BethHarrison
Second Unit
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2007
- Messages
- 435
- Real Name
- Bethany Harrison
Originally Posted by Point-Blank
Great news about a pressed release!
I just tried to watch it the other night from the SONY HD Channel and was shocked to see that they letterboxed the opening credits in 2:35, only to reduce it to 1:85 once the credits had ended. !!! This is a practice I have noticed on HBO and SHOWTIME HD Channels and am very dismayed by it. I guess they are trying to eliminate any black bars whatsoever so that people can fill their entire widescreen TVs. Will this signal the end of complete letteroboxing and new filmmakers forgoing shooting in full scope?
There are more 'Scope ratio films shot now than in the mid-1980s when VHS threatened to kill off the ratio. But there is another factor now, the 2.4:1 format enables filmmakers to get the biggest image even in smaller cinemas, so it has that advantage that 1.85:1 can't match.
The practice of channels showing 2.4:1 films cropped to 16:9 is just proof that no matter what consumer video technology comes along (e.g. 50" plasmas and HD projectors), TV stations will figure out a way to screw things up. They did it in the analogue and VHS era, and now they are doing it again in the HD era.