Historic Ten Commandments VistaVision #1 (VV1) motion picture camera. ...

Description

Historic Ten Commandments VistaVision #1 (VV1) motion picture camera. Faced by declining theater attendance in the 1950s, Paramount engineers developed VistaVision - a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format devised by orienting the negative horizontally in the camera gate and shooting onto a larger area, thereby yielding a finer-grained projection print. VistaVision #1 (VV1) was the very first Mitchell VistaVision camera ever built, having started its service project, Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic The Ten Commandments and ten additional years of very difficult production as Hollywood moved out of the safety of sound stages into the rugged extremes of spectacular distant location productions. According to very limited surviving camera reports VV1 was one of six cameras on Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Included with the camera are: VV1 blimp in case (hand-built by studio craftsmen), lens shade kit for blimp with case, VV1 motor with case, a removable through-the-lens viewfinder system, VistaVision Mitchell geared head, Cooke Panchro lens and bellows, (2) vintage camera cases, (2) 1000-ft. magazine sets, lens shade kit with accessories, external viewfinder and Fearless camera dolly. Comes with a letter of provenance by Roy H. Wagner, ASC, who states, "The camera worked its way through every picture that Paramount ever did in VistaVision, and went on to do substantial visual effects work on films in the 1960s and 70s...In the last 35 years I've never seen a VistaVision camera this complete." From the collection of Debbie Reynolds.

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