Converting "Gone With The Wind" from 35mm. Negative to vastly enlarged scope of new presentation in 70mm and stereophonic sound a tremendous technical achievement | Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter |
| Written by: Exhibitor's Campaign Book from MGM, 1967 | Date: 22.07.2026 |
 Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, one of the screen's most memorable love teams, as they appear in David O. Selznick's production of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind." The all-time-great picture is now presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the first time in 70mm. wide-screen and full stereophonic sound, Metrocolor, adding immeasurably to the film's spectacle and dramatic impact, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland are also starred.What has already been hailed over the past 28 years as one of the greatest artistic achievements in film entertainment, this year becomes an outstanding example of scientific advancement in the film industry when MGM releases "Gone With the Wind" in a giant screen 70mm, presentation. Instead of trying to remake this masterpiece, which David O. Selznick produced in 1939, MGM preferred to bring to the screen the original work that won ten Academy Awards an thesed of honor that was not equaled until "Ben-Hur" won eleven Oscars in 1959. • Go to "Vom Winde Verweht" Auf 70mm Umkopiert • Go to GONE WITH THE WIND printed to 70mm • Go to “Gone with the Wind”: The North American 70mm Re-Release Engagements This is the sixth worldwide re-release of "Gone With the Wind"-again, a singular achievement in motion picture history, Millions of people all over the world have seen and want to see again this film to relive every exciting moment, and more millions of a new generation will be seeing it for the first time. Thirty odd years ago, when they were shooting "Gone With the Wind," Technicolor film was an expensive, complex novelty that projected an almost square and relatively small picture. High fidelity wasn't heard of, much less, stereophonic sound. Images on Giant Screen Yet, MGM is releasing "Gone With the Wind" in 70mm, which projects images on a giant screen that nearly rival the size of a football field, and in full stereophonic sound. The problem was how to achieve these presentation techniques of today, using the original film of yesterday. Fortunately, over the past 43 years, MGM has built one of the finest film processing laboratories in existence, staffed with men who apply the latest technical, scientific and electronic advances to make motion pictures as perfect a representation as producers want them to be These same engineers had just overcome the problems of making 70mm release prints of "Doctor Zhivago" from original 35mm, negative when word came from the president of MGM "to prepare "Gone With the Wind' for 70mm, presentation." The first problem was to put together a useable color negative of the complete three-hour and forty-minute film. When "Gone With the Wind" was made, Technicolor was a process that used three separate rolls of film being exposed simultaneously in the same camera. Each of the three films was sensitive to black-and-white images only there was no such thing as a color negative. By using red, blue and green filters for these three simultaneous negatives, Technicolor was able to work out a system of matrices which could then transfer color dyes onto celluloid, which in turn became the positive print that could be projected in theatres. To make the new color negative, each of those three filtered black-and-white negatives (one on top of the other) had to be used to expose a new single color sensitive emulsion. This resulted in what is called an "intermediate positive" which then had to be enlarged and printed to make a new color negative. Further complicating the process of making the new color negative was the age of the old three-strip negative. The film had shrunk with age, and each reel had shrunk to a different size. In all, there were 78 reels amounting to nearly 60,000 feet of film which when printed on the new intermediate positive amounted to 19,770 feet. | More in 70mm reading: “Gone with the Wind”: The North American 70mm Re-Release Engagements Mit Der Metro-Methode: "Vom Winde Verweht" Auf 70mm Umkopiert GONE WITH THE WIND printed to 70mm the Metro Method 70mm Blow Up List 70mm Engagements in70mm.com News Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM 7OMM and Cinema Across the World Now showing in 70mm in a theatre near you! 70mm Retro - Festivals and Screenings |
 Change in ShapeOnce this intermediate positive was made, still in 35mm., the next step of enlarging the film to 70mm, would seem to be a relatively simple task. That would have been true if it weren't for the change in the shape of motion pictures since 1939. When "Gone With the Wind" was made, the projected image on the screen was only a third again as wide as it was high (a ratio of 1.33 to 1). Today, the image on a 70mm. projection in a theatre is a little over twice as wide as it is high (a ratio of 2.2 to 1). As a result, if the old negative were simply enlarged to this new size, over a third of the top or bottom of the original picture would be cut off. The MGM laboratory engineers came up with the solution by applying the same techniques they had devised to convert CinemaScope pictures to ratio suitable for television viewing. In the latter case, the problem had been cutting off the sides. So they developed a scanner-printer and viewing device that allowed a technician to move the lens of the viewing device from one side of the wide frame to the other in effect, re-shooting the film to make certain that essential action was included in the new print. Each movement of the lens on the viewer was electronically coded so that when the intermediate positive was put on the printer-enlarger, the lens of that device repeated the movements precisely. Instead of moving horizontally, enlarging "Gone With the Wind" required modification of the equipment to scan the intermediate positive vertically to pick up all the action without cutting off something at top or bottom. | |
 Eliminate ScratchesThe shutters on the printing devices used in making the new 70mm, negative clicked 1,280,000 times. In every step of this complicated laboratory feat, wherever one strip of film was being transferred to another, a liquid film gate was used to reduce the grain and eliminate scratches. This was important because in 1939, film emulsions were inherently more grainy than the products of today. With the sights of "Gone With the Wind" ready for the giant screen, the sounds also had to be brought up to today's quality standards, Working with the original optical sound track on nitrate film, the MGM Sound Department was able to separate the voice tracks, music and effects onto separate magnetic tapes. Using the latest electronic devices, they were able to equalize and put these sounds on the release prints for directional dialogue and effects in stereo. Some of the original music tracks were found in film storage vaults and have been added to enhance certain portions of the film. Likewise, sound effects that were not necessary in the original small screen presentation have been blended in where needed. In less than a year, MGM overcame the obstacles of incompatible shapes of the original 35mm, version, age deterioration and shrinkage, the relatively primitive three-strip color process used in shooting "Gone With the Wind" and the single composite optical sound track to prepare the spectacular new 70mm presentation in full stereophonic sound. The new film is 24,713 feet long, with a running time of three-hours and forty-minutes the same as the original that premiered in Atlanta in 1939. "Gone With the Wind," a film property that has become a part of the world's cultural heritage, is no longer in danger of being lost through deterioration of the original negative. Audiences will be able to enjoy it in the limitless future. | |
All-Time-Great "Gone With the Wind" now shown for the first time in vast scope of 70mm and full stereophonic sound | |
 "Gone With the Wind," acclaimed worldwide as one of the great motion picture entertainments of all time, will now be seen for the first time in the latest giant screen 70mm process, Metrocolor and six channel stereophonic sound.This marks the sixth re-release since David O. Selznick's production of "Gone With the Wind" made motion picture history with its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1930 The picture was last released during the Civil War Centennial year, 1961. The 70mm version brings the epic drama to a younger as well as older generation of motion picturegoers as a colorful and exciting new experience in sight and sound. Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland, winner of ten Academy Awards, and seen to date by a combined international audience of 295,000,000 persons, "Gone With the Wind" is now being shown by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a roadshow attraction Go to “Gone with the Wind”: The North American 70mm Re-Release Engagements Scientific Triumph Made possible by notable MGM technical advancements, the 70mm screen version is a triumph of scientific breakthroughs in optical printing. When originally produced, "Gone With the Wind" was filmed in the original 3 x 4 ratio used prior to the development of the wide screen. MGM's "Doctor Zhivago," now challenging "Gone With the Wind" as one of the biggest grossing pictures in history, was filmed in 35mm CinemaScope [Panavison, ed]. The smaller fine grain negative was transferred by the MGM laboratory onto the 70mm, negative, making it adaptable with added quality for all screen ratios, large and small. To transfer "Gone With the Wind" from the small negative to the larger and more flexible 70mm, negative was far more challenging and involved, due not only to the ratio but to the three-strip Technicolor process in which it was filmed. The feat on the part of MGM technicians adds tremendous visual impact to viewing the picture today. As an indication of the scope of the task, the 70mm. print required 1,280,000 clicks of the optical printer, or four clicks to each of the 320,000 frames. The history of "Gone With the Wind" is one of the most fascinating in the annals of movie-making. Margaret Mitchell's romantic novel of the South during Civil War days has remained a best-seller over the years in every language. It was purchased by Selznick for a then record sum of $50,000. The motion picture public unanimously selected Clark Gable for the role of Rhett Butler. The demand for Gable as the dashing Southerner was so great that no other actor was ever considered. The selection of Vivien Leigh for Scarlett O'Hara came after an exhaustive two-year search and tests of well-known stage and screen feminine stars and unknowns alike. A total of 1,400 actresses were interviewed, with 90 actually tested. It is an interesting side note that "Gone With the Wind" brought fame to many. Among those tested was a young New York model. She didn't get the role but was to become famous later as Susan Hayward. The massive picture has 59 major speaking roles. Thousands of extras were used in spectacle scenes. The most elaborate and still acclaimed as a classic of filmmaking was the burning of Atlanta. The city as it was in 1864 was authentically created on 40 acres at the Selznick Studios in Culver City, California. Of the picture's 90 sets, 50 buildings alone were designed and erected in recreating Atlanta. | |
 No Second ChanceThe scene had to be filmed in a single "take" without mishap. There would be no second chance. No available camera crane was large enough to cover the scene, in which 1,200 extras appeared. A shipbuilding crane was delivered to the studio from Seattle to serve as a towering camera platform. Residents of Culver City, attracted by the thousands, still recall the mounting excitement of the spectacle. Flames roared and shot 200 feet into the air as Atlanta burned with a realism rarely equalled on the screen. This is only one of literally hundreds of memorable scenes in the three-hour, 40-minute epic motion picture. More than 3,000 sketches alone were made for the sets and wardrobe. A total of 449,512 feet of film was exposed, with 160,000 feet printed. At the Academy Award ceremony in 1940, "Gone With the Wind" received a then record ten Oscars and special awards, not exceeded until MGM's “Ben-Hur” won eleven awards in 1959. The awards for "Gone With the Wind" were for best picture, Vivien Leigh as best actress, Hattie McDaniel as best supporting actress, Victor Fleming as best director, plus best screen play, best art direction, best editing, best color photography, a special award for production design and the Irving C. Thalberg Award to Selznick for outstanding production achievement "Gone With the Wind" has been re-released by MGM over the years to new generations and growing audiences. Millions have again thrilled to the picture each time it has been presented. Today, it is an acknowledge classic of motion picture making. | |
Panorama Of Wounded Soldiers Given Tremendous Impact In 70mm Version | |
 One of the records set by David O. Selznick's production of "Gone With the Wind" is that of filming the biggest scene ever photographed in its time. That scene now looms in even greater scope and spectacle in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's current release of this never-to-be-forgotten picture, presented for the first time in 70 millimeter wide screen in Metrocolor, complete with a six channel stereophonic sound track.The railroad station scene was to take its place among the most memorable movie shots of all time. Producer Selznick planned it that way. He told his production aides that he wanted the scene of the Confederate wounded in the railroad station to be the longest and highest pullback of movie history. He wanted it to depict in a vivid and shocking way the human wastage of war. William Cameron Menzies, the production designer, made sketches of a camera angle that would extend from a closeup of Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivien Leigh, to an immense panorama of the dead and dying. Today it could be captured in a helicopter shot, but no such facility was available in 1939. The giant "Gone With the Wind" sequence was made possible by construction of the world's largest motion picture camera crane. A huge boom with an extension of 85 feet in any direction, including a direct vertical one, was designed to photograph 1,500 extras on the 40-acre Atlanta, Georgia, set. So enormous was the crane's weight 140 tons that a concrete runway 200-feet long and twelve-feet wide was built along the track where the crane moved. The giant camera was built with a contractor's rigging crane, mounted with its caterpillar tractor on two trailers, and supported by 46 truck-sized pneumatic-tired wheels. The crane was designed to carry such heavy loads as structural steel members, tanks and electric signs so it was rigid enough to support the big "Gone With the Wind" Technicolor cameras without vibration. The scene in the railroad station never failed to evoke awe from audiences whenever it appeared on the screen. The most pugent comment was made by John Marsh as he watched "Gone With the Wind" at the Atlanta premiere. He turned to his wife, Margaret Mitchell and remarked:
The scope of the current 70mm presentation of the screen version version version of Miss Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which itself won ten Academy Awards, gives a far more powerful impact not only to the spectacular panorama of the wounded soldiers but also to such other of the picture's eye-filling episodes as Sherman's march to the sea and the flight of the populace from Atlanta, the burning of the munitions warehouses, the spectacular ball at Tara and the other scenes recreating the Civil War era, populated by thousands of players. | |
Stereophonic Sound Enhances The Music | |
 Few motion picture scores have left the lasting impression as the music created by Max Steiner for David O. Selznick's production of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind."The composer was required to provide 282 musical episodes for this all-time-great movie, starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. He devised themes for each of the plot elements, among them a theme for Scarlett, one for Rhett, one for Melanie, another for Scarlett's father, Gerald O'Hara. Separate themes also underscored the love of Scarlett and Rhett and the love of Melanie and Ashley. This unforgettable music is given added power in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's current presentation of "Gone With the Wind," shown for the first time in 70 millimeter wide screen, Metrocolor, with a six channel stereophonic sound track In creating more than three hours of music for the memorable drama, set against a background of the Civil War, Steiner was faced with an enormous task. No film composer had previously undertaken such an assignment. He was well trained for the job. Steiner's grandfather had produced operettas of Offenbach and Johann Strauss the elder in Vienna, and his father had produced for the younger Strauss. He himself had studied at the Imperial Academy of Music in Vienna, then moved to London and New York as concert pianist and conductor. Steiner first achieved cinema note with his scoring of "Cimarron," which placed him in the forefront of movie composers. Among his other distinguished scores were those for "Little Women," "The Informer," "Of Human Bondage," "Jezebel," "The Life of Emil Zola," "Treasure of Sierra Madre," "So Big," "Johnny Belinda," "The Glass Menagerie," "The Caine Mutiny" "The Last Command." His score for "Since You Went Away" brought him an Academy Award. He considers the Tara theme the most important of his compositions for "Gone With the Wind."
| |
 • Go to Converting "Gone With The Wind" from 35mm. Negative to vastly enlarged scope of new presentation in 70mm and stereophonic sound a tremendous technical achievement | |
| Go: back - top - news - back issues Updated 22-07-26 |