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david_a posted:James Cameron was a fan of the Super 35 format which shot movies in 4:3 and created the widescreen version by cropping the image. In his movies the 4:3 version might actually show more of the image than the widescreen version, so calling them pan & scan isn't really correct. I'm sure there were still shots where they cropped the widescreen version again (probably CG shots that didn't have an original 4:3 version) but that was probably the exception. Cropping the image twice is of course a pretty severe resolution downgrade, but when you're shoving it on VHS you wouldn't even notice. Effects shots were output at 2:1 between it requiring less rendering and source footage being shot in VistaVision (which is approx. 1.55:1 full aperture). I remember HBO running an ad for a special widescreen showing of Titanic and all the examples they used were of effect shots. I'm curious to how Avatar was handled. I saw it in both IMAX (1.78:1) and 3-D DLP (2.40:1), but the framing looked perfectly fine either way.
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Apr 29, 2017 17:27
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Spatulater bro! posted:Back in my budding cinephile days it was always a challenge for me to convince people (which I saw as my duty to do for some reason) that even if you might see more image in a fullscreen version, it's still not the right image. A lot of it has to do with people's living room/den setups. If they aren't really movie people a lot of the time their television is really far away from the couch, or the screen just isn't big enough for the room. My parents are like that, they'll watch a movie maybe once a month but for the most part the television is there for news channels, sports, and random reality shows. So their set-up really isn't conducive to widescreen when they're sitting that far away from an already too small screen.
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Apr 29, 2017 17:26
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Egbert Souse posted:Effects shots were output at 2:1 between it requiring less rendering and source footage being shot in VistaVision (which is approx. 1.55:1 full aperture). I remember HBO running an ad for a special widescreen showing of Titanic and all the examples they used were of effect shots. I thought Avatar 3D was 1.85:1, and the flat versions were 2.40:1. Either way, it was an utterly boring and lovely film, so I didn't care much about the framing. Spatulater bro! posted:Back in my budding cinephile days it was always a challenge for me to convince people (which I saw as my duty to do for some reason) that even if you might see more image in a fullscreen version, it's still not the right image. I think it all goes down to people don't understand how images are composed and how altering those pictures can really change the effect. And often times, most of what was gained was dead space anyway since you were focused on the widescreen version when you composed your shots.
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Apr 29, 2017 19:09
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Cemetry Gator posted:I thought Avatar 3D was 1.85:1, and the flat versions were 2.40:1. Either way, it was an utterly boring and lovely film, so I didn't care much about the framing. It was 1.78:1 when I saw it in IMAX 3-D (dual strip) and 2.40:1 when I saw it in 3-D DLP at a regular theater. I could be wrong, though, since the same theater hosed up once and screened The Avengers at 2.40:1 instead of 1.85:1.
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Apr 29, 2017 19:13
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That's weird. Was the shot stretched, ala playing a DVD 'fullscreen' on an HDTV, or did they project the film to play outside of the movie screen? Or did they not fix the masking so that it showed more of the movie screen than needed?
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Apr 29, 2017 21:38
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SomeJazzyRat posted:That's weird. Was the shot stretched, ala playing a DVD 'fullscreen' on an HDTV, or did they project the film to play outside of the movie screen? Or did they not fix the masking so that it showed more of the movie screen than needed? It was cropped. At first, I thought the compositions just looked odd, but then the subtitles in the first Black Widow scene were only barely visible. No idea how they managed to do that, though. I feel bad that I don't see more films at my local theater since it's nice for a multiplex - 4K projectors and even has a bar inside.
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Apr 30, 2017 02:02
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The main local video store chain that used to exist here had a bunch of displays that explained why letterbox was better & showed how pan & scan cuts off the image. V important service
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Apr 30, 2017 02:38
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When I was a kid any time my paternal grandmother got me a movie on VHS for Christmas it would be the widescreen version. The last one I got before jumping to DVD was The Matrix, which had a bunch of DVD special features at the end. Was a good tape that made my long wait for a DVD player/drive easier to deal with. She had no idea what she was getting, but I definitely appreciate the efforts of whichever clerk at the Woolworth's near her house she listened to. Named my daughter after that grandma., who turns 97 next month.
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Apr 30, 2017 03:28
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bobkatt013 posted:The best thing about widescreen was why it was created in the first place. It was an attempt by the movie industry to appear more epic then tv and have something that tv can not do. A looong time ago, I knew enough to know that widescreen was how movies were done and letterboxing was the way to go with home video. But I was ignorant of the history, I didn't know that movies used to be 4:3. So a new specialty theater* was opening, one that would show indies, foreign films, classics etc. Which was goddamned revolutionary in the poo poo town I was from. Their grand opening movie was Citizen Kane and I sat there stewing because I assumed the 4:3 image I was seeing was the "wrong version." Derp.  *That theater I mentioned was the Tejon in Bakersfield, CA. A young married couple put everything they had into getting a very old dilapidated theater that had sat empty for a long time into shape. They served real food and did special events like showing The Wizard of Oz and having some of the surviving Munchkins there to do autographs and pictures and such. It was in a poo poo part of a backwards town and still did good enough to stay open. And then the rear end in a top hat landlord wanted ridiculous terms for their new lease and they shut down. That couple was Tim and Karrie League. They left Bakersfield and went to Austin where they made their second attempt at a theater -- the Alamo Drafthouse.
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Apr 30, 2017 03:33
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TheScott2K posted:When I was a kid any time my paternal grandmother got me a movie on VHS for Christmas it would be the widescreen version. The last one I got before jumping to DVD was The Matrix, which had a bunch of DVD special features at the end. Was a good tape that made my long wait for a DVD player/drive easier to deal with. She had no idea what she was getting, but I definitely appreciate the efforts of whichever clerk at the Woolworth's near her house she listened to.  ) but I was never aware of that being a thing for VHS too.
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Apr 30, 2017 03:38
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Wait wait wait...there were widescreen/fullscreen VHS tapes?! I've known about widescreen/fullscreen DVDs for ages (my mom always had to get the fullscreen version of everything she watched on DVD because she hated the black bars Sometimes they called them "letterbox" copies. I had Air Force One, The Matrix, Die Hard, Last Action Hero, and a couple of others. Love you, Grandma.
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Apr 30, 2017 03:42
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It's worth noting that some early video releases were widescreen without much fanfare. Obviously, there's Manhattan, but the early 80s editions of The Long Goodbye and Monty Python and the Holy Grail were letterboxed. Holy Grail even had the extended scene intact and the trailer after the film on the CED. I remember borrowing tapes of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Innerspace, Gremlins 2, and The Last of the Mohicans that were letterboxed without them being labeled as such.
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Apr 30, 2017 03:59
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I never knew that letterbox tapes were that common. I only ever saw a handful of them here and there for stuff like Star Wars and Blade Runner.
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Apr 30, 2017 05:20
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Fox had a line of swanky widescreen VHS tapes that came in gold clamshell cases: First gift I ever bought my mother with my own money were the Die hard widescreen tapes for Christmas.
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Apr 30, 2017 05:56
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Here is an awesome video on aspect ratio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7-aMi4Rr-4 bobkatt013 fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Apr 30, 2017 06:31
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caligulamprey posted:Fox had a line of swanky widescreen VHS tapes that came in gold clamshell cases: That's some serious 1995 bling.
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Apr 30, 2017 07:01
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caligulamprey posted:Fox had a line of swanky widescreen VHS tapes that came in gold clamshell cases: Face/Off being in that ground pleases me.
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Apr 30, 2017 09:29
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Asnorban posted:For old people. It keeps getting turned back on whenever I leave my parents house. Even when I explain to them that this is why their shows look crappy. They don't put much thought in to it beyond "this is new technology, therefore it must be best to use it." My parents tv does a weird stuttering thing on certain channels, reminds me of when i pirated movies back in college and the codecs were always changing so often they wouldnt always be the right speed. Is that interpolation? I also heard some channels speed up movie ayback slightly to squeeze in an extra commercial per hour. If that's the case can I fix it on my end?
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Apr 30, 2017 11:28
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ruddiger posted:Face/Off being in that ground pleases me. Uh excuse me, that is not Face/Off, it's the seminal 1996 action thriller Broken Arrow. 
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Apr 30, 2017 12:33
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caligulamprey posted:Fox had a line of swanky widescreen VHS tapes that came in gold clamshell cases: Here's the trailer for Fox UK's original line of widescreen releases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMlSv2eaDWg I bought them all - and they were of course more expensive than the subsequent DVDs and Blu-rays. *sigh*
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Apr 30, 2017 15:08
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bobkatt013 posted:Here is an awesome video on aspect ratio This is a really good one. The problem is that some people think unmatted means it's uncropped, but it's nearly impossible to make a 1.85:1 film fully open matte on video. The 4x3 "open matte" versions of Touch of Evil, On the Waterfront, A Hard Day's Night, Anatomy of a Murder, Dial M for Murder, The Shining, and The Night of the Hunter all crop the sides to various degrees, despite opening up the height. Part of it's unavoidable since the only way to have a native 1.33:1 image on film is to shoot completely full aperture like a silent film or Super-35 4 perf. A theatrical print wouldul have an image ranging from 1.19:1 to 1.66:1. That's why the older videos of Dr. Strangelove had alternating aspect ratios - some cameras used a hard-matte, some didn't. Anyone seeing it in a theater would never know about it. Literally the only film I've seen with a true open matte transfer was the original DVD of Eyes Wide Shut, other than a shot or two reframed. In fact, the initial Criterion Blu-Ray of Dressed to Kill had a problem where the scan was accidentally encoded from a full aperture image, but compressed to the proper 2.40:1. You ended up seeing image that would have been obscured by the soundtrack and STMPE framing in projection. The first DVD of The Great Escape also used a full aperture element, resulting in a ridiculous 2.70:1 image because it wasn't cropped properly (the Blu-Ray has correct framing).
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Apr 30, 2017 15:45
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I rode my bike many miles to get to a Suncoast that had the widescreen VHS of the 1998 Avengers (which was in 1.85:1). Worth it.
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Apr 30, 2017 17:04
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Maxwell Lord posted:I rode my bike many miles to get to a Suncoast that had the widescreen VHS of the 1998 Avengers (which was in 1.85:1). Good lord no it wasn't. edit: also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHgqi6jvrSo TheScott2K fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Apr 30, 2017 17:18
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Maxwell Lord posted:Suncoast
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May 1, 2017 13:58
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Maxwell Lord posted:I rode my bike many miles to get to a Suncoast that had the widescreen VHS of the 1998 Avengers (which was in 1.85:1). When I worked at a theater for a summer, I stayed up one Thursday to preview the print. I thought that I fell asleep while watching it, turns out it was just a really bad movie.
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May 1, 2017 14:14
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Just a heads up... Flicker Alley's Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology set is coming out on Tuesday, but you can pre-order it from them at a discount. It's only $49.99 right now. https://www.flickeralley.com/classic-movies/#!/Early-Women-Filmmakers-An-International-Anthology/p/80085513/category=20414531 The set has over 10 hours of films (25 titles total) by Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Mabel Normand, Lotte Reiniger, Leni Riefenstahl, Mary Ellen Bute, and Maya Deren, among others.
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May 4, 2017 20:16
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Egbert Souse posted:Just a heads up... I was so close to buying this when you first brought it to our attention when it was first announced.... and here I am again. Buying a new house within the last couple months just might keep me from getting it. But man I love their "Masterworks of Avant-Garde Experimental Cinema" release that I blind-bought... Decisions, decisions. friendo55 fucked around with this message at 15:26 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 15:17
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Rusty Staub posted:
I remember when I worked at the mall in high school, every paycheck, I'd walk over to Suncoast and buy one VHS, because all of their movies were like 24.99 which was loving insane. I did manage to get Gates of Hell, Hell of the Living Dead, and a few Jackie Chan movies on VHS from there tho, which was cool.
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May 5, 2017 19:50
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Yeah before I could reliably get anything that ever existed from Amazon (and before Prime turned waiting times trivial), Suncoast's selection was a very good thing. I am honestly kinda lamenting the slow painful death of dedicated media retail. Bookstores are fun. Browsing through DVDs is (was) fun. I'm going to have to run some errands anyway so there should be fun places to go in between running them.
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May 6, 2017 05:23
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Maxwell Lord posted:Yeah before I could reliably get anything that ever existed from Amazon (and before Prime turned waiting times trivial), Suncoast's selection was a very good thing.
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May 6, 2017 16:02
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More Kino Lorber announcements (no dates yet): They Shoot Horses, Don't They? The Covered Wagon - new 4K remaster SpaceCamp The Big Country (Special Edition) The Hunting Party The Oldest Profession Krakatoa: East of Java The Man in the Glass Booth Three Sisters OSS 117 Collection (the five 60s films) 8 Million Ways to Die
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May 7, 2017 01:16
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I noticed that Dredd is being released on 4k bluray this June. I don't have a 4k player, but that would be a cool movie to own if I did.
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May 7, 2017 21:22
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John Yossarian posted:I noticed that Dredd is being released on 4k bluray this June. I don't have a 4k player, but that would be a cool movie to own if I did. Most (all?) UHD Blu-rays also come with a standard Blu-ray. If you plan to eventually upgrade it might be smart to go ahead and buy the UHD.
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May 7, 2017 21:42
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Spatulater bro! posted:Most (all?) UHD Blu-rays also come with a standard Blu-ray. If you plan to eventually upgrade it might be smart to go ahead and buy the UHD. Yeah especially when best buy puts them on sale. Batman versus superman was only one dollar more for the 4k last year when both were on sale. Not the best 4k disc, but still a little better than the bluray.
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May 7, 2017 22:54
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Ineffiable posted:Yeah especially when best buy puts them on sale. Batman versus superman was only one dollar more for the 4k last year when both were on sale. Not the best 4k disc, but still a little better than the bluray. Be warned though, the regular blu that comes in this one is the theatrical cut. The Ultimate cut is on the 4k bluray.
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May 8, 2017 05:56
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quote:I remember when I worked at the mall in high school, every paycheck, I'd walk over to Suncoast and buy one VHS, because all of their movies were like 24.99 which was loving insane. In my town, Suncoast was right by an "overstock/damaged goods" store that would stock all kinds of sealed, perfectly fine goods that just happened to have a dent or scratch or something, so stuff would be heavily marked down. When I was a kid, I would constantly buy concert DVDs or box sets at that place for like $4, and then go return them for store credit at Suncoast and get like $32 for them. When I was that young, it was like getting a million dollars to buy any movies I wanted. I was a little rear end in a top hat, I guess.
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May 8, 2017 08:24
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I don't remember ever buying a movie at Suncoast, but I bought a ton of action figures there. It absolutely blew my mind the first time I saw toys based on R-rated movies. I also remember buying Dick Tracy and Austin Powers Mez-Its there for $3 each.
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May 8, 2017 08:28
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Suncoast was my action figure stomping grounds. I got an 18inch talking Patrick Bateman and it ruled. But then I tried to make it better and ruined it. Now it looks like poo poo.
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May 8, 2017 10:51
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Not Blu-Ray, but just a heads up - MST3K Vol. 17 (XVII) is going out of print, but Amazon has it for $18. It's the set with The Crawling Eye and The Final Sacrifice, so I'd grab it before it disappears.
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May 8, 2017 13:03
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Egbert Souse posted:Not Blu-Ray, but just a heads up - MST3K Vol. 17 (XVII) is going out of print, but Amazon has it for $18. It's the set with The Crawling Eye and The Final Sacrifice, so I'd grab it before it disappears. Thanks for the heads up! Does anyone know a good way to stay abreast of things that will go OOP? I remember the Death Wish blu-ray was $15 forever and then it suddenly went OOP and now it's like $50. Same happened with Cable Guy. Seems to happen so randomly.
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May 8, 2017 20:35
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