Pretty good article on widescreen on TV in the newspaper. (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth Cummings]

Just a note, this is from the Indianapolis Star in the Indiana Living section(next to the section on daily programming) of the date of February 21, 2002.
(note, I hand type all text here, so if any typos appear, it my fault and not the author).
TV on the fritz? No, it's just new letterbox format. By Allah Johnson

The letterbox movement on television is slowly gaining ground.
There now are at least four original series on network TV, and a few others otn cable, that employ the format, in which the image is compressed on the top and bottom of the screen to allow for a wider image that offers more details.
The results are parnoramic and textured scenes, more like movies in scale, that have freed many directors from routine camera angles, allowing for more interesting imagery.
NBC's ER began using this pratice during the 2000-01 season, a move network entertainment president Jeff Zucker says that "from a creative and production standpoint, it's something that directors and producers very much want to utilize...it gives it a much more theatircal feel."
ER was folled that season by HBO's The Sopranos. This season, NBC's The West Wing, UPN's Enterprise and the WB's Angel decided to use the process, which previously was reserved for certain theatrical movies airing on TV, allowing the film to be seen the way it originally appeared on movie screens.
Some viewers complain they can't see the letterbox images because they appear too small, but TV creators whose shows are presented in this format say their products are enchanced both visually and contextually.
"I've never been, how shall I say, technically adept at anything. When it was being described to me, I couldn't understand what it was they were talking about," says West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. "But the first time I saw it on monitor, the difference is all the difference. It is, especially for our show, which has all this visual beauty in it, made for widescreen."
Adds West Wing executive producer and director Thomas Schlamme, who convinced Sorkin to present the show in the format:
"A show of one person isn't ncessarily going to be beter in widescreen. But when you're dealing with the Oval Office, or you're dealing with the sort of family drammas of The Sopranos, where you are kind of seeing a bigger world than just a closeup of a face, you get so much more information."
Angel co-creator Joss Whedon says his partner David Greenwalt was behind presenting the vampire series in letterbox this season, lending the show a more cinematic feel.
"It looks cool, we both like using the wider frame, and we think it's just stylistically nice to work with," Whedon says. "I kept trying to have just a shot of (star David Boreanaz"s) eyes, an every time you do that on a normal (frame) you have a shot of his eyes and his nose, and it's really dorky-looking. There's an intensity you can get to through letterboxing that you can't get to on a normal screen."
Whedon adds, however that although letterbox has worked well for that series, it wouldn't work for Whedon's other series, UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"Buffy, which I think of more as a soap, sort of lends itself to the box(traditional TV shape) more than Angel, which is sort of an epic story."
Cable has been ahead of the curve in letterboxing. The Sci-Fi Channel, for instance, has been showing some of its series and movies in the format for years, according to Thomas Vitale, the network's senior vice president of acquisitions, scheduling and programming.
"It's something that we want to do as often as possible. I think the sci-fi fan really appreciates it," he says.
The series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, miniseries such as Dune, RoboCop: Prime Directives and Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, and theatrical films such as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies were all shown in letterbox.
Both Schlamme and Dick Wolf, creator of NBC's Law & Order shows(who had the first network series ever in letterbox with CBS's short-lived 1997 series Feds), say their series are shot in the high-definition format whose crisp detailing is enchanced by letterboxing. More and more series are going high-def as more consumers buy TV sets that can handle it.
"We've worked so hard to bring this medium of television up to the standards that I think now we expect of it, which it can be as good and as powerful as any movie that is made. Why not give us all the advantages?" says Schlamme.

With the exception of rather no mention of pan and scam, it a pretty good article.

 

[Jason Seaver]

With the exception of rather no mention of pan and scam

And there really shouldn't be, in this article, since it's not talking about cutting movies up except tangentially. Rather, it's discussing why programs are shot and presented in different aspect rations, and doing that fairly well. A good informational article without any axe to grind.

 

[LarryH]

As in a previously quoted article on HTF, this article curiously omits any mention of widescreen as as the coming de facto standard of HDTV. I think it would help convince the public at large that this is not just some oddball trick but a legitimate reflection of future TV.