As the early 2000s roared along, the popularity of VHS was on the decline. Focusing on the Alien series, this video covers the availability of these films in the early ‘90s and how they were presented throughout the decade. But first, let's look at the first step in video formatting, turning moving pictures on film into moving pictures on video. We have the technology. Did you ever rent or own movies on VHS tape, or even on DVD, that filled the entirety of your 4:3 aspect ratio tube television? Showing a widescreen movie on a television set with a 4:3 screen requires one of two techniques to accommodate the difference: "letterboxing", which preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio, but is not as tall as a standard television screen, leaving black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, or "pan and scan", in which the image fills the full height of the screen, but is cropped horizontally on each side. It also changed the way most people watched movies. Full Frame vs. Widescreen Explained . When television sets were first created, they were in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, also known as 4:3. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. Widescreen Today With the increased popularity of widescreen television sets and high-definition broadcasting (both typically in a 16:9 aspect ratio), the pan and scan format has decreased in popularity and most home media releases and content (including content shot for television or streaming) is now released in a widescreen format. Update: Thoughts from David Lynch about pan and scan taken from a 1997 interview: I would like to see everything done letterboxed and with great sound. LetterboxThe presence of black bars at the top and bottom of the picture.Usually referring to playing widescreen format pictures on standarddefinition television. Then, when they bring the title on video, they can display the full frame. Mechanical “pan” movements to accommodate lost visual info. This sequence actually cuts between the two actors in the P&S version, but in the Widescreen is a more continuous shot. Pan and Scan DVDs exist, but were only made in the early days of the format. 16:9Standard aspect ratio for high definition television 4:3Standard aspect ratio for standard definition television (NTSC/PAL) and Digital Television (DTV). Introduced in the late ‘90s, DVDs changed the home video landscape, with digital technology and optical discs. Another recent and controversial example of this was with The Simpsons, which ran into this problem when it came to HD streaming platforms, first with FXX and now Disney+, though thankfully Disney is now letting viewers choose their preferred ratio. Fast forward a few years where movies are being shown on 4:3 TVs. An anamorphic widescreen-encoded DVD can be played on a widescreen TV without any black bars at all (or with much, much smaller black bars, depending on the aspect ratio), and has higher resolution than video encoded for a regular TV set. Matte removal cropping is less drastic than traditional pan-and-scan, but Kermit's sock, Frank's head and other unintended elements are visible. Whether still on 4:3 TVs or the rising 16:9 sets, movies were now being offered in both “widescreen” and “fullscreen.” This was notable, as most movies on VHS were still only available in “fullscreen,” due to the tapes being exclusively created for 4:3 monitors. Not every channel or service does this, but enough of them do, especially major network channels or popular cable networks. Laserdisc allowed movies to be presented in their original theatrical aspect ratios. Sure, you might see more, but is more always better? We can see that the powers that be (I'm not sure who supervised this, but it is not a bad job) chose an open matte for key scenes, and Panned & Scanned other ones. Here's how this worked when Seinfeld started airing in syndication. There are alternatives. … Pan and Scan DVDs exist, but were only made in the early days of the format. Practically all widescreen films available on tape use the pan-and-scan method, primarily because a horizontal widescreen film does not fit the relatively square dimensions of the TV screen. So it is clearly not the straightforward, prosecute-all-those-who-don't-like-black-bars kind of argument anymore. Due to many post-1953 movies being in an aspect ratio wider than 4:3, pan and scan was introduced. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/picture-aspect-ratio There were also an extremely limited number of movies on VHS that had widescreen versions in letterbox format like Woody Allen’s The addition of black bars on the top or bottom of the screen created confusion and frustration. Pan and scan is the process of fitting a widescreen film into the confines of a 4:3 frame. There are a number of solutions... one is to PAN & SCAN, which involves just picking part of the picture and letting it take up the entire TV screen. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques. Tips & Techniques Explained, The Best 2020 Movies — Bright Lights in a Dark Year, Full Frame vs. APS-C — Camera Sensor Pros & Cons Explained, What is a Rim Light — 3 Point Lighting Techniques Explained, 8 Character Archetypes — Examples in Literature & Movies. Your television however, is not rectangular... it is square shaped. When trying to watch a widescreen DVD on a standard television, you will have the letter box black bars on the A visual medium requires visual methods. There are a number of solutions... one is to PAN & SCAN, which involves just picking part of the picture and letting it take up the entire TV screen. Pan and scan is the process of fitting a widescreen film into the confines of a 4:3 frame. Unlike The Simpsons, this is no half-assed scan-and-pan job that merely stretches or crops the original 4:3 frame to fill your widescreen TV. It is awfully difficult to make a widescreen movie fit on a standard television that uses the 4:3 aspect ratio. If you want to read reviews on the films above... we got them .... Ghostbusters One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly A Bug's Life The Hudsucker Proxy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery The Usual Suspects. The viewing public at home got used to a movie always filling their 4:3 screens. I've never encountered a disc that actually offered this though. Many who grew up with pan and scan wouldn’t even know anything was wrong, but from the outset, filmmakers didn’t like the process. While 16:9 can now easily show films originally in 1.85:1, the actual problem is with films in 2.35:1 being formatted to fit into 16:9. Firstly, a definition of what we are talking about. Widescreen vs. Pan and Scan 6 the same frame. Most DVDs have both a Pan and Scan and a widescreen format (either letterboxed or anamorphic) on a DVD. Offering freeze-frame comparisons of the widescreen and non-widescreen versions of three movies originally shown in theaters in widescreen, this web page makes two points clear: Pollack talks about how panning and scanning caused him to abandon the 2.35:1 ratio for 20 years but he returned to it for Interpreter. Movies were released on home video mediums that allow consumers to watch movies whenever they want. Now that we've seen an example of pan and scan in action, let's go back to the technological innovations that got us into this mess. But first, let's look at the first step in video formatting, turning moving pictures on film into moving pictures on video. Showing all 1 items Jump to: Release Dates (1) Also Known As (AKA) (0) Release Dates USA 4 October 2005: Also Known As (AKA) It looks like we don't have any AKAs for this title yet. Critics Siskel & Ebert talked about the process and why this controversial process was widely adopted. The process of pillarboxing (with black bars on the sides) should eliminate this problem. The GB1 DVD is an anamorphic DVD so it's ratio is 2.35:1 in whatever display you use (1.33 1.66 or 1.77). Here's filmmaker Sydney Pollack on his frustration with the pan and scan process. If you have a standard television and you are watching a pan and scan DVD on it, you will not experience any black bars as long as your DVD is set to the pan and scan mode. A fair question since it’s mostly an outdated process. Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown in fullscreen proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects. For many people, like the video below shows, pan and scan is a relic of a bygone area that is often mocked or admired as pure nostalgia. Now if you are at all familiar with this issue you have probably seen these sorts of images before. But with new standards come new problems. Letterboxing Versus Pan-and-Scan: Ronin Ronin was shot in Super 35 format and distributed in anamorphic prints designed to be projected at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (according to the Internet Movie Database).This results in widescreen images that look like this in theaters: Conversion to Video. A popular transfer technique sometimes used involves removing the widescreen matting of a film that is shot on a larger scale (like Super35). It's sort of like a "square peg in a round hole" issue. Widescreen versus Pan-and-Scan: The Choice and the Differences Are Not Clear Cut Many so-called “pan and scan” versions actually have more picture. Widescreen Today With the increased popularity of widescreen television sets and high-definition broadcasting (both typically in a 16:9 aspect ratio), the pan and scan format has decreased in popularity and most home media releases and content (including content shot for television or streaming) is now released in a widescreen format. A small piece of the bottom of the image was snipped to give us a 16:9 ratio. But things are not quite so cut and dried in the world of aspect ratios. When DVD first hit the market, one of the features touted was the ability to pan and scan a widescreen movie on the fly. In many movies, you will see one character talking with the others that aren't seen on the screen. DVD looked toward the future, understanding that 16:9 sets were on the rise. Because including both versions creates an added expense to the studios, some DVDs ship with just one format onboard, and some titles actually have different formats on different discs. You need to assume whom they are talking to! So, for years, as 4:3 was the only frame for TVs, both movies and TV (mostly) conceded defeat. In the pan-and-scan version, the only person visible at C-3P0’s side is Luke. This keeps the correct aspect ratio on "widescreen" display. The removal of visual information from a film, which can vary from 45% to 75%. Pan and Scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of an ordinary TV screen, by cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image. He’s written reviews, scripts, and analytical essays focusing on all aspects of cinema. The most obvious issue was that pan and scan removed information that could be seen in the film’s original form. Even so, things were poised to change dramatically in the next decade and beyond, not just for movies, but for all video entertainment. The only problem was the one he saw was totally cut off in the Pan&Scan version. It also created the need to “pan” between elements on-screen in ways the filmmakers never intended. Thus, no across-the-board preference was discovered. A popular transfer technique sometimes used involves removing the widescreen matting of a film that is shot on a larger scale (like Super35). Now look at his boot on the left. The sample was split nearly evenly in their preferences, with 47.9% giving a higher average liking score to the widescreen clips, 46.5% giving a higher liking score to the pan and scan clips, and 5.6% giving identical scores to the two aspect ratios. If you put on the widescreen version of the film, you see that Obi … DVD has an anamorphic widescreen mode, which is the innovation that killed Pan and Scan. He also shows some shots from the film in their correct ratio and in cropped versions. The DVD of Ronin contains both letterboxed and panned-and-scanned versions--on oppposite … -- Kevin Archibald was once a member of the infamous Widescreen Inquisition. So the challenge is to fit the rectangular image onto a square box. You need to assume whom they are talking to! This can even be a problem for movies and shows originally in 4:3. In many movies, you will see one character talking with the others that aren't seen on the screen. Certainly, widescreen got the shot in the arm it needed from DVD, but the likes of Warner Bros, Disney and more were either offering pan and scan releases, or … "Great! The worst-affected scenes are those which have panoramic shots. The Black Hole review is coming soon.... Star Wars is never coming. DVD Talk - pan and scan and widescreen - why can there be an aspect ratio for video that keeps the whole image i have seen pan and scan video 4:3 then compared it to the 1.85 : 1 version and it seems the pan and scan 4:3 has more of the video at the top and the bottom then the 1.85 : 1 copy but the 1.85 : 1 copy does But elsewhere in the film.... (Those aren't black matting bars at the top and bottom, it is part of the window you see the lineup through). Create robust and customizable shot lists. Interpreting Pan & Scan Vs. Widescreen (2005 Video) Release Info. The worst-affected scenes are those which have panoramic shots. Another way of dealing with a widescreen source and keeping a 4:3 DAR is to do something called Pan and Scan which will extract a 4:3 image from the source by cropping the edges like this: You can see the amount that has been removed from the image by comparing it with the stretched widescreen … Imagine if you will a frustrated 10 year old boy rewinding the tape frantically 27 times, looking for this mysterious Sand Person. Most 16/9 TVs let you choose from "Widescreen," "Letterbox," and Pan & Scan". This was done in the days of VHS and early DVD, as most consumers still owned 4:3 sized televisions. Widescreen is obviously the intended format. It should also be noted that the newest DVDs are encoded as "Anamorphic Widescreen." Additional information to the top and bottom of the image not originally seen (open matte cases only). And even as DVD technology improved and more films were being presented in their original ratios, pan and scan was “still a threat.”. Now that you have a better understanding of that concept, learn more about aspect ratios overall, along with tips on how they are utilized and what they can signify. Have you seen the price of widescreen TVs??? I was surprised when I went to get shots from The Usual Suspects: A Clear case of Panning and Scanning. To give you an idea of what pan and scan ultimately does, and why it posed such a problem for directors, take a look at the video below. We'll also look at why televisions and theatrical movies have different aspect ratios in the first place and explore the "widescreen vs. pan and scan" debate. 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