ROBIN HOOD -- Cropping Full-Frame Films for the Widescreen Future (1 Viewer)

[Douglas Monce]

Actually I'm thinking more of the fact that a lot of directors used to think that they had to shoot huge closeups because the TV screens were so small.

Doug

 

[Clinton McClure]

I have not read this entire thread but (for what it's worth) the back of my Robin Hood Gold Collection DVD (UPC 17951 00868) reads .

 

[Douglas Monce]

DVDs are frequently miss-labeled when it comes to original aspect ratios. I have a few that are labeled 1.85 when they are really 2.35.

Again it doesn't make much sense to make a 1.33 film in 1973 when almost no theater in the world would be able to show it that way.

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

Just look how Warner labels the Kubrick's. They're all full frame like he "intended," but its not their OAR

 

[Clinton McClure]

Good point.

 

[Ira Siegel]

It seems to me that 4:3 TV closeups captured the hair atop the actors' heads and at least their necks, and usually their shoulders.

 

[Douglas Monce]

You're quite right, but once directors got out of TV and into movies, to get more or less the same size in a widescreen frame, they end up doing the chin to forehead thing. I'm not apposed to a shot like that; I just think it’s over done a lot these days.

Doug

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Looks like this debate will get fired up again with the rerelease of The Aristocats on DVD.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I just picked this up (Target had a huge blowout on DVDs). Just skimming from the movie, the 1.75:1 framing is most likely correct...

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Great transfer, too. Looks like they kept it mostly unprocessed, but with excellent color and sharpness. (Also, I like how in Disney films, you can jump to any random place and find a humorous frame to capture from).

 

[David_B_K]

I for one will not worry about the cropping of full-frame films for 16:9 TVs until we ger a really blatant example of its ocurrance. Since the actual aspect ration of Robin Hood is so fuzzy, this film is not it. Until they start cropping Casablanca and Citizen Kane (or any other film whose OAR is unquestioned) then I will hold off on grand conspiracy theories.

 

[Brian Little]

What price did your Target have it on sale for? The ones around here all have it for $19.99. That is *NOT* a sale price.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I don't think it's that, but it's the juxtoposition. One of my college roommates heckled me for watching Bambi and Pulp Fiction in the same evening.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I get strange looks every time I buy from a B & M, because I'm usually buying for myself and my kids. Do the cashiers honestly think that we would let our kids watch Reservoir Dogs before they're ready for it?

 

[Jon Lidolt]

Cinemas began installing wide-screens in the summer of 1953 and once they were installed, projected all spherical films cropped - regardless of how they were shot. The screen ratios weren't standardized then and varied widely, everything from 1.66 to 2:1.

 

[ScottR]

And unfortunately, Gone With the Wind was a big victim of this cropping. A dozen or so shots have been forever changed because some knucklehead threw out the original Academy Ratio footage of those shots.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

While it was certainly still a problem with the 1998 "restoration"/re-release prints and the initial DVD, doesn't the current DVD correct all of the shifted shots by using the "Ultra-resolution" process with the separate YCM Technicolor negatives?

Regards,

 

[ScottR]

Ken, I'm not sure. While those shots look better color wise on the new dvd, it appears that they simply zoomed in on them, because there is actually less picture info than before. But I don't know.

 

[Jay Pennington]

No, because the image area that had been "zoomed out" back in the day is forever lost.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

So you are saying that they cropped the separate YCM negatives and not a composite element when shifting the frames to create the 70mm blow-up?

Regards,

 

[Jay Pennington]

From what I understand, yes.