James Cameron and Scope ratio

[Dusso Janladde]

Seeing less or more than the director intended is not a good thing, open matte can ruin the composition of shots. For example, say there was a character in 2.35:1 movie who was naked, but you couldn't see below his waist... then the movie's mattes are opened to 1,78:1 for HDTV broadcast, and you can see he actually has shorts on, which you weren't supposed to see.

Original aspect ratio is the only way to go, and black bars aren't a bad thing at all. The question is how to best show movies at their original aspect ratio. I'm not even talking HDTVs here, I'm talking projection screens, which are available in just about any aspect ratio.

I think we can all agree that any image should be as large as possible while maintaining the original aspect ratio. This means that it should be either as tall or as wide as your available screen space. This means that your screen should be both as tall and as wide as the available wall space, completely disregarding aspect ratio. Everything will completely fill either the full width or full height of your screen, and will be as large as possible.

For example, if your available screen space was 10 feet wide and more than 7 feet high, you'd actually be best off with a 140 inch 1.33:1 screen. You can't go wider, so go taller. At the other extreme, with an available screen space that's only 5 feet high but at least 11 feet wide, you'd be best off with a 136 inch 2.35:1 screen.