It’s movie night, the time to see one of several big science-fiction films of the summer. You arrive just as the 15 minutes of previews start, trying to sneak past the other patrons in your row without tripping over any outstretched limbs or jutting armrests. At last, you’ve arrived at your seat. You ease into the overly spongy cushion and let out a sigh of relief as the realization that you didn’t tar-and-feather any of the other moviegoers with your one-two punch of glowing-yellow buttered popcorn and soft drink. It’s enough to almost make you forget about the less-than-comfortable seat that could put your legs to sleep in no time. The previews roll. It’s not anything you haven’t seen before, either on television or the Web. Most of the previews give away the entire film anyway, so why get excited? The 15 minutes wind down and the lights dim slowly. The main feature begins. What’s this? The screen—it’s wider. Horizontal blue streaks abound in the specular highlights, and distant backgrounds fade into an elliptical haze. A vast majority of the other moviegoers don’t really care but, you, a filmmaker, have a newfound curiosity awakening. “How can I make films like that?” you ask yourself as the film continues, keeping you immersed until the very end. So much so, that you didn’t even finish your popcorn or realize that you were drinking the soda of the stranger sitting next to you.
Well, I can’t guarantee that the above story is completely accurate, although, at least the last bit should be partially correct. I hope you’re curious about how you can give your films a boost in the “big-screen-flair” (pun very much intended) department, because that’s what anamorphic optics are all about.
Scoping out aspect ratio formats
The term “anamorphic” (sometimes referred to as “scope” as in “Cinemascope”) refers to the wider-than-normal aspect ratio format created through specialized optics, which I will discuss later. This style of film presentation started out in the late 1950s and early ’60s as an attempt to attract audiences and fill theater seats. Such widescreen formats stood in stark contrast to the familiar 4:3 (1.33:1) television aspect ratio of the time, offering a different experience that one could not satisfactorily replicate for home entertainment. Wider aspect ratios such as 2.39:1 and 2.66:1 were very much in vogue at that time in cinema history for that very reason. However, the methods preceding anamorphic optics were often cumbersome during production and impractical for viewing (for example, Cinerama films were shot with three synchronized film cameras in a special configuration and then projected using three projectors on a massive curved screen, a technician’s nightmare if there ever was one). A more practical method was to incorporate a narrower two-perf (perf is a measurement of picture size using the transport perforations cut into the film) aperture plate into the camera; this process is generally known as Techniscope. While this produced the desired aspect ratio, less film emulsion area was used compared to the Academy standard format, thus inevitably sacrificing image quality.
Anamorphic optics solved many of these issues and were far more practical to implement, in contrast to elaborate multi-camera rigs. Anamorphic lenses utilize special cylindrical elements in addition to conventional spherical elements. Cylindrical elements only bend light along the horizontal axis, hence squeezing the width of the image. Because the image is compressed this way, the captured footage takes up a similar amount of film area as a four-perf 1.33:1 Academy image; however, the horizontal compression results in a wider aspect ratio after stretching the image during projection, but with more resolution than if the image were simply cropped during capture.
So what can anamorphic optics do for you? When film was king, it was all about maximizing space while creating a wider aspect ratio. In today’s digital age, most of us shoot in a 16:9 (technically, and further referenced as 1.78:1) format, the same as the vast majority of TV, computer, and mobile device screens. If wider aspect ratios are being displayed, chances are they’re going to be cropped to fit anyway (not many people have 2.4:1 TV screens), so the resolution loss involved with a crop in post production won’t really affect the image quality. However, anamorphic optics have some innate characteristics that have been coming back into vogue; mainly as a way to counteract an overly clinical “digital” look. Some of these characteristics include horizontal flare streaks, elliptical bokeh, unusual focus falloff, and un-sharpness. How to get these into your productions? Well, you’ll either have to pony up some serious cash for anamorphic cinema lenses, or look into some anamorphic adapters.
Here at B&H, we offer a few different anamorphic adapters. These come with different compression ratios and aesthetic properties, as well as different implementations. Letus35, for example, offers many different adapters in its AnamorphX line. Most AnamorphX adapters offer a 1.33x squeeze factor, making them great for conventional digital cameras that shoot using a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This combination yields a 2.37:1 aspect ratio, very similar to the classic 2.35:1 and 2.39:1 scope formats, once you stretch the image in your editing program of choice. Others offer a 1.8x squeeze factor for achieving a straight 2.4:1 scope format on cameras that can record in a classic 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The AnamorphX line also offers different flare options. Each model of adapter can feature either low, medium, or high flare depending on the look you’re going for. Low-flare models will subtly elicit blue streaks at the highlights, while the high-flare models will show strong blue streaking across your image; think headlight flare in a stereotypical luxury car commercial. Adapters are offered with or without matte boxes and lens supports, and will clamp onto most lenses up to 114mm in outside diameter.
SLR Magic has recently made a strong foothold in the enthusiast community with its relatively affordable and high-performance offerings in the spherical and anamorphic markets. Their Anamorphot adapters are not as pricey as the Letus35 options, and they are also more compact. However, you don’t have the flare strength options in the SLR Magic line of products. The Anamorphot adapters come in 1.33x and 2x squeeze variations. The 2x squeeze models will facilitate a super-wide 2.66:1 scope format on a 1.33:1 imaging plane, great for epic widescreen sequences. SLR magic also offers stand-alone anamorphic cinema prime lenses. While these lenses may seem expensive compared to the adapter solutions, they are only a fraction of the price of most modern anamorphic lenses. Stand-alone lenses offer the convenience of not having to detach and reattach adapters every time you change lenses. Additionally, a standalone lens’s anamorphic optics can be tuned to that specific lens, a degree of quality you can’t guarantee with an adapted solution.
Anamorphic optics are really hitting it off with today’s up-and-coming cinematographers and filmmakers. With all the mystique and potential aesthetic options that they offer, it’s not difficult to understand why. If you think anamorphic lenses can help your story, it’s now easier and more affordable than ever to implement these once-coveted lenses into your arsenal.
