[opendtv] Re: Once again The Ten Commandments is on ABC tonight in stunnig 4:3
- From: Cliff Benham <cbenham@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 01:41:09 -0500
I wrote:
>The DVD is full 16:9 with no black bars anywhere.
>
Mark wrote:
What makes you think that is the correct aspect ratio?
I didn't say it was correct, just much more pleasing to
watch on a 40 inch 16:9 TV because it makes full use of the TV
screen, which, I think was Paramount's main goal in introducing
VistaVision. [This is supported further down...]
Mark wrote:
The VistaVision frame was about 5:3, narrower than 16:9.
[I'm not sure if this a projection aspect ratio, but I'm fairly certain it's
not the actual camera negative aspect ratio...]
Here's Paramount on the "correct" aspect ratio for VistaVision movies:
"The finders on the VistaVision cameras carry a hairline framing marking
in the aspect ratio of 1.66/1. There will also be a frame line marking
for the 1.33/1 aspect ratio. The cameramen are instructed to compose for
a loose (meaning adequate head-room) 1.66/1 picture. A picture composed
in this way will play equally good at 1.85/1, it will play very
satisfactorily at 2/1 and it can be played at the old standard of 1.33/1."
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/vistavision.htm
That describes how to shoot and compose, however it's not the whole story.
When I speak of what I see on my TV at home, I'm speaking of projection
as in a theater.
I don't want to see a 4:3 image on my 16:9 TV with black bars on each
side. I would not expect
to see a 4:3 film in a theater on a wide screen; they would roll in the
act curtains to mask it properly.
The following excerpts describing VistaVision are quoted from pages 125
and 126 of
"Widescreen Cinema" by John Belton:
"...VistaVision offered theaters which, for economic or architectural
reasons were unable to
convert to CinemaScope, a viable widescreen alternative permitting them
to project VistaVision
pictures in aspect ratios ranging from 1.33:1 to 2:1..."
" The promotion book which Paramount distributed to exhibitors and the
press employed the
same sales strategy comparing the traditional 1.33/7:1 and CinemaScope's
2.55:1 projection
aspect ratios with that of VistaVision which, at 1.85:1 was shown to
fill a screen that the other
systems did not."
VistaVision, by virtue of it's "wide area negative achieved by using 35
mm film exposed horizontally
(as in a still camera) resulted in a wide 8 sprocket-hole two frame image."
"The VistaVision image could be blown up to fill an enormous 62 X 35
foot screen without the loss
in clarity or sharpness that plagued ersatz widescreen..."
[A 62 X 35 foot screen has an aspect ratio of 1.77:1].
All this is to say that there is much more that could have been seen of
the original film on ABC tonight if they had
played the DVD I was running and making scene by scene comparisons with.
There would have been more of the original frame, and greater detail
overall by playing the DVD.
What ABC aired showed about 1/3 less of the frame horizontally than is
on the DVD, and what is
on the DVD is certainly not the entire original 8 perf 2:1 VistaVision
camera negative frame.
ABC's 4:3 version has less detail and makes much less use of what is in
the original VistaVision frame.
I was able to make many comparisons, scene for scene, during the 4+ hour
run of the film and the huge
differences became readily apparent quite quickly.
Paramount's VistaVision offered larger, sharper, more detailed pictures
than the other competing widescreen
processes. We lost all that tonight when ABC ran it again tonight in
4:3. It could have been better.
We could have seen a lot more of the original image and more detail in
it as well.
I could certainly see more detail from the DVD than from the ABC HD image.
Mark Schubin wrote:
>Mark Schubin wrote:
>
>
>
>>The VistaVision
>>frame was about 5:3, narrower than 16:9.
>>
>>
>>
>Sorry -- I lied. It was closer to 3:2 -- much closer to 4:3 than to 16:9.
>
>TTFN,
>Mark
>
>
>
1.5:1 is right in the range of aspect ratios Paramount was aiming for
in theaters that couldn't afford or fit new screens.
The aspect ratio of my TV screen is 16:9, and The Ten Commandments looks
much better when played from the
DVD than from ABC. They could have done better.
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