Techniscope

Techniscope or 2-perf is a 35 mm motion picture camera film format introduced by Technicolor Italia in 1960. The Techniscope format uses a two film-perforation negative pulldown per frame, instead of the standard four-perforation frame usually exposed in 35 mm film photography. Techniscope's 2.33:1 aspect ratio is easily cropped to the 2.39:1 widescreen ratio, because it uses half the amount of 35 mm film stock and standard spherical lenses. Thus, Techniscope release prints are made by anamorphosizing and enlarging each frame by a factor of two.

During its primary reign of 1960–1980, more than 350 films were photographed in Techniscope, the first of which was The Pharaoh's Woman, released 10 December 1960. Given its considerable savings in production cost but lesser image quality, Techniscope was primarily an alternative format used by low-budget film makers, mainly in the horror and western genres. Since the format originated in Italy, most Techniscope format films were European productions.

In the U.S., Techniscope was used in the low-budget A.C. Lyles Westerns for Paramount Pictures, and Universal Studios briefly used it extensively in the mid to late 1960s. Producer Sid Pink recalled that unlike Europe, the American film studios were charged by the Technicolor company for using Techniscope in their film prints.

Regarding the diminished image quality, film reviewer Roger Ebert wrote about the film Counterpoint (1968): "The movie is shot in Techniscope, a process designed to give a wide-screen picture while saving film and avoiding payment of royalties to the patented processes like Panavision. In this film, as in 'Harry Frigg', Techniscope causes washed-out color and a loss of detail. Universal shouldn't be so cheap."

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