| Industry | post-production, broadcast media |
|---|---|
| Key people | Robert C. Rosenthal President |
| Owner(s) | CSS Studios |
| Website | www.toddao.com |
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.
Contents |
| Year | Award | Category | Type | Title | Honorees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Academy Award | Best Sound Mixing | Nominated | Inglourious Basterds | Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, Mark Ulano |
| 2007 | Academy Award | Best Sound Mixing | Won | The Bourne Ultimatum | Scott Millan, David Parker, Kirk Francis |
| 2006 | Academy Award | Best Sound Mixing | Won | Dreamgirls | Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, Willie Burton |
| 2002 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Chicago | Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, David Lee |
| 2001 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Black Hawk Down | Michael Minkler, Myron Nettinga, Chris Munro |
| 2000 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Gladiator | Scott Millan, Bob Beemer, Ken Weston |
| 1998 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Saving Private Ryan | Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Ronald Judkins |
| 1997 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | L.A. Confidential | Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Kirk Francis |
| 1996 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Evita | Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Ken Weston |
| 1995 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Apollo 13 | Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, David MacMillan |
| 1995 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Braveheart | Andy Nelson, Scott Millan, Anna Behlmer, Brian Simmons |
| 1994 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Legends of the Fall | Paul Massey, David Campbell Christopher David, Douglas Ganton |
| 1994 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Speed | Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow, Bob Beemer, David R.B. MacMillan |
| 1993 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Schindler's List | Andy Nelson, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, Ron Judkins |
| 1992 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | The Last of the Mohicans | Chris Jenkins, Doug Hemphill, Mark Smith, Simon Kaye |
| 1990 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Dick Tracy | Chris Jenkins, David E. Campbell, D.M. Hemphill, Thomas Causey |
| 1988 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Robert Knudson, John Boyd, Don Digirolamo, Tony Dawe |
| 1987 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Empire of the Sun | Robert Knudson, Don Digirolamo, John Boyd, Tony Dawe |
| 1985 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Out of Africa | Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, Peter Handford |
| 1982 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo, Gene S. Cantamessa |
| 1979 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | 1941 | Robert Knudson, Robert J. Glass, Don MacDougall, Gene S. Cantamessa |
| 1978 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Hooper | Robert Knudson, Robert J. Glass, Don MacDougall, Jack Solomon |
| 1977 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Sorcerer | Robert Knudson, Robert J. Glass, Richard Tyler, Jean-Louis Ducarme |
| 1977 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Robert Knudson, Robert J. Glass, Don MacDougall, Gene S. Cantamessa |
| 1976 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | A Star is Born | Robert Knudson, Dan Wallin, Robert Glass, Tom Overton |
| 1973 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | The Exorcist | Robert Knudson, Chris Newman |
| 1972 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | Cabaret | Robert Knudson and David Hildyard |
| 1965 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | The Sound of Music | Todd-AO Sound Department |
| 1963 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Cleopatra | Todd-AO Sound Department |
| 1961 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | West Side Story | Todd-AO Sound Department |
| 1960 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | The Alamo | Tod-AO Sound Department |
| 1959 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Nominated | Porgy and Bess | Todd-AO Sound Department |
| 1958 | Academy Award | Best Sound | Won | South Pacific | Todd-AO Sound Department |
| 1957 | Academy Award | Academy Scientific and Technical Award | Won | Todd-AO System | Todd-AO Corp Westrex Corp |
| 1955 | Academy Award | Best Sound Recording | Won | Oklahoma | Todd-AO Sound Department |
| Year | Award | Category | Type | Title | Honorees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Comedy or Drama | Win | Family Guy, Road To The North Pole | James F. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Clark |
| 2011 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Comedy or Drama | Nomination | Mad Men, The Suitcase | Ken Teaney, Todd Orr, Peter Bentley |
| 2011 | Emmy Award | Sound Editing – Series | Nomination | Nikita, Pandora | George Haddad, Dale Chaloukian, Ruth Adelman, Chad J. Hughes Ashley Revell, James Bailey, Joseph T. Sabella |
| 2011 | Emmy Award | Sound Editing – Series | Nomination | CSI: NY, Life Sentence | Mark Relyea, Edmund Lachmann, David Barbee, Ruth Adelman, Kevin McCullough, Joshua Winget, Joseph T. Sabella, James M. Bailey |
| 2010 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Miniseries or Movie | Win | The Pacific, Part Two | Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy, Andrew Ramage |
| 2010 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Miniseries or Movie | Nomination | The Pacific, Part Five | Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy, Craig Mann, Andrew Ramage |
| 2010 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Miniseries or Movie | Nomination | The Pacific, Part Eight | Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy, Marc Fishman, Gary Wilkins |
| 2010 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Miniseries or Movie | Nomination | The Pacific, Part Nine | Michael Minkler, Daniel Leahy, Gary Wilkins |
| 2010 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Comedy or Drama Series | Win | Entourage, Part Eight | Tom Stasinis CAS, Dennis Kirk, Alec St. John Todd Orr |
| 2009 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Comedy or Drama | Win | Entourage | Tom Stasinis CAS, Dennis Kirk and Bill Jackson |
| 2009 | Emmy Award | Sound Editing – Series | Nomination | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Mace Matiosian, Ruth Adelman, Jivan Tahmizian, David Van Slyke, Joseph Sabella, James Bailey. |
| 2008 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing, Miniseries or Movie | Win | John Adams | Marc Fishman and Tony Lamberti |
| 2008 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing, Miniseries or Movie | Nomination | John Adams | Michael Minkler and Bob Beemer |
| 2008 | Emmy Award | Sound Editing – Series | Nomination | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Mace Matiosian, Ruth Adelman, Jivan Tahmizian, David Van Slyke, Chad Hughes, Joseph Sabella, Zane Bruce. |
| 2008 | Emmy Award | Sound Mixing – Comedy or Drama | Nomination | Entourage | Dennis Kirk and Bill Jackson |
Todd-AO is an extremely high resolution widescreen film format developed in the mid 1950s.
It was co-developed by Mike Todd, a Broadway producer, with American Optical Company in Buffalo, New York. It was memorably characterized by its creator as "Cinerama outa one hole". Unlike Cinerama, the process required only a single camera and lens. Four lens options (in focal lengths of 35 mm to 56 mm, 63 mm, 65 mm, or 70 mm) covered a 128, 64, 48 or 37 degree field of view. Films were shot on 65 mm negative and the images printed onto 70 mm print stock (5 mm larger to accommodate soundtracks) for projection. The aspect ratio of this format was 2.20:1.
While the 70 mm film width had been used before, most notably in the Fox Grandeur process in 1929–1930, earlier processes are not compatible with Todd-AO due to differences in frame dimensions, perforations and type of soundtrack. Todd-AO actually combined the idea of 65 mm photography with frames 5 sprocket holes tall (also a process with a history extending back to the silent era) with 70 mm wide prints and the magnetic sound that first appeared with CinemaScope, although improved with 6 channels and much better fidelity. The 70 mm print adds 2.5 mm extra down each edge to accommodate some of the soundtracks. Thus the print actually carried 65 mm perforations and the 65 mm negative was contact printed directly to the 70 mm print stock, as the sprocket holes aligned.
As the production and exhibition markets became saturated with Todd-AO System hardware, the focus of the company began to narrow down to the audio post-production side of the business, and Todd-AO became an independent sound mixing facility for commercial motion picture films and television after acquiring Glen Glenn Sound in 1986.
65 mm photography and 70 mm printing became a standard adopted by others. Super Panavision 70 (essentially the Panavision company's version of Todd-AO) and Ultra Panavision 70 (the same mechanically, but with a slight 1.25:1 anamorphic squeeze to accommodate extremely wide aspect ratio images) are both 65/70 processes. Other processes creating 70 mm prints conform to the Todd-AO print format.
The Soviet film industry also copied Todd-AO with their own Sovscope 70 process, identical, except that both the camera and print stock were 70 mm wide.
The original version of the Todd-AO process used a frame rate of 30 per second, slightly faster than the 24 frames per second that was (and is) the standard. The difference does not seem great, but the sensitivity of the human eye to flickering declines steeply with frame rate and the small adjustment gave the film noticeably less flicker, and made it steadier and smoother than standard processes. The original system generated an image that was "almost twice as intense as any ever seen onscreen before, and so hot that the film has to be refrigerated as it passes through the Todd-AO projector."[1] Actually, the film gate was water-cooled, not "refrigerated".
Only the first two Todd-AO films, Oklahoma! and Around the World in Eighty Days, employed 30 frame/s photography. Because of the need for a conventional 24 frame/s version the former was shot simultaneously in 35 mm CinemaScope. The latter was shot in a simultaneous second Todd-AO version at 24 frame/s. All subsequent Todd-AO films have been 24 frame/s. About 16 feature films were shot in Todd-AO.
Todd-AO was developed and tested in Buffalo, New York at the Regent Theatre. (The Regent was originally constructed by theater pioneer Mitchell Mark and is still standing and in use as a church.) Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II went there to see Todd-AO test footage, which led them to approve its use for Oklahoma!. Ampex Corporation engineers were in charge of developing the Todd-AO sound system. Ampex would later go on to manufacture the sound system, including selectable 4-track composite (CinemaScope) or 6-track composite (Todd-AO) or 4-track interlocked or 6-track interlocked or optical sound sources.
The Todd-AO Company (which has since evolved into a sound mixing and audio post-production company) also offered a 35 mm anamorphic process technically similar to 35 mm Panavision or CinemaScope. This may cause some confusion if a Todd-AO credit (not necessarily the more specific Todd-AO 35 credit) appears in some widescreen films made in the 1970s and 1980s. It becomes even more confusing as 70 mm prints were made for films which, unlike earlier pictures made in the process, were shown in multiplexes, like Dune and Logan's Run.
During the late 1970s through the early 1990s 65 mm photography such as that used in processes like Todd-AO or Super Panavision became rare. However, some major films had 70 mm prints made by blowup from 35 mm negatives mostly for the benefit of 6-track sound. These prints would typically play only in a few theatres in a few large cities while everyone else viewed the film in 35 mm. The advent of multichannel digital sound in the 1990s obviated the need for these very expensive prints. "Blow-up" 70 mm prints also followed the Todd-AO layout, although in the case of films made with a 1.85 : 1 aspect ratio, it was retained in the 70 mm version, with the sides of the 70 mm frame left black.
While Todd-AO was intended to be "Cinerama out of one hole", the extreme wide angle photography and projection onto a very deeply curved screen (which is what that would imply) saw little use. Most Todd-AO theatre installations had only moderately curved screens and the extreme wide angle camera lenses were used only on a few shots here and there. Todd-AO films made after 1958 used a conventional flat widescreen, and resembled ordinary films, except for their greater clarity and 6-track stereo sound. A variation on Todd-AO called Dimension 150 did, however, make use of Cinerama-like deeply curved screens. Only two films were made in Dimension 150 – The Bible: In the Beginning, directed by John Huston, and Patton, starring George C. Scott. In some venues, however, Todd-AO and Dimension 150 films received their first run in Cinerama theatres in order that they be shown on a deeply curved screen – such as the first Atlanta, Georgia showings of The Sound of Music.[2]
Todd-AO films were closely associated with what was called roadshow exhibition. At the time, before multiplex theatres became common, most films opened at a large single screen theatre in the downtown area of each large city before eventually moving on to neighborhood theatres. With the roadshow concept, a film would play, often in 70 mm at a movie palace downtown theatre exclusively, sometimes for a year or more. Often a "hard ticket" policy was in effect, with tickets sold for specific numbered seats, and limited showings per day. Most Todd-AO films through the late 1960s, including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and The Sound of Music, were initially shown on a roadshow basis.
In some US cities, individual theaters were converted for use in the 1950s as dedicated Todd-AO "Cinestage" showplaces. These theaters showed exclusive roadshow engagements of Todd-AO and other 70mm films on large, deeply curved screens. They included the Rivoli Theatre in New York City,[3] the Cinestage Theatre in Chicago,[4] and Hunt's Cinestage Theatre in Columbus, Ohio.[5]
The roadshow era ended in the early 1970s.
In the 1970s, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Vetter, Todd-AO made an attempt to compete with Panavision in the 35mm motion picture camera rental market. The company built a series of anamorphic lenses in the 2.35:1 scope format, and owned a handful of camera bodies, Mitchell and Arriflex, that they would rent out with the lens package.
By the 1980s, the venture was not growing and was abandoned. Eventually all of the Todd-AO cameras and lenses, both 35mm and 65mm (70mm), were sold to Cinema Products in Los Angeles. Cinema Products is now out of business.
The following films were produced in the 70 mm Todd-AO format. (This list does not include films photographed in Todd-AO 35 (see above)).
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||