Wide Screen (or "Letterbox") is a way of watching a movie on your TV as the movie was
originally shown in the theaters. A normal television has a screen ratio of 4:3 also
called 1.33:1. This means that the TV is 1.33 times wider than it is high.
The example below is a screen shot from the
wide screen version of The Music Man, courtesy of Warner Bros.
| The pan-and-scan area (lighter shaded) is
what is shown when your TV screen is full. Wide screen videos and DVDs - even with the
black areas - let you see the entire visual image just as it was originally shown in the
theatres. |
 |
Most movies are filmed in
a format where they were shown in ratios of 1.66:1 all the way up to 3:1 where the movie
was three times as wide as it is high. Unfortunately, because TV screens are not that
wide, we have been subjected to movies having visual portions completely cut off so that
the image will fit on our screens.
This is where wide screen videos and DVDs come into play. The
wide screen transfer process actually shrinks a movie down so that the entire visual image fits on
your television screen. This results in what are inaccurately called "black
bars".
Different Aspect Ratios
Not every movie is filmed in the same aspect ratio; however,
the different aspect ratios will impact how wide screen
movies are viewed on the screen.
Here is a list of the different aspect ratios. Please note that many of these formats are
obsolete. However, they are listed here because movies which were filmed in these formats
are available on video.
Cinerama
2.77:1 to 3.00:1 aspect ratio. When transferred to video in its full
ratio, this format produced the most "letterboxing" effect. This method of
filming actually used three cameras, after which the three images were interlocked
together. Any transfer to video (and the only one is "How the West Was Won")
would be from a 35mm 'scope reduction print and therefore have a 2.35:1 ratio.
CinemaScope
2.35:1 (originally 2.66:1) aspect ratio. This was once
the most commonly used method of filming movies because its only major requirement was a
special CinemaScope projector lens, which was available at virtually every movie theatre.
CinemaScope was originally created by 20th Century Fox, but it is no longer in use by
studios other than Fox. All of the original 3 "Star Wars" movies and even the 1997 animated
version of "Anastasia" were filmed in CinemaScope.
Panavision
2.40:1 aspect ratio. The Panavision company became the
most successful maker of wide screen lenses, and in the 1970s their Panavision lenses
became the "standard" for wide screen. Panavision still makes the lenses for most
of the major studio productions today. Panavision also makes lenses for films made with
matting as opposed to true wide screen. These matted films are not necessarily 2.40:1, but
are most likely 1.85:1.
 
VistaVision
1.70:1 aspect ratio (approx.). This one was filmed with
a specially designed camera which was mounted on its side and it required a special
projector, but its image quality was better than standard 35mm.
Films shot in VistaVision were photographed on a double width frame of 35mm running right
to left horizontally. The uncropped aspect ratio was 1.5:1. The films were generally
reduction printed to 35mm 4-perforated (four sprocket holes per frame) in dye-transfer
Technicolor and projected with a 1.85:1 ratio - the image area extracted optically from
the full frame. For some special venues the double-frame 35mm film was cropped to 1.85:1
during projection.
Todd-AO
2.2:1 aspect ratio during filming, but 2.35:1 after the
transfer to a 35 mm print. This process uses a 65mm negative printed onto 70mm film, with
a six-track soundtrack, producing a very high quality picture. Many of the great epics and
musicals of the 50s and 60s used this format.
Technirama
2.2:1 (70mm prints) or 2.35:1 (35mm prints). This
process was developed by the Technicolor Corporation, as a way to continue using its
three-color process in the wake of competing Eastman Color. It required both a specially
developed sideways camera (like VistaVision) and a wide screen lens (like CinemaScope).
Technirama was shot with VistaVision cameras and an anamorphic lens squeezing the image by
25%. The entire 1.5:1 image area was then either optically unsqueezed to 70mm yielding a
2.21:1 aspect ratio, or given an additional squeeze to 35mm 2.35:1 4-perforated (four
sprocket holes per frame) Panavision.
Academy
1.33:1 aspect ratio. The Academy ratio (1.37:1 before a
soundtrack was incorporated onto the film) was the primary original aspect ratio. Most
movies (if not all) that were released before "The Robe" (the first movie to be
shown in wide screen) were shown in this ratio.
When televisions first came on the scene, they were (and still are) designed with an
aspect ratio matching the Academy ratio so that movies would be shown in the same way as
in the theatres. Movies that were filmed in an Academy ratio will not have a
"wide screen" version because they fit perfectly on the TV. Such movies include
"The Wizard of Oz", "Casablanca", "Citizen Kane", and many,
many others.
Super 35
This process does not involve wide screen
lenses, but
rather it involves framing the picture to fit the ratio of the screen. The top and bottom
of the frame are "matted" out and removed from the picture completely, resulting
in a rectangular picture. Many movies made in this format are transferred to video with
the top and bottom of the frame *restored,* so that you actually see more of the picture
on video than you did in the theater.
But this is not always a good thing, because the director did not intend to use the top
and bottom of the frame in the first place! This is why people talk about boom mikes
appearing on video, when they were never there in the theater. However, in almost all
circumstances, scenes which include special effects in them are almost always filmed
hard-matted in the appropriate wide screen ratio.
For
more information, visit:
The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy page
Here are some
Wide Screen FAQ's
- What are those black bars on top
& bottom?
Those "black bars" are really not bars but are actually
unused space which is left as a result of putting the wide screen
movie in the middle of
the TV screen. Movies which are filmed in Super 35, however, do have the top and bottom of
the screen blacked out to show you how the movie looked in the theatres. For more
information about the various film formats and ratios, click on "Aspect Ratios"
in the blue area on the left.
- Is the actual visual portion supposed to
be so small?
Yes. There is an equal exchange: you lose some height, but you can see the entire
movie as it was originally intended to be seen, although smaller than normal.
- People call letterboxed videos
"mangled". Is that true?
Once again, that is not true. Remember that letterboxed videos are
showing the movies exactly as they were originally shown in theatres. Only the
"pan-and-scan" versions are "mangled" because up to 50% of the actual
video has been cut off.
- Where did the term
"letterbox" come from?
The term "letter box" was originally coined by 20th
Century Fox when CinemaScope first appeared in 1953. It refers to the similarity between
the dimensions of the screen and the relative dimensions of a standard #10 business
envelope.
- Is there a difference between
"letterbox" and "wide screen"?
No. They are used interchangeably; however, you will find
(especially in video stores) that "wide screen" is the preferred term.
"Letterbox" has a slightly more negative connotation, because is seems to
emphasize the black, unused space.
- Are most laserdiscs and DVDs are in
wide screen?
Yes. Laserdiscs have a 60% sharper
image than VHS videotapes, and DVD can have up to a 300% sharper image than VHS;
therefore, the actual visuals are much sharper and can more comfortably display movies in
their original, wide screen format. In fact, it is impossible to find many laserdiscs in a
"pan-and-scan" version. Most DVDs are also only available in
wide screen.
- Does wide screen
improve a video?
For 95% of the available
wide screen videos, the answer is "yes". For example, in "The Music Man" you
almost never get to see the entire barbershop quartet. In almost every scene, at least one
of them gets "cut off". Pan-and-scan removes up to 45% of the screen.
- Are all of the
wide screen videos in
their full aspect ratio?
No. There are examples of some movies which were shot in 2.35:1
ratio (CinemaScope or PanaVision) but were transferred in 2:1 or less. In fact, if you
watch the first five of the wide screen "Star Trek" movies - one right after the
other - you will find that almost no two are the same ratio, even though they were all
filmed in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
- How will new digital TVs affect
wide screen?
Digital TVs are going to be wider than
existing TVs; therefore they will be more capable of displaying wide screen
movies. (Lois
and Clark and Babylon 5 are actually filmed in wide screen) Although
HDTV's will
be wider than existing TVs, they will not be in a full aspect ratio of 2.35:1; therefore,
there will still be a need for letterboxing on movies which are wider than 1.85:1, but the
"black bar" effect will be reduced.
For
more information, visit:
The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy page
Also
see our "HDTV" page
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