Your Introduction To Letterboxing/Widescreen Presentations

[Member-222782]

Hi All

Today I can't watch a movie on TV or Home Video unless it's in the Original Aspect Ratio. It's something we've come to expect and, even demand, from content producers and TV programmers everywhere. But this love affair with screen width had to have a beginning - we weren't watching Sesame Street in 1.85 on TV in 1982. What was your first letterboxed "experience" and how did you react to it?

I grew up during the 80's when LaserDisc was the best way to watch movies at home. The broadcast networks were beginning to show movies on TV letterboxed. At first, it was just the credit sequences at the start and ending, then gradually entire films were shown in widescreen. I was curious about the black bars and at the same time fascinated by them - I thought it was the coolest thing but I HAD NO IDEA what it was about because I had no grasp of the concept of letterboxing. It wasn't until DVD hit the market about 10 years later when I realized that those black bars on TV (some were "decorative", with patterns on them!) were the result of movies being shown in their OAR. I never got into LaserDisc but we can thank the format for introducing us to the world of widescreen. Without it we would still be watching LAWRNCE OF ARABIA and many other wide films in pan in scan today.

My first-ever widescreen TV was a Goldstar 19" color TV - got it in 1987. Had to make a few adjustments to convert it to widescreen: I cut two pieces of cardboard and painted them black, then taped one each to the top and bottom of the screen, voila! Instant 16:9!

[MEB]

I bought my first Laserdisc player in 1981 and quickly became a vehement advocate for original aspect ratio. I watched them on a 27" Sony Trinitron and listened to them through my own homebrew surround sound dematrixing circuit. If any visitor to my home complained about the black bars he was not invited back for a second movie.

And thus the quest began for bigger and bigger TVs so that a letterboxed image could be as big as possible!

Mark

[benkunstman]

When I was 12, I got Star Wars EP II for Christmas on DVD. It was widescreen. I thought I was missing some of the movie or something, so I started crying and went to Wal Mart the next day to exchange it for the full screen. Those were the days...

[KingRad]

I used to get so frustrated when trying to explain to someone that those "black bars" aren't clipping the movie, it's actually full screen that prevents you from seeing the entire picture.

My eye opening realization was in a film & cinema class in high school. We actually watched Jaws in both full and widescreen presentations. Then we analyzed scenes side by side. It was actually really interesting at the time.

[cinemaphile]

I managed Suncoast for 10 years and made it my own personal crusade (and that of all my employees as well) to convert/educate every customer to appreciate and understand widescreen. I had a whole presentation ready if I needed it, with visual aids, side by side comparisons, the whole works. It was pretty funny.

The best ones were not just showing scenes where things on the sides were cut off, but places where the panning was painfully obvious and jarring. Sony movies were the worst.

Thia was the days before widescreen televisions, so the argument was always about the damn black bars, and convincing people you were getting more, not less. DVD helped when it came along in 1997, but for years before that I was pushing it for laserdiscs and the occasional VHS that would get released with both options.

[Number 6]

Back when VHS was high tech I came across the movie "Villa Rides" that was letterboxed which was highly unusual then. I said to myself, now that's the way movies should be seen on TV. Unfortunately it took years for broadcasters to catch on and more years for DVD technology to arrive.

[toddly6666]

1st: squinting at a widescreen copy of Blade Runner on my family's small tv when I was a kid made me believe widescreen was the worst thing ever.

Born-again: saw Batman Returns broadcast on my cousin's big tv in widescreen when I was 14 blew me away and made me realize that's the only way to watch.

[chris_sc77]

My first memory of seeing a WS/Letterboxed film was a WS VHS of Braveheart. Didn't really understand what the blackbars were (I was only 9 yrs old). so 3 yrs later in 1999 when I was 12 we got a DVD player in April of that year and the first film I purchased was Species 2. Species II was an excellent first purchase for many reasons. First I was 12 and there was a ridiculous amount of boobies and nekkid ladies. SO its already a win for a 12 yr old boy.
Secondly a booklet was included that simply, but precisely showed the difference in a cropped film vs. a letterboxed film in its OAR. This is totally invaluable and I instantly understood the concept and never looked back and to thisday I have gotta watch whatever I watch in its OAR.

also, I experienced my first Commentary with Species II. I had never heard of a commentary before and had no idea what it was gonna be when I clicked it. I was honestly blown away to find out just what a commentary is and the wealth of information that a commentator is able to provide. Just amazing.

[legendarymatt92]

Originally Posted by chris_sc77

My first memory of seeing a WS/Letterboxed film was a WS VHS of Braveheart. Didn't really understand what the blackbars were (I was only 9 yrs old). so 3 yrs later in 1999 when I was 12 we got a DVD player in April of that year and the first film I purchased was Species 2. Species II was an excellent first purchase for many reasons. First I was 12 and there was a ridiculous amount of boobies and nekkid ladies. SO its already a win for a 12 yr old boy.
Secondly a booklet was included that simply, but precisely showed the difference in a cropped film vs. a letterboxed film in its OAR. This is totally invaluable and I instantly understood the concept and never looked back and to thisday I have gotta watch whatever I watch in its OAR.

also, I experienced my first Commentary with Species II. I had never heard of a commentary before and had no idea what it was gonna be when I clicked it. I was honestly blown away to find out just what a commentary is and the wealth of information that a commentator is able to provide. Just amazing.

"And in this scene, we decided that one set of boobies just wasn't enough, so we hired an extra to stand in the back naked, too. Also you'll notice there's no real plot here, just scenes pieced together with boobs."

[Show spoiler]

[Elandyll]

In my case, it was with the TV version of Blue Thunder (TF1 channel , specifically, in France), back in the early 90s. I caught myself thinking on the title card of the film: That isn't right. We should see a lot more, this shot does not make sense.

My quest for Letterbox/ OAR started right there.

[Mandalorian]

I didn't consciously acknowledge the superiority of Widescreen until the last few years, just before my leap to Blu-ray. To be fair though, I graduated High School in '09, and in High School I liked movies (definitely more so than my peers, which was evident when I would talk about movies and they'd be less enthusiastic about it than me) and occasionally bought DVDs, but I didn't appreciate film and collect DVDs, if you get what I'm saying. My DVD collecting really took off around '08-'09, when I discovered weekly sales, and especially in college when I got my own debit cards and discovered ebay. Prior to that, I was a casual DVD buyer, and looked for Full Screen because all I knew in my infinite ignorance is that, dur, "it fills the screen, so it must be good!"

As my tastes developed and I really got into film as a hobby and art, I promptly discovered the differences between FS and WS. I was so pissed at myself for buying mostly FS all those years. Then, walking through BB all the time, I was always hypnotized by the beauty of the Transformers and Kind Kong BDs on the display tvs with the soap opera effect making it look "like something I'd never seen before" (of course now, I don't use that crap feature on my tv). Pretty much a year after I started college and was active in my DVD collecting, did I finally discover the Blu-ray difference. And I have a hard time even watching a DVD in FS, unless we're talking its OAR. So, moral of the story is I was a slow learner when it came to film specs and tech.

[Talzin78]

Jeez, I think it was when my Dad rented ALWAYS from blockbuster and was pissed about the black bars, and I remember at first agreeing with him then just realizing once you get engrossed in the film you don't notice. I then realized if thats the way it was filmed then in order to get it to fit the screen you have to trim the sides and my adolescent OCD kicked in and realized that if it fit the screen I'd be missing stuff. I was about 13 when I started buying my own VHS library and remember saving up alot of allowance and paper route cash to buy the upcoming Star Wars LETTERBOXED box set from Suncoast for something like $85 even though I had all of them already on VHS I knew seeing the LETTERBOX version would be awesome, and it was Letter box VHS was really hard to find for a long time.

[JavaJulien]

Since my family never owned Laserdiscs, I didn't become introduced to Letterboxing until I went over my Aunt's house and watched some DVDs. I think watching Fellowship of the Ring was the first time I ever saw the letterboxing and I thought they stuck out like a sore thumb. It was actually my older sister who started explaining to me why they were so important.

I wasn't completely sold, but eventually I just got used to it.

[scissorpuppy]

If I remember correctly the Innerspace was only available in letterbox, this was probably one of the first Letterbox releases on VHS. There was a disclaimer before the film stating that the film was being presented in this way due to the "Filmmakers wishes". Hahaha, I remember watching it thinking there was something wrong with our tv and being concerned that it would break and I wouldn't be able to watch cartoons the next day.

After that I would notice a credit sequences pop up from time to time on tv or a rental, and never really made the connection of letterbox = widescreen image from the theater until around 1994 when Starz started showing films in Widescreen. During this time they also aired short commercials explaining what widescreen was along with examples.

Around 1995 several studios started releasing widescreen VHS tapes on the sell through market. I bought all of these I could find! Fox seemed to be the leader, releasing a widescreen series in a plastic goldboarder clamshell case. Speed, True Lies, The Abyss were some releases. WB releases a handfull of titles, I only remember MGM releasing the Bond films in widescreen. Universal released Jaws in widescreen in 95 and followed with Waterworld. Soon after Sony released some titles, Anchor Bay and Live followed suit. Then in 1997 dvd came out, and I felt like my VHS collection was a waste. I started rebuying all the titles... hahahaha flash forward to today, I'm doing the same with Blu!

[Nick1138]

This topic brings me back to memories from the 90s. Before DVDs were popular, I was beginning a widescreen VHS collection, though that didn't survive long. One of my firsts was Braveheart. The Fifth Element arrived soon thereafter... Though less than a year later, I was welcoming DVDs.

It was such a chore to explain to everyone the difference between widescreen and full screen releases, though I did it to anyone who would listen!

I'm glad that a director's original version is now the norm.

[Ray_Rogers]

For me I got first introduced to OAR and why it represents the cinematic intention for home theater better when I was a kid in the 1980s. One of my friends parents had a Laserdisc player and we watched movies on it in the basement on this floor standing projector which we also played the Nintendo on.
Was also where I first saw the ALIEN films, the two which were out, and they were the OAR versions. Of course we watched them similar to how cinemas have theirs set-up, in complete darkness albiet the projected image. For a very long time now, I can only watch films in complete darkness or as dark as possible. No bright light sources.
Then I started special-ordering Widescreen VHS, especially in those clamshell cases. Then DVD hit. Was still amazed why people would still buy Pan & Scanned releases. Thankfully for Blu-ray the majority of titles are always OAR if done properly. Only drawback for this format is whenever a Blu-ray disc film title is released, from celluloid, is whether or not it'll keep the film grain including the original color tone and tints and hopefully zero DNR/EE is applied. Also I have a huge preference for original cinematic audio in lossless or high bitrate lossy.
Main reason why I imported HIGHLANDER from the UK. More extras, better grain structure and the original cinematic audio in lossless. I love importing except certain countries are exceedingly expensive.

For older films from the 1920s even to the 1950s I still want to see them in OAR. With The Sean Connery OO7 films, I'd rather see them in the UK 1.66:1 format instead of the cropped for USA 1.85:1. Same for Equilibrium. No 1.78:1, rather have it be 2.35:1 so I'd probably need to import the expensive release from Japan.

Started to get into DVDs in 1999 around the time of The Matrix and always preferred buying the OAR/Widescreen compared to the Pan & Scan crap. Only DVDs I still buy and get are Doctor Who (Classic) from Amazon UK since the original PAL format and it's cheaper. ALSO titles which I have no idea when they're going to be released onto Blu-ray. Which I recently did with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Walt Disney Pictures version.)

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Hoth

My eye opening realization was in a film & cinema class in high school. We actually watched Jaws in both full and widescreen presentations. Then we analyzed scenes side by side. It was actually really interesting at the time.

Jaws was how I popped my letterbox cherry back in 1995, when I rented the 20th anniversary VHS from the video store and was BLOWN AWAY by how much picture information I had been missing on TV broadcasts over the years. Less than a year later, I invested in a laserdisc player (over $500 back then ), and haven't looked back since.

[NoFro]

It really annoys me when they show things in the wrong aspect ratio on TV. "This film is great, might watch oh wait it's been cropped."

Always really annoyed me that they did this with Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well. You have to wait until the blu ray to see it in it's full letterboxed glory! Except you Americans can watch it on the Star Wars site.

Blu Ray in the wrong aspect ratio is the worst of the worst, especially making 4:3 into 16:9. If people want the film to take up the whole screen they can change their TV settings but please produce it in the original aspect ratio.

[jrsl76]

If I remember correctly, it was a Widescreen VHS I bought of The Last Of The Mohicans circa 1994.

[EricJ]

I knew all the arguments in favor of widescreen, long before Martin Scorsese did his film-historian PSA's on TCM. Back then, you had to track down shmancy "Collector's Edition" letterbox VHS's, and replace the regular ones you'd bought a year before, but then DVD came along in the late 90's and ended...most of that.
It was just for principle; apart from Cinemascope movies looking downright tiny in 4:3, first time I noticed an improvement was when I saw the widescreen version of "Love & Death" had an entire scene of gags that was cut out of the square version.