Author: "Mark Kawakami" <[log in to unmask]> Date: 12/12/94 4:31 PM [Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).] > TV is > shaped with a width to height ratio of 1:33 :1. Most Hollywood films > are released at 1.85 to one, though many directors keep the tv ratio > in mind when framing their shots and blocking the action. Films shot > in 1.85 should be shown on tv in a letterbox format (with black strips > at the top and bottom) so that the whole width of the image is preserved. > Most rented tapes, films shown on tv shot for film, and some discs are > not letterboxed. You get a full screen but a large portion of the image > is missing from the left and right sides. liz weis > Liz Weis brings up a very good point, in that most videotapes are not letterboxed. I, as I think a lot of "film-types" are, am a big fan of letter-boxing of films. I think even the worst film has the right to be shown in its original format, and even more so for the very best, which use the screen to its full width ("2001: A Space Odessy" is damn near unwatchable without letter-boxing). Luckily, the letterboxing trend has been catching on with some interest. More and more films are being released with the option for letterboxing, such as "Schindler's List." And other films, such as, if I recall correctly, "The Last of the Mohicans" are released only in letter-boxed formats. Moreover, many classic films are re-released inletter-box formats, (Recent re-releases of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", "Red Beard", and "Dersu Uzala" are all letter-boxed. I've recently purchased "Yojimbo," and it's gorgeous, couldn't imagine it any other way.) However, though the trend of letter-boxing has some brief commercial appeal to Hollywood; trailers and commercials, as well as title sequences, are often full-width; letterboxing on the whole seems to suffer from the same stigma it always did, especially on vidoe-tape. The prevailing arttitude seems to be that only *serious* collectors want letter-boxing, and *serious* collectors own laser-discs, which is ludicrous, many collectors simply cannot afford a laser-disc player. What needs to be done is for letter-box supporters to *band-together* as it were, to show distributors that letter-boxing is what a majority of the public wants. Bear in mind that you probably have never heard a single person in a video rental store pick up a tape, but then put it back after they realize it's letter-boxed. P.S.--Letter-boxing is one of the reason's that I loathe Blockbuster Video. They couldn't find it in themselves to buy one single damn copy of "Schindler's List" letter-boxed. One copy, is that too much to ask? --MArk