Filmmakers who shoot film might be interested to know there is a new format in town called 2-perf.  Actually, 2-perf has been around since the 1960's, developed by Technicolor and called TECHNISCOPE, a format that was ultimately made popular by Sergio Leone's "Spaghetti Westerns".  The attributes of this format lend itself to super widescreen (2.35), and uses half the image area of a typical 35mm motion picture film negative.  Most studio features are shot 4-perf and 3-perf using the DI process, while most television shows are currently captured 3-perf.  The quality and resolution of a 2-perf negative is considerably better than super 16mm and just slightly less than a 35mm 3-perf negative.

For the last several weeks, I've been producing a technical demo for Eastman Kodak Company that compares the image quality of a 2-perf and 3-perf negative.  Working with award-winning Director and Cinematographer, James Chressanthis, ASC, (director of No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos, a feature-length documentary currently on the film festival circuit, and cinematographer of ABC Studio's Ghost Whisperer,) we shot four separate scenes, both exterior and interior day and night, on the Universal Studio's lot using KODAK Vision3 film stocks, 5207 and 5219.


Director and DP Chressanthis checks the monitors

Cameras were donated by Panavision, and mounted side by side on a single dolly, donated by JL Fisher, to capture the scenes simultaneously.  This would allow us in post-production to intercut both the 2-perf and 3-perf footage together to show a seamless comparison.  The camera reports were proof of the film savings: 3000' of 3-perf was shot vs. 2,000' of 2-perf, a savings of exactly 1/3 the negative.

Thanks to ABC Studios and Executive Producer, George Perkins of Desperate Housewives, Kodak was given permission to shoot our demo on the hit TV show's Wisteria Lane, and use some of the "Housewives" sets as our backdrop. The show had just wrapped for the season two days earlier, and held back on striking one of their interior sets specifically for the Kodak demo.  Because we were able to shoot on such beautiful sets and locations, the production value is unbelievable.  Inspired by the mis-en-scene, Chressanthis wrote a short narrative where a young man and woman accidentally meet and then have a romantic encounter, adding emotional weight and story to our demo -- straying away from the typical chart-holding, model-turning, science-project like-film test. 


Chressanthis works with the actors

Using the new Kodak Vision3 5207 daylight stock, the scenes included the man strumming a guitar on an exterior front porch while the woman rides by on her bicycle, dropping a rose accidentally.  Moving to interior, still daylight using HMI's, we see the woman arranging flowers in her studio, while the man drops in with the rose.  Fade to hours later, night interior using Kodak Vision3 5219, the two share a glass of wine in her studio. And finally, night exterior, the man and woman enjoy the stars at the end of their evening.

Processing, telecine and online color correction is being completed at Laser Pacific, and offline editing with Final Cut Pro.  Sitting in the telecine suite, I was amazed at how incredible the footage looks, as I was completely surprised by the image quality of 2-perf.  A trained eye can see the difference if you are looking at a frame grab side by side, but it is really challenging to differentiate the 2 and 3-perf formats when the scenes are intercut.


Camera crew with side by side Panavision cameras

One of the great advantages of shooting 2-perf include more film stock for you money. A 1000' load can run for 22 minutes, which provides a substantial savings (50% compared to a traditional 4-perf negative or a 1/3 less compared to 3-perf), which can also translate to a savings with lab processing costs. Then there's that super cool widescreen format just like the old westerns - 2.35, that allows you to really maximize the image area of a 2-perf negative.  Whether you shoot 1.85 (generally for television) or 2.35 (for features), the image area is close to double that of a 16mm negative, allowing for much higher image quality and smaller grain structure.

Our last phase of post-production on the demo is locking the edit, recording Jim's voice over, doing a final online and color correct, and marrying the composer's soundtrack to the HDCAM SR master.  Thanks to the talented producing team of Zachary Kransler and Dan Radding and the incredible creative eye and technical prowess of Jim Chressanthis, Kodak will have both an interesting and informative technical demo to show filmmakers who want to learn more options when shooting film on their projects.

For more technical info on image size, aspect ratio and frame measurements, check out: Panavision's 2 Perf Explained.  

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