Format: 70mm

Filmmaking - 70mm

I seem to say this often, but not strongly enough - if you haven't seen 70mm, shot from 65mm film negative, you really don't know what a quality image is. You've never seen one.

Tv and digital video are just barely enough to get their information to you, and HD is better. 35mm film is the bare minimum that makes you forget you're watching a movie.

VistaVision is what it claims to be, "Motion Picture Hi-Fidelity," but 65/70mm, in all its forms, is the real deal.

I've seen many digital projection formats, at the Hollywood ETC digital theatre, and they are wonderful, but...

I saw a screening of the "do re mi" scene from "The Sound of Music," at the Academy's Hollywood's Linwood Dunn Theatre (named for my mentor, Linwood G. Dunn ASC), that blew all the other stuff right off the screen.

5 minutes later, I knew I'd never really seen "The Sound of Music." The beautiful face of a 25-year-old Julie Andrews, apparently floating inches from your own, as she sings and dances, the clarity of the image (and her skin) is absolutely flawless. No comparison, next case.

Learn about 70mm, and seek it out.
5-perf, 8-perf, Todd-AO, Dynavision, Showscan, IMAX. Do what you have to, find it where and when you can, because it is the best. Movie quality just doesn't get any better.

Filmmaking