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The Real Reason VistaVision is Coming Back

WatchingtheAerial

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Why a format that's been dead for 60 years is seeing a comeback to rival IMAX.
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Source Links
‘The Odyssey’ Is Sold Out Through August - and Theaters Fear an IMAX Trap
https://theankler.com/the-odyssey-is-...
NPR - Why a classic wide-screen movie format from the 1950s is making a comeback
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1-...
Popular Science - Hollywood Now Shoots (Jul. 1954)
https://books.google.com/books?id=zSA...
The Independent Film Journal - Para’s VistaVision System Offers Benefits to Theatres (March 20, 1954)
https://archive.org/details/independe...
Filmmaker Magazine - DP Lol Crawley on Shooting The Brutalist (Mostly) in VistaVision
https://filmmakermagazine.com/129617-...
Variety - Cinematographer Robbie Ryan on Embracing VistaVision Chaos
https://variety.com/2025/artisans/new...
American Cinematographer - One Battle After Another
https://theasc.com/article/one-battle...
American Cinematographer - Clubhouse Conversations: The Brutalist
https://theasc.com/video/clubhouse-co...
Kodak - Lol Crawley harnesses 8-perf VistaVision for The Brutalist
https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/blog-...
Variety - Brady Corbet on Making His 215-Minute 70mm Epic
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/br...
Widescreen Museum - VistaVision & Alfred Hitchcock
https://www.widescreenmuseum.com/wide...

Paramount Presents VistaVision (1955)
Adam Savage Learns About VistaVision Filmi...
THE BRUTALIST Director Brady Corbet on Why...
The Hateful Eight: Quentin Tarantino & Ult...
'Bugonia' Cinematographer on Shooting Vist...

Timestamps
00:00 The Return of "Big Cinema"
01:16 The Intent of VistaVision
05:15 Why Choose VistaVision?
07:28 Making Movies Feel Big

20 Comments

@analog.alex.35 1 month ago

The resurgence VistaVision gives me so much hope for the future! Great video!

@nickfarley2268 1 month ago

So vistavison film is like upgrading your digital sensor from super35 to full frame. Neat

@BlaBla-jj6sh 1 month ago

Combine VistaVision with an anamorphic lens and you have Technirama. That will get you the classic Cinemascope 2.40:1 ratio whilst filming on larger negative with less grain - yet not requiring a 65mm camera. Films in that format include The Big Country, Spartacus, El Cid, King Of Kings and 55 Days At Peking. The beauty of VistaVision and Technirama is that they are compromise formats that actually deliver on all fronts. Bigger, better quality pictures without the need for unyieldy camera's or projectors and usage of standard sized film stock.

@RainbowTRW 1 month ago

Tron (1982) owes its visual magic to VistaVision and 70mm tech... even after 44 years, it is still a marvel for the eyes.

@wilhelm-z4t 1 month ago

The thing that makes me sad is that my town had a number of theaters that had absolutely huge, curved screens (with curtains) and sat 1000+ with nice wide and cushy chairs on a sloping floor. It was impossible for anything to block your view, and the sound systems were superb. Seeing 2001, Star War and Jaws in such theaters were incredible experiences.

I don't know if VistaVision was compatible with these theaters or not, but I'd welcome a return to large format film and theaters. Unfortunately, these theaters were torn down in the 1990s or so and replaced by multiplexes with much smaller screens. Watching a film in them is just not the same.

@YMSIC 1 month ago

Sadly streaming bitrate and or quality is really bad compared to cinemas and or good bluray or 4K physical media! I’d still opt to go to a theatre instead of streaming!

@portcybertryx222 1 month ago

One important thing to keep in mind is that the scarcity is the reason for the ongoing popularity of large screen formats. Unless we figure out to way to make these cheaper just opening more locations is only going to circle back to more movie theatres going belly up

@Perfectly_Adequate 1 month ago

A great thesis with a well written video accompanying it but it does feel a bit incomplete to try and answer why VV is having a resurgence without mentioning Giovanni Ribisi

@HeyISawThat 1 month ago

It's ironic that the directors turn their noses up and praise VV's ability to capture what rhythm negative captures when their final product is so heavily post processed and color graded.

@NarrowGaugeFilmsLLC 1 month ago

Few tidbits for you.
There is 1, quiet VistaVision camera in the world, to my knowledge only used on Begonia.
There are 3 Arriflex 765's (quiet 5P 65mm cameras)
There are 2 Panavision Ultra Panavision (quiet 5P 65mm cameras)
There are 3 Fries (quiet 5P 65mm cameras)
There are 7 working/rentable IMAX cameras (2 blimps exist)

So yea, there are WAY more 65mm and 15/70 cameras then quiet VistaVision. Not only that, but there isn't a single modern VistaVision movie made where the dialog scenes were done on Vista, unlike 5p 65mm and now 15P 65mm.

@MogiMogiMonster 1 month ago

So when 5d mark ii is the revolution of digital video, they’ve been shooting VistaVision all along

@TheRealAndreasBartel 8 days ago

5:28 - this is why I stay at home, watching Blu Ray, DVD and if necessary VHS

@chrisfratz 1 month ago

Hopefully, with more film projections happening in all formats, tehaters will see the need in training a new generation of film projectionists. I'm only 26 but I would love to learn how to project a movie on film. It just looks so cool. I love working with my hands (it's the kind of autism I have I guess, lol), and I really loved learning all I can about film formats and how a movie is projected from film, I just wish I could do it as a job.

@jamespuleo3269 4 weeks ago

Interesting and informative ~~~
Thanks for posting !!

@ikegoff 1 month ago

I hope to one day shoot a film on vista vision. This is me manifesting

@fnln9 1 month ago

I absolutely adore cinema and film history. Great presentation. Thanks.

@supaG-1.0 1 month ago

I'm looking forward to this

@sumitisdirecting 1 month ago

This is such a good video

@TubbyJ420 1 month ago

VistaVision on an IMAX GT screen with dual laser projection is fantastic, saw Brutalist and OBAA this way. can't wait to see Digger!

@peanutbutterjeff5364 1 month ago

Having watched a horizontal projection of Ten Commandments last week, I can fully appreciate the detail of VistaVision. 6K scans made into a UHD Blu Ray is one thing, but to see a film print of that material and yet it has mind bending clarity and dimension was amazing.

I think the transfer was 1:1 of the negative, as it has color shift and the occasional damage printed in, but the sheer quality still came through.

I’m yet to see 70mm IMAX that came from film, as I saw Dune Part Two from digital to IMAX. Hopefully I’ll grab one of the larger showings of The Odyssey just to check it off my format bucket list.