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May 2000, Week 2

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 9 May 2000 20:03:31 -0500
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In _Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home_, Spock, Kirk, and Taylor cannot be
shown in the same shot in the front of the truck in pan and scan. In
_Dark City_, The table cannot be seen extending in pan and scan. In
_Heart and Souls_ the four spirits cannot be seen in the same shot near
the beginning, flying toward Thomas. In _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_,
Wise's immensity compositions are destroyed because there is not a human
in every shot, as in the widescreen version. These arer examples I can
think of odd the top of my head. I know a number of scenes in _Dune_
don't make any sense in pan and scan, and there is a scene in Jun Fukuda's
_The War in Space_ (1977), that has a conversation shot from under a glass
table. In pan and scan (the only way it is available in the U.S., where
it was released directly to television), all we can see are the noses of
Ryo Ikebe and Kensaky Morita, as they have their conversation. I once
gave a speech on letterboxing and used this shot as an example of just how
damaging pan and scan can be.

Scott


On Tue, 9 May 2000, Robert Hunt wrote:

> The only film that I can think of with authentic aspect-ratio chnages is
> Douglas Trumbull's "Brainscan". In it's original release, the "brainscan"
> sequences were in 70mm while the narrative proper was in 35mm. My memory is
> foggy on this but I think the 70mm was in 'scope while the remainder of the
> film was 1.85..At any rate, this must have been a nightmare for
> projectionists....
> There are other films which include varied ratios for more obvious reasons,
> like "That's Entertainment", or the opening scenes of "Superman" amd "Popeye".
> Two other scenes that toy with screen size in different ways but are probably
> worth mentioning:
> "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" begins with Tony Randall "opening" the
> frame to its approproate Cinemascope dimensions...
> and finally, "Finian's Rainbow",which was reportedly released in a wider
> format that it was shot, resulting in the omission of Fred Astaire's feet
> during the dance numbers.....
> And speaking of aspect ratio, for years I've been giving students my
> standard anti-letterboxing lecture, but I'm wondering if anyone can offer
> fresh examples of how an altered aspect ratio damages or changes film
> content, perspective, etc....
> R. Hunt
>
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