Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
...in my otherwise painful & hurt-filled life of late.
I visited my roommate at work on Thrusday as I was coming back from picking up my final paycheck from my last job. While waiting for him to finish so we could go home, I perused the cheap video rack at the front of the store. There I found a most remarkable item.
The original cut of "Blade Runner"--voiceover & all--on VHS for only $8.
Ee! Me snap up! AND I got his discount, so it only cost $6.78 Woohoo!
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
posted
Leterbox format is widescreen. It's called so because it is wide, but not very tall. Like most letterboxes (duh).
Pan & Scan is where they fill the screen, but they can't just leave it like that. If they do, action might occasionally take place off the edge of the screen. If this happens, the camera "pans" across to make sure the action is always visible. Sometimes, a scene with two people on the edges will have "cuts" put in it, so the camera will cut form person to person as they talk.
If it's not widescreen, it's pan & scan. There isn't another option for films.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
posted
Actually, on occasion a film will be released in a "widescreen" version when they haven't fully widened it ...
For example, The American President. The first widescreen release of it was 1.85:1 (in other words, 1.85 units of measure long for every unit of measure tall). Now, this was both widescreen AND pan & scan, because The American President was filmed in 2.35:1, and was later released in that aspect ratio on VHS and DVD (couldn't tell ya' about LD, tho).
Now, for another oddity, Air Force One was filmed in 1.85:1, yet was letterboxed at 2.35:1. Don't ask me how they figured that one out ... Bad Boys was filmed at 1.33:1 (the same aspect ratio as a TV, BTW) and was letterboxed at 1.85:1. So in many cases, you've got cropping of the film itself (w/out any p&s) to make a film either letterboxed, or more so than it should be.
[ July 29, 2001: Message edited by: Jeff The Card ]
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Actually, there ARE non-pan & scan full-frame movies. It was the primary video issue in the mid-80s. I've yet to actually sit & watch the tape, so I've no idea if it's like that or P&S yet.
I SHOULD watch it, that & "Volumen." And "Smilla's Sense Of Snow." Yeah. I need the distraction. A lot. Yeah.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
posted
I concede the point about cropping films slightly, due to the fact that there's roughly a million widescreen versions. But, in the end, it's still a form of widescreen (possibly cropped or pan & scanned), or, if it's 4:3, it's been na & scanned.
Are you sure about that Shik? All the mid-eighties films I've seen have bene pan scanned. To use an example people might get, watch ST II when the Reliant first approaches the Enterprise, you see the Reliant on the left hand side of the screen, and as the Enterprise comes into shot on the right, the camera "pans" across to get it fully into frame.
Another example, ST I, during Scott and Kirk's shuttlepod trip, the camera occasionally switches between showing Kirk and Scott, whereas originally, both of them were in the shot. A similar thing happens a couple of times on the shuttle ride back to the Enterprise in ST V.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
posted
Basically, the filmers have two choices. They can film it in such a way that it'll fit great on a movie screen, but they have to chop the edges off to get it on video, or release it in widescreen. OR, they can fit it to a TV, and chop the top and bottom off for the movie screens.
Did I get that right?
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
posted
"They can film it in such a way that it'll fit great on a movie screen, but they have to chop the edges off to get it on video, or release it in widescreen. OR, they can fit it to a TV, and chop the top and bottom off for the movie screens."
The second thing is really uncommon. In fact, the only instance I've heard of it is in Japanese Anime movies, which are filmed (drawn I suppose), to fit a 4:3 TV ratio, but have their tops and bottoms chopped off for thier initial cinema showing.
Their is a hybrid version, that applies to shows like Buffy, B5, and the X-Files. They are filmed in widescreen, but they are not filmed to be shown primarily in widescreen. That is, all the action takes place in the middle of the screen. That means that when it's shown at a 4:3 ratio they just chop of the sides, and nothing important is lost. When they show it in widescreen, we just see a bit more at the sides, but nothing vital. They are not pan & scanned, because they are essentially filmed at 4:3 films, with extra bits at the side, whereas widescreen films are filmed to be shown in widescreen, and have to be altered to make sense on TV.
Phew.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.