, and print stocks....


External links