Sleeping Beauty: Widescreen Tutorial.

The only reason that most "fullscreen" people prefer the bastardized pan
and scan format is because they have not been properly shown just how
much of a widescreen movie is chopped off in the destructive pan and
scan process. The supplementary _Sleeping Beauty_ disk has the best
widescreen versus pan and scan information that I have ever seen. (Both
the widescreen and pan and scan versions are included with _Sleeping
Beauty_.)

Disk 2 of _Sleeping Beauty_ has a very interesting "Widescreen to
Pan-and Scan Comparison" which shows both images, one on top of the
other. This allows even the most ignorant people to plainly see that
their so-called "fullscreen" movies are actually hacked up travesties.

Andres Deja: "Hi, I'm Andres Deja, I'm supervising animator at Walt
Disney studios and I'd like to tell you about Walt Disney's Sleeping
Beauty. The film was shot in the 1950s on Technarama, which is a
widescreen film format. So, when you see it in theaters, it's a big
screen, but the format is a rectangle. Very different from your
television format, because your television is basically a square. So we
are really faced with a challenge when we want to show Sleeping Beauty
on television. There are two different ways of doing this."

(At this point, a square inlay, which represents the 4:3 aspect ratio of
a conventional TV is shown with a letterboxed, 2:35:1 widescreen image
from the film.)

"We can present the movie in a so-called letterbox format which shows
the widescreen movie as it was shot, but you will end up with a black
bar on the top and one on the bottom of your screen."

(At this point, the letterboxed image is zoomed to fill the 4:3 viewing
square and 45% of the side information is cut off.)

"The second option that we have is to present the movie in a technique
we call pan and scan, which fills the whole television set, but you
really end up losing the sides of the film. You still get the main
action, but you will lose a little bit of the artwork and the drawings.
So, in the split-screen comparison coming up, you can decide for
yourself which version you like better. The letterbox, or the pan and
scan."

At this point, a widescreen image is placed over a "fullscreen" pan and
scan image and a 2.5 minute scene from the movie runs simultaneously in
both windows. The "fullscreen" image looks claustrophobic when compared
with the widescreen image playing above it. The pan and scan image keeps
panning back and forth in an attempt to keep the "main action" centered
in its narrow frame.

If only more studios were interested in educating the public.

Scot Gardner

In article <20030909223411.455$>, Scot Gardner
<> wrote:

> The only reason that most "fullscreen" people prefer the bastardized pan
> and scan format is because they have not been properly shown just how
> much of a widescreen movie is chopped off in the destructive pan and
> scan process.

And, sometimes they know and just don't care.

--
Chris Mack "Refugee, total ****. That's how I've always seen us.
'Invid Fan' Not a help, you'll admit, to agreement between us."
-'Deal/No Deal', CHESS

Invid Fan

Invid Fan <> wrote in message news:090920032320501053%...
> In article <20030909223411.455$>, Scot Gardner
> <> wrote:
>
> > The only reason that most "fullscreen" people prefer the bastardized pan
> > and scan format is because they have not been properly shown just how
> > much of a widescreen movie is chopped off in the destructive pan and
> > scan process.
>
> And, sometimes they know and just don't care.

There is no resolution to this debate.

The widescreen devotees realize that there are a lot of movies
already in the can, including Sleeping Beauty, which cannot be viewed
on a 4 by 3 or 16 by 9 set without black bars if you want to see
all of the image that was shot, without the sides chopped off.

The full screen aficionados look at the black bars and wonder why
they don't shoot movies the way they used to (Academy ratio).
They do not share the directorial desire for the wide canvas,
which results in the top and bottom of their screen being unused.
They ask: Which is bigger? 16 by 9 or 16 by 12?
Which looks best on the 4 by 3 ratio screen
found in the majority of homes?

The only agreement is that Pan and Scan sucks so bad,
the dust bunnies won't even get into the straw.

Hugh Candlin

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 03:20:50 GMT, Invid Fan wrote in alt.video.dvd:

>> The only reason that most "fullscreen" people prefer the bastardized
>> pan and scan format is because they have not been properly shown just
>> how much of a widescreen movie is chopped off in the destructive pan
>> and scan process.
>
> And, sometimes they know and just don't care.

The one on the Die Hard SE is pretty good IMO, too.

--
- Cods


(un ROT-13 to e-mail)

Codswallop

"Scot Gardner" <> wrote in message
news:20030909223411.455$...

> both windows. The "fullscreen" image looks claustrophobic when compared
> with the widescreen image playing above it. The pan and scan image keeps

There is some hope. My dad thought he would like the fullscreen DVDs after
watching a few letterboxed widescreen films, mostly because he does not have
a large tv and his eyes are not as good as they used to be. I put on the
fullscreen side of a new action film DVD I had that he wanted to see, a
quarter way through he asked to see the widescreen side. He found with the
fullscreen version the editor had the faces all huge in the frame, and that
he was missing some of the action off the side in car chases, etc. I think
claustrophobic is a good word to describe the result.

Steve

Steve Knoblock

> "The second option that we have is to present the movie in a technique
> we call pan and scan, which fills the whole television set, but you
> really end up losing the sides of the film. You still get the main
> action, but you will lose a little bit of the artwork and the drawings.

"A little bit of the artwork and the drawings"?? Excuse me? I like Mr. Deja
but that's just bullshit. If over 40% of the filmed frame is "a little bit"
then **** me in the ass.

Paul Poroshin

Overheard at Blockbuster last week:

Mother to son: "Johnny, of course I'd like to rent Daredevil on DVD, but
all the copies are widescreen only, so we'll rent the [VHS] video instead".

Agh! Child abuse!

Dougie Roberts

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 14:43:21 GMT, "Steve Knoblock"
<> wrote:

>
>"Scot Gardner" <> wrote in message
>news:20030909223411.455$...
>
>> both windows. The "fullscreen" image looks claustrophobic when compared
>> with the widescreen image playing above it. The pan and scan image keeps
>
>There is some hope. My dad thought he would like the fullscreen DVDs after
>watching a few letterboxed widescreen films, mostly because he does not have
>a large tv and his eyes are not as good as they used to be. I put on the
>fullscreen side of a new action film DVD I had that he wanted to see, a
>quarter way through he asked to see the widescreen side. He found with the
>fullscreen version the editor had the faces all huge in the frame, and that
>he was missing some of the action off the side in car chases, etc. I think
>claustrophobic is a good word to describe the result.
>
>Steve
>

After I watched my extended version of LOTR: FOTR (WS of course), it
was on cable Full Screen and claustrophobic is a good way to explain
it. It wasn't the same movie and after 10 minutes, I went and got the
DVD and watched it. I just could not get through it Full screen.

--
Still Howlin' at the Moon!

Wild Coyote
wd_coyote@(remove)whoppermail.com

Wild Coyote

"Paul Poroshin" <!net> wrote in message
news:lMP7b.142232$ .net...

> "The second option that we have is to present the movie in a technique
> we call pan and scan, which fills the whole television set, but you
> really end up losing the sides of the film. You still get the main
> action, but you will lose a little bit of the artwork and the
drawings.

<<"A little bit of the artwork and the drawings"?? Excuse me? I like Mr.
Deja but that's just bullshit. If over 40% of the filmed frame is "a
little bit" then **** me in the ass.>>


Yes, I too noticed that. As a matter of fact, I played that passage over
again to make sure that I had heard him correctly. But after all, he's
representing Disney and Disney made the decision to include the
"fullscreen" version with the widescreen version.

Mr. Deja should have said, "... you will lose a LOT of the artwork and
the drawings", but unfortunately, he didn't. Or maybe he couldn't.
However, the split-screen comparison make it obvious that 45% of the
artwork, drawing and large parts of the "main action" are missing from
the "fullscreen" version of _Sleeping Beauty_.

Scot Gardner

Child abuse indeed!

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 02:15:56 GMT, "Dougie Roberts"
<> wrote:

>Overheard at Blockbuster last week:
>
>Mother to son: "Johnny, of course I'd like to rent Daredevil on DVD, but
>all the copies are widescreen only, so we'll rent the [VHS] video instead".
>
>Agh! Child abuse!
>
>
>

-Sparky


"She's mine, mine, mine you hear- you have all the wives you need!"
-Torgo

Sparky