Technirama

Fighting to remain relevant after the demise of three-strip color photography, Technicolor entered the widescreen market with its own process. In 1957, it launched the large-format Technirama widescreen system in which the film was run horizontally through the camera instead of vertically, creating a larger, higher resolution film frame. On top of this, an anamorphic lens optics compressed the image horizontally to facilitate even wider compositions. Technirama’s improved image quality heralded a more expansive cinema experience, enabling the production of historical epics such as Spartacus (1960) and El Cid (1961).