65mm Archival Camera
Artwork partly inspired by Todd-AO

The Picture’s Background

Recently I competed an art piece that was helped by a photograph from the Todd-AO equipment catalogue. I used the camera as reference for making a strange 65mm camera operated by an anthropomorphic robot lion.

Click the picture to see enlargement

I used Systemax Paint Tool SAI to make the art piece and started drawing on Christmas Day, 2017. It took a couple of months to complete due to my habit of thinking about twenty different things at once. The type of picture I made is what we fans of animation call a false cartoon screenshot in which we draw our characters or already existing ones in a make-shift scene that appears to have been screenshotted and uploaded. These are often made with subtitles. My illustration depicts scene from a story I am currently writing. The scene is of a rather large anthropomorphic lion robot supervising it’s 65mm camera, preparing to photograph and record a very important occasion (a speech by the mayor of the city). The story started in October 2015 and centres around two General Officers on a fictional planet in the Alpha Centauri star system. Nearly five-hundred years of peace is broken when a sudden war breaks out, between the robots and five other lands. Below is an extract from said story.

...Around the New Robotropolis City Hall, television cameras were set up in preparation for a broadcast. Several robot news reporters were there waiting for the Mayor to show up. Sitting directly in line with the City Hall, situated on an elevated platform was a 65mm archival camera. A robot lion operated it, checking the focus and zoom lenses. He was brightly coloured, having a blue casing.

Carlotta noticed this, “This must be a unique gathering for one of those to be here.”...

Just a note; the story is not one fit for mass publication, but a mere bit of fanfiction fun to help in developing my writing skills.
 

The Picture’s Details

Another little sketch of the character and the camera

Click the illustration to see enlargement

First of all, the 65mm camera, which is depicted as such, was based on a Mitchell 35mm Baby Bugeye variant from the Todd-AO equipment catalogue. This was because it was photographed at a nice head-on angle. Once I had drawn the base lines, I altered it to resemble a 65mm camera like the horizontally place cylindrical motor. I added some modern equipment like the viewfinder being replaced by a small screen monitor connected to a GoPro on the side. Another difference is the tripod it’s mounted on, which was referenced from this photograph of a Technicolour camera; blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk. (The robot’s camera would photograph in the 2.20:1 ratio.)

The picture is framed in a letterbox fashion with an aspect ratio of 2.63:1. A curved border sits around the edges, which is a homage to how nearly all analogue films have this feature on the 35mm prints and negatives. The curves are noticeably stretched with added lens vingetting, which was made deliberately to give the effect of an anamorphic presentation, as well as a vertically blurred background and horizontally stretched flares. When researching old colour processes, I noticed something in films that were shot with Technicolour cameras. If there was a bright spot, it would give off a pink glow/shine/flare. Liking the effect, I incorporated it into my picture by giving all the bright spots this pinkish glow. Lastly, to give the appearance of traditionally animation, the character, camera and wall to the right have shadows underneath them, emulating hand-painted cells.

I shall not elaborate on the robotic lion character as it would ruin the story (unless anyone cares to read it,) however, I can say it will feature many uses of cameras and their high symbolic worth and value.