The Abyss

[EdwardJonDiouff]

Hi... I'm doing some reserach on the James Cameron, and, I know he shoots on Super 35, but does anyone know what type of lens he used on the Abyss? I'm not that educated about Camera Lens, so if anyone can help, I'd real appreciate it!

 

Thanks.

[David Mullen ASC]

It was an Arriflex shoot and probably used Zeiss lenses, standard and Super-Speeds.

 

All the May 1990 issue of A.C. says is that it used two or three Arri BL3's for coverage, in Super-35.

[Mitch Gross]

They also used a modified Arri 2c for some of the action scenes running around inside that tight set. The camera had a flat crystal base and the viewfinder was replaced with a videotap. A small LCD monitor was mounted on the side for the operator to frame with.

[EdwardJonDiouff]

Thanks for the info. As I was saying, I am a novice when it comes to Lenses, but I was told that Cameron used a spherical lens for the Abyss - just so I don't get attacked by my lectruer, can someone clarify what is meant by spherical lens and are they used on Super 35 cameras?

 

Thanks.

[Mitch Gross]

Super-35 is a shooting format only just as Super-16 is. The widest possible negative area is used, taking over the space generally allotted for the soundtrack on prints. The camera uses spherical lenses, which are lenses that render a "normal" image on the negative as opposed to a horizontally sqeezed image that an anamorphic lens does. But projection of widescreen images relies on anamorphic projection prints, where the image is squeezed horizontally and then unsqueezed in order to get the widescreen shape. To convert the Super-35 negative to an anamorphic print an optical process is used.

 

There are various reasons for using this system. Anamorphic lenses can be large and heavy and have various image abberations unless a large amount of light is used. Also, "The Abyss" had many optical effects and many effect houses find the spherical images much easier to work with. And the production needed many cameras for some of the more complicated sequences and it can be difficult to get multiple sets of matching anamorphic lenses.

[David Mullen ASC]

Just to add to what Mitch said -- there was no need for the word "spherical lens" until after anamorphic lenses were invented and someone needed a word to describe normal, non-anamorphic lenses. It's just like how we needed to word "prime lens" after the zoom lens was invented.

 

The idea behind Super-35 was to get to a anamorphic print (CinemaScope or "scope") without shooting with anamorphic lenses. So basically you're cropping the regular 35mm frame to 2.35 : 1 and then blowing this up (and stretching it) into an anamorphic image in post. Except that you use a SLIGHTLY wider area on the 35mm frame for exposing the 2.35 image onto, since you don't need to leave room for a soundtrack stripe. So Super-35 is essentially using the whole width of the 35mm frame just like in the Silent Era -- what's now called Full Aperture photography. Sound apertures like for matted widescreen (1.85, 1.66, etc.), for Academy (1.37) and for CinemaScope all don't use a sliver, a portion, of the left edge of the frame, using it for a soundtrack. So Super-35 is never a projection format because it has no room for a soundtrack if you make a contact print off of the Super-35 negative. It has to be converted to some other format, usually anamorphic for theatrical films -- although you can compose other aspect ratios, usually less cropped ones. TV shows, for example, shoot Super-35 composed for 1.78 : 1 (16:9).

 

In terms of shooting Super-35, it's just like shooting for 1.85 movies. Except that the camera aperture is slightly bigger (Full Aperture) and you are composing for more cropping (all the way to 2.35 instead of 1.85.) Lenses are the same. Remember that the Full Aperture, 4-perf 35mm frame is 1.33 : 1, hardly widescreen at all.