Aspect Ratios - The Director's Vision

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

You probably have a preference for "effects" films, which are the most likely films to be shot in anamorphic (or converted to anamorphic 2.39:1 prints). One day, I'll re-document the numbers, but I assure you that the vast majority of film releases are 1.85:1, although there are also now many released that were shot on HD Video at HDTV AR of 1.78:1.

And yes, constant height is the ideal. A scope image should always be larger than a spherical image. Movie theatres that go with constant width rather than constant height is "film done wrong".

Judging by all the Blu-rays of new releases, it seems that the majority are shot Super35 and released at 2.40...even animated films like Megamind are 2.35/2.40 as well. These days I'm surprised now when something is 1.85!

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Ben-Hur was filmed in Camera 65, which added a 1.25 anamorphic squeeze to the normal 70mm 2.2:1 aspect ratio, resulting in a 2.75:1 aspect ratio. Only a few films were made in this process and most of them were done for single-projector Cinerama, which was much less expensive to project than the original 3-35mm projector Cinerama.

Yep! Another is the Marlon Brando remake of Mutiny on the Bounty (so far only on HD DVD, with the announcement of Grand Prix it's one of the few titles still exclusive to Toshiba's patent grab).