Multiscreen Motion-Picture Method

a method of shooting and showing motion pictures so as to allow simultaneous showing of several thematically related images. The three basic methods of projecting multiscreen films determine the methods by which the films are shot. The first method uses several screens located in one or more planes and a corresponding number of projectors. The second uses a single screen on different parts of which are projected images from several projectors. The third uses one screen and a single projector that projects multi-images made on a single strip of film. The first two methods were developed in Czechoslovakia and were first used at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958; they were subsequently used mainly for films shown at international exhibitions and the like. The third method, the varioscopic multi-image method, has become widely used for modern multiscreen motion pictures; its advantages include high picture quality and the possibility of changing the number, form, and arrangement of images in the frame.

A wide-format varioscopic multi-image system with six-channel stereophonic sound (Sovpolikadr) has been developed at the USSR’s Mosfil’m motion picture studio by the Motion Picture and Photography Institute. Films made with this system are shown with wide-format equipment; they can also be converted to wide-screen films by the optical printing method so that they can be shown in wide-screen motion-picture theaters.