Right as rain

I stopped to visit my pal Don after a long internet session next door. His front door was open and I tapped loudly enough to be heard over the movie, a daily afternoon event. They had a really wonderful film playing in TechniScope 2:66, letterboxed with black over and under. It was ultra sharp on a small 16x9 flatscreen, maybe a 42" LCD. Two-perf TechniScope was truly breathtaking -- loaded with visual energy and emotional power. The movie 'African Express' playing in 2:66 was a gem from the 1970s with first time ingenue Ursula Andress opposite a handsome Italian juvenile the same age, early-20s and sexy as heck. Jack Palance was the heavy, with Ozzie henchmen, stars from Down Under, convincingly tough bad guys. Shot on location in Africa, Italian color processed in Rome, a gifted Italian director and a meticulous German producer who gave his director plenty of shooting days and set-ups, nicely done.

I was fully justified when Bruno knocked aside his friend's objections, a cinematographer of considerable standing, and pushed TechniScope in my fictional tale Chiseltown. It was NOT a trivial or simple decision, and it had absolutely nothing to do with saving money. Film stock and processing are small budget items, hundreds of thousands, not millions. Chiseltown was greenlit at $12 million, typical Poverty Row starvation. By the time that Bruno was done, the negative cost of Chiseltown was $18 million, worth every penny, ultrawide comedy schtick and thrilling drama, with spectacular stunts that they had enough time to rehearse and cover from all the right angles. Skillfulness and creativity matter in low budget films.

Back to the TechniScope question. After his pal's initial objections and fussy cynicism about shooting 2-perf 35mm instead of standard 4-perf (twice as detailed), there was a passage of technical importance that did not appear in the novel Chiseltown. Tech stuff would be boring to most readers. Bruno and Ruud screened a dozen test reels, shot by a dozen TechniScope lenses. Bruno picked the three sharpest among them, limiting himself to focal lengths that determined where the camera was placed throughout the movie. The choice of a film editor was not a trivial decision, either. The producer was present in all those discussions because every aspect of a movie is always a producer's final decision. I liked my fictional producer Joe Klopp. Solid, bright, capable of managing staff, as supportive as possible to the director (with increasing frustration and worry) -- two men bonded by long experience of working together. You can't buy those kind of relationships. That's why it matters Who Knows Who, always in casting and "packaging" the money, always among the above-the-line creatives. Producers are creatives with heavy responsibilities, to actualize everything the production requires and to ultimately complete the picture. Not as easy as it sounds.

A happy day. I was right as rain about TechniScope. Looked great on a home entertainment screen. Might not be so swell in a conventional 500-seat 1970s cinema or modern multiplex, but 'African Express' was brilliant and beautiful and sharp on Don's flatscreen. Ultrawide 2:66 is a fabulous format with the right lenses, a gifted cinematographer, a talented director, and well known stars, their voices and sound effects recorded, re-recorded, and mixed nicely.

Story matters (a little). How it plays is everything.

Too bad I'm too old to direct. Oh, well. Life on life's terms. Writing was equally enjoyable and easier to complete. Cut to the starlet in his arms, successful R-rated lovers at home in robes at the kitchen counter, a happy ending. They sold popcorn at a preview in Fresno.

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