OPTICAL PRINTER

Optical Printer from Screensound Australia

The optical printer is one of the industries most used tools. Through the years the OP has gone through many changes creating more uses, but its use has diminished as computer effects have gradually taken over many of the units normal duties. 

The Optical Printer was invented in 1931, as a device to take a picture of a picture. It is essentially a process camera and projector, called a printer and these two pieces of equipment face are mounted facing one another. In this way a projected image can be focused onto the film of a camera.

The printer head (projector) and process camera are mounted on rails allowing the distance between the two can be adjusted. The rails allow the user to enlarge, reduce or exactly duplicate the size of the projected image. 

This version of the OP was used to create the impressive scenes in Charlton Heston's 1959 feature, Ben Hur. For example: The warring galley scenes were done on an optical printer adding shots of miniature ships with background plates, the fireball images from catapults, and live action scenes. The live action scenes were done on a soundstage where sections of the gallery were recreated life size. The same was done using miniatures and live action to create the great chariot race. The optical printer was used to lay the impressive miniature structures around the live chariot race. 

Today's optical printers are very different. The printer head and camera are computer controlled, and have more than one projector. These projectors are mounted at different angles and use mirrors or prisms to send the images to the camera. Multiple strips of film are run through the camera at the speed of about 2 to 3 frames per second.  

What are these Optical Printers actually used for? They have many uses during post-production. They can create basic effects like fades and dissolves. Optical printers can also put several images, filmed a various times, into one shot - like adding rain, fog and lightning to a single scene. This piece of equipment is used to add matte paintings, background shots, skylines,  and miniatures to live action shots. The final shot is called an Optical composite. An Optical is any effect that is done with an Optical Printer. 

These units are still widely used today at a much cheaper cost than using CGI shots. However, Computer Generation has replaced many of the elements once done solely on the Optical Printer. 

One of the most extensive uses of the Optical Printer was in the feature film Blade Runner. A film which was loaded with miniatures and matte paintings. The print of the film was run through an optical printer in black and white, which showed everything that would be in the shot. As many as 30 composited elements would appear in one shot. Multiple shots were added at once while others optical shots  were done layers after layer.  

The original Dune feature used extensive OP shots in the film which has as many as 10 optical shots combined in a scene mixing mattes, background plates, mechanical models and miniatures with live action scenes. 

The original Star Wars trilogy heavily relied on the Optical Printer in which George Lucas's ILM effects company created different versions of the Optical Printer best suited for specific needs. The trilogy used an extensive amount of miniatures, blaster shots and matte paintings to create the films. 

The Optical Printer would be considered the most important piece of post production equipment in the Special Effects world. While computers are generally making the OP an outdated piece of machinery, it will not easily be forgotten by those who do the effects or fans who know how they are done.  With rising production costs and series budgets the OP is likely to remain around for a long time. 

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