Did Twentieth Century-Fox Use BNCs to Film Pictures in CinemaScope?

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Re: Did Twentieth Century-Fox Use BNCs to Film Pictures in CinemaScope?

by mediaed » Thu Jun 11, 2020 7:51 pm

Focus does not matter much how the image appears. It would still be looking at a squeezed image that is still in or out of focus. Lenses also have very finely calibrated distance measurements engraved on them. Common practice was to also check focus with a tape measure that attached to a external hook aligned with the film plane.
With either a BNC or a BNCR, the sidefinder framing ribbons can be adjusted to conform to the correct width and height ratio as seen in the rack over focus. The sidefinder was always the resort for framing during a shot.
It should be noted that NC's and Standards were also used with anamorphic/Cinemascope lenses for MOS shots that generally are a good percentage of most films and would depend on the correctly set sidefinder as well.

Interested in seeing a share of your final here.

ED.

Re: Did Twentieth Century-Fox Use BNCs to Film Pictures in CinemaScope?

by squeezed » Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:07 pm

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for your helpful reply. Focusing a BNC by looking thru the focusing telescope must have been a bear considering the operator would have had a squeezed view thru the anamorphic lens. I wonder how it was managed.

Marshall

Re: Did Twentieth Century-Fox Use BNCs to Film Pictures in CinemaScope?

by marop » Wed Jun 10, 2020 12:38 pm

Hello, yes, Fox and other studios (under license) attached CinemaScope lenses to BNC cameras after some modification was made as the back focus was different then regular “spherical” lenses. I’m not sure about the second part of your question. My BNCR had a small metal frame (for TV filming) that slid into the camera to show framing. Also note that the initial lenses used to film CinemaScope were “adapters” which were merely anamorphic lens placed in front of the camera’s regularly filming lens. Bausch & Lomb shortly after made a “combination” lens, which was merely a single lens for filming and they were very large. It is those lenses that when used on a BNC required some modification to the BNC so it would focus on the film plane. Hope this helps, Mark

Did Twentieth Century-Fox Use BNCs to Film Pictures in CinemaScope?

by nitrate » Wed Jun 10, 2020 8:58 am

For a research project about CinemaScope filming, I wonder if anyone knows if, in addition to the Fox Studio Camera, Fox used the Mitchell BNC during the 1950s to film their CinemaScope pictures? If so, how was the ground glass marked for 'Scope filming? Thanks for the information, Marshall.

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