Todd-AO

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Todd-AO was a motion picture recording process for 70 mm wide screen films introduced in 1955 .

background

Todd-AO was created after an idea by Michael Todd , who was already involved in the development of Cinerama . The trademark name of the method emerged as acronym of Todd and A merican O ptical. With and for this American Optical Company he wanted to develop a simpler system that would achieve the same effect on the viewer with one lens as the three-strip format from Cinerama. With a spherical lens, the picture was recorded on a 65 mm film negative at a frame rate of 30 frames per second . The 70 mm film screening copy contained the soundtrack on six magnetic sound strips. Philips developed a new film projector called the DP70, which could project the filmstrip onto a deeply curved screen of 128 degrees. With a recording of 30 frames per second, which prevented the flickering on 70 mm in the roadshow screenings that were common at the time in large city halls (the films sometimes ran there for a year), direct film copies on 35 mm were not possible. The first two films therefore had to be recorded at a frequency of 24 frames per second. For Oklahoma! Therefore, a 35 mm Cinemascope version was created at the same time and a second Todd AO version at a slower speed for Around the World in 80 Days .

When 20th Century Fox acquired Todd-AO, some technical changes were made. The film was now recorded at a frame rate of 24 frames per second in order to be able to produce 35 mm film copies directly. With the use of a new lens from Bausch & Lomb, the film was not shown on a deeply vaulted Cinerama-like screen. There was no need for expensive renovations for the cinema owners. The changes were implemented with South Pacific . 20th Century Fox now resorted to this process for all of its large-scale 70mm productions. Columbia with Porgy and Bess , United Artists with Alamo and Universal with Airport each produced just one film in this format. With Todd-70 a cheaper variant was created that was only used once.

After the success of the first films, Panavision developed its own Todd-AO variant. The Super Panavision process, which could be rented from the other film studios, became 20th Century Fox's greatest competitor in the 70mm film market. When Cinerama successfully started showing 70mm films on their deep domed screens, they followed suit with the development of Dimension 150 . Todd-AO only fell behind with the advent of 70 mm blow-up . Todd-AO was able to show a better image quality than on the 35 mm film, but the shooting on 65 mm film with further processing on the 70 mm projection format was much more complex and therefore much more expensive than on 35 mm film . The last film shot entirely in this format was released in 1971.

In the 1970s, Todd-AO, under the direction of Dr. Richard Vetter failed to gain a foothold in the 35mm rental camera market. Although appropriate lenses and cameras were purchased (by Mitchell and Arriflex), but only Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ( Conquest of the Planet of Apes ) was continuously in Todd-AO set at 35 (Camera Arriflex 35IIC , lenses from Carl Zeiss ). By the early 1980s, the system was done with, and all Todd-AO cameras and lenses were sold to the now liquidated Cinema Products Los Angeles company .

The Karlsruher Kino Schauburg has organized an annual Todd-AO-70-mm-Festival since 2005.

Movies in Todd-AO

literature

  • Joachim Polzer. (Ed.) Weltwunder der Cinematographie - Contributions to a cultural history of film technology. (1st edition 1994) - History of 70mm film. Publishing house of the DGFK Berlin.
  • Herbert Tümmel: German moving image projectors for 35 and 70 mm film, catalog. Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin, 1986. In it also Zeiss-Ikon-Ernemann V for 70 mm and 35 mm film, 1933, for Fox Grandeur (19 mm step)
  • Philips cinema paperback. Editor: Deutsche Philips-G. mb H., department for electroacoustics and sound film; Hamburg, 1955; PORTA publishing house, Munich; Pp. 109-110

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