Widescreen Formats
In The Cinema

If you want to know more about the history of widescreen processes, we strongly recommend visiting THE AMERICAN WIDESCREEN MUSEUM website, where you will find everything you could possibly want to know about such formats as CinemaScope, 70mm,VistaVision and Cinerama, along with clarification on some of the points mentioned below. For the purpose of this article, we will be dealing with how the majority of widescreen films are produced today - in Panavision, Standard 35mm or Super 35. In particular we will look at how these formats affect film presentation on 4:3 and 16:9 ratio TVs.

CINEMASCOPE / PANAVISION

In the midst of tremendous publicity, 20th Century Fox debuted its CinemaScope format in 1953 with the epic swords-and-sandals saga The Robe. Initially in a 2.66:1 ratio (later the more familiar 2.35:1), this process produced widescreen images using standard 35mm film. How was this possible? By the process of anamorphic photography, which had been around in more or less experimental form since the 1920's. Essentially, with the addition of a specialised lens, 35mm movie cameras can capture a much wider field of vision on film without loss of definition, using the entire frame space available. Of course, in order to make the end result watchable, a corrective lens has to be fitted to the average 35mm projector to reverse the process, but from its introduction the system proved very popular with movie theatres because it was relatively inexpensive to upgrade their equipment. This process is still in use today under the name Panavision for a great deal of 2.35:1 widescreen material.

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Panavision camera viewfinder: image compressed using anamorphic lens

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35mm Panavision anamorphic print for theatrical release

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Image projected from Panavision 35mm print using corrective lens

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DVD Video Widescreen Version: Black bars present to allow presentation of 2.35:1 ratio (21:9) within 1.78:1 (16:9) display area

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ABOVE: DVD Video Widescreen Version on 4:3 ratio display: thick black bars on image required to display full width of 2.35:1 image (21:9) on a 1.33:1 (4:3) display BELOW: DVD Video 4:3 Pan & Scan Version Over 40% of image cropped out in order to fill 4:3 screen completely

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STANDARD 35mm

This is the format most commonly used for widescreen movies. Basically, if you are watching a film in a 1.85:1 ratio in a cinema today, it was likely to have been shot in either Soft Matte or Hard Matte 35mm. This uses standard 35mm film stock with a 1.85:1 ratio area marked out in the camera's viewfinder. This is important, not only to get the composition of a scene right, but also to make sure that boom microphones and lighting rigs, etc., are kept out of the marked area.

A Soft Matte 35mm print has information visible outside the 1.85:1 ratio; it's up to the projectionist to align his equipment to mask out those areas in the projector's gate. If such a print is masked incorrectly, you may notice the odd boom microphone dipping in from the top of the screen - a phenomenon experienced by many who saw Ransom. Such films can then be transferred to video without the gate masking (OPEN MATTE) for the full-screen 4:3 version, or with the gate masking for the widescreen version.

More frequently, at least according to one UCI Cinemas Projectionist, a print is issued with the area outside the 1.85:1 ratio blacked out already: this is a Hard Matte print, where the unwanted information is cropped out in processing. The term Hard Matte also applies where the cinematographer masks out the excess area in-camera during shooting.

If you watch a full-screen 4:3 video version of a film shot on Standard 35mm, missing any significant action depends on whether the transfer was done from a hard- or soft-matte print. Even if there should be some panning-and-scanning, the negative effect is not so great as it would be on Panavision material.

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SOFT MATTE 35mm

Camera Viewfinder: Widescreen aspect ratio marked out in-camera for ideal composition, but full frame is exposed

ABOVE: Theatrical 35mm Unmatted Print. Broken line indicates area to be masked out in projector. This is know as SOFT MATTE BELOW: Projected image

DVD Video Full Screen 4:3 version. Full 35mm frame tranferred to video, revealing more top and bottom information than was visible on the theatrical release. This is referred to as an OPEN MATTE transfer. Although this alters image composition slightly, some directors prefer their movies to be shown this way on 4:3 displays, rather than resort to using a pan and scan transfer from a HARD MATTE print.

ABOVE: Although Eyes Wide Shut was released in a Full Screen 4:3 version (OPEN MATTE) on DVD, widescreen users can recreate the theatrical image composition by using the ZOOM mode. BELOW: Alternatively, you can view the OPEN MATTE version using the set's 4:3 Mode.

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HARD MATTE 35mm

Camera viewfinder: Widescreen aspect ratio masked in-camera

Theatrical 35mm Hard Matte Print

Projected image

DVD Video Widescreen Version on 16:9 display: Image fills entire display without cropping or distortion

ABOVE: DVD Widescreen version on 4:3 display: Balck bars required to allow reduced relative height of 1.78:1 (16:9) image on 1.33:1 (12:9) display BELOW: DVD 4:3 Pan and Scan Version Part of image cropped out to allow image to fill screen.

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SUPER 35

This is where the issues of widescreen can become a little confusing, so bear with us a little. Some have commented that they can see more vertical information on a full-screen 4:3 video versions of certain movies which were shown in 2.35:1 format at the cinema. This requires special explanation.

Typically when a Panavision 2.35:1 ratio film is transferred to video for rental and sell-through, the wide image has to be panned-and-scanned in order for it to fill the proportions of a 4:3 ratio TV screen. Consequently, viewers can be missing up to half the action. Super 35 was developed partly as a response to this problem. In Super 35, the film is exposed full frame without anamorphic distortion, and the image is composed twice in the viewfinder: one box marks out the 2.35:1 theatrical ratio, the other the 1.66:1 ratio of the Super 35 frame. This does alter the composition: a close-up in the theatrical version can become a medium close-up in the video version, but the real benefit to directors is that none of the essential action is missing in either format. In post production, the 2.35:1 area is transferred to an anamorphic print for theatrical release and a separate full-frame version is created as the basis of a video master with minimal pan and scan effects. Directors such as James Cameron, Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard have been known to use the Super 35 system in their work.

Examples of films shot in Super 35 include The Fifth Element, Titanic, Apollo 13, The Abyss, Casino and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

CAMERA VIEWFINDER: Theatrical 2.35:1 area is high-lighted for ideal composition, but full 1.66:1 Super 35 frame is exposed. The frame is slightly wider than standard 35mm because the area normally reserved for sound is also exposed.

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ABOVE: In post-production, 2.35:1 area is separated and transferred to an anamorphic print for theatrical release BELOW: Projected Image

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DVD Video Widescreen Version on 16:9 display, featuring the same composition as theatrical release

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ABOVE: The original 1.66:1 Super 35 frame can now be used to create a Full Screen 4:3 version of the same film with only partial pan and scan effects, ensuring no significant action is lost BELOW: DVD Video Full Screen 4:3 version

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(C) Joe O'Connor, Technosound Ltd. Updated June 2003.  All images are copyrighted and are used here for education purposes only.