Understanding Widescreen & Pan-and-Scan

[Jeffrey Gray]

Frogboy...I know it was intended for widescreen (1.85:1). But it was shot at 1.33:1, because shooting "hard-matted", with black bars on the negative, is expensive. Thus, what they do is shoot at 1.33:1 (the width of a TV screen), and then have it matted down to 1.85:1.

Also, I guess I was wrong when I said the original video exposed the entire filmed frame...and we should be glad. If the partly-matted/partly-cropped image on the P&S version reveals part of Frank's head...then the entire unmatted frame could reveal even more.

 

[frogboy4]

I get what you are saying. I made sure to imply that there are other formats out there:
“A popular transfer technique sometimes used involves removing the widescreen matting of a film that is shot on a larger scale (like Super35)...”

It's the labeled photo that is confusing and it will be tweaked this weekend. I was planning to leave that bit out of the article entirely, but I knew it would be an issue for some die-hards out there.

I was really gearing this toward those who don't know the difference between widescreen and cropped. I made sure to use plain language. I should have been clearer about that bit, but didn't want to have it monopolize the article. It was more of a footnote. Glad you helped me clear it up though. If you took issue with it, I'm sure that others will too. That is very consructive feedback.

It is good that they zoomed into the negative for the cropped video transfer because of the unintended information. Even so, as a Muppet fan, I would like to see that version too! LOL! Just not the main DVD version.

 

[Phillip]

The image Jamie referenced above has been updated on-line...