The history of CinemaScope

If you have any interest at all in cinematography, even if you're only wondering about alternative ways to frame a particular shot, you'll find this helpful.

Some terms you'll come across include:

anamorphic
The word "anamorphic" and its derivatives stem from the Greek words meaning formed again.

anamorphic widescreen process
The film is essentially shot "squeezed", so that the actors appear vertically elongated on the actual film. A special lens inside the projector unsqueezes the image so that it will appear normal.

CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967.

David Bordwell is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in film from the University of Iowa and has written thirteen books on the subject of film. What follows is a fascinating lecture on the history of CinemaScope.

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