Most Wanted

Film Atlas is a forthcoming collaborative project from FIAF and the George Eastman Museum. As an encyclopedic online resource, it will pair high resolution imagery with scholarly essays to document the history of film as a physical medium from the dawn of cinema to the present. Facilitated by collaboration between international archives, this dynamic reference, research and teaching tool will offer a comprehensive visual guide to every motion picture film format, soundtrack, 3-D and color process ever invented.

A beta version of the website is currently available to FIAF members.

We are ultimately planning to document more than 600 formats and processes with around 200 different contributors for the text. As of October 2024, 65% of these essays have authors assigned, but we continue to seek new contributors for the entries listed below.

If you’re an expert on any of the following, or if you are willing to undertake new in-depth research, please reach out to Crystal Kui at film.atlas.coordinator@gmail.com. 

Texts can currently be accepted in English, French, Spanish or Japanese.

We look forward to hearing from you.

An asterisk(*) indicates that we are also looking for original film elements in order to make frame enlargements. Please let us know if your archive can help.

Color

• Pre-tinted / Tinted Base (c.1910s)
• Colcin 2-color additive (France/Japan, 1913)*
• Gilmore Color (US, c.1918)*
• Douglass Color (US, 1918)
• Ives subtractive (US, 1919)
• Quadri-Color / Paramount Color (US, 1920)
• Color Film Process (1927)*
• Tally / De La Garde additive (US, 1928)
• Splendicolor (France, 1928)*
• A. Heine / Fritz Jenne subtractive (Germany, 1929)
• Color Craft (US, c.1929)
• Herault Trichrome (France, c.1929)
• Kingston (UK, 1920s)
• Busch process (Germany, c.1930)*
• Kislyn Color (US, c.1930)*
• Cineoptichrome (France, 1930)*
• Horst (Germany, 1930?)
• Harmonicolor (France/UK, 1930)*
• Pathe Coloratura (US, 1931)
• Bailey additive (US, 1931)
• Kolbacher & Bauer line screen (1932)
• Bassani Process (France, 1933)
• Denis Neale 9.5mm Kinemacolor (UK, c. 1935)*
• Cosmocolor (US, 1937)*
• Kromocolor (US, c. 1937)*
• Three-layered colour film (USSR, 1938)*
• Spektrokolor (USSR, 1930s)*
• Fischer subtractive (US, 1930s?)
• Fullcolor (US, 1942)
• Thomascolor (US, 1942)
• Americolor (US, 1947)*
• Polacolor (US, 1947)*
• Ansco Color Reversal (US, 1949)
• Ansco Color neg/pos (US, c. 1949)*
• Alfacolour (UK, c.1950)*
• Iles-Jonas process (Brazil, 1950s)*
• Fujicolor Reversal (Japan, 1950)*
• Dugromacolor (France, 1952)*
• Fujicolor (Japan, 1953)
• Mondiacolor (France, 1955)*                   
• Agfachrome (Germany, 1950s)*
• Fujichrome (Japan, 1950s)*
• Dynachrome (US, 1960)*
• Sakuracolor (Japan, c.1960s)*
• Kodak SP (US, 1974)*
• Fuji HP (Japan, c.1974)*

Sound

• Hollaman-Eaves Sound Films (US, 1898)*
• Biophon (Germany, 1903)
• Cineophone (1904)*
• Cinophone (1904)*
• Seeberophon / Seeberograph (Germany, 1904)
• Lubin Cinephone (US, 1904)*
• Synchronscope (c.1907)*
• Photophone (1908)*
• Cameraphone (1908)*
• Animatophone (1909)*
• Edward H. Amet sound film Variable Area (US, 1911-30)
• Selig Polyscope Sound Films (US, 1914)*
• Notofilm (Germany, 1919)
• Gaumontphone (France, 1920)
• Kingston variable area (UK, c.1920)
• 35mm Phonofilm Variable Density (US, 1921)
• Grindell Matthews (UK, c.1921)
• Vocafilm (US, 1928)*
• Kuchenmeister (Netherlands, 1928)
• Klangfilm variable density (Germany, c.1929)
• Vocalion (Australia, 1930)*
• Smith and Cross (Australia, 1930)*
• Marconi Visatone film/disc (UK, c.1930s)
• Selenophon (Austria, 1931)
• Tsuchibashi (Japan, 1931)*
• Ivvoston (USSR, ca. 1931)*
• 16mm Western Electric Variable Density (US, 1931)
• 16mm RCA Photophone (US, 1932)
• Muniztone (Brazil, c.1932)*
• Variofon (USSR, 1932)*
• 35mm RCA-Victor High-Fidelity Recording (US, 1933)
• Phillips variable area 16mm (Netherlands?, c.1935)
• Fidelity Tone (1936)
• Kinevox (UK, 1930s)*
• Vadim Okhotnikov's system (USSR, 1930s)*
• 16mm Mauer/Maurer (US, 1930s?)
• 16mm Auricon (US, 1952)*
• Standard 8mm Film Tape Synchronizer (1957)*
• 8mm magnetic stripe (1950s)*
• Sistema Duvergé-Erron-Bonfanti (Brazil, 1950s)*
• Skope 4-channel sound (USSR, 1950s)*
• Bell & Howell Filmosound 8 (US, 1969)*
• Soviet 70mm 6-channel sound (USSR, 1960s)*
• DTS (US, 1993)
• SDDS (US, 1993)
• High-Magenta Track (US, c.1998)
• Cyan-Dye Track (US, c.2001)

Formats

• Kinetoscope cylinder (1889)*
• 35mm Jenkins (US, 1894)
• Taschen Kinetograph (Germany, 1895)*
• 35mm Amet Magniscope (US, 1896)
• 38mm Sivan/Dalphin (Switzerland, 1896)*
• Parlor Kinetoscope of the American Parlor Kinetoscope Company of Washington, D.C. (US, 1897)*
• 65mm Grimoin-Sanson (France, c. 1897)
• 35mm Biograph (US, 1902)*
• Cinematographe Clermont-Huet (France, c. 1903)
• Disc Kinomatograph (UK, 1904)
• 17.5mm Ikonograph (US, 1905)
• Cinéphote (France, 1910)*
• 17.5mm Duoscope (UK, 1912)
• Cinématographe Olikos (France, 1912)*
• 2-perf Zielbildner (Germany, ca. 1914)
• 35mm Split Duplex (US, 1915)*
• 17.5mm Sinemat (1915)*
• 11mm (1916)
• Clark process (US, 1916)*
• 17.5mm Autograph (1916/8)*
• 17.5mm Movette (US, 1917)
• 86mm Newman (1910s)
• 26mm (French, 1920)*
• 22mm Gaumont (France, 1920)
• 17.5mm Coco (Germany, 1921)*
• Semenitz metal film (Germany, 1922)
• Widescope 35mm x 2 (US, 1923)*
• 48mm Powrie (US, 1924)*
• 35mm Alberini 10-perf horizontal (Italy, 1924)*
• 18mm (USSR, 1925)*
• 13mm (French, 1925)*
• 57mm Widevision / Widescope (US, 1926)
• Magnascope (US, 1926)*
• Alberini/Hill 35mm 10-Perf (UK, 1928)*
• 56mm Magnafilm (US, 1929)
• 56mm Bitzer process (US, 1929)
• Fearless Super Pictures (US, 1929)
• 35mm 2 perf Magnachrome (US, 1930)
• 65mm Magnifilm (US, 1930)
• 65mm Vitascope (US, 1930)*
• Douglas 35mm anamorphic (US, c. 1930)
• 35mm Arthur J. Newman anamorphic (US, 1931)
• Straight 8 (US, 1935)*
• 17.5mm Baird Intermediate Film (UK, 1936)
• 35mm Arnoldscope (US, 1953)*
• Vistarama (US, 1953)*
• 8mm Panoramic / Dimaphot (France, 1955)*
• 16mm FilmoRama (United States, 1955)
• 8mm/16mm Vistascope (Netherlands, c. 1955)
• Thrillarama 35mm x 2 (US, 1956)*
• Magirama 35mm x 3 (France, 1956)*
• Tohoscope (Japan, 1957) / Shaw Scope*
• Kinopanorama 35mm x 3 (USSR, 1958)
• Kinopanorama 70 / Sovscope (USSR, 1958)
• Cinemiracle 35mm x 3 (US, 1958)
• Toho Pan Scope (Japan, 1958)*
• 22x35 mm panoramic system (USSR, 1959)*
• 65mm Varioscope (UK/Germany?, 1959)*
• Circlorama 35mm x 11 (UK, 1959)
• Sidney H. Newcomer widescreen (1950s)*
• Amplavisão (Brazil, 1950s)*
• Illusion-O (US, 1960)*
• Cinerama 360 (US, 1962)*
• MCS-70 / Superpanorama 70 (Germany, 1962)
• Tri Arc 335 (US, 1964)*
• Electronovision Theatrofilm (US, 1964)*
• Ultra Semi Scope (Japan, c. 1965)*
• EVR (US, 1967)
• 11.5mm Kenner film loop cartridge (US, 1968)
• Astrovision 10/70 (Japan, 1969)*
• Tsugami-rama (Japan, 1969)*
• 17.5mm with magnetic stripe (West Germany, 1960s)*
• Panorama (c.1960s)*
• Astrorama (8/70 x 5 projection) (Japan, 1970)*
• 8 x 8/35mm (Japan, 1970)*
• 4 x 4/35mm (Japan, 1970)*
• Ecosphere (US, 1974)*
• ImageVision (1982)*
• Cinema 360 (1982)*
• Max 8 (mid-1980s)*
• FuturVision 360 (1985)*
• Vistascope (c. 1985)*
• Kinoton HDFS (1988)
• CineSpace 70 / Clear Vision 2000 (1989)*
• Dimension 360 (1980s)*
• Panoramic Spherical Theater (Japan, 1990)*
• Ultra Toruscope (Japan, 1992)*
• 35mm Compact Distribution Print (CDP) (US, 1996)*
• MaxiVision (US, 1999)*

3-D

• Porter/Waddell anaglyph 3-D (US, 1915)*
• Fairall 3-D (US, 1922)*
• Kelley Plasticon 3-D (US, 1922)*
• Ives-Leventhal Plastigrams 3-D (US, 1922)
• Rogers 3D (US, c. 1929)
• Peterson 3D (US, c. 1930)
• Nikolai Anoschenko's 35mm 3D system (USSR, 1931)*
• Three-colour 3D system (USSR, 1940)*
• Semion Ivanov's 3-D 35mm 19 system (USSR, 1947)*
• Semion Ivanov's 3-D 35mm 10x10 system (USSR, 1948)*
• 16mm Nord 3-D (1951)*
• Semion Ivanov's 3-D 35 mm frame on top of frame system (USSR, 1952)*
• Dunningcolor 3-D (US, 1953)*
• Technicolor 3-D (US, 1953)
• NIKFI stereo 2x35a system (USSR, 1959)*
• Edy Meier 70mm 3-D (early 1960s)*
• Universal's experimental 70mm 3-D (US, c. 1960)*
• Stereo-35A (70mm) (USSR, c. 1960)*
• Stereo-70M (USSR, 1963)*
• NIKFI stereo-70 system (USSR, 1965)*
• Stereo 70 (USSR, 1966)
• HiFi Stereo 70 (1968)*
• Optovision 3-D (1972)
• Lipton Three-Dimensional Filmmaking System (US, 1978)*
• ArriVision 3-D (1983)*
• JAPAX / JAPAX 3D / OPAX (Japan, 1985)*