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BIG SCREEN TO LITTLE SCREEN
HOW CINEMASCOPE WAS CONVERTED FOR A TV FILM COMMERCIAL
NEXT OCTOBER Universal-International Pictures will release "To Hell and Back,'' a full-length motion picture filmed in CinemaScope and in Technicolor and starring war hero-actor Audie Murphy.
To test tv's effectiveness as an advertising medium for major productions, U-I decided on a nationwide pre-release spot announcement campaign — reportedly the first for a motion picture — that goes into high gear on 67 stations in just a few days and will run through September [B«T, June 27].
It's a ticklish operation to properly blend film taken from a feature with the hard "sell" in copy, narration and sound effects. But the problem becomes stickier, technically, when CinemaScope film, which requires special projection, must be converted
into normal aspect film suitable for tv projection.
U-I produced a large number of tv spots (also a series of 20-second lengths) for the Audie Murphy film at its Hollywood studios and at National Screen Service, which specializes in the making of previews.
To accomplish the film conversion, U-I found it necessary to "unsqueeze" the film. This nimble feat entailed the use of an optical printer (an elaborate camera which copies motion picture film) that was equipped with a special conversion lens. Unsqueezed, the film assumed a 1-1:85 ratio, considered practical for wide-screen theatre projection but still too wide for tv projection. This ratio would show a black area on the top and bottom of the picture
if used without still further change. Thus, the final processing step during which titles are superimposed on the film, the picture area is blown up slightly to a normal 3-4 ratio, which has proved very successful on tv.
For the preliminary campaign, specially animated titles were furnished by National Screen. In some of the spots, the titles were in the form of continuous overlapping zooms. Superimposure of titles on the film was done in the normal way for tv spots — titles were hand-lettered, photographed against black backgrounds and then superimposed in the optical printer.
U-I has budgeted more than $50,000 for its pre-release spot campaign. The production cost is not included in this figure since
This optical printer was especially designed to convert CinemaScope film into standard film at a ratio of 1-1:85. At left at top of
Page 62 • July 11, 1955
page is a frame of CinemaScope film before it is "unsqueezed" into the 1-1:85 ratio, and at right top is frame after "unsqueezing."
For television, film must be still further blown up to a 3-4 ratio after it has been converted from CinemaScope.
Broadcasting • Telecasting