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Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 12:44:34 -0500
From:         FAC_JCLARK@JMUVAX.BITNET
Subject:      Re: Dracula

j-man,

Oh, the joys of letterboxing!  Your query seems to mix some reactions that
don't quite make sense in the way I view the issue, not only personally but
from my more technically inclined perspective--but I think I can talk a bit
about the subject that may answer your questions directly or indirectly.
If not, fire back!

Since we don't yet have *real* widescreen TV (HDTV or no), the only way to
incorporate the full image of a film is to mask off parts of the top and
bottom of the TV shaped screen.  On a theatre screen the shape is closer,
whatever the real aspect ratio of the film might prove to be (they've varied by
   as much, over the decades, as 1:1.66 all the way up to 1:2.65 or even beyond
in Cinerama; the TV screen and films before the early 1950s were roughly
1:1.33, excepting silents, which varied from this slightly).  With a little
adjustment of curtains and such, the movie theatre can make the screen adapt
reasonably well to the film's aspect ratio without bothering you most of the
time.  Many films nowadays create their wider aspect ratio by shooting in a
ratio that's like TVs, only with the intention of masking the top and/or
bottom of the image when the film is projected in the theatre; a good direc-
tor's compositions will allow for this.  (Often you'll see a film on TV where
the mike boom is showing; this isn't always a matter of incompetence.  Instead
it's the area that was intended to be masked, and the TV broadcast people have
"opened it up" again so you'll get a full screen.  And remember that moment
in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when he's at the wheel of a car getting hypnotized
by the road? You can see roadsigns passing him on railroad-type tracks.  This
may look apt for Tim Burton's film style, but it's another thing that was
meant to be masked in the theatre.) The other major form of creating (really)
widescreen, less used today, is to shoot and project the film with anamorphic
lenses that first squeeze then unsqueeze the image into that normal TV-ratioed
frame of film.

At any rate, the problem I think you are expressing related to letterboxing,
especially viewed on TV, depends on our usual frame of reference about how
things should look in this medium and the fact that we can't mask them (with
curtains, etc) the way they do in theatres.  Actually, some people with large
projection TVs create their own home theatres with curtains and other masks
that block off the "eyesore" parts of the unused screen when letterboxed
films are shown.  You can't really do this with a small screen TV, so it's a
question of adjusting your frame of reference--that's the only thing that can
make letterboxing satisfying to a viewer when they're limited to a small
screen (that, and moving closer to the set if necessary!).  As the editor
of LaserDisc newsletter once said, he views the TV screen and it's shape as
just an artificial boundary anyway, and if you can begin to think of the unused
part of the screen the same as the perimeter of everything else in your room
that's beyond that 20 or 25" set anyway... you've got the problem licked.

Somewhat.  The rest of the problem created has to do with all the details of
the image being reduced, so it's less satisfying to watch on a small screen.
Beyond that there's the technical problems with even good consumer TV sets.
You will notice on a well-transferred laserdisc especially, that will letter-
boxing there's an increase of the "shimmering" effect in small, very closely
packed details (especially with lots of small lines spaced closely together;
it's sort of why certain wardrobe patterns are avoided by people on TV,
because they produce moire patterns from too closely spaced detail). This
"shimmering" isn't actually a drawback of the disc (or tape) itself--though
it's more prevalent in letterboxed discs because more details have been
compacted to a smaller viewing size--it's a limitation of your monitor or
even a video projector (mine has the effect too).  Truly professional video
playback equipment can eliminate most or all of these shimmering effects...
but the cost of that hardware is beyond you and me (we're talking thousands
of bucks for even a small viewing monitor).  Over time, the quality of
consumer equipment will increase, though, especially if HDTV comes into
play.  And depending on the system we eventually adopt, it may have provisions
for adjusting and framing the picture so that a present-day letterboxed
disc can be played back framed with a minimum of the black bands above and
below, even if it doesn't initially come anywhere near the aspect ratio of
the HDTV set.  There's one or two such systems in development now.
For now, you just have to adjust to shimmering as you do with the masking.

I hope this helps with some useful explanation.

JC
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