From: boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com (The fox so cunning and free)
Newsgroups: rec.video
Subject: Re: widescreen Terminator 2 laser disk
Date: 10 Apr 92 09:57:21 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

In article <180966@pyramid.pyramid.com>, garyj@pyrtech.pyramid.com (Gary Johnson) writes...

} He brought over his Panasonic LX-200 with about 20 disks. One of them was
} the pan & scan version of T2. We hooked up both players to my system, 
} synced up the two T2s and away we went. I had always favored the pan & 
} scan versions over letterbox, but I had been told that the widescreen
} versions "Would grow on you". In comparing the two versions, I found a 
} disapointing charactistic. On the widescreen version, some of the top 
} and much of the bottom had been cut!. I was *very* surprised to discover 
} this. I had assumed that because of the widescreen format, *all* of the 
} picture would be there. It wasn't. One noticable scene was when John
} Connor was hacking on the automatic teller to make a widthdrawl. On the
} P&S version, It was readily apparent that the computer he was using was
} an ATARI. My letterboxed version had this masked off! There was certainly
} room there since the picture only took up about 60% at most.

Sigh. There really should be an FAQ for this group. This question would
go at the top.

} Is this only on the T2 edition?

No.

} Is this the norm with widescreen editions? 

It all depends on how the film was shot in the first place. When a film
is shot in what's called "flat widescreen" (1.85:1, usually) it's often
shot "soft matte", meaning that it's shot full-aperture and then matted
to the proper ratio, either during printing or during projection. When
transferred to video, rather than panning-&-scanning, they are often
just transferred full-frame.

TERMINATOR 2 was shot in a process generally referred to as "Super 35".
With this process, the entire film area is used (the soundtrack, normally
recorded optically on one side of the film, is recorded separately).

When creating theatrical prints, this full-aperture image is matted to
a 2.35:1 ratio, then anamorphically squeezed onto the print film, leaving
room on the side for the optical soundtrack. The end result is basically
the same as a film shot in an authentic anamorphic process such as
Panavision or CinemaScope.

When such a film is transferred to video, or broadcast on TV, they go
back to the original full-aperture copy and rematte it, this time in a
1.85:1 ratio. For widescreen laserdiscs, they can either transfer the
film to video using the 2.35 matted version (as was done with T2 and
BLACK RAIN, for example), or they can use the 1.85 matted version (as
was done with THE ABYSS). The width is the same in either case, but in
the latter case, there's more vertical information. P&S discs or tapes
are pan-&-scanned from the 1.85 matte, therefore they have more vertical
information than the 2.35 widescreen discs, but less horizontal info.

} If it is, what is the appeal of them?

Because it presents the film as it was originally released. All that
extra picture you're getting at the top and bottom of the p&s copy was
never visible when the film was shown in the theater.

The same is true of soft-matte flat widescreen films that are transferred
to video full-frame. There's more picture on the top and bottom, but it
wasn't ever in the theatrical prints. Whenever you see "goofs" such as
visible boom mikes or such, it's usually because that portion of the
picture with these extraneous items was meant to be matted off.

Directors and cinematographers compose their shots with a specific ratio
in mind. The appeal of letterboxed discs, even when there's "less"
picture, is that they generally conform to the director's composition.
With T2, Cameron composed the film for a 2.35:1 ratio, so that is the
"correct" ratio for that film.

-- 

	"Buster, this trip downriver has been truly special.
	 Downright Twainian in a Hitchcockian sort of way."


--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA)

    boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com