Product Code Database
The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 (abbreviated as 1.37:1) is an aspect ratio of a film frame of 35 mm film when used with 4-perf pulldown.Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. .Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin. Film Art: An Introduction. Rev. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993. . It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928.
From studio to studio, the common attempt to reduce the image back to a 1.3:1 ratio by decreasing the projector aperture in-house met with conflicting results. Each movie theater chain, furthermore, had its own designated house ratio. The first standards set for the new sound-on-film motion pictures were accepted in November 1929, when all major US studios agreed to compose for the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (SMPE) designated size of returning to the aspect ratio of 1.3:1.
Following this, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) considered further alterations to this 1930 standard. Various dimensions were submitted, and the projector aperture plate opening size of 0.825 in 0.600 in was agreed upon. The resulting 1.375:1 aspect ratio was then dubbed the "Academy Ratio". On May 9, 1932, the SMPE adopted the same projector aperture standard.
All studio films shot in 35 mm from 1932 to 1952 were shot in the Academy ratio. However, following the widescreen "revolution" of 1953, it quickly became an obsolete production format. Within several months, all major studios started matting their non-anamorphic films in the movie projector to wider ratios such as 1.6, 1.75, and 1.85, the last of which is still considered a standard ratio along with anamorphic (2.39).
1.375:1 is not totally obsolete, nonetheless, and can still be found in select recent films such as Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003), Garry, John P. III. " Elephant: An Ordinary High School Movie. Except That It's Not." Jump Cut. #47 (Winter 2005). Steven Soderbergh's The Good German (2006), Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank (2009), Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff (2010), Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist (2011), Carlos Reygadas' Post Tenebras Lux (2012), Don Hertzfeldt's It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012), Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida (2013), Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and Asteroid City (2023), László Nemes' Son of Saul (2015), Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017), Coen brothers’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), Hlynur Pálmason's Godland (2022), and Chris Nash's In a Violent Nature (2024), as well on prints of Phil Lord, Christopher Miller's The Lego Movie (2014) and prints of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) intended for 1.78:1 exhibition (a 2.39:1 version was also made).
During filming, using the 4-perf frame for widescreen framing when spherical lenses are used is sometimes considered to be wasteful in terms of the cost of film stock and processing, especially in the case of television, which does not require a film print. The 3-perf pulldown process was originally proposed in 1973, developed by Miklos Lente in 1976, and further developed by Rune Ericson in 1986 to solve this problem.Bernstein, N.D.; Wysotsky, M.Z.; and Konoplev, B.N. "A Universal Format for Film Production." Journal of the SMPTE. September 1973; Lente, Miklos. "The Proposed Trilent-35 System." American Cinematographer. June 1976; Ericson, Rune. "Three-Perf in the Future." American Cinematographer. July 1986.
|
|
