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Horizontal VistaVision in Los Angeles

 Also see: Stanley-Warner Beverly Hills | Paramount/El Capitan | VistaVision at the Chinese | Vista Theatre |



The logo on the screen at the Chinese, projected by one of the two Century 1954 vintage prototype Century machines installed by Boston Light and Sound for the 2025 TCM Festival. Thanks to Craig Barron for sharing his photo as a comment to a post on the Motion Picture Technology Facebook group. See the VistaVision at the Chinese page for more about the equipment.

"White Christmas" in 8 perf VistaVision at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills: 

Paramount's VistaVision process involved shooting on 35mm film at twice the normal speed using an double width 8 perf frame with film moving horizontally through the camera. 



The dimensions of the 8 perf VistaVision frame, from the Wikipedia article "VistaVision." The camera aperture is 1.472" x .997" for an aspect ratio of 1.47 to 1. 

The plan was to exhibit via reduction prints that were compatible with regular projectors. You'd have better resolution and reduced grain. But that idea changed rather close to the release date for the first film in the process, "White Christmas," when executives wondered why for certain engagements they couldn't do horizontal projection with the full 8 perf image. 

Century Projector Corporation was tasked with the job of making prototype machines in about four weeks. Six prototypes were made, designated as Model CV. Two went to the Radio City Music Hall, two went to the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills, two went to the Paramount lot. 
 

The projector aperture for 8 perf prints is seen in this image from the American Widescreen Museum. Note room at the top for the optical soundtrack. The dotted line is for a 1.96 image, the widest possible. But splices may be visible. The solid line is the recommended 1.85 image with dimensions of 1.3365" x .7228".  

The installation in Beverly Hills was noted in this item in the October 26, 1954 issue of The Hollywood Reporter: 

 It was the "second theatre in the world" to get the horizontal machines.  
 

An October 27, 1954 ad for the "White Christmas" west coast premiere that night at the Warner. The Downtown Paramount (formerly the Metropolitan) joined the run the following day using a 4 perf reduction print. In New York the film had opened at the Radio City Music Hall October 14, also running in the horizontal format.

See a photo of the premiere at the Warner. It appears that "White Christmas" and "Strategic Air Command" (opening April 28, 1955) were the only films shown horizontally at the Warner. The equipment was evidently removed in the early 60s. 

The May 1955 release "The Far Horizons" is on various lists as playing the Warner in an 8 perf print. But it actually opened May 25 at the Orpheum, Vogue, Picwood and a half dozen drive-ins. The Warner did get a long, long exclusive L.A. engagement of "The Ten Commandments" beginning November 14, 1956 and running until September 1957. It was a 4 perf reduction print with mono optical sound. 



 
A look down on one of the prototype horizontal VistaVision projectors. With 8 perforations per frame, the film speed was twice normal 35mm -- 180 feet per minute. In the early runs of "White Christmas" they were playing the Perspecta optical soundtrack on separate machines. What looks like a soundhead is just a feed sprocket and several rollers. Photo: Mark Gulbrandsen collection. The shot made an appearance in the November 1954 American Cinematographer article "VistaVision Moves Forward."
 
 

A closer look at one of the prototype VV machines. The ones at the Warner for "White Christmas" were from this batch of six. Thanks to Mark Allen for sharing this as a comment in a post on the 35mm Cinema Projector Technical private Facebook group. He commented: "These projectors fell apart while running because of the pinned-in-place aluminum intermittent sprocket. The pins used to break and/or fall out. The star and cam were just [Century] Model C parts, 1/4 inch shaft. So Century switched to Brenkert intermittents, and replaced most of the movements in the field."  
 
 

A threading diagram for the prototype machines that was given to operators. It appears with "The Century Horizontal Projector," an article by James Morris in the October 1954 issue of International Projectionist. The full year's issues are on the Media History Digital Library site. Go to page 398 for the article.   



A wider view of one of the machines at Radio City Music Hall. They used 4,000 reels so there was a changeover every 20 minutes. Photo: Mark Gulbrandson collection. A cropped version of this one made an appearance in the November 1954 American Cinematographer article "VistaVision Moves Forward."
 
 

A trade magazine ad using "White Christmas" images that touted the virtues of VistaVision. It appeared with a now-vanished Robert Harris article "Motion Picture High Fidelity" that was once on the site The Digital Bits. 
 
 

Another early ad for the process. 
 


An ad for the April 28, 1955 invitational premiere of "Strategic Air Command" at the Stanley Warner. Thanks to Martin Hart for sharing the ad in his American Widescreen Museum VistaVision section. The copy mentions their horizontal projectors and big new screen. In the full horizontal projection format, VistaVision was ideally as wide as a theatre's Cinemascope picture but twice as tall -- a screen size that could be as big as was being used for TODD-AO or Cinerama. 
 

Perspecta Sound:
 
Paramount wasn't big on true stereo sound at this point so the system employed Fairchild's Perspecta Sound, a process using 30, 35 and 40 Hz control tones on the single optical track so it could be directed to any of the three stage speakers in whatever combination was desired. If the theatre installed a Fairchild Perspecta Integrator, that is. These six prototype machines had no soundheads. The Perspecta optical track for the initial runs of "White Christmas" played at 90 fpm, interlocked on one of the theatre's regular projectors. 
 
 
 
A September 1954 ad that appeared in International Projectionist.  



The power supply and Integrator. 


This illustration and the one above are from "Perspecta Sound Operational Data" in the September 1954 issue of International Projectionist. The whole year of issues is on the Media History Digital Library site. Head to page 368 for this article. 

In 70mm.com has several articles on Perspecta including "Perspecta Stereophonic Sound," "Perspecta Sound and the Fairchild Integrator" and a brochure from Stelma Electronics, the company that made the unit, where you'll also find links to various technical bulletins.


The later production model projector: Unlike the six from the prototype batch, these had a soundhead. The story is that Century only built 24 of these, designated as Model DD-2 or DD-3.
 
 

The "Lazy-8" projector with a Peerless Hy-Candescent lamphouse. This was the production model, equipped with a soundhead. Inasmuch as the film started on the bottom magazine, the sound was read before the picture. It was a single optical track using the Perspecta Sound process to simulate stereo. Photo: Mark Gulbrandsen collection.

The illustration can also be seen in "The Horizontal VistaVision Projector," an article by Larry Davee of Century Projector Corporation that's on Martin Hart's great site American Widescreen Museum. For more data on the process see the wonderful VistaVision section on Widescreen Museum and the VistaVision section on In70mm.com
 

Another look at the the front. This image as well as the two below are from a short about VistaVision appearing with the DVD for "Funny Face."  
 

 The operating side. 
 
 
 
A fine view with the doors open. 
 
 

A look down on the machine. Thanks to Christian Herve-Rat for locating the photo. He notes that it was given to him by a man who worked the booth at the Paramount in Paris.  



A closer look at the VistaVision soundhead. Photo: Mark Gulbrandson collection. Thanks to Mark for sharing his photos in a now-vanished post on the Motion Picture Technology private Facebook group. See images on Film-Tech of a VistaVision projector constructed by Mark. 
 
 

A look into one of the two machines in the collection of the HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive at USC. Thanks to Dino Everett, their archivist, for getting the machine out of storage and allowing some playtime with it. These two have been adapted with a variable speed drive and small platters for the running of dailies. wider view | with the door closed |  
 
 

This one is a model DD-3, serial number 103. The knob to the left of the lens is the focus. The switch below is for the pilot lights inside the head and the adjustment screw to the right of that is for shutter adjustment. The silver knob below the lens, with an "F" for forward, is an inching knob. The knob on the vertical shaft at the right is for framing. It's the same arrangement as in a regular Century, changing the distance between the gate and the intermittent. Of course here the intermittent slides side to side instead of up and down. front of the soundhead | nameplate detail | looking underneath | deeper underneath |  


 
The soundhead on this machine has had mag capability added. To the right it's the mag head, pointing down. In the lower right is a stabilizer. If we had magazines on this machine, the feed would be on the bottom with the film traveling upward through the soundhead before going to the projector head. another angle | detail of rotary stabilizer for optical | 
 
 

Above the soundhead, looking across from the feed side of the head.
 

 
That's the feed sprocket on the left, takeup sprocket and film exit to the right. As with a regular Century, the large silver knob opens and closes the gate. Note the aperture plate directly above that. The "U" shaped hole just above the aperture plate is for the cable to the changeover douser. The mechanism for that would be mounted at an angle on top. feed sprocket detail | framing aperture | aperture plate | intermittent sprocket detail | takeup sprocket |  
 
 

Across the mechanism from the takeup side. That's a small xenon lamphouse to the the right. Photos: Bill Counter - 2025. Thanks for the tour, Dino! 
 

Horizontal machines at the Hollywood Paramount: 
 
The second Los Angeles area theatre to get the machines was the El Capitan in Hollywood, then known as the Hollywood Paramount, for the runs of "The Seven Little Foys" (opening June 23, 1955) and "To Catch a Thief" (an eight week run opening August 3, 1955). 

 

"Hear it in PERSPECTA STEREOPHONIC SOUND -- and see it on our NEW CURVILINEAR SCREEN!" It's a September 1955 ad for the 6th week of "To Catch a Thief." Part of that "Curvilinear" bit was that they were using aperture plates filed with a curve top and bottom. With this gimmick, as well as masking installed to match, they conveyed the illusion that the screen was more deeply curved and Cinerama-like than it actually was.
 

 
A faded frame from a horizontal VistaVision print of "To Catch a Thief" with a Perspecta optical track at the top. Thanks to Michael Coate for the image. In his article "...Remembering Hitchcock's 'To Catch a Thief'" on the site The Digital Bits notes that the Hollywood Paramount was one of six theatres nationally to get a horizontal print. 
 
 
The known installations in the U.S. and Canada:
  • Radio City Music Hall -- only for "White Christmas" (October 14, 1954) - 30' x 60' screen. See "NY Music Hall Installs Horizontal Projectors," an item from the October 11, 1954 Hollywood Reporter.
  • Stanley Warner Beverly Hills for "White Christmas" (October 27, 1954) and "Strategic Air Command" (April 28, 1955)
  • Paramount New York - 3 machines, 32' x 64' screen for "Strategic Air Command" (April 21, 1955). "Tomorrow...on the World's Largest Screen" + "First Engagements of S.A.C." ads from Variety, April 20. Some of those dates were later changed. They also ran "To Catch a Thief" (August 4, 1955 - 9 weeks) and, possibly "The Court Jester" (February 1, 1956)
  • Orpheum in Omaha for "Strategic Air Command" (March 25, 1955) and "To Catch a Thief" (August 11, 1955 - 2 weeks) 
  • Stanley in Philadelphia for "Strategic Air Command" (May 5, 1955), "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys"
  • Saenger in New Orleans for "Strategic Air Command" (May 6, 1955), "The Far Horizons" (May 29, 1955), "The Seven Little Foys" and "To Catch a Thief" (August 24, 1955 - 2 weeks)
  • Capitol in Washington for "Strategic Air Command" (May 12, 1955) and "To Catch a Thief" (August 18, 1955 - 4 weeks) 
  • State-Lake in Chicago for "Strategic Air Command" - opening day ad - May 12, 1955, "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys" 
  • Loew's Penn in Pittsburgh for "Strategic Air Command" (May 19, 1955), "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys"
  • Criterion in New York for "The Far Horizons" (May 20, 1955) - See "Two More Theatres Open With Double VistaVision" from the May 18 Hollywood Reporter. They gave an opening date of the 19th, Variety said the 20th in several items. "The Seven Little Foys" opened June 29, 1955 - See "Seven 'Foy' Moppets" - June 6 Hollywood Reporter, "Hope's Ballyhoola" + "Socko...Entries" part A, "Socko... Entries" part B - Variety June 29, "'Foys' NY Preem" - June 30 Hollywood Reporter. The theatre also had a reserved seat run of "The Ten Commandments" beginning November 8, 1956 but there's no reason to think it was anything other than a 4 perf print.  
  • Imperial in Toronto for "Strategic Air Command" - 27' x 52' screen (May 20, 1955). Variety reported 1st week's gross as a "Wow $30,000" in their May 25 issue. See "Two More Theatres Open With Double VistaVision" from the May 18, 1955 Hollywood Reporter - but they projected the opening as May 30. Later the Imperial ran "The Seven Little Foys" (July 1, 1955) and "To Catch a Thief" (August 27, 1955 - 5 weeks). See a "White Christmas" ad located by Don Beelik - but it wasn't run there in 8 perf. The machines were still in the booth when the house was 6-plexed. Gordon McLeod comments that several damaged 8 perf reels of "Ten Commandments" were in the booth when he removed the two Century machines. The machines were sold to ILM. "Ten Commandments" actually played the University Theatre, not the Imperial -- and in a 4 perf roadshow engagement.
  • Hollywood Paramount for "The Seven Little Foys" (June 23, 1955) and "To Catch a Thief" (August 3, 1955 - 8 weeks)
  • Colonial Williamsburg - "Story of a Patriot" opened March 30, 1957, initially running 8 perf with 6 channel mag striping in two theatres - they had 4 operating machines and two spares - machines later went to ILM. Currently one theatre there is digital, one is 70mm with DTS on Century JJ2s.  
  • Various people, including Paul Thomas Anderson in 2025 and Jim Hemphill in his September 2025 IndieWire article "How to Watch One Battle...," have asserted that "One Eyed Jacks"(1961) ran in 8 perf. Not the case. No 8 perf prints were made. It was the last Paramount film using the process and the studio does have some 8 perf material from it that was used for a restoration. See a 2022 Film Foundation article. 
  • Grauman's Chinese for April 26, 2025 screenings of "We're No Angels" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" on two 1954 Century prototype machines Boston Light and Sound installed for the TCM Classic Film Festival.  
  • The Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, the Regal Union Square in New York, the Coolidge Corner in Brookline MA and Odeon Leicester Square in London got special installations for a run of Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another," opening September 24, 2025. It was a Ballantyne machine plus a platter except for Coolidge Corner, which used the two Century machines that had previously been at the Chinese.  

 

 
An ad for Peerless Hy-Candescent lamps at the New York Paramount for "Strategic Air Command." appearing in the May 1955 issue of International Projectionist. 
 
 

A list of early horizontal machine installations in a June 1955 ad from International Projectionist. Note that the Radio City Music Hall isn't listed -- they didn't run anything horizontally after "White Christmas."

 
European installations of the horizontal machines: 
  • Paramount Opera in Paris with Century machines for "Strategic Air Command" (October 7, 1955). Other titles are unconfirmed.
  • Plaza Picadilly in London with Century machines, Hy-Candescent lamps for "Strategic Air Command" (June 16, 1955) - 22' x 43' screen. See "VistaVision: Big Advance" from the June 16, 1955 Kinematograph Weekly. They also ran "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys"
  • Normandie in Paris with Century machines for "Oeil pour Oeil" (September 13, 1957)
  • Odeon Leicester Square with Gaumont Kalee equipment for "The Battle of the River Plate" (October 10, 1956) and, possibly, "Simon and Laura" and "To Catch a Thief." Also see the Technirama Wing on the American Widescreen Museum site for a photo of a Kalee machine. And for the full treatment see "Gaumont-Kalee Double Frame Horizontal Equipment" on Thomas Hauerslev's site In70mm.com. 
  • Reposi in Turin for "The Montecarlo Story" (December 19, 1956) in 8 perf Technirama with 6 track mag sound on the print, on Micron Lambda machines (with both mag and optical capability) built by the Italian firm Micron. See an image on the "Micronlambda per Technirama" page of the In70mm site. 
 
4 perf reduction prints: 
 
While many films were shot in the process (perhaps 80 just at Paramount), only a handful were exhibited using horizontal projection -- and these with only a few prints struck. All the others were printed down to conventional 35mm "flat" prints designed to be shown at aspect ratios between 1.66 to 1 and 2.0 to 1. 
 

Framing marks appeared in the upper right corner of the frame at the beginning of each reel.



Frames from the 1958 VistaVision film "Vertigo." Thanks again to Martin Hart -- the image is from his Widescreen Museum's VistaVision section page 5. No, it didn't play the Warner Beverly Hills (or perhaps anywhere else) in the horizontal format.

The process also morphed into a wider aspect ratio version, Technirama, that used anamorphic lenses. Films shot in that process like "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Montecarlo Story," had 35mm prints done in 'scope format. Some were also printed to 5 perf 70mm. 
 
VistaVision was later used for special effects work in many films, such as "Star Wars," due to its use of a large image area on standard film stock. 
 
 
The return of VistaVision:
 
The 2024 film "The Brutalist" was shot in VistaVision but wasn't exhibited that way. Still, you had your choice of several formats including Imax digital and 5 perf 70mm. 
 
Horizontal VV projection returned to Los Angeles with the installation of two machines at the Chinese for the 2025 TCM Festival. It was an installation by Boston Light and Sound using two of the original 1954 prototype horizontal heads and an updated transport system with big reels.
 
 

That's Thomas Piccione, the lead engineer for the project, at the machine. Thanks to Sean McKinnon of Boston Light and Sound for sharing the photo. He was the manager of the VistaVision project for the company. See the VistaVision at the Chinese page for many more photos.  

"One Battle After Another": Warner Bros. did four VistaVision 8 perf engagements of Paul Thomas Anderson's September 2025 release "One Battle After Another." Steve Levy at Warner Bros. was the chief engineer for the project with Henry Miranda also on the team. It played in 8 perf at the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, the Regal Union Square in New York, the Odeon Leicester Square in London and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA. 
 
The film was shot in VistaVision and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall. See the In70mm page about the film. Charlotte Barker, Paramount's head of restoration, discussed VistaVision and "One Battle..." with her husband Adam in "VistaVision Expert: The Best Film Format..." a sixteen minute episode on YouTube from Perf Damage Podcast. The world premiere was at the Chinese on September 8 in Imax digital format. The first shows at the Vista were Wednesday, September 24. It ran there through November 4. 
 
For the Coolidge Corner engagement Boston Light and Sound did a two-machine installation using the original Century prototype heads they restored. Sound for that engagement was a 7.1 playback via ProTools that is synced via shaft encoders on the projectors. Image size was 20' x 30'. See "How the Coolidge became one of the four theaters in the world to screen 'One Battle...' in VistaVision." Thanks to Sean McKinnon of BL&S for sharing a link to the article in a Facebook post. The Globe article is behind a paywall but Joel Pell has the text in a Cinema Tour Facebook post. Sean has also shared photos of the installation on Facebook: post 1 | post 2 | post 3 | post 4 | Also see a BL&S post with two photos. 
 
 

The Los Angeles, New York and London installations used a single machine built by Ballantyne plus a custom platter system engineered by Brad Miller's company Film-Tech that could handle the 2 hour and 41 minute running time. Brad commented: 
 
"Film-Tech made special platter systems capable of holding 3 hours 1 minute of VistaVision film. The platter originally was a Christie AW3 and then we made new larger decks and gutted the Christie electronics out of them to start clean with a computer-controlled system to handle the extreme speed differential required for VistaVision."
 
In this Vista booth photo by Rikart Købke the VistaVision machine is in the center of this image with one of the theatre's Norelcos to the left. The feed side of the projector is on the right -- note the sagging section of film heading over there. The portion under tension is coming back to the platter for takeup. Thanks to Rikart for sharing this photo as well as others appearing here. See the main In70mm page for "One Battle..." 
 
Warner Bros did the installations in Los Angeles and New York. In London the Ballantyne projector was provided by Bell Theatre Services, who did the installation under Warner Bros. supervision. Film-Tech sent over the platter. Taylor Umphenour was involved in training the Vista's projectionists when that set of equipment was still installed at the Steven Ross Theatre on the Warners lot. Jack Theakston was involved with Warner techs in the installation in New York and is also served  as the VV head operator for the run. He notes that it was in a 277 seat house with about a 24' x 36' image. They were using a Strong Super 80 lamp.    
 
 

In the foreground it's the bottom two decks of the "megaplatter" used at the Vista for "One Battle." Beyond it's the theatre's regular Christie 35/70mm AW3 platter. See our Vista booth page for more about their equipment. Photo: Rikart Købke   
 
 

For L.A., New York and London there was a time code on the film for DTS sound with the code located outside the perforations, as is done for 70mm. Film-Tech made custom DTS readers for the machines. It's a 5.1 mix. The sub track was discrete, unlike a regular DTS mix where it's derived from channels 2 and 4. The 8 perf prints were shown in a 1.50 aspect ratio, using nearly the full VistaVision negative area. Photo: Rikart Købke
 


The front of one of the Ballantine 8 perf machines. Thanks to Richard De Armas for sharing this shot of the machine Warner Bros. used for work on "One Battle After Another. He comments: "Here’s the beast that projected over a 1,000,000,000 of film for the PTA project!" 
 
 

The VistaVision installation at the Vista: On the left it's Norelco #2. To the right it's the Ballantyne VistaVision machine with a Strong Super 80 lamphouse. Photo: Rikart Købke
 
 

The feed side of the machine at the Vista. In the lower center of the image it's the DTS reader. Note the plastic tubing where the intermittent oil level can be checked. Photo: Rikart Købke 
 
 

Looking across the Ballantyne head with one of the Vista's Norelcos beyond. Photo: Rikart Købke 
 
 
 
A view of the feed sprocket and the gate in a Ballantyne unit built years ago for Pacific Title & Art Studio. Magna-Tech was trying to sell it at some point. There's more information on the listing page on the site Worthpoint. Note that this head used larger feed and takeup sprockets than the one installed at the Vista. See two more photos of this head: intermittent and takeup sprockets | side view of the machine |  
 
 

The front of the machine in the Vista booth. Photo: Rikart Købke 
 
 

A frame of the leader in the gate. Photo: Rikart Købke 
 
 

A view of the intermittent and takeup sprockets of the Vista's machine. The film exits on the left side of the head, closest to us. Photo: Rikart Købke. Many thanks for sharing the photos!
 
 
  
The takeup side of the Ballantyne head used at London's Odeon Leicester Square. One of the operators explains the installation in a 1:32 video clip on Facebook from Odeon Cinemas. See additional images of this installation taken from the video: another look across | film running through the gate | lamphouse and base | more of the base.| platter system | platter brain | platter threaded up |   

The Odeon's projection angle is 20 degrees. The head and lamphouse were provided by Bell Theatre Services, the platter was sent over by Film-Tech. For another quick look at the Odeon installation see a September 2025 "VistaVision 101" Instagram clip Joel Pell spotted from Little White Lies featuring Tom Kelly, the circuit's programmer.
 
A version of the Ballantyne 8 perf horizontal machines that ran at 48fps were used by Douglas Trumbull's Ridefilm Corporation for amusement park attractions. That company was bought by Imax in 1994 and then the machines were serviced by Imax technicians. There was "In Search of the Obelisk" at the Luxor in Las Vegas (1993), "ReBoot: The Ride" (1993) in Galveston, at Albuquerque's Blockparty and other locations and "ReBoot: The Ride V2 - Journey into Chaos" (1994) at the Luxor, the Circus Circus Adventuredome and several Cineplex Playdium locations in Canada. Some of the Ridefilm locations are listed on Wikipedia's "List of Imax-based rides."
 
Ballantyne of Omaha, along with Strong International, became part of the holding company Canrad-Hanovia in 1976. Richard De Armas notes that Strong was making these machines in the early 2000s. Ricardo Sanjurjo adds: "I remember designing and making the machines. We did not make many of them." One guess is that about 20 of these were built during that period. Strong is now known as Strong Technical Services. There's a PDF on the Film-Tech site offering a history of Strong/Ballantyne.  
  
 

To get a bit more height for the VistaVision presentation of "One Battle..." at the Vista Warner Bros. installed a new screen in front of the existing one. It's about 20' x 30'.  Photo: Bill Counter - September 24, 2025   
 
 
  
A closer look at the Vista's screen. The aspect ratio was 1.5 to 1. Photo: Bill Counter - September 24, 2025
 
 

A test film for "One Battle.." showing Paul Thomas Anderson's use of the full VV frame. Thanks to Tyler Purcell for locating the image. Not here that there's no DTS track.  
 
More information: On the American Widescreen Museum site see the article "Horizontal VistaVision Projector" and "The Development of VistaVision."   
 
On Wikipedia see "VistaVision" as well as "Technirama," a 35mm horizontal process like VistaVision but with an anamorphic lens. They also have a list of film formats.   
 
Alain Dorange shared an installation list he compiled as a post with the Friends of 70mm private Facebook group. It had a number of issues that prompted discussion. That version: page one | page two |
 
See the Ballantyne head in action at the Odeon Leicester Square in London in a 1:32 clip on Facebook from Odeon Cinemas. 

Thanks to Michael Coate for his research!  

Sean McKinnon, of Boston Light and Sound has this to say about the format:
 
"VV horizontal 8 perf vs. 4 perf vertical 35mm 1.85? The image stability is incredible. SMPTE Spec allows a certain small percentage of film movement in the projector then add in lab work, etc… even a very finely tuned projection system can have slight jitter and weave or it is printed in the film. With VV the image is rock solid. Test charts look like a slide rather than a loop. 
 
"The larger image area shows less grain, more detail, a larger aperture equals a brighter more even light field. It’s easily my favorite format over 5/70 and 35mm anamorphic or 1.85. The focus stability and flatness, depth of field it’s all better. Better than 5/70 and I am a big 5/70 guy. 
 
"I can’t explain it but there is something about either how our brains interpreted side to movement (of the film frames) or that the film is more supported but it is day and night in my opinion as steady and evenly focused as the best digital presentations but with a film look, dynamic range and color saturation. Closest thing I can ascribe it to is Dolby Vision on film."

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