Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Paddon
What we'd call a "fake widescreen" in the sense of the image being blown up to accomodate a widescreen image but in the process it results in chopping off of the top and bottom of the original image. In effect it's the reverse of panning/scanning for old format TV when you'd lose the sides of a widescreen image to fit the proportions of a TV set.
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It was shot with an OCN (original camera negative) ratio of 1.37:1; also known as Academy ratio, 4:3, full frame etc. On TV thus would crop slightly to 1.33:1.
However, because TVs have what’s called overscan around all four sides, the film makers ensure that essential information occurs in a safe area within the frame, and sometimes (as is the case with Saga of a Star World) they would shoot it safe for widescreen cropping when they made their theatrical release version (124 minutes; the premiere edit without commercials runs 139 minutes).
Many feature films were shot this way - certainly in the days of 1.33:1 TVs - so that when they were transfered to video or were shown on TV they wouldn't lose any picture info (unlike films shot in 2.35:1 Scope widescreen formats). This process was called shooting “soft matte” (aspect ratios: 1.66:1, 1.75:1, 1.85:1).
Some films were shot “hard matte” in the same three ratios which meant a plate was put in the camera that equalled those aspect ratios; titles shot this way would lose picture info at the sides on 1.33:1 video and TV.
To prepare a 2.35:1 or hard matte film the process was called panning and scanning, whereby the telecine operator would make choices on a second by second basis as to which parts of the frame were in vision at any one moment.
Saga of a Star World was shot soft matte but designed to be cropped to 1.85:1 in cinemas, which is why it looks fine in the widescreen 124 minute theatrical version.
