NON PLUS ULTRA IN SUPER-8 CINEMASCOPE

I was stunned and amazed when I projected, this evening,  the first anamorphic Super-8 release from a negative (not a kinescope!) in the last fifteen years,  on a four-metre-wide screen: the double bill in CinemaScope released by the Spanish film distributor Ultra-8, which is run by a well-known television director, Rubén Torrejón, from Madrid, of Cordoba descent, in an incredible international coordination effort: Rubén obtained the original 35 mm masters from which he made a 16 mm internegative at Andec Cinegrell in Germany, where he also ordered struck the prints, from the state-of-art by Kodak Vision 3383 colour print film proudly made in the United States. The tracks (of paste type, like the one used in its day by Kodak) was applied in Italy by MovieMagnetic, also responsible for the high-fidelity stereophonic audio recordings in five national languages.

This CinemaScope double-bill reel contains two historically and artistically significant cartoons: "Grand Canyonscope" (1954), Walt Disney's second anamorphic cartoon (which preceded the feature film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea") and "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" (2011), the last Tweety and Sylvester cartoon released commercially in 35mm in theaters (although it was made in CGI), preceding the feature film "Happy Feet Two", which I loved very much because I saw it sailing through the Ross Sea, in Antarctica, aboard the "Ortelius".

One problem with Super-8 anamorphic prints is that the 2.66:1 format crops the image a bit at the top and bottom edges (something that was already considerated  by "real" directors of film photography). This is not the case with this double bill in CinemaScope edited by Ultra-8, since it´s printed following the guidelines of the remembered CineAvisión, by Dr. Van Tettering, and the positives are proportionally reduced, with black  bands on side, for a projection in the correct 2.35 : 1 format using a standard x 2 anamorphic.

I projected the two positives on a 4-meter wide Scope screen, located on the Stalag set of my studio, using a Fumeo 9140 Xenon projector with a Eumig Suprovar prime lens and the famous Isco Scoptimax anamorphic. The picture and stereophonic sound quality is absolutely incredible: not only does it surpass any Derann Films anamorphic film release, but it is even better than "El Cid" in the Lone Wolf edition.

I´m very happy with the purchase, although, personally, I would have completed the double bill with another traditional animation title instead of "I tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" originally made with computer. I can make this critic because my opinion is impartial since I bought my print: I never ask for anything for free, as others do.

Non plus ultra is a locution used in Spanish to indicate that something is unsurpassable, that you can't go any further. The non plus ultra of Super-8 are those prints of Ultra-8 made from an internegative, using classical technical, and in CinemaScope. Great work by Rubén as a color film grader, excellent the great Ludwig Drasser in the laboratory, superior Kodak by the film stock, and without words about Alberto Vangelisti for his totally flat (not concave) liquid tracks and about Guido Melis for the hi-fi sound re-recording. 

Both cartoons, and other Ultra-8 releases, will be projected during the first week of December in SELLIER FILM FESTIVAL, in La Corunna (in Galicia, NW of Spain). 

Image quality: A+ Sound quality: A+