Anamorphic format is the
cinematography technique of shooting a
widescreen picture on standard
35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native
aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted image is "stretched" by an anamorphic projection lens to recreate the original aspect ratio on the viewing screen. (It should not be confused with
anamorphic widescreen, a different video encoding concept that uses similar principles but different means.) The word "
anamorphic" and its derivatives stem from the Greek words meaning
formed again. As a camera format, anamorphic format is losing popularity in comparison to "flat" (or "spherical") formats such as
Super 35 mm film shot using spherical
lenses; however, because most
movie projectors use anamorphic projection format, spherical format
negatives are commonly converted into anamorphic
prints for projection.