Univisium

The main proposal

In 1998, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro announced his plans for a new film format, originally to be called Univision, in an interview with International Photographer magazine. As Storaro stated in his written proposal "Recently, any movie - no matter how big or small, successful or not - will, after a very short life on the big screen, have a much longer life on an electronic screen. Today the Answer Print is made for both of these two different media. ...Having these two different media, with essentially two different aspect ratios, each of us (Directors, Production Designers, Cinematographers, Camera Operators, etc.) shares the nightmare of compromising the Composition of the Image. Looking through a viewfinder, a camera, or a monitor, we are always faced with at least two images of the same subject."

Storaro opines that, in the future of cinema, all films will be photographed in either high-definition video for small, intimate digital projection theaters, or in 65 mm for "big audience... large screen" films. In the cinematographer's opinion, as all films will be one of the two formats, he suggests a common aspect ratio compromise of 2.00:1 (mathematical average of 65 mm 2.20:1 and HD 1.78:1) be adopted for all films, 65 mm theatrical, HD theatrical and television.

As he told American Cinematographer writer Bob Fisher, "I believe it is very important for audiences to see films exactly the way they were composed by the director and cinematographer. This is a solution."

35 mm Univisium camera proposal

Storaro recognized that ubiquitous HD origination was not yet viable and therefore proposed an alteration to standard 35 mm photography to create a 2.00:1 aspect ratio and economize on film.

By using a negative area similar to that of the Super 35 frame (which utilizes the full width of a 35 mm film frame "perf-to-perf" as opposed to traditional 35 mm which utilizes a smaller area of the 35 mm frame offset to the right to accommodate space for an optical soundtrack) combined with 3-perf frame size (as opposed to standard 35 mm photography which uses four perforations per frame). The Univisium camera would use an aperture opening of 24mm x 12mm (.945" x .472") and three perforations per frame, which would eliminate the waste associated with 2.40:1 Super 35 mm photography (wherein nearly 50% of the frame is discarded) by creating a natural 2.00:1 aspect ratio utilizing the whole film area.

In addition to using the full film area, using three perforations per frame as opposed to four equates to using 25% less film for the same shooting time. With the traditional four perforations per frame, 35 mm film (at 24 frames per second) runs at 90 feet per minute (4 minutes 26 seconds per 400 feet of film), three perforations per frame runs at 67.5 feet per minute (5 minutes 56 seconds per 400 feet of film). This would mean each magazine of film would have 33% more shooting time and a production that shot the same overall length of time as a four-perforation film would use 25% less film.

The proposal also points out that the 2.00:1 aspect ratio can be achieved using standard spherical lenses, forgoing the need for anamorphic lenses, which are more expensive, slower (require more light) with less photographic depth of field than their spherical counterparts (which are higher quality, smaller, faster (require less light), with fewer aberrations (imperfections) associated with them. There are also a greater selection of spherical prime and zoom lenses than there are anamorphic lenses.

It is also pointed out that 3-perf will result in a quieter camera than 4-perf as there is less intermittent movement per frame.

The format also calls for shooting 25 frames per second, which eliminates problems associated with transferring film to video in the PAL and SECAM system and is still fairly simple to transfer to the NTSC video format.

35 mm Univisium projection proposal

Storaro suggests a renovation to standard film projectors to present a 3-perf frame and eliminate the need for an anamorphic print to be made (to optically squeeze the 2:1 3-perf aspect ratio into a 1.33:1 4-perf frame). As the image will fill the full film area (perf-to-perf) there is no room for a traditional optical soundtrack and Univisium requires two digital soundtracks, one for backup (which reside outside of the perforations on the edge of the film; DTS, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, Dolby Digital). The projectors would run at 25 frames per second, just as the cameras do.

As a compromise to standard technology (for the time being), Storaro asserts that an anamorphic print can be made and presented in 24 frames per second with a digital and/or optical soundtrack.

Univisium in use

Although no film has utilized the full aspects of the proposal, particularly with regard to the projection standards, Storaro has since used Univisium for nearly all of his films.

Technovision and Clairmont Cameras have altered Arriflex 435 and 535B cameras for use on Storaro films that use Univisium and 3-perf pull-down. Technicolor laboratories in Rome, London and Los Angeles also have the means to support the Univisium format.

Additionally, Storaro has reframed many of his earlier widescreen releases for the 2.00:1 ratio upon DVD release, including Apocalypse Now, Reds, and The Last Emperor. This has proved controversial with many film enthusiasts, who believe that regardless of Storaro's attempt to unify all aspect ratios, films should be viewed in the ratio they were filmed in, without any cropping. Due to this backlash, Apocalypse Now and Reds use their original aspect ratios for Blu-ray release.

The 2013 Netflix original series House of Cards, The 2017 Netflix original series A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series) and the 2014 Amazon original series Transparent as well as the 2016 Netflix original series Stranger Things were presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio.

According to IMDB technical specification stats there about 700+ titles with 2:1 aspect ratios and growing in recent years