Panasonic TC-P50G10 owner, question???????

[battousai147]

Hello everyone, I just recently watched Dark Knight on bluray. I noticed when a scene came up that was filmed in IMAX it filled my 50G10's entire screen but the rest of the film had the usual black bars above and below. My question is why can't the hole film stay in full screen, I'm not a complete moron but I don't know as much as many of you on this forum do. Do they crop the films or is this just the way the original looks. I am also a bit crazy about anime as well, and i own Apple Seed EX Machina on bluray, that entire film fills the screen and it has nothing to do with my ps3 or tv settings they are set to view whatever the incoming source is inputting. I know that the Eric Banna incredible hulk widescreen dvd is like this as well, again if some scene's or some entire movies can still be widescreen yet fill the entire screen why can't they all. Any input would be greatly appreciated, oh and sorry about the spelling I know it's pretty bad.

[sokrman14]

It is specifically that disc for the IMAX scenes. They did that intentionally and it is nothing you can do about it.

[LoveHomeTheatre]

TDK was flimed with 2 aspect ratios. The ones without black bars are the Imax scene shots and the ones with black bars are used with wide aspect ratios (sorry, not very technical but get the idea). As far as keeping the whole movie filling the screen, thats your personal opinion. Although, without using a wider aspect ratio (using an aspect ratio that has black bars), the director would be very limited on how wide his shots would be. As well, this will go on to the reason why black bars exist on our "widescreen" HDTV's. Our TV's are built around a 16x9 configuration. Aspect ratios can go beyond, around, and less than this configuration. If it requires morewidth, the black bars appear to compensate without cropping the picture. If it's less, you will see black bars on the sides instead of on top or bottom of the TV. Finally, if the aspect ratio matches the original 16:9, it will fill the entire screen. Hopefully someone can chime in a bit more. I'm pretty sure there is a sticky that explains this.

[battousai147]

I knew about the aspect ratio's, I guess my real question should have, why do they not film so that it fits perfectly on the 16x9, does this limit the director's to much or is it a bit more technical than that, oh and i do appreciate the comments, every little bit of info help's.

[sokrman14]

Your TV is 16x9 (1.87:1), movies that fill your screen are thus 16x9. A movie that "chops" off the top and bottom are really just zoomed out to give you a wider view. They could zoom back in too fill the screen, but then you would actually lose some of the width. Most action flicks are in that wider view upto 2.4:1. This allows the director to show you more things on a wider stage.

[victimsofadown]

My understanding about aspect ratios is that it's simply artistic direction from the film's director. There is no "you must film at X:X ratio" in the industry, so it is up to the film-maker to decide which aspect ratios fit best for the film they're making.

The reason why Nolan did that was because he wanted the IMAX scenes to really take you in and make you feel like the most climactic(sp?) moments of the film were "larger-than-life."

All directors have reasons for the reasons they make their movies in a certain way, nothing is ever an accident. While I don't personally believe that aspect ratio makes/breaks a movie I have a feeling a lot of Hollywood Directors would tell you that their movies wouldn't be the same if shot in a different aspect ratio either for losing crucial movie elements or some other reason.

My 2 cents.

[battousai147]

This pretty well awnsers the question i had, i wasn't sure if it was a technical issue or if was just by preference. I do like the imax part's of Dark Knight they really do look amazing, wish the whole movie was shot that way but it is still an incredible film.