What is 2-perf (also called Techniscope)?

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Created on Monday, 10 September 2007 06:42
Last Updated on Friday, 14 December 2012 20:15
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kodak film
2-perf techniscope costs half as much to shoot
For even more extreme cost savings, producers and directors may choose to shoot 2-perf, also known as Techniscope, over 3-perf Super-35 or 4-perf Super35.

A 2-perf or Techniscope frame is natively 2.35:1, which is the same ratio as the projected image of anamorphic widescreen. Techniscope is almost half the height of the Academy frame , and the same width: 9.47mm x 22mm. Therefore, Techniscope can be a preferred format over shooting with anamorphic lenses.

kinor electronics
shooting in 2-perf techniscope
It can be used in place of Super16, since the frame area is 2.2 times larger (super16 is 2mm shorter and 11.6mm narrower) and 2-perf is considered by some to be less expensive to shoot than super16.

When shooting in 2-perf, the height of the frame is cut by two perforations and thusly is 50% smaller than standard academy frame. At 24fps, 2-perf uses 50% less negative per minute than the standard 4-perf film formats shot at the same frame rate. Since 50% less negative is used per minute, this means that a typical 400ft film load, shot at 24fps, will last twice as long and hold twice as many images.

The positive reasons for shooting 2-perf Techniscope are the same as above: costs less for initial shooting, more takes between magazine changes/film loads, longer run times per magazine, and it has a native 2.35:1 widescreen ratio.

Negative reasons are: Digital Intermediates can be expensive and image quality can suffer from optical prints. Many cameras need to be converted to shoot 2-perf, which can be expensive to do. The conversion may also be irreversible. Some cameras may not be able to be converted to 2-perf Techniscope at all. Facilities that work with 2-perf are harder to find than 4-perf facilities.