Monday, September 30, 2013

Photo of the Day

Lady Edith Plantagenet (Virginia Mayo) and Queen Berengaria (Paula Raymond) ride the desert in comfort in KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS

Now this is a realistic way of traveling through the desert, unlike this film. Of course this scene was shot in a studio with real location footage filmed ahead of the production time and projected in the background.   Would it be correct to say that the superwidescreen used in this film and in so many films in the early days of CinemaScope was a disadvantage because they were TOO widescreen, that everything was shot at the distance and there were rarely close-ups or tight shots used. This beautifully filmed production suffers from this which might explain why no one seems to like it.

1 comment:

jim said...

Yes. Early widescreen produced very awkward close-ups & were rarely used. Unfortunately, it caused too much distance between the actors & the audience. In the beginning, that's why it was mostly used for huge spectacles. Also, it added to the expense.