Introducting a new ultra-wide film format called UltraPan8

The emerging popularity of 1.33:1 televison in the late 1940s and
early 1950s spurred tremendous development in ultrawide motion picture
technology. Its zenith best represented by the stupendous Cinerama and Cinemascope film based formats.

I would like to expand upon these spectacular ultrawide antecedents
with the introduction of UltraPan8.

It is a new ultrawide native spherical film format utlizing modified
8/16mm cameras and the entire 16mm width of 2 perf regular 8mm motion
picture film.

It's native gate dimensions are 10.52mm x 3.75mm with an aspect ratio
of 2.8:1. This is wider than Cinemascope at 2.39:1 and a bit smaller
than Cinerama's 2.87:1 aspect ratio.UltraPan8 represents a 41% increase in imaging area over Super 8 film and a respective 62% increase over regular 8mm film.

Standard 16mm optics provide optically centered full frame coverage.

Key design principals were the interchangable film transports of the
Bolex H8/H16 cameras and the historical engineering of both 8mm and
16mm film formats sharing identical perforation dimensions.

One of the design intents was freedom from bulky 16mm Cinemascope
anamorphic projector lens setups. Here are some examples of previous
ideas and testing for comparison puposes, i.e.

1. My original design for a potential adapter setup which was never
implemented, i.e

2. Anamorphic test shot utilizing 16mm anamorphic projector lens +
stepdown ring + Beaulieu 4008. Cinematography by Justin Lovell,i.e.

The camera was modified by Jean-Louis Seguin and includes a native
2.8:1 UltraPan8 viewfinder with a Cinemascope 2.4:1 mask. We are also
working towards modification of a 1936 8/16mm multiformat worm gear Bolex projector for film based projections.

The 8 bit digital overscanned files of the inaugral test roll were
16mm transfer bay in conjunction with a linear 12 bit imaging camera w/ 14 bit mask.

The digital deliverables included

1. Sequential 8 bit JPEGS. Full and half resolution. No color
correction applied albeit some gamma.
2. 1700x600 DIVX file.
3. 700x250 DVCPRO file.

Here are some sample frameshotsof the overscanned final output 8 bit JPEGS, i.e.


Here are MPEG4 links to the 1700x600 DIVX file. I have added
music/credits to the unedited raw footage but I have decided to
display the test roll in its entirety, blemishes and all, i.e.


Here is the orginal 1700x600 DIVX file available for download and for
your examination. Keep in mind this is not the full resolution
sequential JPEGS, i.e.


There are visible issues in the footage and they are being addressed.
Although this was my first time filming with a Bolex I could not wipe
the perpetual grin of my face as I shot this test roll, that being the fact of
native UltraPan8 in the palm of my hand...a tad lighter than Kubrick's
handheld 25 pound 65mm camera shots in 2001! In fact 2001 is THE original inspiration with its gorgeous 65mm Cinemascope cinematography.

And why not re-introduce film based spectacle in these times of the digital imaging onslaught?

There will be forthcoming updates regarding additional footage and an
inspiring academic paper detailing the important historical
engineering modifications of the UK based WideScreen Association.

"From the heavens sprung such images."

[freedomkids]

No. We run 16mm wide Regular 8mm film in a Bolex H8 camera utilizing the full 16mm width but half pulldown of the classic 8mm claw/gate (3.75 high). We do not need to change the sprockets as we utilize the pre-existing 8mm sprockets. We utilize the Bolex H16 optics only, i.e viewfinder, widen the H8 aperture to 16mm standard and mill the gate somewhat. The conversion also has a full frame UltaPan8 viewfinder which also has a Cinemascope 2.4:1 mask.

And thanks for the compliment.

[freedomkids]

As I described above a Cinemascope 2.4:1 mask exists in the camera. There is no horizontal loss only slight vertical as per the UltraPan8 viewfinder, i.e. 2.8:1 -> 2.4:1. There are 2000 16mm wide 8mm high frames in a standard 25 ft R8 roll which equates to roughly 1m 23s of glorious UltraPan8 footage.

I appreciate your enthusiasm.

[milawesolowski]

What film would I use to do this? Regular 8mm? It's amazing!

[freedomkids]

Your more than welcome to. :) Check out more UltraPan8 films on my Vimeo account.

[ItsTimePictures]

How about shoot some video of your actual camera in your hands, using it, so we can see what exactly it is you are shooting with. I'd like to see this camera.

Who can transfer the rolls is a good question.

Clearly there would be a loss in cropping down to 2.35:1.

Forgive me for not following all the details, but how many seconds of footage will a roll give you at 24fps?

[freedomkids]

Yes. The format uses the entire 16mm horizontal width of Double 8mm with the classic 8mm vertical pulldown. Also known as Regular or Standard 8mm.

[nicholaskovats]

Yes. But the camera uses the full 16mm width of Regular 8 film.

[MuzikJunky]

I would TOTALLY shoot a feature film in this format! Hooray for film! Peace.

[freedomkids]

I supplied the H16 for the optics needed for the conversion. Total cost was approximately $460 CAN. Quite modest relative to 1.77 AR Super 16 conversions.

[AllenSmitheePictures]

What you've achieved is basically 16mm Techniscope. The thing is, there is no cinema equipped with a 2.8:1 screen anymore. 2.39 is as wide as they get. Digital Projection standards don't support anything wider than that right now either. Maybe a 4k projector will do nonstandard dimensions, I dunno. And the widest consumer computer monitors are 2560 pixels wide. 2560x1080=2.370... There is no unletterboxed screen on which to show a 2.8:1 movie at its native resolution!

[alexeykokh]

looks great! did you use double 8 mm for that?

[klipperflix]

Let me see if I understand what you've done here: you've run Regular 8mm film through a standard 16mm bolex to take advantage of the 16mm c-mount lens' ability to cover the whole film horizontally, while cropping the film vertically to the 8mm frame height? You've had to change the sprockets in the camera, but did you also modify the mechanics to only advance half the distance of a 16mm frame?

Whatever you did, I'm impressed!

[freedomkids]

It is a standard Bolex H8/H16 Rex 4 body w/ 3x C-mount lens turret. The modifications are internal only. There are numerous YouTube videos available of this camera in action. Again, as per my description, bitworks.org in Toronto is responsible for the digital transfer on their sprocketless 16mm transfer bay. I am sure with a little bit of research on the net you will find numerous transfer houses in the US with the same setup. Emphasis on sprocketless.

[freedomkids]

Carl! What happened to you?!? I have been repeatedly trying to contact you but no response. :) I could use your detailed insights and excellent writing skills to popularize this new ultrawide format. And your own work. Vivre la film!!!

[ItsTimePictures]

How about shoot some video of your actual camera in your hands, using it, so we can see what exactly it is you are shooting with. I'd like to see this camera.

Who can transfer the rolls is a good question...??? 1080p uncompressed would be a must or why bother?

Clearly there would be a loss in cropping down to 2.35:1.

Forgive me for not following all the details, but how many seconds of footage will a roll give you at 24fps?