VistaVision

Paramount did not use anamorphic processes such as CinemaScope but refined the quality of its flat widescreen system by orienting the 35 mm negative horizontally in the camera gate and shooting onto a larger area, which yielded a finer-grained projection print.

As a response to an industry recession caused largely by the popularity of television, the Hollywood studios turned to large-format films in order to regain audience attendance.

In 1952, the anamorphic format Cinerama debuted in September, and consisted of three strips of 35 mm film projected side-by-side onto a giant, curved screen, augmented by seven channels of stereophonic sound.

In 1953, Twentieth Century-Fox announced the introduction of a simpler version of Cinerama using anamorphic lenses instead of multiple film strips, a widescreen process later known as CinemaScope.

He installed a Leica lens in a Mitchell Camera after remembering an abandoned two-frame color system developed by the William P. Stein Company that exposed both negatives to form a single projection image.

For theater exhibitors that were not equipped, an alternate 35 mm film print was used with a compatible sound system known as the "Perspecta Stereo", encoded in the optical track.

[12] Though it was not as prevalent as CinemaScope, rival studios adopted the VistaVision process, including MGM's High Society (1956), Warner Bros.' The Searchers (1956), and United Artists' The Vikings (1958).

In 1975, a small group of artists and technicians (including Richard Edlund, who was to receive two Academy Awards for his work) revived the long-dormant format to create the special effects shots for George Lucas's space epic Star Wars.

A retooled VistaVision camera dubbed the Dykstraflex (named for special effects master John Dykstra) was used by the group (later called Industrial Light & Magic) in complex process shots.

For more than two decades after this, VistaVision was often used as an originating and intermediate format for shooting special effects because a larger negative area compensates against the increased grain created when shots are optically composited.

The camera numbered VistaVision #1 that was used on Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments and several Alfred Hitchcock films was offered at auction on September 30, 2015 by Profiles in History with an estimated value of US$30,000 to $50,000, with a winning bid of US$65,000.

[18] Also offered at the same auction was VistaVision High Speed #1 (VVHS1), which was used to film the parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments and special effects for Star Wars (winning bid: US$60,000.