The Widescreen Format - Text 2
The wider the film stock, the larger the surface of the image on the film and the larger the projection format will be. One might assume that a wide gauge is superior to the standard gauge. The format that was standard for a long time, during the photochemical period, was the Academy format, based on the use of 35 mm film. In the silent era, its on-screen ratio was 1.33:1[1]. Later, this ratio was 1.37:1 until the 1960s and the arrival of panoramic formats.[2] From the 1960s onwards, the most widely-used formats were CinemaScope (2:55:1 or 2.66:1) or the so-called panoramic formats such as 1.66:1 and 1.85:1.[3] They became standard following the introduction of wide formats in the 1950s using either 35 mm film (Cinerama, CinemaScope, VistaVision) or 70 mm film (Todd-AO, MGM Camera 65, SuperPanavision 70, Ultra Panavision 70, Cinerama 70). The second illustration lists the principal processes and, for each one, indicates the film stock used and the on-screen ratio.
