A Renewed Call For Original Aspect Ratio Presentations
Dear Gary: I saw the piece written by Michael Coate about widescreen and full-screen releases [Editor’s Couch, June 2002] and thought it would be a good time to enlist the readers of Widescreen Review who care about the part of visual storytelling that concerns a picture’s shape, to start a small grass roots movement to advance the cause of letterboxing. At an ever-increasing rate, movies that should be seen as letterbox, even on a 16:9 (1.78:1) set are being seen as 16:9 full frames. This means that, like pan-and-scan, not all of the original composition is getting to the consumers. In HD, HBO has a policy of only showing a full 16:9 frame. It is rare that they are talked out of this these days. Many of the European cable networks, whom a mere ten years ago would have laughed at us culturally challenged Americans for not watching the compositionally correct versions of Hollywood’s own films, have similar policies. As with the broadcasters and letterboxing, they are becoming convinced that you, the viewing public, don’t want to watch anything letterboxed. Never mind that advertisers are paying big dollars to show you commercials with letterboxing and mattes jumping all over the place. Never mind that the demographic of the people who do complain may not be the demographic of the most coveted audiences. As Michael Coate’s piece shows, this anti-correct composition movement is gaining strength and beginning to move into DVD turf. So, what to do? I think that what’s needed is a grass roots movement of positive reinforcement. When you see a movie in its compositionally correct form, whether on an HD channel, a standard-definition channel, a broadcast network, on DVD, or even on VHS, call those responsible and let them know you preferred it that way. Widescreen Review could help by having a listing of what the actual release aspect ratio was for a given film, and a listing of the appropriate phone numbers to call. Only when more people call to praise letterboxing than to complain about it will letterboxing become common.
Lou Levinson, Associate Member, American Society of Cinematographers
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
Lou, thank you for taking the time out of your extremely busy schedule to contribute to this debate, which should be of prime importance to all widescreen home theatre enthusiasts.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com